“Yes, you did, but so far as I can remember you never spoke of a single instance of Penner mentioning the snuff-box by name. He spoke of a sacred relic, and you, of course, very naturally assumed he spoke of the box. None of the anonymous letters mentioned the box, you know, and once or twice they actually did mention a seal, though usually the thing was spoken of in a roundabout and figurative way, as is the manner of many people of strange beliefs in speaking of anything they particularly venerate. Moreover, remember that when they had entrapped you last night, the moment you mentioned the snuff-box specifically by name they ceased troubling you, and contented themselves with shutting you up. All along, these people--Reuben Penner and the others--have been after the seal, and you have been defending the snuff-box.” “But why the seal?” “Did you never hear of Joanna Southcott?” “Oh yes, of course; she was an ignorant visionary who set up as prophetess eighty or ninety years ago or more.” “Joanna Southcott, as you may see by any suitable book of reference, gave herself out as a prophetess in 1790. She was an ignorant woman, and no doubt deceived herself, and really believed in the extravagant claims she put forward. She was to be the mother of the Messiah, she said, and she was the woman driven into the wilderness, as foretold in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation. She died at the end of 1814, when her followers numbered more than 100,000, all fanatic believers, though, of course, mostly ignorant people. She had made rather a good thing in her lifetime by the sale of seals, each of which was to secure the eternal salvation of the holder. At her death, of course, many of the believers fell away, but others held on as faithfully as ever, asserting that ‘the holy Joanna’ would rise again and fulfil all the prophecies. These poor people dwindled in numbers gradually, and although they attempted to bring up their children in their own faith, the whole belief has been practically extinct for years now. You will remember that you told me of Penner’s mother being a superstitious fanatic of some sort, and that your Uncle Joseph had checked her extravagances. The thing seems pretty plain now. Your uncle Joseph possessed himself of Joanna Southcott’s seal by way of removing from poor old Mrs. Penner an object of a sort of idolatry, and kept it as a curiosity. Reuben Penner grew up strong in his mother’s delusions, and to him and the few believers he had gathered round him at his Tabernacle the seal was an object worth risking anything to get. I should think that probably it is the only one remaining in existence at the present moment. You see, he tried every way of getting at it. First, he tried to convert you to his belief. Then he tried to buy it; and you will remember his mentioning that it had been his mother’s--a suggestion which you, thinking of the snuff-box, naturally resented. After that he and his friends