gets out of it from you won't make much of a hole in your share!"

"That's my business!" snapped Thorold. "You come across!"

"Three!" whined old Jake again.

"Four!" Thorold flung back angrily.

"Well, let's have a look at it then; I ain't seen it for years,"
grumbled old Jake. "I ain't trying to do you. We went into this thing
so's we'd each get the same out of it; but I tell you it ain't easy to
shove big stones when there'll be a police description out against
them, and there ain't no big prices for 'em, either."

Thorold reached into his pocket--and even in the dull light of the
single gas-jet that alone illuminated the room, Jimmie Dale caught the
fire and flash of the magnificent stones in the pendant that swung to
and fro now, as the man held it up.

Old Jake, his hand trembling with eagerness, snatched at it, and, as
Thorold laughed shortly, dove his fingers into a greasy vest pocket, and
produced a jeweller's magnifying glass, which he screwed into his eye.

"One of these has got a flaw, and it's cloudy," he mumbled.

"Never mind about the flaw! Flash your wad!" invited Thorold, with a
thin smile.

Jimmie Dale's hand slipped under his vest to a pocket in the leather
girdle, and from the thin metal case, with the aid of the tiny tweezers,