on, for he saw it on the boat."

"Saw the ruby in the boat?" cried Carrbroke. "Why, how did it get
there?"

Denis was silent for a moment or two, and then whispered something, with
a peculiar smile upon his lips as he placed them near his companion's
ear.

"What!" cried Carrbroke, starting back and staring in wonderment at his
companion. "He hid it there? Then that accounts for his peculiar fixed
look."

"Yes. He was fencing when a young man, and his adversary's rapier point
completely destroyed his left eye."

"Ah!" whispered Carrbroke, beneath his breath. "I see. Then the eye is
false--made, you say, of gold, enamelled to look exactly like the other,
a little hollow globe."

"Yes; an _etui_, we may call it now, but never meant to conceal that
gem."

"Horrid!" cried Carrbroke.

"Yes," said Denis quietly; "but believe it if you can."

"Oh," cried Carrbroke, "I believe; but if he had liked it could never
have been found."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A week later the parting of the two lads was like that of brothers, and
it was full of promises of what they would do when they met again.

Perhaps they encountered later on at the Field of the Cloth of Gold; but
history only says--

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's The King's Esquires, by George Manville Fenn

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