The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-07
CHAPTER VII.

Iv0r Is Late for an Appointment. I was glad to be alone, for as had said. I wanted to think quietly. Maxine had taken the diamonds, but she had slipped the necklace into the bosom of her dress, pressing 1t down through the rather low-cut opening at the throat, and had therefore left the leather case. picked the thing Up from the table where she had thrown 1t, and examined 1t carefully for the first time
 It had not been originally intended as a jewel case. that was clear; and as Maxine's voice had rung unmistak- ably true when she denied all previous knowledge of 1t to the police, I judg- ed that the diamonds had not been in l 1t when the Duchess entrusted them to du Laurier. He would almost certain i iy have described to Maxine the box or case which had been stolen from him, and If the thing pulled out from the sofa hiding -place mad recalled his description. she must have betrayed some emotion under the keen eyes of the Commissary of Police.
 The case which. 1t seemed. had brought to Paris, looked as If it might have Been made to hold a peculiar kind of cigar, much larger than the or dinary sort. Within, on either side.
 was a partition, and there was silver clasp on which the hallmark was Eng l fish.
 "English silver" I said to myself, thoughtfully. The three men who had | travelled in the carriage with me from London to Dover were all English. Of 1 the trio, only the nervous little fellow who had reserved the compartment for
 himself, had found the smallest pos-
 sible opportunity to steal the treaty
 from me, and exchange for 1t this red leather case containing a diamond
 necklace worth twenty thousand
 pounds. If he possessed the skill and l quick deftness of a conjurer or a mar vellousIy clever professional pickpock- ct, as well as the incentive of paid l spy, he might conceivably have done l the trick at the moment of alarm on l the boats gangway, not afterwards. TOT when he had pressed near me In the Care du Nord, he had been on the wEeng side. But for my life could
 not guess the motive for such an ex- l change.
 Supposing him a spy. employed tc | track and rob me Of what I carried
 why should he have made me pres <, ent of these rare snd precious dia-
 monds? Would the bribe for which 1 he used his skill reach anything like
 the sum he could obtain by selling the i stones? I was almost sure 1t would | not. and tnereLOTe, HdNlHB tue uAd-
 monds 1t would have been far more to
 his advantage to keep them than to
 stun them into my pocket, simply to fill
 up the space where the case with the
 treaty had been. There would not have
 been time yet for the real diamonds l to have been copied in Amsterdam
 therefore 1t would be useless to build
 up a theory that the stones given me
 might be false.
 | Besides, I remtnoed myself. if the
 man were spy whose business was
 to watch and be near me, why hadn't
 he waited to see what I would do
 where would go, instead of taking a
 compartment. carefully reserying It. and trusting to such an unlikely chance
 as that I might force myself into iti
 Even if, after all, the three men had
 been in some obscure way playing into | each others hands. could not see how
 their game had been arranged to catch me.
 Maxine and had talked for long
 time. but not two hours had passed yet since I saw the last of the little