had seen and
handled it.

And so, when it appeared in Paris a few months later, Paternostro's
heirs and successors in the gem-importing business were promptly on
hand to claim their property; an enterprise in which they succeeded
after the determination of some legal complications; and the
Paternostros started with the ruby on the return to London.

Incidentally, the assassin and thief--an Oriental of undetermined
nationality--was also apprehended and, the red-tape of extradition
having been gravely untangled, conveyed to England and duly hanged.

Ill-luck, however, followed the ruby. On the boat over from Calais to
Dover a confidential employee of the gem merchants, who had accompanied
them to Paris, was lost overboard while the vessel was entering the
home port. Although this man was known to be an expert
swimmer--notwithstanding the attempts at rescue, the proximity of land
and the numerous craft of all sorts in the vicinity--a strange fatality
seems to have carried him straight to the bottom. After the man
vanished beneath the waves, no sign of him was seen again.

In the following year no less than four attempts were made to steal the
stone from the Paternostros; but as they had learned caution from their
unfortunate predecessor's death--to the extent, at least, of keeping
such treasure in bank--these attempts were abortive.

Later several tentative overtures on the part of one of Europe's
richest monarchs toward the purchase of the Paternoster ruby came to
naught; the price set upon it by the Paternostros was prohibitive; and
gradually it came to be forgotten by the public, until the year '84,
when interest concerning it was again revived, this time to fever heat.

And now we have Alfred Fluette and Felix Page arrayed against each
other once more. Everybody, of course, still remembers the sudden
rivalry between these two American citizens, which sprang up in June of
that year, for the gem's possession. The complexity of causes which
simultaneously inspired them with an inordinate desire for the
Paternoster ruby--a desire which seemingly could be appeased only by
possession, regardless of cost--was much of a mystery, and afforded the
energetic correspondents a fruitful text for many a day. Both, as is
well known, had unlimited means with which to indulge their sudden
whim; where kings and princes resigned themselves to the melancholy
fact that the gem was not for them, these two men battled for it with