old without
melting it. The paper was used instead of vellum in the rougher
processes of manufacturing gold-leaf. It stood the constant beating of
the hammer nearly as well as the vellum, and here at once there
flashed on me the secret of the old man's midnight anvil work. He was
transforming his sovereigns into gold-leaf, which must have been of a
rude, thick kind, because to produce the gold-leaf of commerce he
still needed the vellum as well as a 'clutch' and other machinery, of
which we had found no trace.

'My lord,' I called to my assistant; he was at the other end of the
room; 'I wish to test a theory on the anvil of your own fresh common
sense.'

'Hammer away,' replied the earl, approaching me with his usual
good-natured, jocular expression.

'I eliminate the safe from our investigations because it was purchased
thirteen years ago, but the buying of the book, of wall covering, of
this tough paper from France, all group themselves into a set of
incidents occurring within the same month as the purchase of the anvil
and the building of the forge; therefore, I think they are related to
one another. Here are some sheets of paper he got from Budge Row. Have
you ever seen anything like it? Try to tear this sample.'

'It's reasonably tough,' admitted his lordship, fruitlessly
endeavouring to rip it apart.

'Yes. It was made in France, and is used in gold beating. Your uncle
beat his sovereigns into gold-leaf. You will find that the book from
Denny's is a volume on gold beating, and now as I remember that
scribbled word which I could not make out, I think the title of the
volume is "Metallurgy". It contains, no doubt, a chapter on the
manufacture of gold-leaf.'

'I believe you,' said the earl; 'but I don't see that the discovery
sets us any further forward. We're now looking for gold-leaf instead
of sovereigns.'

'Let's examine this wallpaper,' said I.

I placed my knife under a corner of it at the floor, and quite easily
ripped off a large section. As Higgins had said, the brown paper was
on top, and the coarse, light-coloured paper underneath. But even that
came away from the oak panelling as easily as though it hung there
from habit, and not because of paste.

'Feel the weight of that,' I cried, handing him the sheet I had torn
from the wall.

'By Jove!' said the earl, in a voice almost of awe.

I took it from him, and laid it, face downwards, on the wooden table,
threw a little water on the back, and