Mallory grunted. De Lesseps' face， instead of expressing appreciation of the compliment， blanched suddenly， and his hands closed tightly. Again he recovered himself and smiled.
"The beauty of this picture lies not only in its faithfulness to the original， " the scientist went on， "but also in the fact that it was painted under extraordinary circumstances. For instance， I don' t know if you know， Mr. Mallory， that it is possible so to combine glue and putty and a few other commonplace things into a paste which would effectually blot out an oil painting， and offer at the same time an excellent surface for water color work."
"This water color—this copy of Whistler， " continued the scientist evenly—"is painted on such a paste as I have described. That paste in turn covers the original Rubens picture. It can be removed with water without damage to the picture， which is in oil， so that instead of a copy of the Whistler painting， we have an original by Rubens， worth fifty thousand dollars. That is true； isn' t it， M. de Lesseps？ "
There was no reply to the question—none was needed. It was an hour later， after de Lesseps was safely in his cell， that Hatch called up The Thinking Machine on the telephone and asked one question.
"How did you know that the water color was painted over the Rubens？ "
"Because it was the only absolutely safe way in which the Rubens could be hopelessly lost to those who were looking for it， and at the same time perfectly preserved， " was the answer. The Thinking Machine"I told you de Lesseps was a clever man， and a little logic did the rest. Two and two always make four， Mr. Hatch， not sometimes， but all the time."
马修·科尔在车轴润滑油生意上足足赚了五千万，随后他便开始四处收购名画。原因很简单，他有钱，而欧洲也不缺大师级名作。不过，他收购名画只是为了填满府邸中占地大约五千平方米的艺术厅，所以他总共买了总面积大约五千平方米的画。画的品质参差不齐，大多数都是次品，不过，他也买到了不少好的作品，其中最有名的当属他在罗马花了五万美元买下的鲁本斯的名作。