He finished his supper, thinking hard all the time he ate and drank;
finally he approached the desk to pay his bill. The young woman whom Mrs.
Goldmark had left in charge lifted the lid of the desk to get some change
--and Melky's astonished eyes immediately fell on an object which lay on
top of a little pile of papers. That object was the duplicate of the
platinum solitaire which Melky had in his pocket. Without ceremony--being
well known there--he at once picked it up.

"What's this bit of jewellery?" he demanded.

"That?" said the waitress, indifferently. "Oh, one of the girls picked it
up the other day off a table where a stranger had been sitting--we think
he'd dropped it. Mrs. Goldmark says it's valuable, so she put it away, in
case he comes again. But we haven't seen him since."

Melky took a good look at the second stud. Then he put it back in the
desk, picked up his change, and went away--in significant silence.



CHAPTER SIX


THE SPANISH MANUSCRIPT

Lauriston, walking back to his room after leaving Melky at the door of the
eating-house, faced the situation in which an unfortunate combination of
circumstances had placed him. Ayscough had been placable enough; the
authorities at the police-station had heard his own version of things with