vince me that they did not co-operate?"

"It would be a difficult task to prove that," exclaimed I, with no
little surprise.

"Not so difficult, my dear count, as you imagine. What! Could it have
happened by mere chance that these two men should form a design so
extraordinary and so complicated upon the same person, at the same time,
and in the same place? Could mere chance have produced such an exact
harmony between their operations, that one of them should play so
exactly the game of the other? Suppose for a moment that the Armenian
intended to heighten the effect of his deception, by introducing it
after a less refined one--that he created a Hector to make himself his
Achilles. Suppose that he has done all this to discover what degree of
credulity he could expect to find in me, to examine the readiest way to
gain my confidence, to familiarize himself with his subject by an
attempt that might have miscarried without any prejudice to his plan; in
a word, to tune the instrument on which he intended to play. Suppose he
did this with the view of exciting my suspicions on one subject in order
to divert my attention from another more important to his design.
Lastly, suppose he wishes to have some indirect methods of information,
which he had himself occasion to practise, imputed to the sorcerer, in
order to divert suspicion from the true channel."

"How do you mean?" said I.

"Suppose, for instance, that he may have bribed some of my servants to
give him secret intelligence, or, perhaps, even some papers which may
serve his purpose. I have missed one of my domestics. What reason have
I to think that the Armenian is not concerned in his leaving me? Such a
connection, however, if it existed, may be accidently discovered; a
letter may be intercepted; a servant, who is in the secret, may betray
his trust. Now all the consequence of the Armenian is destroyed if I
detect the source of his omniscience. He therefore introduces this
sorcerer, who must be supposed to have some design upon me. He takes
care to give me early notice of him and his intentions, so that whatever
I may hereafter discover my suspicions must necessarily rest upon the
Sicilian. This is the puppet with which he amuses me, whilst he
himself, unobserved and unsuspected, is entangling me in invisible
snares."

"We will allow this. But is it consistent with the Armenian's plan that
he himself should destroy the illusion which he has created, and
disclose the