Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-08-23

ed on my withdrawing from
~ scene where my very pres
ence seemed in some degree to compro-
mise me.
Soon prepared for my departure,
was crossing the hall to the small door
communicating with the side staircase
where my uncle had promised to await
me, when | felt myself seized by
desire to have another look below be-
fore leaving the place in which were
conferred all my deepest interests.
A wide landing, breaking up the
main flight of stairs some few feet
from the top, offered me an admirable
point of view. With but little thought
Of possible consequences and no thought
at all sof my poor. patient uncle,
slipped down to this landing and, pro-
tected by the unusual height of its
balustrade, allowed myself a parting
glance at the scene with which my
most poignant memories were hence
forth to be connected.
Before me lay the large square of the
central hall Opening out from this
was the corridor leading to the front
AS my glance ran down this corridor
l behed approaching from the room
Just mentioned the tall figure of the
Englishman.
He halted as he reached the main
hall and stood gazing eagerly at
group of men and women clustered
near the fireplace, a group on which
no sooner cast my own eye than my
attention also became fixed.
The inspector had come from the
room where l had left him with Mr..
Durand and was showing to these peo-
pie the extraordinary diamond, which
he had just recovered under such re-
markable if not suspicious circum-
stances. Young heads and old were
meeting over it, and ! was straining
my ears to hear such comments as
were audible above the general hub
bub, when Mr.. Grey made a quick
move, and l looked his way again in
time to mark his air of concern and the
uncertainty he showed whether to ad
vance or retreat.
Unconscious of my watchful eye and
sons in the group on which his own eye
was leveled stood with their backs to-
ward him, he made no effort to dis
guise bis profound interest In the stone.
His eye followed its passage from hand
to hand with a covetous eagerness of
which he may not have been aware,
and | was not at all surprised when,
after a short interval of troubled indie
cison, he impulsively stepped forward
and begged the privilege Of handling
the gem himself.
Our host, who stood not far from the
inspector, said something to that gen
tleman which led to this request being
complied with. The stone was passed
over to Mr.. Grey, and | saw, possibly
because my heart was in my eyes
that the great mans hand trembled
as it touched i..5 palm. Indeed. his
| whole frame trembled, and / was
looking eagerly for the result of his
inspection when, on his turning to hold
the jewel up to the light, something
| happened so abnormal and so strange
that no one who was fortunate Tor I'M
| fortunate) enough to be present in the
house at that instant will ever forget
| it.
This something was cry, coming
| from no one knew where, which, I'M
earthly in its shrillness and the power
it had on the ina gination, reverberated
through the house and died away in a
wall so weird, so thrilling and so pro-
longed that it gripped not only my own
nerveleSs and weakened heart, but
those of the ten strong men cOngre-
gated below me. The diamond
dropped from Mr. Grey's hand and
neither he nor any one else moved to
pick it up. Not till silence had come
again-a silence almost as uncomfortable
to the sensitive ear as the cry which
had preceded it--did any one stir or
think of the gem. Then one gentle
man after another bent to look for it,
but with no success, till one of the
walters, who possibly had followed it
with his eye or caught sight of its
sparkle on the edge of the rug, whittier
1t had rolled, sprang and picked it up
and handed it back to Mr.. Gray.
Instinctively the Englishman's hand
closed on it, but it was very evident
to me, and l think to all, that his in
terest in 1t was gone. If he looked at
1t he did not see it, for he stood like
one stunned all the time that agitated
men and women were running hither
and thither In unavailing efforts to To-
cate the sound yet ringing In their
ears. Not till these various searchers
had all come together again, in terror
OF mystery they could not solve, did
he let his hand fall and himself awake
to the scene about him.