lace. It flashed to the
floor, where it lay on one of the sofa cushions, sending up a spray of
rainbow colours.

_"Sacre bleu!"_ muttered the Frenchman, under his breath, for whatever
he had expected, he had not expected that. But Maxine spoke not a word.
Shorn of hope, as, in spite of her prayers and tears, the leather case
was torn open, she was shorn of strength as well; and the beautiful,
tall figure crumpling like a flower broken on its stalk, she would have
fallen if I had not caught her, holding her up against my shoulder. When
the cataract of diamonds sprang out of the case, however, I felt her
limp body straighten itself. I felt her pulses leap. I felt her begin to
_live_. She had drunk a draught of hope and life, and, fortified by it,
was gathering all her scattered forces together for a new fight, if
fight she must again.

The Commissary of Police turned the leather case wrong side out. It was
empty. There had been nothing inside but the necklace: not a card, not a
scrap of paper.

"Where, then, is the document?" Crestfallen, he put the question half to
himself, half to Maxine de Renzie.

"What document?" she asked, too wise to betray relief in voice or face.
Hearing the heavy tone, seeing the shamed face, the hanging head that
lay against my shoulder, who--knowing a little less than I did of the
truth--would have dreamed that in her soul she thanked God for a
miracle? Even I would not have been sure, had I not felt the life
stealing back into her half-dead body.

"The contents of the case are not what I came here to find," admitted
the Enemy.

"I do not know what you came to find, but you have made me suffer
horribly," said Maxine. "You have been very cruel to a woman who has
done nothing to deserve such humiliation. All pleasure I might have
taken in my diamonds is gone now. I shall never have a peaceful
moment--never be able to wear them joyfully. I shall have the thought in
my mind that people who look at me will be saying: 'Every woman has her
price. There is the price of Maxine de Renzie.'"

"You need have no such thought, Mademoiselle," the man protested. "We
shall never speak to anyone except those who will receive our report, of
what we have heard and seen in this room."

"Won't you search further?" asked Maxine. "Since you seemed to expect
something else--"

"You would not have had time to conceal more than one thing,
Mademoiselle," said the policeman, with a smile that was faintly grim.