Jewish?"

Severac Bablon stretched his hand over the great carved table, holding
it, motionless, beneath the lamp. From the bezel of the solitary ring
which he wore gleamed iridescent lights, venomous as those within the
eye of a serpent.

A device, which seemed to be formed of lines of fire within the stone,
glowed, redly, through the greenness. The ring was old--incalculably
old--as anyone could see at a glance. And, in some occult fashion, it
_spoke_ to Baron Hague; spoke to that which was within him--stirred up
the Jewish blood and set it leaping madly through his veins.

Back to his mind came certain words of a rabbi, long since gone to his
fathers; before his eyes glittered words which he had had impressed upon
his mind more recently than in those half-forgotten childish days.

And now, he feared. Slowly, he rose from the big cushioned chair. He
feared the man whom all the world knew as Severac Bablon, and his fear,
for once, was something that did not arise from his purse. It was
something which arose from the green stone--and from the one who
possessed it--who dared to wear it. Hague backed yet farther from the
table, squarely, whereupon, beneath the globular lamp, lay the long
white hand.

"_Gott!_" he muttered. "I am going mad! You cannot be--you----"

"I am _he_!"

Baron Hague's knees began to tremble.

"It is impossible!"

"Israel Hagar," continued the other sternly. "Those before you changed
your ancient name to Hague; but to me you are Israel Hagar! You doubt,
because you dare not believe. But there is that within your soul--that
which you inherit from forefathers who obeyed the great King, from
forefathers who toiled for Pharaoh--there is that within your soul which
tells you _who I am_!"

The Baron could scarcely stand.

"Ach, no!" he groaned. "What do you want? I will do anything--anything;
but let me go!"

"I want you," continued Severac Bablon, "since you deny the ring, to
draw aside yonder curtain and look upon what it conceals!"

But Hague drew back yet further.

"Ach, no!" he said, huskily. "I deny nothing! I dare not!"

"By which I know that you have recognised in whose presence you stand,
Israel Hagar! Knowing yourself at heart to be a robber, a liar, a
hypocrite, you dare not, being also a Jew, raise that veil!"

Baron Hague offered no defence; made no reply.

"You are found guilty, Israel Hagar," resumed the merciless voice, "of
dragging through the mire of greed--through