was smashed."

"You saw that accident?" asked his master, fixing his one eye on him.

"Yuss," said Bart, slowly, "I did, but Deborah she told me to say
nothink. Mr. Beecot was smashed, and his friend, the cold eye-glarsed
gent, pulled him from under the wheels of that there machine with Tray
to help him, and between 'em they carried him to the pavement."

"Humph!" said Aaron, resting his chin on his hand and speaking more to
himself than to his assistant, "so Tray was on the spot. Humph!" Bart,
having brushed himself, moved behind the counter and took up what Hokar
had left. "Why, it's brown sugar!" he exclaimed, touching it with his
tongue, "coarse brown sugar--a handful." He stretched out his palm
heaped with the sugar to his master. "What do that furrein pusson mean
by leaving dirt about?"

"I don't know, nor do I care," snapped Aaron, who appeared to be out of
temper. "Throw it away!" which Bart did, after grumbling again at the
impudence of the street hawker.

Norman did not go upstairs, but descended to the cellar, where he busied
himself in looking over the contents of the three safes. In these, were
many small boxes filled with gems of all kind, cut and uncut: also
articles of jewellery consisting of necklaces, bracelets, stars for the
hair, brooches, and tiaras. The jewels glittered in the flaring
gaslight, and Aaron fondled them as though they were living things. "You
beauties," he whispered to himself, with his one eye gloating over his
hoard. "I'll sell you, though it goes to my heart to part with lovely
things. But I must--I must--and then I'll go--not to America--oh, dear
no! but to the South Seas. They won't find me there--no--no! I'll be
rich, and happy, and free. Sylvia can marry and live happy. But the
serpent," he said in a harsh tone, "oh, the opal serpent! The
pawnbroker's shop. Stowley--yes--I know it. I know it. Stowley. They
want it back; but they sha'n't. I'll buy it from Beecot by giving him
Sylvia. It's lost--lost." He looked over his shoulder as he spoke in a
terrified whisper. "Perhaps they have it, and then--then," he leaped up
and flung the armful of baubles he held on to the deal table, "and
then--I must get away--away."

He pulled out three or four coarse sacks of a small size and filled
these with the jewellery. Then he tied a cord round the neck of each
sack and sealed it. Afterwards, with a sigh, he closed the safe and
turned down the gas. He did not leave by the trap, which led