"Ah, a very fine collection--part of the Medici collection, and contains some of the finest Italian and Spanish specimens," remarked the blind connoisseur. "Birch of the British Museum is quite right in declaring that the seal, portable and abounding in detail, not difficult of acquisition nor hard to read if we set about deciphering the story it has to tell, takes us back as we look upon it to the very time of its making, and sets us, as it were, face to face with the actual owners of the relic." The Frenchman sighed. He saw he was in for a long dissertation; and, moving uneasily towards the window, changed the topic of conversation by saying, "I had a long letter from Paris this morning. Krail is back again, it appears." "Ah, that man!" cried the other impatiently. "When will his extraordinary energies be suppressed? They are watching him carefully, I suppose." "Of course," replied the Frenchman. "He left Paris about a month ago, but unfortunately the men watching him did not follow. He took train for Berlin, and has been absent until now." "We ought to know where he's been, Goslin," declared the elder man. "What fool was it who, keeping him under surveillance, allowed him to slip from Paris?" "The Russian Tchernine." "I thought him a clever fellow, but it seems that he's a bungler after all." "But while we keep Krail at arm's length, as we are doing, what have we to fear?" asked Goslin. "Yes, but how long can we keep him at arm's length?" queried Sir Henry. "You know the kind of man--one of the most extraordinarily inventive in Europe. No secret is safe from him. Do you know, Goslin," he added, in a changed voice, "I live nowadays somehow in constant apprehension." "You've never possessed the same self-confidence since you found Mademoiselle Gabrielle with the safe open," he remarked. "No. Murie, or some other man she knows, must have induced her to do that, and take copies of those documents. Fortunately, I suspected an attempt, and baited the trap accordingly." "What caused you to suspect?" "Because more than once both Murie and the girl seemed to be seized by an unusual desire to pry into my business." "You don't think that our friend Flockart had anything to do with the affair?" the Frenchman suggested. "No, no. Not in the least. I know Flockart too well," declared the old man. "Once I looked upon him as my enemy, but I have now come to the conclusion that he is a friend--a very good friend." The Frenchman pulled a rather wry face, and remained silent. "I know," Sir Henry went on, "I know quite well that his constant association with my wife has caused a good deal of gossip; but I have dismissed it all with the contempt that such attempted scandal deserves. It has been put about by a pack of women who are jealous of my wife's good looks and her _chic_ in dress." "Are not Flockart and mademoiselle also good friends?" inquired Goslin.