In ten minutes I cut a hole in
the partition and put my eye to it, waiting first to see if any man
moved. For the moment my heart quaked as I thought that both the
fellows had gone, but one look reassured me. A burly, black-bearded man
sat in a reverie before a dressing-table, and I saw that there was
spread upon the table a great heap of jewels which, at the lowest
valuation, must have been worth a hundred thousand pounds. And beside
the jewels was a big bull-dog revolver, close to the man's hand.

"The tension of the strange situation lasted for some minutes. I had no
clear vision through my spy-hole, and knew not at the first watching
whether the man I saw was asleep or awake. A finer inspection of him,
made with a catlike poise as I knelt crouching at the door, showed me
that he slept: had fallen to sleep with his fingers amongst the
jewels--a great rough dog of a man clutching wealth in his dreaming.
And he was, then, one of those connected with the golden ship in the
harbour--the strange ship manned by cut-throats, and built for a 'South
American Republic.' Indeed did the mystery deepen, the problem became
more profound, every moment that I worked upon it. Who was this man? I
asked, and why did he sit in an Italian hotel fingering jewels, and
giving a meeting-place at midnight to a common murderer from a
dockyard? Were the jewels his own? Had he stolen them? Suggestions and
queries poured upon me; I felt that, whatever it might be, I would know
the truth; and I resolved to dare beyond my custom, and to learn more
of the bearded man and of his gems.

"Watch me, then; as I knelt for a whole hour at the place of
observation, and waited for the fellow to awake. It must have been well
on towards morning when he stirred in his chair, and then sat bolt
upright. I thought he looked to have some tremor of nervousness upon
him; clutching hastily at the jewels to put them in a great leather
case, which again he shut in a large iron box, locking both, and
placing the key under his pillow. After that he threw off his clothes
with some impatience, and, leaving the lamp which burned upon his
dressing-table, he dropped upon his bed. For myself my plan was already
contrived; I had determined to go to great risk, and to enter the
room--playing the common cheat again, yet more than the common cheat,
for that was an enterprise which needed all the fine caution and daring
which long years of police work had taught me. I had not only