" he remarked, as he disappeared into his sanctum.
"I should advise you to study them closely."

He had no sooner disappeared into the little room, the door of which he
left slightly open, when I mentally consigned the green lizards and, in
fact, the whole lacertilian family to a place warmer than the plains of
Aquazilia in summer even, and sat idly wondering how long it would be
before I saw Dolores again.

I distinctly heard the click of a lock as the old gentleman opened the
ebony casket, there was a pause and a long silence broken only by the
crackling of paper. Then I heard him give a cry of astonishment, and a
Spanish exclamation it was--"Madre de Dios!"

An invocation only used on occasions of great excitement.

Then I heard a low muttering as he repeated certain passages, possibly
of the letter, to himself, but it was in a foreign language, probably
Spanish, and entirely unintelligible to me.

Another pause followed, then the door opened again and Don Juan
re-entered the room, but his appearance had entirely changed.

His healthy sunburnt complexion had lost all its colour and was of a
leaden hue, his eyes were starting from beneath his bushy eyebrows, and
his right hand, as he laid it on the back of a chair, trembled like a
leaf in the wind.

"Mr. Anstruther," he said with difficulty, "it will be necessary for me
to leave for Europe as soon as possible, for England, for Bath!"

If he had said that he had just made up his mind to go to the moon I
could not have been more astonished!

"To England!" I repeated.

"Yes, to England, and that as soon as possible."

The whole thing seemed to me extremely curious.

"Forgive my asking the question," I said, "but do you mind telling me
why you want to visit Bath?"

He considered for some moments, passing his hand across his forehead,
which was clammy with perspiration.

"Before I answer that question," he said at last, "I should like to ask
you another.

"I understand that you have met the lady who entrusted you with the
casket which you have given me, at a certain house in a street called
Monmouth Street in the town of Bath?"

"Yes, that is so," I answered.

"Are you aware that there was a safe in that house. A steel safe of
peculiar workmanship?"

"Yes," I replied, "I have seen it and opened it. I told you so."

"Ah! then you can tell me," he cried excitedly, "what was in the safe?"

"I'm afraid I cannot; I opened the safe at the request of t