It was a great salon, I found, a huge, high-roofed place with old gilt furniture upholstered in red silk brocade and some marvellous buhl cabinets full of rare china and _bric-a-brac_. The place was in darkness, save for the single night-light placed upon a chair--the intruders fearing, of course, to ignite the lamps as the light would shine outside and perhaps attract attention. The great salon led into an inner room, and in there I saw their moving figures by the light of two candles that had been put upon the carpet. They were conversing only in low whispers and seemed to be groping about the floor in the farther corner of the room, as though in search of something. I slipped into the big salon, and creeping from table to chair, bending double so as to be concealed the whole time, I managed to approach near the door of the inner room, and took up a position where I could both observe their movements and overhear their words. Now that I reflect upon my actions of that night, I see how utterly reckless of life I was. A single slip, a cough, a sneeze, and I should be lost. And yet, holding my breath, I knelt behind that big gilt armchair wherein the princes of the _cinquecento_ had once sat, and watched those men at their mysterious work. The heavy red plush curtains had been drawn across the long windows, and I recognised that the apartment was a library or study, for there were big cases filled with old parchment-covered volumes, and set before one of the windows was a big carved writing-table. As I watched, the doctor lit the gas-lamp upon it, removing the green silk shade so as to give a better light in the room, and as he did so the young man in the grey hat, who had thrown off his coat and was on his hands and knees on the floor, suddenly picked up something which he handed to Miller, saying in Italian with a grin:--"This looks a little suspicious, does it not, signore?" Miller took the object in his hand, and started. Then I saw that it was a narrow gold bangle--a woman's bracelet. He took it to the light, and read some words inscribed in the inside. Then he stood in silence and wonder. "What's the matter?" inquired Gavazzi, in broken English. "What is it?" His friend handed it to him without a word. But the doctor only shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and handed back the bangle. At that moment the truth flashed across my mind--the truth unknown to those men. In that room--if that were Nardini's study--the mysterious discovery had been made. The body of an unknown young Englishwoman had been found there. Was that bangle her property? Miller had certainly recognised the inscription upon it, and knew its owner. I saw that he stood there with knit brows, still glancing at the bracelet, as though mystified.