He
is a bully and a coward and he must pay the price. He says that he has
no ready money, that his affairs are more desperate than we imagine. And
yet he could find the cash to buy those diamonds."

"They always mean cash," the woman said. "It is a good thing for the
wife of a speculator to be in possession of a lot of fine diamonds. It
would have been a precious good thing for us, too, if Reggie had not
lost his nerve last night."

"Have you any idea who those people are?" asked Berrington of his
companion.

"Not personally," Field replied, "but I have a pretty shrewd idea. It is
very good of them to come here, just as nature made them, and without
disguises. Surely you know what they are talking about? The discussion
is over Mrs. Richford's diamonds which she nearly lost, as she told me.
Unless I am greatly mistaken, we are listening to a confession of the
way in which that robbery had been planned. Stripped of their very
clever disguises, these two people yonder are no other than Countess de
la Moray and General Gastang."

Berrington nodded, wondering why he had not found them out before. From
the dining-room came the sound of a match, as the Rajah lighted another
cigar.

"We shall have to go back to our original scheme," he was saying. "There
was never anything better. We must get the other man into this. He must
be frightened. Send him the salt."

There was another rattle of the latchkey, and the watchers were not in
the least surprised to see Richford come in, with the air of a man who
is quite at home. He was looking white and anxious and a little annoyed
as he took off his coat and entered the dining-room. Unhappily he closed
the door behind him, so that no more conversation could be heard.

"That's unlucky," Field said in a vexed tone. "What does that salt
allusion mean? You recollect telling me that Richford was frightened by
finding that salt on his plate?"

"It's a kind of Indian dodge," Berrington proceeded to explain. "It has
to do with caste and religious observances and all that sort of thing.
Don't be deceived with the idea that you are on the track of an
Anarchist society or anything of that kind."

"Is it something more or less on the line of freemasonry, then?" Field
asked.

"Well, yes, you can put it that way if you like," Berrington said
thoughtfully. "I made a special study of that kind of thing in India,
though I only came across the salt fetich a few times. It seemed to me
to be m