"I offered to put her in a carriage, but she said she must find Natalie,
and that she hoped we would meet again at the hotel. So I drove off by
myself, wondering who she was, and whether Natalie was not her keeper.

"I had to wait several hours for the train to Nice, and as I wanted to
stroll around the city I thought I had better put the diamonds in the
safe of the hotel. As soon as I reached my room I locked the door,
placed the hand bag on the table and opened it. I felt among the things
at the top of it, but failed to touch the cigar-case. I shoved my hand
in deeper, and stirred the things about, but still I did not reach it.
A cold wave swept down my spine, and a sort of emptiness came to the pit
of my stomach. Then I turned red-hot, and the sweat sprung out all over
me. I wet my lips with my tongue, and said to myself, 'Don't be an ass.
Pull yourself together, pull yourself together. Take the things out, one
at a time. It's there, of course it's there. Don't be an ass.'

"So I put a brake on my nerves and began very carefully to pick out the
things one by one, but after another second I could not stand it, and
I rushed across the room and threw out everything on the bed. But the
diamonds were not among them. I pulled the things about and tore them
open and shuffled and rearranged and sorted them, but it was no use. The
cigar-case was gone. I threw everything in the dressing-case out on the
floor, although I knew it was useless to look for it there. I knew that
I had put it in the bag. I sat down and tried to think. I remembered I
had put it in the satchel at Paris just as that woman had entered the
compartment, and I had been alone with her ever since, so it was she
who had robbed me. But how? It had never left my shoulder. And then I
remembered that it had--that I had taken it off when I had changed
my coat and for the few moments that I was searching for Natalie. I
remembered that the woman had sent me on that goose chase, and that at
every other station she had tried to get rid of me on some fool errand.

[Illustration: 11 I threw out everything on the bed]

"I gave a roar like a mad bull, and I jumped down the stairs six steps
at a time.

"I demanded at the office if a distinguished lady of title, possibly a
Russian, had just entered the hotel.

"As I expected, she had not. I sprang into a cab and inquired at two
other hotels, and then I saw the folly of trying to catch her without
outside help, and I ord