heard true. There
were some things of value--why should we hide it from you, our good
friend? But, alas! that greedy rogue, the Abbot of Blossholme, has them.
He has stripped my poor Lady as bare as a fowl for roasting. Get them
back from him, Sir, and on her behalf I say she'll give you half of
them, will you not, my Lady?"

"Surely," said Cicely. "The Doctor, to whom we owe so much, will be most
welcome to the half of any movables of mine that he can recover from
the Abbot Maldon," and she paused, for the fib stuck in her throat.
Moreover, she knew herself to be the colour of a peony.

Happily the Commissioner did not notice her blushes, or if he did, he
put them down to grief and anger.

"The Abbot Maldon," he grumbled, "always the Abbot Maldon. Oh! what a
wicked thief must be that high-stomached Spaniard who does not scruple
first to make orphans and then to rob them? A black-hearted traitor,
too. Do you know that at this moment he stirs up rebellion in the north?
Well, I'll see him on the rack before I have done. Have you a list of
those movables, Madam?"

Cicely said no, and Emlyn added that one should be made from memory.

"Good; I'll see you again to-morrow or the next day, and meanwhile fear
not, I'll be as active in your business as a cat after a sparrow. Oh, my
rat of a Spanish Abbot, you wait till I get my claws into your fat back.
Farewell, my Lady Harflete, farewell. Mistress Stower, I must away
to deal with other priests almost as wicked," and he departed, still
muttering objurgations on the Abbot.

"Now, I think the time has come to trust Jacob Smith," said Emlyn, when
the door closed behind him, "for he may be honest, whereas this Doctor
is certainly a villain; also, the man has heard something and suspects
us. Ah! there you are, Cousin Smith, come in, if you please, since we
desire to talk with you for a minute. Come in, and be so good as to lock
the door behind you."

Five minutes later all the jewels, whereof not one was wanting, lay on
the table before old Jacob, who stared at them with round eyes.

"The Carfax gems," he muttered, "the Carfax gems of which I have so
often heard; those that the old Crusader brought from the East, having
sacked them from a Sultan; from the East, where they talk of them still.
A sultan's wealth, unless, indeed, they came straight from the New
Jerusalem and were an angel's gauds. And do you say that you two women
have carried these priceless things tacked in yo