"Yes. The old cipher writing was there--shut up--concealed carefully, jealously--doubly concealed, in fact. Was not this enough to show that it had importance in the eyes of the man who had thus concealed it? It must be so. Nothing but a belief in its immense importance could possibly have led to such extraordinary pains in the concealment of it. This I felt, and this conviction only intensified my desire to get at the bottom of the mystery which it incloses. And this much I saw plainly--that the deciphering which I have made carries in itself so dread a confession, that the man who made it would willingly conceal it both in cipher writing and in secret drawers." [Illustration: The Old Cipher Writing Was There.] "But of course," said Gualtier, taking advantage of a pause, "you found something else besides the cipher. With that you were already familiar." "Yes, and it is this that I am going to tell you about. There were some papers which had evidently been there for a long time, kept there in the same place with the cipher writing. When I first found them I merely looked hastily over them, and then folded them all up together, and took them away so as to examine them in my own room at leisure. On looking over them I found the names which I expected occurring frequently. There was the name of O. N. Pomeroy and the name of Lady Chetwynde. In addition to these there was another name, and a very singular one. The name is Obed Chute, and seems to me to be an American name. At any rate the owner of it lived in America." "Obed Chute," repeated Gualtier, with the air of one who is trying to fasten something on his memory. "Yes; and he seems to have lived in New York." "What was the nature of the connection which he had with the others?" "I should conjecture that he was a kind of guide, philosopher, and friend, with a little of the agent and commission-merchant," replied Hilda. "But it is impossible to find out anything in particular about him from the meagre letters which I obtained. I found nothing else except these papers, though I searched diligently. Every thing is contained here. I have them, and I intend to show them to you without any further delay." Saying this Hilda drew some papers from her pocket, and handed them to Gualtier. On opening them Gualtier found first a paper covered with cipher writing. It was the same which Hilda had copied, and the characters were familiar to him from his former attempt to decipher them. The paper was thick and coarse, but Hilda had copied the characters very faithfully. The next paper was a receipt written out on a small sheet which was yellow with age, while the ink had faded into a pale brown: "$100,000. NEW YORK, May 10, 1840. "Received from O. N. Pomeroy the sum of one hundred thousand dollars in payment for my claim. "OBED CHUTE."