In Paris, years before, these sheets had given me the
knowledge of how a gang of thieves disposed of their gold without
melting it. The paper was used instead of vellum in the rougher
processes of manufacturing gold-leaf. It stood the constant beating of
the hammer nearly as well as the vellum, and here at once there
flashed on me the secret of the old man's midnight anvil work. He was
transforming his sovereigns into gold-leaf, which must have been of a
rude, thick kind, because to produce the gold-leaf of commerce he
still needed the vellum as well as a 'clutch' and other machinery, of
which we had found no trace.
'My lord,' I called to my assistant; he was at the other end of the
room; 'I wish to test a theory on the anvil of your own fresh common
sense.'
'Hammer away,' replied the earl, approaching me with his usual
good-natured, jocular expression.
'I eliminate the safe from our investigations because it was purchased
thirteen years ago, but the buying of the book, of wall covering, of
this tough paper from France, all group themselves into a set of
incidents occurring within the same month as the purchase of the anvil
and the building of the forge; therefore, I think they are related to
one another.
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