"I found a small bottle," she answered slowly. "There was nothing else."
He raised his hand. If she had known how the delay of a second tortured him! "Describe it to me!" he said. "What was it like?"
Wondering, the girl tried to describe it. "It was small and of a strange shape, of thin glass, Messer Syndic," she said. "Shot with gold, or there was gold afloat in the liquid inside. I do not know which."
"It was not empty?"
"No, it was three parts full."
His hand went to his mouth, to hide the working of his lips. "And there was with it—a paper, I think?"
"No."
"A scrap of parchment then? Some words, some figures?" His voice rose as he read a negative in her face. "There was something, surely?"
"There was nothing," she said. "Had there been a scrap even of writing——"
"Yes, yes?" He could not control his impatience.