He looked at Dorothy. She was silent. Was she going to find in this unexpected incident the solution of the enigma which escaped him? She said thoughtfully:
"Always supposing that a fifth medal has not been fabricated since on the model of the others and then transmitted to us by a process of fraud."
"How are we to know it?"
"Let us compare our medals," she said. "An examination of them will enlighten us perhaps."
Webster was the first to present his medal:
It showed no peculiarity which gave them to believe that it was not one of the four original pieces struck by the instructions of the Marquis and controlled by him. An examination of the medals of Dario, Kourobelef, and Errington showed the same. Maître Delarue who had taken all four of them and was examining them minutely, held out his hand for Dorothy's medal.
She had taken out the little leather purse which she had slipped into her bodice. She untied the strings and stood amazed. The purse was empty.
She shook it, turned it inside out. Nothing.
"It's gone.... It's gone," she said in a hushed voice.
An astonished silence followed her declaration. Then the notary asked: