ed
body as easily as he might have done that of a child, and so carried him
out of the room.

Ducie met his host at the breakfast-table next morning. The latter
seemed as well as usual, and was much amused when Ducie told him of his
alarm, and how he had summoned Cleon under the impression that Platzoff
had been taken dangerously ill.

Platzoff rarely indulged in the luxury of drashkil-smoking oftener than
once a week. His constitution was delicate, and a too frequent use of so
dangerous a drug would have tended to shatter still further his already
enfeebled health. Besides, as he said, he wished to keep it as a luxury,
and not, by a too frequent indulgence in it, to take off the fine edge
of enjoyment and render it commonplace. Ducie had several subsequent
opportunities of witnessing the process of drashkil-smoking and its
effects, but one description will serve for all. On every occasion the
same formula was gone through, precisely as first seen by Ducie. The
pipe was charged and lighted by Cleon (after he became ill, by the new
servant Jasmin). Precisely at midnight Cleon returned, and either
conducted or carried his master to bed, as the necessities of the case
might require. It was his knowledge of the latter fact that stood Ducie
in such good stead later on, when he came to elaborate the details of
his scheme for stealing the Great Hara Diamond.

But as yet his scheme was in embryo. His visit was drawing to a close,
and he was still without the slightest clue to the hiding-place of the
Diamond.

CHAPTER XV.

THE DIAMOND.

Captain Ducie had been six weeks at Bon Repos; his visit would come to a
close in the course of three or four days, but he was still as ignorant
of the hiding-place of the Diamond as on that evening when he learned
for the first time that M. Platzoff had such a treasure in his
possession.

Since the completion of his translation of the stolen MS. he had dreamed
day and night of the Diamond. It was said to be worth a hundred and
fifty thousand pounds. If he could only succeed in appropriating it,
what a different life would be his in time to come! In such a case, he
would of course be obliged to leave England for ever. But he was quite
prepared to do that. He was without any tie of kindred or friendship
that need bind him to his native land. Once safe in another hemisphere,
he would dispose of the Diamond, and the proceeds would enable him to
live as a gentleman ought to live for