men--signatures to an oath to kill Napoleon Bonaparte and to restore a
king to France. You will agree with me it is a most original and
intriguing document."

"So they didn't kill him," I said.

"Indeed not," he replied; "quite the contrary. They gave him a new
lease of life."

"Then why," I demanded, "didn't they burn the paper. Why--"

"Ah!" said my father, with an indulgent smile. "There you have it, to be
sure. You have hit the root of the whole matter."

"It was the old Marquis's idea. He told me of it at the time. If everyone
in the plot signed the oath, it would be a dangerous thing indeed for
anyone to inform on the rest, because they would immediately produce the
paper which showed him as guilty as they. There are commendable points in
the Marquis's idea, my son. Now that the plot has failed, the existence
of this paper is all that keeps many a man from telling a valuable and
dangerous little story. In these signatures I read names of men above
suspicion, men high in the present government. Somehow Napoleon's police
have learned of the existence of this paper. It has become almost vital
for Napoleon to obtain it. He has tried to get it already. Since it
reposed in the strong box at the Chateau of Blanzy, it has cost him five
men. It has cost me new halliards and rigging for the Eclipse, and Brutus
a disfigured countenance--not that I am complaining. Someone shall pay me
for it. And the game is just beginning, my son. Mr. Lawton--have you
wondered who he is? He is a very reckless man in the pay of France. He
will get that paper if he can, if not by force, by money. Even now his