again, I did not open it, and I reached Marseilles alive. As we drew
into the station she shook hands with me and grinned at me like a
Cheshire cat.

"'I cannot tell you,' she said, 'how much I have to thank you for.'
What do you think of that for impudence!

"I offered to put her in a carriage, but she said she must find
Natalie, and that she hoped we would meet again at the hotel. So I
drove off by myself, wondering who she was, and whether Natalie was
not her keeper.

"I had to wait several hours for the train to Nice, and as I wanted to
stroll around the city I thought I had better put the diamonds in the
safe of the hotel. As soon as I reached my room I locked the door,
placed the hand bag on the table and opened it. I felt among the
things at the top of it, but failed to touch the cigar-case. I shoved
my hand in deeper, and stirred the things about, but still I did not
reach it. A cold wave swept down my spine, and a sort of emptiness
came to the pit of my stomach. Then I turned red-hot, and the sweat
sprung out all over me. I wet my lips with my tongue, and said to
myself, 'Don't be an ass. Pull yourself together, pull yourself
together. Take the things out, one at a time. It's there, of course
it's there. Don't be an ass.'

"So I put a brake on my nerves and began very carefully to pick out
the things one by one, but after another second I could not stand it,
and I rushed across the room and threw out everything on the bed. But
the diamonds were not among them. I pulled the things about and tore
them open and shuffled and rearranged and sorted them, but it was no