The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1918-01-31

glance at its contents made me turn
pale. There, reposiD" in a place of
honor in the center OF the other gems,
was the onyx engraved with the pro-
file of Vespasian!
ct was now for the first time that
light began to break upon my mind
To you, who hear only the circum-
stances which l have been obliged to
mention in making my story clear
it has, no doubt, been easy to guess
the solution all along | can only say
that till l saw the seal there in it's
place, as If nothing had happened,
not the faintest suspicion Of the truth
had entered my mind.
The person who had restored that
seal to its place must, Of course, be in
possession of the secret of Vescaro's
fate And that person could be equally
only one man-Cardinal Salvatierra.
AT last I began to perceive the
manner in which / had been duped,
The last l had seen of Vescaro was
when he was walking towards the
CDu VI Inc BdItIy WIFI tut btdi III
his hand, followed by Salvatierra and
the Dominican. had only the cardin-
ais assurance-his suggestion rather
that the count had ever returned!
Stunned by this blow, l turned a
glance towards the end wall, which
have already described as being COW
cred with mirror, which gave de-
ceptive appearance to the length of
the gallery. | started, and gave vent
to a stifled cry. This wall was close
to, almost touching the case which
contained the seals.
81 rubbed my eyes and stared How,
II this were so, could l have seen Yes
caro- and the two others walk off in
that direction? / gazed round dis
tractedly searching for something to
enlighten me. l observed the Egyptian
statue still in its place, though it, also,
now appeared to be standing close
up against the end wall | looked
further for the Buddhist idol on its
bracket 1t was nowhere TO be seen!
| became positive-yes, the bracket
supporting the idol was farther along
the wall which l now beheld was a
false one, which could be withdrawn
at will, leaving space beyond!
The trap once closed, no doubt
there had been men waiting to rusf
out and secure the prisoner, while
Salvatierra and the Dominican
perhaps a familiar OF the holy Office
had made their way back by SOM
secret passage.
Il made brief examination of tn
walls of the gallery, and found what
expected. Immediately behind tn
Egyptian statue was a panel, whic
sounded hollow to my knock. 1t wa
no doubt opened by secret spring
and the statue had been placed Their
to conceal the opening.
There was no more for me to do /
the gallery, and | came away. But
had not yet ascertained Vescaro'
ultimate fate.
THE evidence was supplied to m
almost by accident. On quitting tn
museum | turned into the grounds o
the Vatican, where l had special priv
ileges as an ambassador to the court
and which l had never properly eS
plored. The vast extent Of thes
grounds is well known, and l wan
dered on idly till | came to what ap
| peared to be a disused cemetery, hid
/ den in a remote corner. Guided, per
haps, by an intuition, l passed int
this little burial ground, in which
had not walked far before l perceived
in front of me what had the aspect
of a newly-made grave. | stepped hast
lily forward, and on a small stone
which had been placed at the head
l read the inscription in Latin: