of them; and, in a fit of
childish fury, the outcome of long suppressed passion, I snatched up
the sachet from the floor and tore it across and across, and flung the
pieces down. As they fell, a cloud of fine pungent dust burst from them,
and with the dust, something more solid, which tinkled sharply on
the boards, as it fell. I looked down to see what this was--perhaps I
already repented of my act; but for a moment I could see nothing. The
floor was grimy and uninviting, the light bad.

In certain moods, however, a man is obstinate about small things, and I
moved the taper nearer. As I did so a point of light, a flashing sparkle
that shone for a second among the dirt and refuse on the floor, caught
my eye. It was gone in a moment, but I had seen it. I stared, and
moved the light again, and the spark flashed out afresh, this time in
a different place. Much puzzled, I knelt, and, in a twinkling, found a
tiny crystal. Hard by it lay another--and another; each as large as
a fair-sized pea. I took up the three, and rose to my feet again, the
light in one hand, the crystals in the palm of the other.

They were diamonds! Diamonds of price! I knew it in a moment. As I moved
the taper to and fro above them, and watched the fire glow and tremble
in their depths, I knew that I held in my hand that which would buy the
crazy inn and all its contents a dozen times over! They were diamonds!
Gems so fine, and of so rare a water--or I had never seen gems--that
my hand trembled as I held them, and my head grew hot and my heart beat
furiously. For a moment I thought that I dreamed, that my fancy played
me some trick; and I closed my eyes and did not open them again for
a minute. But when I did, there they were, hard, real, and angular.
Convinced at last, in a maze of joy and fear, I closed my hand upon
them, and, stealing on tip-toe to the trap-door, laid first my saddle on
it and then my bags, and over all my cloak, breathing fast the while.

Then I stole back, and, taking up the light again, began to search the
floor, patiently, inch by inch, with naked feet, every sound making
me tremble as I crept hither and thither over the creaking boards. And
never was search more successful or better paid. In the fragments of the
sachet I found six smaller diamonds and a pair of rubies. Eight large
diamonds I found on the floor. One, the largest and last found, had
bounded away, and lay against the wall in the farthest corner. It took
me an ho