ith you. I am catching the Princess Cecilia from Southampton tomorrow.
I thought, perhaps, if I waited an hour or so, I might take the answer
back with me."

"It is getting late, Mr. Coulson," Sir Edward reminded him, glancing at
the clock.

Mr. Coulson smiled.

"I think, Sir Edward," he said, "that in your line of business time
counts for little."

Sir Edward motioned his visitor to a chair and touched the bell.

"I shall require the A3X cipher, Sidney," he said to his secretary.

Mr. Coulson looked up.

"Why," he said, "I don't think you'll need that. The letter you've got
in your hand is just a personal one, and what my friend has to say to
you is written out there in black and white."

Sir Edward withdrew the enclosure from its envelope and raised his
eyebrows.

"Isn't this a trifle indiscreet?" he asked.

"Why, I should say not," Mr. Coulson answered. "My friend--Mr. Jones
we'll call him--knew me and, I presume, knew what he was about. Besides,
that is a plain letter from the head of a business firm to--shall we say
a client? There's nothing in it to conceal."

"At the same time," Sir Edward remarked, "it might have been as well to
have fastened the flap of the envelope."

Mr. Coulson held out his hand.

"Let me look," he said.

Sir Edward gave it into his hands. Mr. Coulson held it under the
electric light. There was no indication in his face of any surprise or
disturbance.

"Bit short of gum in our stationery office," he remarked.

Sir Edward was looking at him steadily.

"My impressions were," he said, "when I opened this letter, that I was
not the first person who had done so. The envelope flew apart in my
fingers."

Mr. Coulson shook his head.

"The document has never been out of my possession, sir," he said. "It
has not even left my person. My friend Mr. Jones does not believe in
too much secrecy in matters of this sort. I have had a good deal
of experience now and am inclined to agree with him. A letter in a
double-ended envelope, stuck all over with sealing wax, is pretty
certain to be opened in case of any accident to the bearer. This one,
as you may not have noticed, is written in the same handwriting
and addressed in the same manner as the remainder of my letters of
introduction to various London and Paris houses of business."

Sir Edward said no more. He read the few lines written on a single sheet
of notepaper, starting a little at the signature. Then he read them
again and