and agility, was used up by the
time he had reached the bottom. His clothes were torn and he was covered
with the greasy soot he had accumulated on his journey. By dint of
brushing and scraping, he succeeded in cleaning off the worst of it,
and then looked round to take his bearings.

He had landed in the large waiting-room which adjoined the royal
apartments.

The distant sound of dance music came to his ears and the atmosphere of
the place was cold and damp.

"He doesn't often come here, I'll bet," thought Juve.

A door led him directly into the King's bathroom, and Juve paused to
admire the famous bath of solid silver which the municipality had
presented to the King upon one of his birthdays.

"I've a good mind to take a tub," he muttered. "Maybe I shall find His
Majesty locked in his bedroom, and I'm hardly a fit sight to appear
before him."

The detective now felt some cause for anxiety.

There were two alternatives to consider. Either the King was absent, and
in that case Juve's business would be to discover the hiding place of
the diamond and clear up the question whether the King had taken it with
him, or, if he had been sequestered, to discover his prison.

Clutching the butt of his Browning revolver in his pocket, the detective
opened the door to the King's bedroom and entered.

A thick carpet deadened the sound of his footsteps. After listening for
a few moments he relit his pocket lamp and flashed it round the room.

In the centre stood an immense bed of oak designed in Renaissance style,
the posts of which reached to the ceiling. Three steps led up to it.
Juve noticed that it had not been disturbed. The sheets and pillows were
all in order. There was nothing, however, to indicate that the King had
been absent for any length of time.

Upon one point he was certain: The King was not concealed anywhere about
the room, and the more he thought of the Burgomaster's suspicion, the
less he thought it plausible. But if the King had not been sequestered,
it was quite possible that he might be purposely hiding after his
unfortunate adventure of the Rue de Monceau. Therefore, Juve decided to
pursue his search through the other rooms.

But first he began mechanically to tap the wood-work, looking behind the
pictures for the hiding place of the famous diamond. In his time he had
seen so many secret drawers, double-seated chairs, and numerous
contrivances of a similar sort, that it would be a cunning hand th