The Clock and the Key

w, whether it led us to the jewels of the Doge or not. And if this dry chronicle of the past should prove to be no colorless legend, but a living fact, palpitating with hu

g it to be but an empty fable, would certainly demand those qualities she b

an indescribable elation of spirits buoyed me up. Three years had slipped from my shoulders–three years

slowly over San Giorgios, and the glorious sun, flashing on every tip and spire, and reflected silver-gray and rose-colored in the millions of little waves that danced and sparkled in a very ecstasy

tir, and the guides from San Marco’s already on the alert for them. Last night in my chambers, with the curtains drawn and the lights of Venice shining mystically in the distance, there might have been an excuse for one’s imagin

for our morning coffee. As we passed under the Arcade, St. Hilary paused at a bookseller’s shop beneath the Lib

yet?” asked St. Hilary, as he

t at one of the round tables. “

t was published about a month ago. Organia and Rosen

t before you explain just in what way, suppose you answer a few questions t

el

Sestos palace? Or did you not guess? Surely we are not the first to attempt 96to solve the secret of the hours? And even if no one has yet attempted it (and that seems incredible), is it not

ere, some of your questions might have be

suspended in mid-air.

do

ll the world to read–t

was rather

nd the gems, I should have brought that book as well as the Diary which I happened to have in my pocket. As it is, you mi

him with som

u 97know, I suppose, that it’s quite necessary for me to get a passport to travel

ver there, is dust these four hundred years and more. The line of the D’Estes and Sforzas is extinct. There is not a man or

emptuously. “I don’t mind putti

the jimmy before we get possession of those gems. Do you think we shall find them on the pavement? Hard

ctantly. “All the same, it has a

this was no task

t I am going to show you that I can be a bit

I need not remind you, concerned itself not so much with the religious conscience of the individual as with affairs of the state. It is da Sesto

of Sanudo is

r his death. It was forfeited by the Inquisition as a thing unclean.

after

f a century, when a learned antiquarian, who was writing an elaborate monograph on automaton clocks, came across it. This antiquarian, our editor tells us, 99bought the clock and studied it. How it came into the possession

zed it?

the monograph of the antiquarian. Or the antiquarian may himself have brought the clock to the attention of the duke. It

nificance of the auto

erwise, why should the clock have been hidden in the secret chamber? I

nt at the automata’s having any

ole subject 100as a myth, a mere

ld get hold of a copy of that mono

t. Petersburg. The monograph is in the Imperial Library. There is only on

nd feels curious enough to try his hand at solving the riddle? If, for instance, he asks

t we can examine your clock, and we shall be lucky if he hasn’t ruined it,” grumbled St. H

e had not even taken it to pieces. The mechanism was too intricate. In fact, he

omplacently. “And now, perhaps, you understand, Hume,

nveniently out of the way? Meanwhile he would have the clock, and when he had mastered its secret, he could return it to me with the assurance that it was but a myth after all. “Why sho

Hume? It leaves at three-thirty and

“though I hardly relish our rushing of

great deal more patience than a journey to St. Petersburg involves. As to my going to Amsterdam, you 102heard Marruchi say th

. But I must say St. Hilary’s characterization of me was justified. I had faith enough to be curious about the clock her