Robert, remembering his uncle's well-known secrecy and the unusual precautions taken by him to secure his room from intrusion, looked his incredulity, which stimulated Raikes into exclaiming: "Ah, but you do not know how incredible it is. Wait until you hear all. You will wonder what human agency could penetrate these locks, open the doors of this hiding place, extract the plunder, restore the locks to their original condition, and re-issue into the passageway without disturbing the latches or the crossbar. My losses are supernatural. Now follow me carefully and confess that you have not heard anything so ghastly, so unreal as what I am about to relate." As Raikes proceeded in his narrative, his nephew was at first inclined to receive these weird confidences as features of the unhappy man's condition, but as the latter progressed, with a constantly increasing degree of his customary emotionless lucidity, his sincerity became apparent. "And now," concluded Raikes, "what have you to say to all this? Is it not worthy of a Poe or a Maupassant? I tell you, I must have some explanation of this mystery or I shall go mad." During this singular recital the young man's mind, stimulated by the eerie perplexities and the unhappy denouement, had been busy. It was not difficult to convince himself of the futility of any of his own speculations; the nearness of the calamity affected him, in a degree, as it did the withered invalid. He had a sound brain, nourished by a well sustained body; his intelligence was apt and rapid, but these unheard-of complications demanded a morbid analysis of which he was incapable. On this basis, however, as his uncle had proceeded, Robert had been able to develop a suggestion; he could offer that, at least. In reply, therefore, to the feverish questions of his uncle, the young man said: "In so far as I am able to see, your disasters have narrowed your range of discernment. They are too recent; they affect you too nearly. Under such conditions we take counsel of our prejudices instead of our judgment. Your thoughts are apt to return to the central feature of your loss. It is not natural to expect one to dismiss such a consideration in order to make way for others which might help you in your search. "On my part, the incident is new and stimulating, but the ideas it awakens lead to nothing. However, I should not regard the case as impossible until I had tried at least one means of solution." "What is that?" demanded Raikes, diverted, if not convinced, by the sensible observations of his nephew. "You have heard of Gratz?" inquired Robert. "Of the secret service?" "Yes." "Ah!" cried the old man; "to submit the case to him means another in the secret, with little prospect of advantage." "I am not so sure about that," returned Robert. "Do you recall the Dupont mystery?" Raikes nodded. "Well," continued Robert, "you must also remember the Belmont scandal. Gratz certainly let daylight into that."