"I believe it was so called," said Matthewson doggedly.
"But it was said these papers had been stolen; it was supposed they had been destroyed. How came they in Wing's hands?"
"It is said they were stolen; but if so, not all. Parlin never was able to fill the place of those that were taken; but this man Wing, with devilish ingenuity and persistence, had worked and dug and pieced together until—well, until he had got enough to make us uneasy."
"And so you tried the old game a second time?"
"We tried to get them out of his hands. The main thing we hope now is that as the price paid for them this time was murder, the man who got them has destroyed them, for fear their possession would betray him."
Trafford was silent for a few minutes, and then said:
"Don't hope. They're not destroyed. The man who committed murder to get them, will not part with its price so easily. The man who holds papers that would ruin Governor Matthewson, his
