“There is no such good fortune in this case, however,” he resumed, placing the paper between the two small arms.  “But by measurements made by this vernier micrometer caliper I can find the precise thickness of the paper as compared to the other samples.”

He turned to a microscope and placed the corner of the paper under it.  Then he drew from the drawer the four scraps of paper which had already been sent to us, as well as a pile of photographs.

“Under ordinary circumstances,” he explained, “I should think that what I am doing would be utterly valueless as a clue to anything.  But we are reduced to the minutiae in this affair.  And to-day science is not ready to let anything pass as valueless.”

He continued to look at the various pieces of paper under the microscope.  “I find under microscopic examination,” he went on, addressing Inez, but not looking up from the eye-piece as he shifted the papers, “that the note you have received, Senorita Mendoza, is written on a rather uncommon linen bond paper.  Later I shall take a number of microphotographs of it.  I have here, also, about a hundred microphotographs of the fibres in other kinds of paper, many of them bonds.  These I have accumulated from time to time in my study of the subject.  None of them, as you can see, shows fibres resembling this one in question, so that we may conclude that it is of uncommon quality.

“Here I have the fibres, also, of four pieces of paper that have already figured in the case.  These four correspond, as well as the indentures of the torn edges.  As for the fibres, lest you should question the accuracy of the method, I may say that I know of a case where a man in Germany was arrested, charged with stealing a government bond.  He was not searched until later.  There was no evidence, save that after the arrest a large number of spitballs were found around the courtyard under his cell window.  This method of comparing the fibres of the regular government paper was used, and by it the man was convicted of stealing the bond.  I think it is unnecessary to add that in the present case I can see definitely that not only the four pieces of paper that bore warnings to us were the same kind, but that this whole sheet, with its anonymous warning to you, is also the same.”

Inez Mendoza looked at Kennedy as though he possessed some weird power.  Her face, which had already been startled into an expression of fear at his mention of Lockwood, now was pale.

“Other warnings?” she repeated tremulously.

Quickly Kennedy explained what had already happened to us, watching the effect on her as he read of the curse of Mansiche and the Gold of the Gods.

“Oh,” she cried, mastering her emotion with a heroic effort, “I wish my father had never become mixed up in the business.  Ever since I was a little girl I have heard these vague stories of the big fish and the little fish, the treasure, and the curse.  But I never thought they were anything but fairy tales.  You remember, when I first saw you, I did not even tell them to you.”