But it was fruitful of other “gifts,” fruitful of an even greater surprise, that “morrow.”  For the first time since the day he had given his promise, no “souvenir” from “The Man Who Called Himself Hamilton Cleek,” no part of last night’s loot came to Scotland Yard; and it was while the evening papers were making screaming “copy” and glaring headlines out of this that the surprise in question came to pass.

Miss Wyvern’s wedding was over, the day and the bride had gone, and it was half-past ten at night, when Sir Horace, answering a hurry call from headquarters, drove post haste to Superintendent Narkom’s private room, and passing in under a red and green lamp which burned over the doorway, entered and met that “surprise.”

Maverick Narkom was there alone, standing beside his desk, with the curtains of his window drawn and pinned together, and at his elbow an unlighted lamp of violet-coloured glass, standing and looking thoughtfully down at something which lay before him.  He turned as his visitor entered and made an open-handed gesture toward it.

“Look here,” he said laconically, “what do you think of this?”

Sir Horace moved forward and looked; then stopped and gave a sort of wondering cry.  The electric bulbs overhead struck a glare of light down on the surface of the desk, and there, spread out on the shining oak, lay a part of the royal jewels that had been stolen from Wyvern House last night.

“Narkom!  You got him, then—­got him after all?”

“No, I did not get him.  I doubt if any man could, if he chose not to be found,” said Narkom bitterly.  “I did not recover these jewels by any act of my own.  He sent them to me; gave them up voluntarily.”

“Gave them up?  After he had risked so much to get them?  God bless my soul, what a man!  Why, there must be quite half here of what he took.”

“There is half—­an even half.  He sent them to-night, and with them this letter.  Look at it, and you will understand why I sent for you and asked you to come alone.”

“There’s some good in even the devil, I suppose, if one but knows how to reach it and stir it up,” Sir Horace read.  “I have lived a life of crime from my very boyhood because I couldn’t help it, because it appealed to me, because I glory in risks and revel in dangers.  I never knew where it would lead me—­I never thought, never cared—­but I looked into the gateway of heaven last night, and I can’t go down the path to hell any longer.  Here is an even half of Miss Wyvern’s jewels.  If you and her father would have me hand over the other half to you, and would have ‘The Vanishing Cracksman’ disappear forever, and a useless life converted into a useful one, you have only to say so to make it an accomplished thing.  All I ask in return is your word of honour (to be given to me by signal) that you will send for Sir Horace Wyvern to be at your office at eleven o’clock to-night, and that you and he will grant me a private