‘Do you not think that Aldobrand saw the place too?’ asked Elzevir; and then I remembered how, when I turned back to the room after seeing the stone fall, I caught the eyes of the old merchant looking the same way; and how he spoke more quietly after that, and not with the bitter cry he used when Elzevir tossed the jewel out of the window.

‘I do not know,’ I said doubtfully; ’let us go back and see.  It fell just by the stem of a red flower that I marked well.  What!’ I added, seeing him still hesitate and draw back, ’do you doubt?  Shall we not go and get it?’

Still he did not answer for a minute, and then spoke slowly, as if weighing his words.  ’I cannot tell.  I think that all you say is true, and that this stone is real.  Nay, I was half of that mind when I threw it away, and yet I would not say we are not best without it.  ’Twas you who first spoke of a curse upon the jewel, and I laughed at that as being a childish tale.  But now I cannot tell; for ever since we first scented this treasure luck has run against us, John; yes, run against us very strong; and here we are, flying from home, called outlaws, and with blood upon our hands.  Not that blood frightens me, for I have stood face to face with men in fair fight, and never felt a death-blow given so weigh on my soul; but these two men came to a tricksy kind of end, and yet I could not help it.  ’Tis true that all my life I’ve served the Contraband, but no man ever knew me do a foul action; and now I do not like that men should call me felon, and like it less that they should call thee felon too.  Perhaps there may be after all some curse that hangs about this stone, and leads to ruin those that handle it.  I cannot say, for I am not a Parson Glennie in these things; but Blackbeard in an evil mood may have tied the treasure up to be a curse to any that use it for themselves.  What do we want with this thing at all?  I have got money to be touched at need; we may lie quiet this side the Channel, where thou shalt learn an honest trade, and when the mischief has blown over we will go back to Moonfleet.  So let the jewel be, John; shall we not let the jewel be?’

He spoke earnestly, and most earnestly at the end, taking me by the hand and looking me full in the face.  But I could not look him back again, and turned my eyes away, for I was wilful, and would not bring myself to let the diamond go.  Yet all the while I thought that what he said was true, and I remembered that sermon that Mr. Glennie preached, saying that life was like a ‘Y’, and that to each comes a time when two ways part, and where he must choose whether he will take the broad and sloping road or the steep and narrow path.  So now I guessed that long ago I had chosen the broad road, and now was but walking farther down it in seeking after this evil treasure, and still I could not bear to give all up, and persuaded myself that it was a child’s folly to madly fling away so fine a stone.  So