The diamond.

Captain Ducie had been six weeks at Bon Repos; his visit would come to a close in the course of three or four days, but he was still as ignorant of the hiding-place of the Diamond as on that evening when he learned for the first time that M. Platzoff had such a treasure in his possession.

Since the completion of his translation of the stolen Ms. he had dreamed day and night of the Diamond.  It was said to be worth a hundred and fifty thousand pounds.  If he could only succeed in appropriating it, what a different life would be his in time to come!  In such a case, he would of course be obliged to leave England for ever.  But he was quite prepared to do that.  He was without any tie of kindred or friendship that need bind him to his native land.  Once safe in another hemisphere, he would dispose of the Diamond, and the proceeds would enable him to live as a gentleman ought to live for the remainder of his days.  Truly, a pleasant dream.

But it was only a dream after all, as he himself in his cooler moments was quite ready to acknowledge.  It was nothing but a dream even when Platzoff wrung from him an unreluctant consent to extend his visit at Bon Repos for another six weeks.  If he stayed for six months, there seemed no likelihood that at the end of that time he would be one whit wiser on the one point on which he thirsted for information than he was now.  Still, he was glad for various reasons to retain his pleasant quarters a little while longer.

Truth to tell, in Captain Ducie M. Platzoff had found a guest so much to his liking that he could not make up his mind to let him go again.  Ducie was incurious, or appeared to be so; he saw and heard, and asked no questions.  He seemed to be absolutely destitute of political principles, and therein he formed a pleasant contrast both to M. Platzoff himself and to the swarm of foreign gentlemen who at different times found their way to Bon Repos.  He was at once a good listener and a good talker.  In fine, he made in every way so agreeable, and was at the same time so thorough a gentleman that Platzoff was as glad to retain him as he himself was pleased to stay.

Three out of the Captain’s second term of six weeks had nearly come to an end when on a certain evening, as he and Platzoff sat together in the smoke-room, the latter broached a subject which Ducie would have wagered all he possessed—­though that was little enough—­that his host would have been the last man in the world even to hint at.

“I think I have heard you say that you have a taste for diamonds and precious stones,” remarked Platzoff.  Ducie had hazarded such a remark on one or two occasions as a quiet attempt to draw Platzoff out, but had only succeeded in eliciting a little shrug and a cold smile, as though for him such a statement could have no possible interest.

“If I have said so to you I have only spoken the truth,” replied Ducie.  “I am passionately fond of gems and precious stones of every kind.  Have you any to show me?”