They will search the house, having searched you first. If they do not
find the letter, I shall give you one more chance to produce it."

"Of course you realize your action is illegal?" my father interrupted.

Mr. Lawton laughed.

"We've beaten about the bush long enough," he said. "Will I have to
remind you again that I didn't come to hear you talk? Come to the point.
Will you give up that paper?"

With a sigh of resignation, my father fumbled in his breast pocket. When
he spoke, it seemed a weak appeal to justify his action.

"Under the circumstances, what else can I do?" he demanded, "though it
seems hard when I had given my word not to part with it."

He produced a long, sealed document, which he handed across the table.
Mr. Lawton's eyes glistened with anticipation as he took it. He held it
over the table to scan the seal.

"Damn all your caution, Sims!" he exclaimed exultantly. "We've got it just
as I said we would! Didn't I tell you--"

His voice choked. He burst into a violent fit of sneezing. My father had
thrown the contents of his snuff box into Mr. Lawton's face.

If his chair had been of hot iron, he could not have moved more quickly.
Almost the same moment, Mr. Lawton's pistol was in my father's hand,
cocked and primed and pointed at Mr. Sims.