But they are harmless."

"Oh, yes! I know," said Dick, edging still nearer the door. "Pretty
little things, some people call them, like that scorpion you raved
about, before! Here, I say, professor, play the game; I don't want
fortunes of that kind here, I'm off!"

"The door is locked," said the old man calmly; "Wunderbahr! here is a
man I thought feared nothing, a fighter of the best, afraid of a few
harmless snakes!"

"Professor," pleaded Dick, as the old man bent over the padlock, "don't
do it; I don't want any fortune. Oh, Lord! I shall have two fits! Yow!
Help! there he goes!" and as the box opened Dick sprang on to the bed.

"Quite harmless," said the professor, as he flung back the lid; "and
but how splendid, wunderschoen, hein? Three new specimens among them of
varieties quite unknown, and the fame will be mine. And the scorpion
you discovered, and so generously gave me! Ach, meine freund, now I can
indeed repay you for your so great generosity. See, then!" And with a
dramatic gesture he plunged his hand down among the wriggling snakes,
and groping among them in a manner that made every hair on Dick's head
stand up till he felt like a porcupine, he drew forth a small bundle,
and tossed it on the bed.

"Open it," he ordered. "No! dummkopf! there are no snakes in it open!"

Dick's fingers trembled as he undid the knots, he knew by the feel what
to expect.

Yes, there they were, the thousand carats of diamonds that had caused
two violent deaths and a heap of trouble already, a double handful of
beautiful little sparkling gems; the very facsimile of those others
that Dick had found and that now lay locked up and confiscated at the
police-station.

"They are yours," said the professor. "Whose, if not? Gilderman's or
those other scoundrels in gaol? The company's? It has no rights on the
fields yet! The Government's? It has those others you found in place of
these, and to attempt to explain now would bring complications, and
maybe, who knows, place us both in gaol!"

Dick was tempted, but demurred.

"You see, professor," he said reluctantly, "these are not my stones. It
isn't as if they were the stones I really found!"

"The police will scarcely give you those, I repeat," answered the
other. "Lieber Gott, man, say what you mean! I stole them, is that it?
Of course I did, as I had a perfect right to, to bring about what I
did, the confession of these knaves; and but that Brandt annoyed me
with his insisten