d have
repudiated the term with scorn--would have repudiated it even in his own
mind, for he made a point of hoodwinking and cozening himself, as though
he were some other person whose good opinion must on no account be
forfeited.

Captain Ducie awaited with hidden impatience the hour when it should
please M. Platzoff to fulfil his promise. He had not long to wait. Three
evenings later, as they sat in the smoking-room, said Platzoff:
"To-night you shall see the Great Hara Diamond. No eyes save my own have
seen it for ten years. I must ask you to put yourself for an hour or two
under my instructions. Are you minded so to do?"

"I shall be most happy to carry out your wishes in every way," answered
Ducie. "Consider me as your slave for the time being."

"Attend, then, if you please. This evening you will retire to your own
rooms at eleven o'clock. Precisely at one-thirty a.m., you will come
back here. You will be good enough to come in your slippers, because it
is not desirable that any of the household should be disturbed by our
proceedings. I have no further orders at present."

"Your lordship's wishes are my commands," answered Ducie, with a mock
salaam.

They sat talking and smoking till eleven; then Ducie left his host as
if for the night. He lay down for a couple of hours on the sofa in his
dressing-room. Precisely at one-thirty he was on his way back to the
smoke-room, his feet encased in a pair of Indian mocassins. A minute
later he was joined by Platzoff in dressing-gown and slippers.

"I need hardly tell you, my dear Ducie," began the latter, "that with a
piece of property in my possession no larger than a pigeon's egg, and
worth so many thousands of pounds, a secure place in which to deposit
that property (since I choose to have it always near me) is an object of
paramount importance. That secure place of deposit I have at Bon Repos.
This you may accept as one reason for my having lived in such an
out-of-the-world spot for so many years. It is a place known to myself
alone. After my death it will become known to one person only--to the
person into whose possession the Diamond will pass when I shall be no
longer among the living. The secret will be told him that he may have
the means of finding the Diamond, but not even to him will it become
known till after my decease. Under these circumstances, my dear Ducie,
you will, I am sure, excuse me for keeping the hiding-place of the
Diamond a secret still--a se