He raised one of the slabs with difficulty, turned it over, propped it with a billet of beech wood, and began to scoop out a hole in the hard earth, using a mason's trowel.
Beroviero watched him, holding the box in his hands.
"The lock is not very good," he said, "but I thought the box might keep the packet from dampness." "Is the packet properly sealed ?" asked Zorzi, looking up.
"You shall see," answered the master, and he set down the box beside the lamp, on the broad stone at the mouth of the annealing oven.

"It is better that you should see for yourself." He unlocked the box and took out what seemed to be a small book, carefully tied up in a sheet of parchment.

The ends of the silk cord below the knot were pinched in a broad red seal.

Zorzi examined the wax.
"You sealed it with a glass seal," he observed.

"It would not be hard to make another." "Do you think it would be so easy ?" asked Beroviero, who had made the seal himself many years ago.
Zorzi held the impression nearer to the lamp and scrutinised it closely.
"No one will have a chance to try," he said, with a slight gesture of indifference.