"Yes," replied Adamas, "the stagings had been taken down, and the masons were at work elsewhere. The escutcheons were made over—But now I think of it, Master Jovelin, this La Flèche must know something of our dear child's story, as they had travelled together?"
"I don't think so," said Mario. "We never mentioned it to anyone."
"But you and Mercedes talked about it?" wrote Lucilio. "Does La Flèche understand Arabic?"
"No, he understands Spanish; but I always talked Arabic with Mercedes."
"Were there no other Moors in that band of gypsies?"
"There was little Pilar, who understands Arabic because she is the child of a Moor and a gitana."
"In that case," wrote Lucilio to the marquis, "abandon your belief in the supernatural. La Flèche attempted to make money out of what he had learned. He knew Mario's story down to a certain point; he learned yours in the neighborhood, and the fact of your brother's having disappeared ten years ago. He had stolen the seal. He recognized the coat-of-arms on the door. He remembered the dates. He divined or imagined the whole truth. He hurried to La Motte to make his prediction, which he taught the little gitana by heart. To-night or to-morrow he will bring you the seal, expecting to solve for you the mystery which you have already solved, and to receive a handsome reward. He is a thief and a schemer; nothing more."
It cost the marquis a pang to assent to this reasonable and probable explanation. However, he did so.
Adamas still held out.
"How can you explain what he told me about Bellinde and the rectory?" he asked Lucilio.