He turned and saw Julie. The pistol
fell from his hands. "My father!" cried the young girl, out of breath,
and half dead with joy--"saved, you are saved!" And she threw herself
into his arms, holding in her extended hand a red, netted silk purse.

"Saved, my child!" said Morrel; "what do you mean?"

"Yes, saved--saved! See, see!" said the young girl.

Morrel took the purse, and started as he did so, for a vague remembrance
reminded him that it once belonged to himself. At one end was the
receipted bill for the 287,000 francs, and at the other was a diamond
as large as a hazel-nut, with these words on a small slip of
parchment:--Julie's Dowry.

Morrel passed his hand over his brow; it seemed to him a dream. At this
moment the clock struck eleven. He felt as if each stroke of the hammer
fell upon his heart. "Explain, my child," he said, "Explain, my child,"
he said, "explain--where did you find this purse?"

"In a house in the Allees de Meillan, No. 15, on the corner of a
mantelpiece in a small room on the fifth floor."

"But," cried Morrel, "this purse is not yours!" Julie handed to her
father the letter she had received in the morning.

"And did you go alone?" asked Morrel, after he had read it.

"Emmanuel accompanied me, father. He was to have waited for me at the
corner of the Rue de Musee, but, strange to say, he was not there when I
returned."

"Monsieur Morrel!" exclaimed a voice on the stairs.--"Monsieur Morrel!"

"It is his voice!" said Julie. At this moment Emmanuel entered, his
countenance full of animation and joy. "The Pharaon!" he cried; "the
Pharaon!"

"What--what--the Pharaon! Are you mad, Emmanuel? You know the vessel is
lost."

"The Pharaon, sir--they signal the Pharaon! The Pharaon is entering the
harbor!" Morrel fell back in his chair, his strength was failing him;
his understanding weakened by such events, refused to comprehend such
incredible, unheard-of, fabulous facts. But his son came in. "Father,"
cried Maximilian, "how could you say the Pharaon was lost? The lookout
has signalled her, and they say she is now coming into port."

"My dear friends," said Morrel, "if this be so, it must be a miracle of
heaven! Impossible, impossible!"

But what was real and not less incredible was the purse he held in his
hand, the acceptance receipted--the splendid diamond.

"Ah, sir," exclaimed Cocles, "what can it mean?--the Pharaon?"

"Come, dear ones," said Morrel, rising from his seat, "let