lady got her
letters. It was easy enough. I am surprised you didn't think of it,
Lester."

"Think of what?" I asked.

"Of the key to the mystery. The drawer containing the letters was on
the left side of the desk; I saw at once that there must be another
drawer, opened in the same way, on the right side."

"I didn't see it," I said. "I don't see it yet."

"Think a minute. Why was Drouet killed? Because he opened the wrong
drawer. He pressed the combination at the right side of the desk,
instead of that at the left side. The fair Julie must have thought
the drawer was on the right side, instead of the left. It was a
mistake very easy to make, since her mistress doubtless had her back
turned when Julie saw her open the drawer. The suspicion that it was
Julie's mistake becomes certainty when she shows the combination to
Vantine, and he is killed, too. Besides, the veiled lady herself made
a remark which revealed the whole story."

"I didn't notice it," I said, resignedly. "What was it?"

"That she was accustomed to opening the drawer with her left hand,
instead of with her right. After that, there could be no further
doubt. So I discovered the drawer very simply. It had to be there."

"Yes," I said; "and then?"

"Then I removed the jewels, took them down to a dealer in paste gems
and duplicated them as closely as I could. I had a hard time getting
a good copy of this big rose-diamond."

He picked it from the heap and held it up between his fingers.

"It's a beauty, isn't it?" he asked.

M. Pigot smiled a dry smile.

"It is the Mazarin," he said, "and is worth three million francs.
There is a copy of it at the Louvre."

"So that's true, is it?" I asked. "Crochard told us the story."

"It is unquestionably true," said M. Pigot. "It is not a secret--it
is merely something which every one has forgotten."

"Well," continued Godfrey, "after I got the duplicates, I rolled them
up in the cotton packets, and placed them back in the drawer, being
careful to put the Mazarin at the bottom, where I had found it."

"It was lucky you thought of that," I said, "or Crochard would have
suspected something."

Godfrey looked at me with a smile.

"My dear Lester," he said, "he knew that the game was up the instant
he opened the first packet. Do you suppose he would be deceived? Not
by the best reproduction ever made!"

And then I remembered the slow flush which had crept into Crochard's
cheeks as he opened that first p