woman, and a match for any and all of us. It was all very well for him
to be jubilant. He had not lost the diamonds, and had everything to
gain if he found them; while I, even if he did recover the necklace,
would only be where I was before I lost them, and if he did not
recover it I was a ruined man. It was an awful facer for me. I had
always prided myself on my record. In eleven years I had never mislaid
an envelope, nor missed taking the first train. And now I had failed
in the most important mission that had ever been intrusted to me. And
it wasn't a thing that could be hushed up, either. It was too
conspicuous, too spectacular. It was sure to invite the widest
notoriety. I saw myself ridiculed all over the Continent, and perhaps
dismissed, even suspected of having taken the thing myself.

"I was walking in front of a lighted cafe, and I felt so sick and
miserable that I stopped for a pick-me-up. Then I considered that if I
took one drink I would probably, in my present state of mind, not want
to stop under twenty, and I decided I had better leave it alone. But
my nerves were jumping like a frightened rabbit, and I felt I must
have something to quiet them, or I would go crazy. I reached for my
cigarette-case, but a cigarette seemed hardly adequate, so I put it
back again and took out this cigar-case, in which I keep only the
strongest and blackest cigars. I opened it and stuck in my fingers,
but instead of a cigar they touched on a thin leather envelope. My
heart stood perfectly still. I did not dare to look, but I dug my
finger nails into the leather and I felt layers of thin paper, then a
layer of cotton, and then they scratched on the facets of the
Czarina's diamonds!

"I stumbled as though I had been hit in the face, and fell back into
one of the chairs on the sidewalk. I tore off the wrappings and spread