tire, his glance fell upon the table in the center of the
room.

At once a sudden trembling seized him.

A burning fever surged through his veins; an irresistible impulse
overwhelmed; for there, in inconceivable negligence, lay the shagreen
case which he had so reluctantly returned to its owner only the night
before.

And then--the malign agreement of his outward husk with his inner
degradation was revealed.

His eyes, already criminal, reflected the kaleidoscopic succession of
temptation and surrender; desire and thievery.

He scanned the passageway without in either direction.

No one was in sight.

A silence of respectable retirement prevailed that enabled him to hear
his heartbeats almost, which surged along his veins to his ears and
stifled the final gasp of the still, small voice within.

The next instant, with a lithe animal leap of astonishing quickness,
Raikes, darting into the apartment, grasped the precious case and
retreated as rapidly over the threshold.

Scarcely had the stealthy rogue vanished from the room when the door of
a closet in the rear opened softly and revealed the Sepoy.

Upon his face a smile, surely evil, otherwise inscrutable, appeared, as
he proceeded to the chair by the table, turned down the light in the
lamp a trifle, and abstracted from his waistcoat pocket a small red
case, the contents of which he examined with absorbed attention.

Arrived at his room, Raikes was elated to discover that he was not due
at the Sepoy's apartment until twenty minutes later.

"What a providence!" he murmured.

He would arrive late; he would make his approach as ostensible as
possible; he would apologize for his tardiness.

His alibi would be perfect.

During these proposed depravities Raikes had closed and fastened the
door, seated himself at the table, and pressed the spring which detained
the lid of the shagreen case.

In a dazzling instant it flew open.

"Ah!" A very riot of irradiation and gleam met his eyes.

Here was rehabilitation! Here was amendment!

The diamond was a liberal equivalent for his losses.

Another glance at the clock revealed to him that he had exhausted ten
minutes in his exultation.

This left a balance of ten minutes for a compunction or two.

Apparently he did not realize his opportunity, for half of the remaining
time was consumed in the intoxication of the facets and the glamor, the
thrill of intelligent valuation; and the other half to a grim
calcu