Where had he obtained the commission, and where the original report?
These were not hard questions, now that the preliminaries of the plot had been fully developed.
Walsh, the man-servant at Bonnydale, was now a seaman on board of the Vernon, under the real or assumed name of Byron.

He denied his identity, as he would naturally do under the circumstances; but Christy had not a doubt that he was the man who had suddenly disappeared after the mysterious visitation of the night before.

Doubtless, Corny had been the visitor at the mansion, and had procured the contents of the official envelope on this occasion.
He appeared to have been unwilling to trust Byron, as the seaman preferred to be called, and had attended to the business in person with the assistance of his confederate.

The report was lying on the table in his chamber, and Byron could have borrowed it for any length of time to enable Corny to make a copy.

Whoever had visited his chamber in the night, whether Corny or the man-servant, he must have taken the official envelope to the library, or some other part of the house, for it had been carefully opened, and restored to its former condition after the genuine documents in it had been replaced by the blank paper.
It was now all as clear to Christy as though he had observed the proceedings of the conspirators, and taken notes of all they had done.
The purpose of all these operations was quite as obvious as the details of the scheme.