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With magnificent calm Tommy shook his head.

You know where they are?" persisted the German.

Again Tommy shook his head. "Not in the least."

Then--then----" angry and baffled, the words failed him.

Tommy looked round. He saw anger and bewilderment on every face, but his calm

assurance had done its work--no one doubted but that something lay behind his

words.

"I don't know where the papers are--but I believe that I can find them. I have a

theory----"

Pah!"

Tommy raised his hand, and silenced the clamours of disgust.

I call it a theory--but I'm pretty sure of my facts--facts that are known to no one

but myself. In any case what do you lose? If I can produce the papers--you give

me my life and liberty in exchange. Is it a bargain?"

And if we refuse?" said the German quietly.

Tommy lay back on the couch.

The 29th," he said thoughtfully, "is less than a fortnight ahead----"

For a moment the German hesitated. Then he made a sign to Conrad.

Take him into the other room."

For five minutes, Tommy sat on the bed in the dingy room next door. His heart

was beating violently. He had risked all on this throw. How would they decide?

And all the while that this agonized questioning went on within him, he talked

flippantly to Conrad, enraging the cross-grained doorkeeper to the point of

homicidal mania.

At last the door opened, and the German called imperiously to Conrad to return.

"Let's hope the judge hasn't put his black cap on," remarked Tommy frivolously.

143

The Secret Adversary