he remembered having seen in Platzoff's scarf. Ducie picked it up and
looked cautiously around. No one was regarding him. "Of the first water
and worth a hundred guineas at the very least," he muttered. Then he put
it in his waistcoat pocket and went on with his search.

A minute or two later, hidden away under one of the cushions of the
carriage, he found what he was looking for: a folded sheet of thick blue
paper covered with a complicated array of figures--that and nothing
more.

Captain Ducie regarded the recovered treasure with a strange mixture of
feelings. His hands trembled slightly; his heart was beating more
quickly than usual; his eyes seemed to see and yet not to see the paper
in his hands. As one mazed and in deep doubt he stood.

His reverie was broken by the approach of some of the railway officials.
The cloud vanished from before his eyes, and he was his cool,
imperturbable self in a moment. Heading the long array of figures on the
parchment were a few lines of ordinary writing, written, however, not in
English, but Italian. These few lines Ducie now proceeded to read over
more attentively than he had done at the first glance. He was
sufficiently master of Italian to be able to translate them without much
difficulty. Translated they ran as under:--

"Bon Repos,

"Windermere.

"CARLO MIO,--In the Amsterdam edition of 1698 of _The Confessions
of Parthenio the Mystic_ occur the passages given below. To your