f very
peculiar construction. It lay close to the real bottom, fitting in
very nicely, and left room only for a few thin papers. The false
bottom and the real bottom were so thin that no one could suspect any
thing of the kind. Something about the position of the drawer led me
to examine it minutely, and the idea of a false bottom came to my
mind. I could not find out the secret of it, and it was only by the
very rude process of prying at it with a knife that I at length made
the discovery."

She paused.

"And did you find any thing?" said Gualtier, eagerly.

"I did."

"Papers?"

"Yes. The old cipher writing was there--shut up--concealed carefully,
jealously--doubly concealed, in fact. Was not this enough to show
that it had importance in the eyes of the man who had thus concealed
it? It must be so. Nothing but a belief in its immense importance
could possibly have led to such extraordinary pains in the
concealment of it. This I felt, and this conviction only intensified
my desire to get at the bottom of the mystery which it incloses. And
this much I saw plainly--that the deciphering which I have made
carries in itself so dread a confession, that the man who made it
would willingly conceal it both in cipher writing and in secret
drawers."

[Illustration: The Old Cipher Writing Was There.]

"But of course," said Gualtier, taking advantage of a pause, "you
found something else besides the cipher. With that you were already
familiar."

"Yes, and it is this that I am going to tell you about. There were
some papers which had evidently been there for a long time, kept
there in the same place with the cipher writing. When I first found
them I merely looked hastily over them, and then folded them all up
together, and took them away so as to examine them in my own room at
leisure. On looking over them I found the names which I expected
occurring frequently. There was the name of O. N. Pomeroy and the
name of Lady Chetwynde. In addition to these there was another name,
and a very singular one. The name is Obed Chute, and seems to me to
be an American name. At any rate the owner of it lived in America."

"Obed Chute," repeated Gualtier, with the air of one who is trying to
fasten something on his memory.

"Yes; and he seems to have lived in New York."

"What was the nature of the connection which he had with the others?"

"I should conjecture that he was a kind of guide, philosopher, and
friend, with a little