“Of a sudden, monsieur, the woman disappeared.  Nothing was heard of her, no clue to her whereabouts discovered for two whole years.  She was as one dead and gone until last week.”

“Oho!  She returned, then?”

“Yes, monsieur.  Without hint or warning she turned up in Mauravania, accompanied by a disreputable one-eyed man who has the manner and appearance of one bred in the gutters of Paris, albeit he is well clothed, well-looked after, and she treats him and his wretched collection of parakeets with the utmost consideration.”

“Parakeets?” put in Narkom excitedly.  “My dear Cleek, couldn’t a parakeet be made to swallow a pearl?”

“Perhaps; but not this one, Mr. Narkom,” he made reply.  “It is quite the size of a pigeon’s egg, I believe; is it not, Count?”

“Yes, monsieur, quite.  To see it is to remember it always.  It has the changing lights of the rainbow, and—­”

“Never mind that; go on with the story, please.  This woman and this one-eyed man appeared last week in Mauravania, you say?”

“Yes, monsieur; and with them a bodyguard of at least ten servants.  Her demand now is that his Majesty make her his morganatic wife; that he establish her at the palace under the same roof with his queen; and that she be allowed to ride with them in the state carriage on the coronation day.  Failing that, she swears that she will not only publish the contents of that dreadful letter, but send the original to the chief of the Mauravanian police and appear in public with the Rainbow Pearl upon her person.”

“The Jezebel!  What steps have you taken, Count, to prevent this?”

“All that I can imagine, monsieur.  To prevent her from getting into close touch with the public, I have thrown open my own house to her, and received her and her retinue under my own roof rather than allow them to be quartered at an hotel.  Also, this has given me the opportunity to have her effects and those of her followers secretly searched; but no clue to the letter, no due to the pearl has anywhere been discovered.”

“Still she must have both with her, otherwise she could not carry out her threat.  No doubt she suspects what motive you had in taking her into your own house, Count—­a woman like that is no fool.  But tell me, does she show no anxiety, no fear of a search?”

“None, monsieur.  She knows that my people search her effects; indeed, she has told me so.  But it alarms her not a whit.  As she told me two days ago, I shall find nothing; but if I did it would be useless, for, on the moment anything of hers was touched, her servants would see that the finder never carried it from the house.”

“Oho!” said Cleek, with a strong rising inflection.  “A little searching party of her own, eh?  The lady is clever, at all events.  The moment either pearl or letter should be removed from its hiding-place her servants would allow nobody to leave the house without being searched to the very skin?”