Page:The Van Roon (IA thevanroon00snaiiala).pdf/273

 Easy to gull William in some respects was, yet, he could not help thinking that the French Government took a little too much for granted.

"I think so, too—but there it is," said the old man. "They have to prove the Van Roon is theirs, and that won't be easy, as I told the detective this morning. But I understand that the question of identity turns upon certain marks, as well as upon similarity of subject."

William allowed that the subject had an undoubted similarity with that of the picture stolen from the Louvre, but then, as he explained, every known Van Roon had a strong family likeness. In size they varied little, and they always depicted trees, water, clouds, and in some cases a windmill.

"Ours, I believe, had no windmill."

"No, sir, only water and trees, and a wonderful bit of cloud."

"I understand," said the old man mournfully, "that the one that was stolen from the Loov had no windmill."

"The other one in the Louvre has no windmill; there are two at Amsterdam that have no windmill; and there's one at The Hague, I believe, that hasn't a windmill."

"May be. These are all points in our favour. But, as I say, the whole question will turn upon certain identification marks, and this French detective is coming here this afternoon to examine it. So it seems to me that the best thing you can do is to go off at once, and get it back from that hussy, because you can take it from me, boy, that we are going to be held responsible for the picture's safety by the French police; and if when the detective calls again all we have to say is