The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 315: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

280 THE COURT OF LONDON fact, it consists of two distinct preparations. One is an invisible ink, the other is the chemical wash which must be rubbed over the sheet of paper to render the writing visible.” “Whew!” ejaculated Page, with a whistling sound. ‘“ Now I begin to see a clue to something which this pocket- book contains! ”’ ‘Very likely,” observed Julia. ‘But go on, my dear,’ added her husband. “ We will go over the contents of the pocketbook together presently.”’ ‘J have little more to tell you,’’ resumed Mrs. Page. “You see that the invisible ink and the chemical wash are very ingenious preparations. Suppose, for instance, that you wanted to correspond on secret matters with some accomplice at a distant place, and you were desirous of making sure that your letters should not be read. You would write with the invisible ink, and the sheet of paper would appear an entire blank. In this way it would go through the post, the address being alone written in proper ink. Well, your friend receives it, washes it over with the chemical preparation, and when it has been dried before the fire, all the writing appears as plain as possible. But this is not all. Suppose that, having read the letter, your friend wishes to keep it by him for future reference. He can restore it to its blank state by dipping it in water, — a simple process, which causes all the writing to disappear once more. The chemical preparation will, however, bring forth that writing again, when required; and this may be done for three or four times without destroying the document.” “Wonderful! wonderful!” ejaculated the commercial traveller. ‘‘ And you say that you are in possession of these receipts, as well as those for the terrible poison and its counteractive? ” ‘Yes; you may have them whenever you will,’ answered Julia. ‘“ We will make use of the chemical preparation to restore the writing this very day, my dear,” said Page. ‘‘ And now tell me, was your father intimately leagued with that Mags- man? ”’ ‘Much more than I liked,” responded the young woman. “Don’t you remember that when we were examining the cellar together the night before last, I told you that I hated the man Briggs and all his crew? I don’t pretend to COMmMiCcooOokSa