Totes les cases de Sant Petersburg i els llogarrets veins foren analitzades, post darrera post, i llurs fonaments descolgats i escorcollats, en la recerca del tresor ocult. I no pas per minyons, sinó per homes; i alguns de ben seriosos i sense el més petit romanticisme.
Every "haunted" house in St. Petersburg and the neighboring villages was dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for hidden treasure--and not by boys, but men--pretty grave, unromantic men, too, some of them.