Yates carried the letter around in his pocket for several days.  He did not believe the agent knew either of the existence of the letter or the drawer in which it was hidden.  There was, in all probability, no man but himself in the world who knew anything of the letter.  If it was a paper of no importance to anybody, of course Mr. Belcher had forgotten it.  If it was of great importance to Mr. Benedict, Mr. Belcher believed that it had been destroyed.

He had great curiosity concerning its contents, and determined to deliver it into Mr. Benedict’s hand; so, at the conclusion of his engagement with Mr. Belcher’s agent, he announced to his friends that he had accepted Jim Fenton’s invitation to visit the new hotel at Number Nine, and enjoy a week of sport in the woods.

Before he returned, he became entirely familiar with the contents of the letter, and, if he brought it back with him on his return to Sevenoaks, it was for deposit in the post-office, directed to James Balfour in the handwriting of Paul Benedict.

The contents of this note were of such importance in the establishment of justice that Yates, still doubtful of the propriety of his act, was able to justify it to his conscience.  Under the circumstances, it belonged to the man to whom it was addressed, and not to Mr. Belcher at all.  His own act might be doubtful, but it was in the interest of fair dealing, and in opposition to the schemes of a consummate rascal, to whom he owed neither respect nor good-will.  He would stand by it, and take the consequences of it.

Were Mrs. Dillingham and Sam Yates justifiable in their treachery to Mr. Belcher?  A nice question this, in casuistry!  Certainly they had done as they would have been done by, had he been in their circumstances and they in his.  He, at least, who had tried to debauch both of them, could reasonably find no fault with them.  Their act was the natural result of his own influence.  It was fruit from seeds of his own sowing.  Had he ever approached them with a single noble and unselfish motive, neither of them could have betrayed him.

CHAPTER XXV.

IN WHICH THE GENERAL GOES THROUGH A GREAT MANY TRIALS AND MEETS AT LAST THE ONE HE HAS SO LONG ANTICIPATED.

The fact that the General had deposited the proceeds of his foreign sales of arms with a European banking house, ostensibly subject to draft for the materials of his manufactures, has already been alluded to.  This deposit had been augmented by subsequent sales, until it amounted to an imposing sum, which Mrs. Dillingham ascertained, from the little account-book, to be drawing a low rate of interest.  With the proprietor, this heavy foreign deposit was partly a measure of personal safety, and partly a measure of projected iniquity.  He had the instinct to provide against any possible contingencies of fortune or crime.

Two or three days after his very agreeable call upon Mrs. Dillingham, he had so far mastered his difficulties connected with the International Mail that he could find time for another visit, to which he had looked forward with eager anticipation.