"
"How is this known?" asked Dupin.
"It is clearly inferred," replied the Prefect, "from the nature of
the document, and from the nonappearance of certain results which
would at once arise from its passing out of the robber's possession;
--that is to say, from his employing it as he must design in the end
to employ it."
"Be a little more explicit," I said.
"Well, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its
holder a certain power in a certain quarter where such power is
immensely valuable." The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy.
"Still I do not quite understand," said Dupin.
"No? Well; the disclosure of the document to a third person, who
shall be nameless, would bring in question the honor of a personage of
most exalted station; and this fact gives the holder of the document
an ascendancy over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are
so jeopardized."
"But this ascendancy," I interposed, "would depend upon the
robber's knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber. Who would
dare--"
"The thief," said G., is the Minister D--, who dares all things,
those unbecoming as well as those becoming a man. The method of the
theft was not less ingenious than bold.
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