nder Uncle Alfred despises the man."

I looked sharply at her: what earthly reason should Alfred Fluette have
for despising Felix Page's private secretary? But of this later. If I
was not much mistaken, Miss Cooper held in her hand the cause of her
present pleased agitation.

"What have you discovered?"

"This." She handed me a small slip of paper. "I found it inside the
lining of the little leather box."

"A cipher!" I cried, sharing some of her excitement.

The bit of paper, perhaps three inches long by an inch wide, was of
almost parchment-like fineness and bore a number of peculiar characters
written in black ink. At the first glance it suggested a safe
combination; but after a minute's intent examination, during which the
girl could scarcely restrain her eager impatience, I was obliged to
forego that idea.

"Good for you!" was my admiring tribute. The color heightened in her
cheeks. "I wonder, now, since you were keen enough to find it, whether
you can make anything of it? Honestly--do you know--when I examined
that box I never thought to look under the lining."

With her head on one side, she stared regretfully at the bit of paper.

"It's Greek to me," she said.

"To me, too. I 'd give a good deal to know what those hieroglyphs
mean."

She clapped her hands with sudden delight.

"My!" she exclaimed, "it's just like a story! Isn't this what you call
a cryptograph? It tells where a hidden treasure is, does it not?"

Glancing at her beautiful, animated countenance, I answered truthfully,
"Yes"; but added, "It at least points me to a treasure that is
unattainable."

For an instant she was puzzled, then she bent suddenly over the cipher
and asked no more questions.

We had gone in to the big library table, where, with heads pleasantly
close together, we studied in silence the seemingly meaningless
characters. But after some minutes devoted to this exercise, we were
constrained to give it up as hopeless. This is what the paper bore:

[Illustration: Cipher]

"I 'm afraid I shall prove to be a very indifferent assistant," she
lamented, with a rueful little laugh. "I did n't deserve your
commendation even for finding the cipher, because, while I was
examining the box I was too intent on listening to you and that
dreadful Burke creature to heed what I was doing. I felt the paper
crackle, and then saw a corner of it through one of the rents in the
faded blue satin."

"Never mind now. Ma