"This," she said. "I have seen the money-lender, Monsieur Voirin, and he showed me the bill of sale. If by five o'clock on July 31st Monsieur Voirin, who has desired all his life to acquire the Manor, has not received the sum of three hundred thousand francs in cash or government securities, the Manor becomes his property."
"I know," said he. "And it will break my heart to go away from here."
She protested:
"There's no question of your going away from here."
"Why not? There's no reason why I should become rich in a month."
"Yes, there is a reason, the reason which has always sustained your grandfather, the reason which made him act as he did on this occasion, which made him say to old Voirin—I repeat the money-lender's words: 'Don't get bucked about this, Voirin. On the 31st of July I shall pay you in cash.' This is the first time that we are face to face with a precise fact. Up to now words and a confused tradition. To-day a fact. A fact which proves that, according to your grandfather all the legends which turn round these promised riches come to a head on a certain day in the month of July."
The boat touched the bank. Dorothy sprang lightly ashore and cried without fear of being heard:
"Raoul, to-day's the 27th of June. In a few weeks you will be rich; and I too. And d'Estreicher will be hanged high and dry as I predicted to his face."
That very evening Dorothy slipped out of the Manor and furtively made her way to a lane which ran between very tall hedges. After an hour's walking she came to a little garden at the bottom of which a light was shining.
Her private investigations had brought to her knowledge the name of an old lady, Juliet Assire, whom the gossip of the countryside declared to be one of the old flames of the Baron. Before his attack, the Baron paid her a visit, for all that she was deaf, in poor health, and rather feeble-witted. Moreover, thanks to the lack of discretion of the maid who looked after her and whom Saint-Quentin had questioned, Dorothy had learnt that Juliet Assire was the possessor of a medal of the kind they were searching for at the Manor.