"
"Stolen!"
"Yes, I was waylaid and robbed while driving from the station to the
harbor."
"Purposely, do you mean? Was the papyrus the object of the attack?"
"Yes."
"Then this man, Alfieri, knew of it?"
"I have never concealed that from you."
"It is hard to say what you have or have not concealed, Baron von
Kerber. My confidence in you is shaken. How am I to know that this
latest version of Alfieri's amazing interference in your affairs is the
true one?"
No man is so sensitive of his honor as he who is conscious of by-gone
lapses. Von Kerber started as though the other had stabbed him.
"That is an unworthy imputation," he cried. "Mr. Royson can tell you
that the papyrus was stolen. He rescued me from my assailants, yes?
Mrs. Haxton is aware of it, and, unless I am mistaken, Miss Fenshawe
also is no stranger to the news, seeing that our second mate is so
greatly in her confidence."
The older man, still watching the last wraiths of the mirage, seemed to
be deaf to the Austrian's biting allusion to Irene.
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