For the second time I held the casket in my hand, but even now it was impossible for me to look at it. I had to keep my eye on the duke. I picked it up and walked to the table near which the duke was seated.

“Tell me,” I asked laughingly, “did you bring me to this room for the sheer joy of gloating over my nearness to this toy that I have been struggling to possess for the past month, knowing how impossibly far it was from me? Did it afford you so much pleasure to play with me, to tease me, that you pushed your game so dangerously far? If so, you are an artist, my dear duke.”

“Mr. Hume is generous in his compliments.”

“Or,” I continued, thrusting my face nearer to his, “am I mistaken in thinking that most of your words and deeds are spoken and acted with some purpose in view?”

“For example?” he asked lightly.

“For example,” I repeated, “it was hardly for love of me that you spoke to me this afternoon.”

290“Hardly,” he sneered, pale with rage and disappointment. “Rather because I hated you so much that I wished to amuse myself at your expense.”

“Or is there a third possibility?” I continued scornfully. “That you wished to avenge yourself? While you were taunting me with St. Hilary’s perfidy, or his supposed perfidy, the idea occurred to you that if you could induce me to come to your rooms, if you could hold me there while you sent Luigi for the gendarmes, you might have me committed to jail for assault, perhaps, or complicity in breaking into your rooms. On the whole, I am inclined to think that this view of the case is the most reasonable.”

“As you will, Mr. Hume,” he answered, his lips white and trembling.

“Now listen to me, Duke da Sestos. Granting that I am correct, the gendarmes will be here presently. Luigi has been gone some time. Before they come, I wish to put the case clearly before you. This casket and these jewels belong neither to me nor to you. They are the property of the state. When your gendarmes come, be sure I shall make that clear.”

“Pooh! I have always known that you were a fool,” he cried contemptuously.

“Ah, I thought you would listen to reason,” 291I said quickly. “Now tell me frankly: Why have you been so keen on this hunt for the casket? Was it to please Miss Quintard or to please yourself?”

“Why not both? In pleasing myself perhaps I should be pleasing Miss Quintard.”

“And perhaps not,” I replied drily. “A truthful answer, duke, if you please. We have no time to lose–if you care anything for the baubles in this casket.”

“Well, then, for myself,” he said, looking at me curiously.

“And if I had not surprised you just now, you would have taken your casketful of jewels to London or Paris to dispose of them at leisure?”

“Perhaps,” he assented insolently.

“Or would you have taken this casket to Miss Quintard and apologized for making a slight error?”

“Why could I not have done both?” he cried. “Yes, Mr. Hume, even if you give it to the gendarmes, the casket is mine–legally and morally. The state will grant my claim, and then––”

“That is the point I was coming to. Supposing you were offered a share of these baubles–I do not say how great a share–is it possible that you could be induced to give up the casket?”

292“I have heard there is an English proverb that it is better to have a bird in one’s hand than two birds in the bushes.”

“But allow me to remind you that in this instance the bird is in my hands.”

“For the present,” he interrupted with a meaning glance.

“Come, come,” I cried sharply, “we have had enough of this quibbling. I make you a sporting proposition. I will give you a share of these jewels for the casket.”

“I am afraid,” he said suspiciously, “my share would be rather a small one.”

“It would be one-third,” I said quietly. “I am not a thief. I covet no stolen property, and these stones were stolen. The price of blood is on them. Whether they were stolen to-day or five hundred years ago, the moral aspect of the case is the same. But I want that casket, and I must have it.”

“Who gets the other two-thirds?” demanded the duke, like a greedy glutton. “St. Hilary, I suppose.”

“If he can prove to me that he has played fair.”

The duke thought a minute. “Very well, I agree.”

I emptied the chambers of the revolver’s cartridges. 293I put them into my pocket. I pushed the weapon carefully under the newspapers again.

“And now that the strain of the past five minutes is over, I suppose I may have a look at my casket?”

“With pleasure.” The duke bowed sardonically.

In shape and size it was not unlike the pseudo da Sestos casket with which the duke had attempted to deceive Jacqueline.

It was of bronze, overlaid with plaques of gold, enriched with cloisonné enameled work and precious stones, cut for the most part en cabochon. The cover rose to an apex. At the apex was a knob of wrought gold, in shape a monster’s head, the eyes formed of minute rubies. At the four corners of the cover were large semi-precious stones of chalcedony, rock-crystal, carbuncle, and turquoise. From these four stones to the knob of gold ran lines of pearls.

The sides of the casket were composed of rectangular plaques, alternately covered with symmetrical designs in colored cloisonné enamel, partly opaque and partly translucent. These plaques were studded with pearls framed with a cunning design of scrolls and filigree work.

294“It would fetch a thousand pounds at Christie’s any day,” I mused.

“Will you tell me how long that toy must tick before the cover can be opened?” interrupted the duke.

“When did you set the mechanism?”

“At precisely twenty-five minutes to seven.”

“Then in half an hour the casket will be opened.”

There was a loud knock on the door.

“Ah, your gendarmes,” I said coolly.<............