d make it more sacred
and precious still. I have found the solution of the last problem over
which we pored. You know that while we discovered the means of
imprisoning the gas in a concentrated form of scarcely appreciable bulk,
it was not always our obedient slave, we had the fear that sometimes it
would not submit to being liberated by piecemeal but would now and then
disrupt its containing chamber in impatience, and then the holder would
certainly die, choked if the fragments of the gun had not fatally
lacerated him. After many days and nights, I have found the simple means
to render the gas innocuous except in the direction to which we direct
its flow. I have written out the formula, in the minutest particulars
and in the cipher which you and I alone understand. In the same way we
two share the secret of this safe."

He handed Antonino a peculiar key and he went to unlock the coffer which
had aroused Madame Clemenceau's curiosity.

"Lock it up with the other papers," concluded the inventor. "I appoint
you its keeper while I live--my heir and the carrier out of the work
after my decease, should I die before having proved what I consign
there. What matters it now if my material form disappears when my spirit
lives on in thee! Well," he said, as Antonino returned, after closing
and fastening the chest, "do you need any farther proof of the
confidence I have in you?"

Antonino grasped his hand and wrung it fondly When both had recovered
calmness, they went on speaking of their work, which might be considered
past the stage when the projector is racked by misgivings. They went
into the breakfast-room together, prepared to bear the singular meeting
with the errant wife whose return was so unexpected. But she preferred
not to take the step so soon, and, as Rebecca also kept away, warned by
Hedwig, who might appear at the board, the three men took their meal
together.

CHAPTER XV.

THE MAN OF MANY MASKS.

From dawn a stranger had been wandering about Montmorency. Armed with a
large sun-umbrella and a Guid-Joanne, his copiously oiled black
side-whiskers glistening in the sun, showing large teeth in a friendly
grin to wayfarers of all degrees, one did not need to hear his strong
accent of the people of Marseilles to know that he was a son of the
South. Probably having made a fortune in shipping, in oils or wines, he
was utilizing his holiday by touring in the north of his country, forced
to admire, but still p