"Your lordship's wishes are my commands," answered Ducie, with a mock
salaam.

They sat talking and smoking till eleven; then Ducie left his host as
if for the night. He lay down for a couple of hours on the sofa in his
dressing-room. Precisely at one-thirty he was on his way back to the
smoke-room, his feet encased in a pair of Indian mocassins. A minute
later he was joined by Platzoff in dressing-gown and slippers.

"I need hardly tell you, my dear Ducie," began the latter, "that with a
piece of property in my possession no larger than a pigeon's egg, and
worth so many thousands of pounds, a secure place in which to deposit
that property (since I choose to have it always near me) is an object of
paramount importance. That secure place of deposit I have at Bon Repos.
This you may accept as one reason for my having lived in such an
out-of-the-world spot for so many years. It is a place known to myself
alone. After my death it will become known to one person only--to the
person into whose possession the Diamond will pass when I shall be no
longer among the living. The secret will be told him that he may have
the means of finding the Diamond, but not even to him will it become
known till after my decease. Under these circumstances, my dear Ducie,
you will, I am sure, excuse me for keeping the hiding-place of the
Diamond a secret still--a secret even from you. Say--will you not?"

With a malediction at his heart, but with a smile on his lips, Captain
Ducie made reply. "Pray offer no excuses, my dear Platzoff, where none
are needed. What I want is to see the Diamond itself, not to know where
it is kept. Such a piece of information would be of no earthly use to
me, and it would involve a responsibility which, under any
circumstances, I should hardly care to assume."