Crux. If, on the
contrary, she had been contented with writing to her master, it would
only be necessary to devise measures for intercepting the letter.
The captain decided on going to the post-office, in the first place.
Assuming that the housekeeper had written, she would not have left the
letter at the mercy of the servant--she would have seen it safely in the
letter-box before leaving Aldborough.
"Good-morning," said the captain, cheerfully addressing the postmaster.
"I am Mr. Bygrave of North Shingles. I think you have a letter in the
box, addressed to Mr.--?"
The postmaster was a short man, and consequently a man with a proper
idea of his own importance. He solemnly checked Captain Wragge in full
career.
"When a letter is once posted, sir," he said, "nobody out of the office
has any business with it until it reaches its address."
The captain was not a man to be daunted, even by a postmaster. A bright
idea struck him. He took out his pocketbook, in which Admiral Bartram's
address was written, and returned to the charge.
"Suppose a letter has been wrongly directed by mistake?" he began. "And
suppose the writer wants to correct the error after the letter is put
into the box?"
"When a letter is once posted, sir," reiterated the impenetrable
local authority, "nobody out of the office touches it on any pretense
whatever.
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