I obeyed, beginning at the very beginning and telling her all, except
the part that had to do with Diana Forrest. She had no concern in that.
I told her how I had slept with the green letter-case under my pillow,
and had waked to feel and look for it once or twice an hour. How when
morning came I had been late in getting to the train: how I had
struggled with the two men who tried to keep me out of the reserved
compartment into which they were intruding. How the man who had a right
to it, after wishing to prevent my entering, helped me in the end,
rather than be alone with the pair who had forced themselves upon him.
How he had stumbled almost into my arms in a panic, during the confusion
after the false alarm on the boat's gangway. How he had walked beside me
and seemed on the point of speaking, later, in the Gare du Nord. How I
had avoided and lost sight of him; but how I had many times covertly
touched my pocket to be sure that, through all, the letter-case was
still safe there.

Maxine grew calmer, though not, I think, more hopeful as I talked; and
at last she folded up the diamonds neatly in the red case, which she
gave to me. "Put that into the same pocket," she said, "and then pass
your hand over your coat, as you did often before. Now, does it feel
exactly as if it were the green letter-case with which you started out?"

"Yes, I think it does," I answered, doubtfully. "I'm afraid I shouldn't
know the difference. This _may_ be a little thicker than the other,
but--I can't be sure. And, you see, I never once had a chance to
unbutton my coat and look at the thing I had in this inner pocket. It
would have attracted too much attention to risk that; and as a matter of
fact, I was especially warned not to do it. I could trust only to the
touch. But even granting that, by a skill almost clever enough for