"The hour which so many things have so long foretold."
"You believe?"
"I believe that you made no mistake the day on which you saw in your grandfather's hands that gold medal in which all the traditions of the family seem to be summed up. Unfortunately the poor man lost his reason before you were put in possession of the facts; and the thread which bound the past to the future has been broken."
"Then what do you hope for, if we do not find that medal? We've searched everywhere, his room, his clothes, the house, the orchard, and found nothing."
"It is impossible that he should keep to himself forever the answer to the enigma. If his reason is dead, his instincts survive. And what an instinct that is that centuries have been forming! Doubtless he has put the coin within reach, or within sight. You may be sure that he has hidden it in such a way that no execrable piece of bad luck could rob him of it without his being aware of it. But don't worry: at the appointed hour some unconscious gesture will reveal the truth to us."
Raoul objected.
"But what if d'Estreicher took it from him?"
"He did not. If he had, we should not have heard the noise of the struggle. Your grandfather resisted to the end; and it was only our coming which put d'Estreicher to flight."
"Oh, that ruffian! If only I had him in my hands!" exclaimed Raoul.
The boat was drifting gently. Dorothy said in a very low voice, barely moving her lips: