ever
with the rest, but he hadn't much money, so when he fell in with
a lot of fellows who had heard of a Cingalese, one Bareva Singh,
who had a reef to sell in the Saffragam district, they made a pool
between them and bought the blessed thing, calling it after the man
they had purchased it from, the Bareva Reef, setting out like a
party of donkeys to mine it for themselves, and expecting to pull
out sapphires by the bucketful."

"Dear me, dear me, how very extraordinary! Of course they didn't?
Or--did they?"

"No, they didn't. A month's work convinced them that the ground
was as empty of treasure as an eggshell, so they abandoned it,
separated, and went their several ways. A few months ago, however,
it was discovered that if they had had the implements to mine
deeper, their dream would have been realized, for the reef was a
perfect bed of sapphires--and eight men held an equal share in it.
The scheme, then, was to get rid of these men, secretly, one by one;
for one--perhaps two men--to get the deeds held by the others; to
pretend that they had been purchased from the original owners,
and to prevent by murder those original owners from----"

[Illustration: "Got you, Miss Rosie Edgburn! Got you, Senor Juan
Alvarez," rapped Cleek.... "Stop him, nab him, Mr. Narkom!"]

He stopped suddenly and switched round. Miss Valmond had risen and
so had her mother. He was on the pair of them like a leaping cat;
there was a sharp click-click, a snarl, and a scream, and one end of
a handcuff was on the wrist of each.

"Got you, Miss Rosie Edgburn! Got you, Senor Juan Alvarez!" he rapped
out sharply; then in a louder tone, as the Reverend Horace made a
bolt for the door: "Stop him, nab him, Mr. Narkom! Quick! Played sir,
played. Come in, Petrie; come in, Hammond. Gentlemen, here they are,
all three of them: Lieutenant Eric Edgburn, his daughter Rose,
and Senor Juan Alvarez, the three brute beasts who sent five men
to their death for the sake of a lode of sapphires and the devil's
lust for gain!"

"It's a lie!" flung out the girl who had been known as Rose Valmond.

"Oh, no, it's not, you vixen! You loathsome creature that prostituted
holy things and made a shield of religion to carry on a vampire's
deeds. Look here, you beast of blasphemy: I know the secret of this,"
he said, and walked over and laid his hand on the crucifix at
the head of the bed. "Petrie! round into the oratory with you.
There's a nob at the side of the praye