tain the possession
of jewels, however valuable. However, your uncle was well acquainted
with the habits of Hindoos, and was not a man to be lightly alarmed;
you yourself, after your year with us, should not be deceived in such
a matter as being yourself followed; under these circumstances you
are quite right to take every precaution, and as you pay well for
the services of our two men, even if I had no belief whatever in the
existence of danger to you, I should not feel justified in refusing to
let you have them."

Having arranged these matters, Mark spent the rest of his time that day
and the next at Islington.

"I am going across to Amsterdam on Saturday with a diamond bracelet to
sell there."

Millicent looked at him in reproachful surprise.

"Why, surely, Mark, there can be no hurry about that. I think you might
have stayed a little longer before running away."

"I should do so, you may be quite sure, Millicent, if I consulted my own
inclinations, but I am bearing out your father's wishes. This bracelet
is the most valuable of all the things he had, and I believe that it has
some sort of history attached to it. He told my father that he had
sent all the gems home principally to get these diamonds out of his
possession; he said that as soon as my father got hold of the things, he
was to take the diamonds straight over to Amsterdam and sell them there,
for he considered that they were much too valuable to be kept in the
house, and that it was possible that some of the Hindoos might endeavor
to get possession of them. At the time he spoke he believed that my
father would, at his death, go to the bank and get the jewels, as of
course he would have done if he had known where to find them. My
father promised him that they should be taken to Amsterdam at once; and
although so many years have passed since his death, I think I am bound
to carry out that promise."

"I have never been able to understand, Mark, how it was that my father,
when he gave all these instructions about me and these jewels and so on,
did not at the same time tell uncle where to find them."

"It was a fancy of his; he was in very bad health, and he thought so
much over these diamonds that it had become almost a sort of mania with
him that not only was there danger in their possession, but that he
was watched night and day wherever he went. He thought, even, if he
whispered where the hiding place was to be discovered it might be heard;
therefor