s hour of the night?" asked
M. Pigot, glancing at his watch. "It is almost one o'clock and a
half."

"That's easy in New York," said Grady. "We'll take 'em over to the
Day and Night Bank on Fifth Avenue. It never closes. Wait till I get
something to put 'em in."

He went out and came back presently with a small valise.

"This will do," he said. "Stow 'em away, and I'll call up the bank
and arrange for the box."

Simmonds and Pigot rolled up the packets carefully and placed them in
the valise, while I sat watching them in a kind of daze. And I
understood the temptation which would assail a man in the presence of
so much beauty. It was not the value of the jewels which shook and
dazzled me--I scarcely thought of that; it was their seductive
brilliance, it was the thought that, if I possessed them, I might
take them out at any hour of the day or night and run my fingers
through them and watch them shimmer and quiver in the light.

"The Grand Duke Michael must have been considerably upset," remarked
Simmonds, who, throughout all this scene, had lost no whit of his
serenity of demeanour.

"He has been like a madman," said M. Pigot, smiling a little at
Simmonds's unemotional tone. "These jewels are a passion with him; he
worships them; he never has parted with them, even for a day; where
he goes, they have gone. In his most desperate need of money--and he
has had such need many times--he has never sold one of his
brilliants. On the contrary, whenever he has money or credit, and the
opportunity comes to purchase a stone of unusual beauty, he cannot
resist, even though his debts go unpaid. Since the loss of these
stones, he has raved, he has cursed, he has beat his servants--one of
them has died, in consequence. We are all a little mad on some one
subject, I have heard it said; well, the Grand Duke Michael is very
mad on the subject of diamonds."

"Why didn't he offer a reward for their return?" queried Simmonds.

"Oh, he did," said M. Pigot. "He offered immediately his whole
fortune for their return. But his fortune was not large enough to
tempt Crochard, for the Grand Duke really has nothing but the income
from his family estates, and you may well believe that he spends all
of it. It will be a great joy to him that we have found them."

The thought flashed through my mind that doubtless M. Pigot was in
the way of receiving a handsome present.

"There they are," said Simmonds, and closed the bag with a snap, as
G