Now he has taken it with him to
London. He is going to ask Deane's advice. At any moment the thing may
come flashing back. We may wake up to find a copy of that document in
black and white in every paper in New York State."
"You have offered him a reasonable sum for it," Phineas Duge said, "and
he declines to sell. Very well, what do you propose to do?"
"It was stolen from you," Weiss said. "He may justly decline to treat
with us; but it is your property, and you have a right to it."
"You propose, then?" Phineas Duge asked.
"That you should catch the _Kaiserin_ to London to-morrow," Higgins
said, "and find out this man Vine. The rest we are content to leave with
you, but I think that if you try you will get it."
Phineas Duge sat quite still for several moments. He sipped his wine
thoughtfully, threw his cigar, which had gone out, into the fire, and
lit a cigarette. He appreciated the force of the suggestion, and a trip
to Europe was by no means distasteful to him, but he was not a man to
decide upon anything of this sort without reflection.
"A week ago," he said softly, "even a day ago, and my absence from New
York would have meant ruin.
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