The President bowed gravely.
"This is your invention?" he asked.
"No; I'm hardly equal to that. But the inventor has made me a present of the Record, and it's the only one in the world."
"It is a marvel," remarked the President, thoughtfully. "More! It is a real miracle. We are living in an age of wonders, my young friend."
"No one knows that better than myself, sir," replied Rob. "But, tell me, can you trust your chief of police?"
"I think so," said the President, slowly; "yet since your invention has shown me that many men I have considered honest are criminally implicated in this royalist plot, I hardly know whom to depend upon."
"Then please wear these spectacles during your interview with the minister of police," said the boy. "You must say nothing, while he is with us, about certain marks that will appear upon his forehead; but when he has gone I will explain those marks so you will understand them."
The President covered his eyes with the spectacles.
"Why," he exclaimed, "I see upon your own brow the letters—"
"Stop, sir!" interrupted Rob, with a blush; "I don't care to know what the letters are, if it's just the same to you."