ily, ending,
however, with Colonel James Hampden Hynds himself; two letters, and
a miniature of Charles the First; letters signed, "Yours, B.
Franklin," "Yours, John Hancock"; several from "Geo. Washington."

The chest held two uniforms, one British, the other buff and blue; a
pair of pistols, spurs, and a sword. The buff-and-blue uniform was
worn and stained, with a burnt and ragged hole in the breast. It had
belonged, said the slip pinned to it, to "Captain Lewis De Lacy
Hynds, my youngest Brother, the youngest of our House, who Fell
Gloriously at the Battle of Cowpens."

And that was all. Although we examined every inch of that floor,
every board of the walls, and made the most scrupulously careful
search of the cabinets and the chest. I even dared pass my hands
over Jessamine herself.

Shooba the witch doctor had done the unexpected. Wherever he might
have hidden them between a night and a morning, he had not hidden
the Hynds jewels in the secret room of Hynds House. And she who
alone could have solved the mystery and told us the truth, lay there
with a lipless mouth.

CHAPTER XVII

ON THE KNEES OF THE GODS

We gave over the futile search at last. Mr. Jelnik sat down and took
his head in his hands, for the moment a prey to overwhelming
disappointment. I could have wept for him. Presently:

"Is it so hard to lose that which you never possessed?" I ventured
to ask.

"It is always bitter to fail."

"But you haven't really failed. You have succeeded in proving that
both Richard and Freeman were the victims of an insane jealousy and
a terrible revenge."

"Jessamine's confession might well be set aside: insane people often
accuse themselves of crimes committed only in their own disordered
brains. The one indisputable proof would be the jewels in my hands."
He added, with a faint smile: "I should have liked to see those
accursed things made clean by your wearing them, Sophy."

"I don't want them!" I said, and my head went up. "I don't care
_that_ for all the Hynds jewels ever lost! I wouldn't have come here
to-night for their sake or mine, not if they were worth an empire's
ransom! I wanted them for Richard's sake, and--and yours."

"I know, I know. At first I wanted them for him and me, too.
Afterward I wanted them for him and for you, Sophy."

"For me? _I_ have no right to them. What have _I_ to do with Hynds
jewels?" And then I stopped. If Jessamine's confession were
true--and I believed in my