“Their fatal fallacy,” said Courtney, “was, it seems to me, in assuming that no one but His Majesty and Her Highness could open the vault.—I have no doubt the valet had discovered the combination.”
“But the box,” Dehra objected; “it was locked when I got it, and Adolph could not have had the key.”
“He might have had a duplicate.”
“I think not,” said Armand; “it is a trick lock with a most complicated arrangement, and to make a duplicate would have required the original key.”
“Well, however that may be is not essential,” said Courtney; “the fact remains that, between eleven o’clock of one night and ten o’clock of the second day thereafter, the Book disappeared; and the last time it was seen, to our knowledge, it was lying under the King’s own hand, on the table in his library, with the open box beside it; and that the latter was found, closed and locked and empty, in its place in the vault, while the most thorough search for the Book has been ineffectual except, it seems, to prove that it is not in the Palace. We can safely assume that His Majesty did not hide it; hence he returned it to its place; and whoever took it, got it out of a locked box in a locked vault. For this, Adolph had the best opportunity.”
“But what possible motive?” the Princess exclaimed.
Courtney smiled. “If I could tell you that, we would be far toward finding the Book; yet he had a motive—his lie to the Council proves it.”
“You think he stole the Laws?” she asked.
Courtney sent a smoke cloud shooting upward and watched it fade.
“I think,” said he, “that if Adolph didn’t steal them, he knows who did; his lie can bear no other construction.”