He pulled out a number of volumes from the
shelves and began to make a pretence of working upon the
catalogue. But though he surrounded himself with the implements
and necessaries for his task, his mind was busy with the new
scheme that unfolded itself to his imagination.
He and he alone, knew that San Giacinto's possession of the
Saracinesca inheritance rested upon a forgery. The fact that this
forgery must be revealed, in order to reinstate the lawful
possessors in their right, did not detract in the least from the
value of the secret. Two courses were open to him. He might go to
old Leone Saracinesca and offer the original documents for sale,
on receiving a guarantee for his own safety. Or he might offer
them to San Giacinto, who was the person endangered by their
existence. Montevarchi had promised him twenty thousand scudi for
the job, and had never paid the money. He had cancelled his debt
with his life, however, and had left the secret behind him. Either
Saracinesca or San Giacinto would give five times twenty thousand,
ten times as much, perhaps, for the original documents, the one in
order to recover what was his own, the other to keep what did not
belong to him. The great question to be considered was the way of
making the offer.
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