helter-skelter, like a flushed covey of quail, through my brain.

_The Paternoster ruby!_

Here was the very thing I had tried so futilely to recall when the
Captain first mentioned Felix Page's death!

Like a flash, the phrase had opened up to me an illimitable vista of
possibilities. I went over in mind all that I had ever heard of this
famous gem, and wondered--indeed, to tell only the bare truth--I
thrilled with the very idea: could it have had any part or place in the
financier's death?

_The Paternoster ruby!_

Those three words were an illumination; memory was flooded; and I
glowed with a satisfaction that, in accordance with my custom in such
matters, I had collected and preserved every available scrap of
information which had in any way to do with this same Paternoster ruby.
And right here some of that data must be presented.

First of all, this magnificent gem's known history hinted at no
religious association whatever, as its name might seem to imply. In
more than one journal I have seen it seriously affirmed that at one
time it was a property of that celebrated pope, Alexander VI, Rodrigo
Borgia, father of Caesar and Lucrezia--thus investing it with an
antiquity and romance which the facts did not warrant.

But, after all, am I not premature in making this last assertion?
Perhaps it will appear before we are through.

The gem first became known to the world and acquired its name through
one Luca Paternostro, an Italian dealer in precious stones having his
place of business in London, who claimed to have purchased it in the
rough from some adventurer whose name is unknown to history. This
occurred in the early '80's.

Subsequently it was carefully cut in Amsterdam, a paste replica made
for purposes of display in the course of trade, and then added to
Paternostro's stock--perhaps not because he expected to dispose of it
to the first chance customer, but rather by reason of the prestige
which the ownership of so superb a jewel would give him; it was an
excellent advertisement.

On the fourth night after he received the cut ruby from the Dutch
lapidaries, Paternostro was murdered and the gem stolen from his
apartments in Hatton Gardens.

Of course, a stone so celebrated was easy to identify; not alone by
means of the paste replica and an accurate preserved description, but
its extraordinary and distinguishing features--to say nothing of its
value--were not likely to be forgotten by experts who