He scanned it over and over; he turned it this way
and that. His face betrayed nothing, but Tom saw that his fingers
trembled slightly as with ill-veiled excitement or anger.
He gave one fierce, searching look at Tom, who preserved an air of
indifference, and then he took the paper across to the stove, and
held it in the heat of the glow which stole thence.
Back he came with it to the table; but there was nothing revealed
by the application of heat. He called sharply for something to one
of his men, and a small phial was brought to him. He applied a drop
of the liquid it contained to the parchment; and eagerly awaited
the result; but no lettering was revealed upon it, and his face
grew dark and stern.
How many tests he applied Tom scarcely knew; but he saw that this
man was master of all the arts of secret penmanship, and that no
matter would have been kept from him had it been intrusted to the
paper.
At last Sir James became satisfied of this himself. The veins on
his forehead swelled with anger. He saw that he had been tricked,
and his fury was hotly aroused.
Smiting his great hand upon the table, he cried in a voice of
thunder:
"This despatch is a trick and a fraud. There is nothing but a sheet
of blank paper.
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