d in this estimate I have not included one hundred and
ninety-seven superb gold watches, three of the number being worth each
five hundred dollars, if one. Many of them were very old, and as
timekeepers valueless, the works having suffered more or less from
corrosion; but all were richly jewelled, and in cases of great worth. We
estimated the entire contents of the chest that night at a million and a
half of dollars; and upon the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and
jewels (a few being retained for our own use), it was found that we had
greatly undervalued the treasure.

When at length we had concluded our examination, and the intense
excitement of the time had, in some measure, subsided, Legrand, who saw
that I was dying with impatience for a solution of this most
extraordinary riddle, entered into a full detail of all the
circumstances connected with it.

"You remember," said he, "the night when I handed you the rough sketch I
had made of the _scarabaeus_. You recollect, also, that I became quite
vexed at you for insisting that my drawing resembled a death's-head.
When you first made this assertion, I thought you were jesting; but
afterward I called to mind the peculiar spots on the back of the insect,
and admitted to myself that your remark had some little foundation in
fact. Still the sneer at my graphic powers irritated me--for I am
considered a good artist; and therefore, when you handed me the scrap of
parchment, I was about to crumple it up and throw it angrily into the
fire."

"The scrap of paper, you mean," said I.

"No; it had much the appearance of paper, and at first I supposed it to
be such; but when I came to draw upon it, I discovered it at once to be
a piece of very thin parchment. It was quite dirty, you remember. Well,
as I was in the very act of crumpling it up, my glance fell upon the
sketch at which you had been looking; and you may imagine my
astonishment when I perceived, in fact, the figure of a death's-head
just where, it seemed to me, I had made the drawing of the beetle. For a
moment I was too much amazed to think with accuracy. I knew that my
design was very different in detail from this, although there was a
certain similarity in general outline. Presently I took a candle, and,
seating myself at the other end of the room, proceeded to scrutinize the
parchment more closely. Upon turning it over, I saw my own sketch upon
the reverse, just as I had made it. My first idea now was mere su