torn into fragments, I should not mind so much. But if
it were to fall into the hands of a scoundrel skilful enough to master
the secret which it contains, then I--"

He stopped with a scared look on his face, as though he had unwittingly
said more than he had intended.

"Pray don't trouble yourself with any explanations just now," said
Ducie. "You want the paper: that is enough. I will go and have a
thorough hunt for it."

Back went Ducie to the broken carriages and began to search more
carefully than before. "What can be the nature of the great secret, I
wonder, that is hidden between the Sibylline leaves I am in search of?
If what Platzoff's words implied be true, he who learns it is master of
the situation. Would that it were known to me!"

Slowly and carefully, inside and out of the carriage in which he and
Platzoff had travelled, Captain Ducie conducted his search. One by one
he again turned over the wraps and different articles of personal
luggage belonging to both of them, which had not yet been removed. The
first object that rewarded his search was a splendid diamond pin which
he remembered having seen in Platzoff's scarf. Ducie picked it up and
looked cautiously around. No one was regarding him. "Of the first water
and worth a hundred guineas at the very least," he muttered. Then he put
it in his waistcoat pocket and went on with his search.

A minute or two later, hidden away under one of the cushions of the
carriage, he found what he was looking for: a folded sheet of thick blue
paper covered with a complicated array of figures--that and nothing
more.

Captain Ducie regarded the recovered treasure with a strange mixture of
feelings. His hands trembled slightly; his heart was beating more
quickly than usual; his eyes seemed to see and yet not to see the paper
in his hands. As one mazed and in deep doubt he stood.

His reverie was broken by the approach of some of the railway officials.
The cloud vanished from before his eyes, and he was his cool,
imperturbable self in a moment. Heading the long array of figures on the
parchment were a few lines of ordinary writing, written, however, not in
English, but Italian. These few lines Ducie now proceeded to read over
more attentively than he had done at the first glance. He was
sufficiently master of Italian to be able to translate them without much
difficulty. Translated they ran as under:--

"Bon Rep