d not go
to Prato. These groups of children dancing and blowing horns are very
cleverly copied from Donatello's famous pulpit in the duomo. The design
is carried on from the chairs to the footboard of the bed; but in their
midst upon the footboard is let in this oval, easel-picture, painted
on wood. It is faded, and the garlands have withered in so many hundred
years, as well they might; but I can feel the dead color quite well, and
I also know who painted it."

"Is it possible, signor--this faint ghost of a picture?"

"There exists no doubt at all. You see a little Pinturicchio. Note the
gay bands of variegated patterns, the arabesques and fruits. Their hues
have vanished, but their forms and certain mannerisms of the master
are unmistakable. These dainty decorations were the sign manual of such
quattrocento painters as Gozzoli and Pinturicchio; and to these men
he, for whom these works of art were created, assigned the painting
and adornment of the Vatican. We will come to him directly. It was for
Michelangelo to make the creations of these artists mere colored bubbles
and froth, when seen against the immensity and intellectual grandeur of
his future masterpieces in the Sistine. But that was afterwards. We are
concerned with the Pope for whom these chairs and this bed were made.
Yes, a Pope, my friends--no less a personage than Alexander VI.!"

He waited, like a skilled actor, for the tremendous sensation he
expected and deserved. But it did not come. Unhappily for Signor
Mannetti's great moment, his words conveyed no particular impression to
anybody.

Sir Walter asked politely:

"And was he a good, or a bad Pope? I fear many of those gentlemen had
little to their credit."

But the signor felt the failure of his great climax. At first he
regretted it, and a wave of annoyance, even contempt, passed unseen
through his mind; then he was glad that the secret should be hidden for
another four-and-twenty hours, to gain immensely in dramatic sensation
by delay. Already he was planning the future, and designing wonderful
histrionics. He could not be positive that he was right; though now the
old man felt very little doubt.

He did not answer Sir Walter's question, but asked one himself.

"The detectives examined this apartment with meticulous care, you say?"

"They did indeed."

"And yet what can care and zeal do; what can the most conscientious
student achieve if his activities are confounded by ignorance? The
a