"A cheque for five thousand pounds shall be yours on the day you bring
me the diamond. Is not my word sufficient, or do you wish to have it
under bond and seal?" she asked with some hauteur.

"Your ladyship's word is an all-sufficient bond," answered Mr. Madgin,
with sweet humility. He paused, with the handle of the door in his hand.
"Supposing I were to see my way to carrying out your ladyship's wishes
in this respect," he said deferentially, "or even to carrying out a
portion of them only, still it could not be done without expense--not
without considerable expense, maybe."

"I give you carte-blanche as regards expenses," said her ladyship with
decision.

Then Mr. Madgin gave a farewell duck of the head and went. He took his
way homeward through the park like a man walking in his sleep. With
wide-open eyes and hat well set on the back of his head, with his blue
bag in one hand and his umbrella under his arm, he trudged onward, even
after he had reached the busy streets of the little town, without seeing
anything or anyone. What he saw, he saw introspectively. On the one hand
glittered the tempting bait held out by Lady Chillington; on the other
loomed the dark problem that had to be solved before he could call the
golden apple his.

"The most arrant wild-goose chase that ever I heard of in all my life,"
he muttered to himself, as he halted at his own door. "Not a single ray
of light anywhere--not one."

"Popsey," he called out to his daughter, when he was inside, "bring me
the decanter of whisky, some cold water, my tobacco-jar and a new