There were three engraved plates in the
book; one of which was a general view of the whole estate; another,
the plan of the buildings; and the third--I call your attention to
it, particularly--the third was the sketch of a subterranean
passage, an entrance to which is outside the first line of
ramparts, while the other end of the passage is here, in this very
room. Well, that book disappeared a month ago."
"The deuce!" said Velmont, "that looks bad. But it doesn't seem to
be a sufficient reason for sending for Sherlock Holmes."
"Certainly, that was not sufficient in itself, but another incident
happened that gives the disappearance of the book a special
significance. There was another copy of this book in the National
Library at Paris, and the two books differed in certain details
relating to the subterranean passage; for instance, each of them
contained drawings and annotations, not printed, but written in ink
and more or less effaced. I knew those facts, and I knew that the
exact location of the passage could be determined only by a
comparison of the two books. Now, the day after my book
disappeared, the book was called for in the National Library by a
reader who carried it away, and no one knows how the theft was
effected.
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