"Because, children, I rather think we're up against a very dangerous man. Here, sit down."
"But what are you doing here, sir?" Rampole asked.
Dr. Fell laid the pistol on the table beside the candle. He pointed to what looked like a stack of manuscript ledgers, rotten and mildewed, and to a bundle of brown dry letters; with a large handkerchief he tried to mop the dust from his hands.
"Since you're here," he rumbled, "we might as well go into it. I was ransacking…. No, my lad, don't sit on the edge of that bed; it's full of unpleasant things. Here, on the edge of the table. You, my dear," to Dorothy, "may have the straight chair; the others are full of spiders.
"Anthony kept accounts, of course," he continued. "I fancied I should find 'em if I poked about…. The question is, what was Anthony hiding from his family. I must tell you, I think we're in for mother old, old story about buried treasure."
Dorothy, sitting very quiet in her wet raincoat, turned slowly to look at Rampole. She only observed:
"I knew it. I said so. And after I found those verses―"
"Ah, the verses!" grunted Dr. Fell. "Yes. I shall want to look at those. My young friend mentioned 'em. But all you have to do is read Anthony's diary to get a hint about what he did. He hated his family; he said they'd suffer for ridiculing his verse. So he turned his verse into a means to taunt them. I'm no very good accountant, but I can see from these," he tapped the ledgers, "that he left 'em precious little cash out of a large fortune. He couldn't beggar them, of course, because the lands — the biggest source of revenue-were entailed. But I rather think he put a gigantic sum beyond their reach. Bullion? Plate? Jewels? I don't know. You'll remember, he keeps referring in the diary to `the things one can buy to defeat them,' meaning his relatives; and again he says, `I have the beauties safe.' Have you forgotten his signet, `All that I have I carry with me?' — 'Omnia mea mecum porto."'
"And left the clue in the verses?" asked Rampole. "Telling where the hiding-place is?"
Dr. Fell threw back his ancient box-pleated cape and drew out pipe and tobacco-pouch. Reeling out the black ribbon, he adjusted his glasses more firmly.