CHAPTER VIII

THE SEVEN DEAD MEN HIS argument was quite logical. There was no doubt that the Italian had at first intended to make a permanent record of the secret, but had afterwards thought better of it. He was evidently no fool, as shown by the testamentary disposition of the Spanish loot. I took up the parchment, with its dangling seal, and noticed a dark smear across it. The old expert told me that the stain was a smear of blood. “Then the secret is in the hands of some one named Knutton, and the right owner of two-thirds o…