The San Francisco call., 1908-08-23
Stop! crred Weters Sre-opfns F2e~,on by the

not trying to paint an exhibition in
two months You surely do not Judge
an artist by the tons of pictures he
turns out in a given time?"
NO" said Rawson, Il don't. Though
reputation who return from Venice
after months stay there with rec
ord of one picture a day
"Tushr' calculated Waters. Il know
the men you mean, and as a rule they
are better after dinner speakers than
painters"
That aside" persisted Rawson, this
Venetian Day represents the sum total
of your work in Venice, and you are
quite aware that its intrinsic value as
an original is not so great even to Mr.
Robert Heron as to induce him to pay
your expenses to and from Venice and
your board and lodging while there,
to say nothing of enabling you to set
up this studio, dine nightly at the
most expensive restaurants in town.
scour the country in motor cars and in
other ways live the New York life to
the full. Therefore, you should con-
clude as well as I that this picture
has some other hidden, mysterious
quality which has made 1t worth Mr.
Herron's while to pay you the sums
you have received from him for it
through Samuel Schonberg."
a h
chair and appeared to be on the
verge of collapse. Twice he tried to
speak, but the words would not come,
and he sat gazing affrightedly at
Rawson.
Now, what is that hidden, mysteri-
Gus value" said Rawson "a value that
has escaped every eye in the custom
house, every eye among the critics of
the recent exhibition who roasted it.
and every eye of the hanging commit
tee who skied it? If you don't know,
Mr.. Waters, perhaps 1 can enlighten
the second of September. following
your arrival at Venice, an important
Paul Veronese in the Academy of Fine
Arts in the Della Carita guild house
turned up missing. Suspicion pointed
in many directions"-
DO you mean to imply that r. be-
gan Waters, rising and walking the
floor in great agitation.
'Sit down and hear me out, Mr..
Waters" said Rawson. II mean to
imply nothing. l am merely stating
facts. The Veronese disappeared. Sus-
picion pointed in many directions, but
the prevailing impression seemed to be
that certain persons employed in the
academy had been bribed to secure that
priceless possession and turn 1t over to
certain agents of a certain American
collector-let us say, for the sake of
argument, Mr.. Robert Heron. You
remember the affair, no doubt
YES" said Waters nervously, "but
why on earth you should think I had
anything to do with tt
II haven't said so," said Rawson.
II never went near the academy and
had no talk or contact directly or In
directly with any employe of that instf-
tuition" blurted Waters in trembling
voice
Probably not" said Rawson. But
let me complete my story The Italian
government took immediate steps to
see that the missing veronese should
not leave Italy. Every port was
watched with more than jealous care.
and the thieves, whoever they were, If
the painting was stolen for export,
were confronted with the twofold diff
Guilty of getting it out of Italy un-
known to the government authorities
and into the United States unknown to
the customs inspector. Now what was
the simplest way out of this dilemma?''
Waters sallow face went ashen gray.
should say" continued Rawson,
that the simplest way was to get
some man of cleverness with his brush
TO use the missing canvas for his own
work, paint modern Venetian scene
upon the back of the stolen Veronese,
and by skillful application either of
q wash or of a canvas of nlmy texture
to the front of it cover up the work
OF the master. My own opinion is that
the original painting was completely
covered with a flmy texture of brown
paper, which was subsequently manip-
ulated by some needy artist so as to
resemble the back of an ordinary