y chair, where I sat blinking, a good deal
bewildered, realizing only dimly that I had not been thrown bodily from
the house, and, after a while, that he was not even angry.

"On the contrary, he seemed to be in the best of spirits. Presently he
began to put me through a cross-examination, which I can recommend as a
model for any one to follow who wants to elicit the minutiae of detail
of another fellow's life.

"Before he finished, he had dragged out everything that had ever
occurred to me with which anybody bearing the name of Fluette was even
remotely associated--a complete history of Belle's and my acquaintance,
everything I knew or had ever heard about Mrs. Fluette, all about
Genevieve, and every word that I could remember that had ever passed
between Mr. Fluette and myself.

"He took me through my talk with Mr. Fluette last Wednesday night I
don't how many times--anyhow, until he must have had it pretty well
photographed upon his mind. For some mysterious reason, he seemed to
relish the epithet by which Mr. Fluette had referred to him. I 'll bet
I repeated that part of our conversation a score of times; and every
time I uttered the word 'hound' Mr. Page chuckled.

"But by and by I came to observe that each mention of either Belle or
Mrs. Fluette was received with a courtesy and respect for which I could
not account. I was at last moved to ask him whether he was acquainted
with them; but he testily shook his head, and bade me with some
asperity not to ask questions. He dropped into a brown study pretty
soon, so I shut up.

"When he spoke again his words effectively banished all speculation
from my mind; in fact, they left me speechless. Of a sudden he looked
at me with a sly smile.

"'My boy,' he said, almost in a whisper, 'the ruby 's yours.'"

Thereupon, Maillot declared, Mr. Page inquired whether he had ever seen
the ruby; to which the young man replied in the negative. The fire on
the hearth had by that time sunk to a glowing bed of coals, and, save
for the dim ruddy glow, the illumination was afforded by means of a
single candle--just sufficient to make of the commodious library a
place of ghostly shadows, and failing to relieve its farther reaches
from utter gloom and darkness.

"It's a bonny bit of glass," the old gentleman had next said. "It's as
compact a package, I daresay, as one can crowd a fortune into. I 'll
get it." With a brusque injunction to his nephew to remain where he
was, h