f crimson flame.

CHAPTER VIII

MAILLOT'S EXPERIENCE

"We must have made a Rembrandt-like picture"--to quote the young man
again--"the two of us bending over this table by the light of a
solitary candle. There was a wan reflection of the flame from the
polished table-top, but elsewhere all was darkness and the shadows
crowded in close. The most brilliant thing in the room was that
wonderful jewel, glowing and scintillating like blood-red fire.

"It was considerably larger than the end of my thumb--as large as a big
hickory-nut and, my uncle averred, flawless. Rubies of such a size and
without a flaw are extremely rare, I believe; in fact, there are only
one or two known to be in existence. The old gentleman declared that
one of five carats was worth five times as much as a diamond of equal
weight, and that the value increased proportionately with each
additional carat.

"But I could only sit and stare at it and wonder, and now and then
pinch myself to see whether I was in reality awake and not the victim
of a fantastic Arabian Nights sort of dream."

After a while the conference between uncle and nephew ended. Mr. Page
would not allow the young man to depart from the house at that hour of
the night with the gem, pointing out (reasonably enough) that nobody
but a fool would be abroad at such a time with five hundred thousand
dollars on his person; though, in his anxiety to secure the ruby and be
away before his uncle had an opportunity to change his mind, Maillot
might have retorted that a fool would not have had it at all.

"There are men who have left no stone unturned to discover where I have
kept _this_ stone," Mr. Page had concluded, with another chuckle, "and
they have by no means given it up yet." Then, with grim significance
in view of the tragedy which so swiftly followed,--"I 'd have been
murdered long ago, if it would have helped 'em to finding where I keep
the stone hid."

The leather jewel-box--shabby, according to Maillot's description, and
plainly showing the marks of age--was at last closed, and shortly the
young man was shown to his room by Mr. Page.

Maillot declared that, ascribing the circumstance to reaction from the
evening's powerful excitement, he almost immediately sank into a deep
sleep.

"I was as exhausted," he amplified, "as if I had been all day digging
ditches or shovelling coal. I could scarcely realize that my mission
had succeeded; I feared the entire proceeding