usions of his cousins to the old man's
eccentricities also piqued his curiosity. Why had they sneered at his
description of the contents of the package he carried--and what did
it really contain? He did not reflect that it was none of his
business,--people in his situation seldom do,--and he eagerly hurried
towards the Hall. But he found in his preoccupation he had taken the
wrong turning in the path, and that he was now close to the wall which
bounded and overlooked the highway. Here a singular spectacle presented
itself. A cyclist covered with dust was seated in the middle of the
road, trying to restore circulation to his bruised and injured leg by
chafing it with his hands, while beside him lay his damaged bicycle. He
had evidently met with an accident. In an instant Paul had climbed the
wall and was at his side.

"Can I offer you any assistance?" he asked eagerly.

"Thanks--no! I've come a beastly cropper over something or other on
this road, and I'm only bruised, though the machine has suffered worse,"
replied the stranger, in a fresh, cheery voice. He was a good-looking
fellow of about Paul's own age, and the young American's heart went out
towards him.

"How did it happen?" asked Paul.

"That's what puzzles me," said the stranger. "I was getting out of
the way of a queer old chap in the road, and I ran over something that
seemed only an old scroll of paper; but the shock was so great that
I was thrown, and I fancy I was for a few moments unconscious. Yet I
cannot see any other obstruction in the road, and there's only that bit
of paper." He pointed to the paper,--a half-crushed roll of ordinary
foolscap, showing the mark of the bicycle upon it.

A strange idea came into Paul's mind. He picked up the paper and
examined it closely. Besides the mark already indicated, it showed two
sharp creases about nine inches long, and another exactly at the point
of the impact of the bicycle. Taking a folded two-foot rule from
his pocket, he carefully measured these parallel creases and made an
exhaustive geometrical calculation with his pencil on the paper. The
stranger watched him with awed and admiring interest. Rising, he again
carefully examined the road, and was finally rewarded by the discovery
of a sharp indentation in the dust, which, on measurement and comparison
with the creases in the paper and the calculations he had just made,
proved to be identical.

"There was a solid body in that paper," said Paul quietl