relieve you gentlemen of all responsibility in the matter."

"Do you mean by responsibility, Mr. Steuermann, that you would pay
Feldman?" Abe asked.

Mr. Steuermann smiled.

"Well, we won't discuss that just now," he said.

"Because," Abe continued, "we wouldn't consent to nothing of the kind,
Mr. Steuermann; the young feller works for us and we would got to do our
share."

"That part will come later," Steuermann insisted; "and now let's see
what is to be done."

For more than half an hour Steuermann disclosed to Abe and Morris the
result of his lawyers' investigation.

"Mr. Munjoy has seen Kovalenko," Steuermann said, "and he asserts that,
so far as proof is concerned, no murder was ever committed."

"But, Mr. Steuermann," Morris said, "the feller which he opened the
package, y'understand, was blown up so his own father couldn't recognize
him even."

"That's just the point, Mr. Perlmutter," Steuermann declared; "and Mr.
Munjoy says that on this circumstance hinges the Russian Consulate's
whole case. They are obliged to prove that a definite person was killed;
and it seems that the consulate paid the passage of the victim's father