the gems drip between them, and rain back into the
treasure-chest. "What's wrong with them? That's what you'd be
asking--eh?--if your poor tongue could find the words. Well, only
this, my friend--yes, look well at them--that I hid them myself, and
every one of them is false."

"False!" I could see Glass's mouth at work, his lips forming to the
echo of the word, as it struck across his terror like a whip. But he
achieved no articulate sound.

"I give you my word--" resumed Dr. Beauregard; but a thud interrupted
him. Glass had fallen forward in a faint, striking his forehead
against the edge of the chest, and lay face downward--with the blood
oozing from his temple and discolouring the sand. As the Doctor
paused and bent over him, another wave came rippling up the beach,
throwing a long, thin curve of foam before it, and washed out the
stain.

"Is--is he dead?" I heard Plinny's voice quavering.

"Not yet, ma'am," answered the Doctor, grimly; and, taking the
inanimate body by the collar, he drew it above reach of the waves,
and turned it over.

"You are a doctor, sir?"

"Yes, ma'am, and have some small skill." He put up a hand to his
breast-pocket, half withdrew it, and hesitated. "You have baulked me
of a pretty little scheme," he said quietly. And still while he
addressed us he seemed to be considering. "Think of this fellow's
face when he got his treasure across to the mainland and attempted to
trade it! To be sure, he gave us some fun for our pains--"

"If you call it fun, sir," protested Plinny.

"Well, yes, ma'am," he answered quietly, kneeling and lifting Glass's
head, and resting it across his thigh. "My humour may be of a
primitive sort, but I confess it tickled by shocking a murderer into
a fainting fit." He felt in his breast-pocket and drew forth a small
phial. "No, sir,"--he turned to Captain Branscome, who had stepped
forward to offer his help--"let me alone, please. I prefer to treat
my patient in my own way. It will be best, on the whole, for
everybody."

He forced Glass's mouth wide open, and with one hand poured about
half of the contents of the phial between the patient's teeth, drop
by drop, very patiently, with the other smoothing the gullet between
finger and thumb.

We all stood watching while he administered the dose, Miss Belcher
close beside me, with her hand on my shoulder. At the twentieth drop
or so I felt her give a start, as though a thought had suddenly
occurr