of the whole matter."

"It was the old Marquis's idea. He told me of it at the time. If everyone
in the plot signed the oath, it would be a dangerous thing indeed for
anyone to inform on the rest, because they would immediately produce the
paper which showed him as guilty as they. There are commendable points in
the Marquis's idea, my son. Now that the plot has failed, the existence
of this paper is all that keeps many a man from telling a valuable and
dangerous little story. In these signatures I read names of men above
suspicion, men high in the present government. Somehow Napoleon's police
have learned of the existence of this paper. It has become almost vital
for Napoleon to obtain it. He has tried to get it already. Since it
reposed in the strong box at the Chateau of Blanzy, it has cost him five
men. It has cost me new halliards and rigging for the Eclipse, and Brutus
a disfigured countenance--not that I am complaining. Someone shall pay me
for it. And the game is just beginning, my son. Mr. Lawton--have you
wondered who he is? He is a very reckless man in the pay of France. He
will get that paper if he can, if not by force, by money. Even now his
men are watching the house. Suppose you held the paper in your hands, my
son, you still have Mr. Lawton."

He folded the paper, and replaced it in his pocket.

"It is safer here at present," said my father. "There will be others who
will want it presently, and then, perhaps, we will dispose of it."

"In other words, you intend to sell the people who entrusted you with the
paper to the highest bidder?" I inquired.

He glanced towards Mademoiselle, and back to me again, and smiled
brightly.

"That," he admitted pleasantly, "is one way of looking at it, though it
might be viewed from more congenial angles."

I started to speak, but he raised his voice, and for the second time that
evening became entirely serious.

"The paper," he said, "has nothing to do with your being in this house
tonight. You are becoming more of a hindrance than I expected, but you
are here, and here you will stay for another reason. I have heard much
of the good examples parents set their children. For me to set one is a
patent impossibility. I have never been a good example. But perhaps I can
offer you something which is even better, and that, my son, is why I
asked you to this house. Can you guess what it is?"

"There is no need to guess," I said, "you have been perfectly clear."

Gossip