o be frank," Dr. Rapperschwyll went on, with
visibly increasing nervousness, "I will inform you that the Baron has
assured me that you saw nothing. I interrupted you in the act of
removing the silver cap."

"I will be equally frank," replied Fisher, stiffening his face for a
final effort. "On that point, the Baron is not a competent witness. He
was in a state of unconsciousness for some time before you entered.
Perhaps I was removing the silver cap when you interrupted me----"

Dr. Rapperschwyll turned pale.

"And, perhaps," said Fisher, coolly, "I was replacing it."

The suggestion of this possibility seemed to strike Rapperschwyll like
a sudden thunderbolt from the clouds. His knees parted, and he almost
sank to the floor. He put his hands before his eyes, and wept like a
child, or, rather, like a broken old man.

"He will publish it! He will publish it to the court and to the
world!" he cried, hysterically. "And at this crisis----"

Then, by a desperate effort, the Swiss appeared to recover to some
extent his self control. He paced the diameter of the platform for
several minutes, with his head bent and his arms folded across the
breast. Turning again to his companion, he said:

"If any sum you may name will----"

Fisher cut the proposition short with a laugh.

"Then," said Rapperschwyll, "if--if I throw myself on your
generosity----"

"Well?" demanded Fisher.

"And ask a promise, on your honor, of absolute silence concerning what
you have seen?"

"Silence until such time as the Baron Savitch shall have ceased to
exist?"

"That will suffice," said Rapperschwyll. "For when he ceases to exist
I die. And your conditions?"

"The whole story, here and now, and without reservation."

"It is a terrible price to ask me," said Rapperschwyll, "but larger
interests than my pride are at stake. You shall hear the story.

"I was bred a watchmaker," he continued, after a long pause, "in the
Canton of Zurich. It is not a matter of vanity when I say that I
achieved a marvellous degree of skill in the craft. I developed a
faculty of invention that led me into a series of experiments
regarding the capabilities of purely mechanical combinations. I
studied and improved upon the best automata ever constructed by human
ingenuity. Babbage's calculating machine especially interested me. I
saw in Babbage's idea the germ of something infinitely more important
to the world.

"Then I threw up my business and went to Paris