talking about? Oh, yes, Gregory.
The whole of this business has come about through Gregory. Gregory made
Jack o' Judgment, and Jack o' Judgment has ruined us."

He sprang from the taxi at the door of the bank with an agile step, and
went straight to the manager's office. Without any preliminary he began:

"What is this package that came for me yesterday, Ferguson?"

The manager looked surprised.

"It was an ordinary package, similar to that which you put in the safe
the other day. It was sealed and wrapped and had your name on it. I
rather wondered you hadn't brought it yourself, but it was put into your
safe in the presence of two clerks."

"I'd like to see it," said the colonel.

Ferguson led the way down the stairs to the vaults and snapped back the
lock of Safe 20. As he did so Crewe was conscious of a faint, musty
odour.

"I smell something," said the colonel suspiciously.

He reached his hand into the safe and pulled open the long drawer, and
as he did so a cloud of sickly-smelling vapour rose from its interior.
For the first time Crewe heard Boundary groan. He pulled the drawer out
under the light and looked in. There was nothing but a black mass of
pulp, out of which glinted and gleamed a dozen pin-points of light.

With a howl of rage the colonel turned the contents upon the stone
floor of the vault and raked it over with the end of his walking-stick.
The diamonds were intact, and they at least were something; but the
greater part of eight hundred thousand dollars was indistinguishable
from any other kind of paper that had been treated with one of the most
destructive acids known to chemical science.

CHAPTER XXXV

IN A BOX AT THE ORPHEUM

The colonel wiped his burnt and discoloured hands after he had dropped
the last diamond into a medicine bottle which the bank manager happened
to have in the room.

"That's something saved from the wreck, at any rate," he said.

He had gone suddenly old, and his mouth trembled, as many a younger
mouth had trembled in despair that Colonel Boundary might become a rich
man.

"Something saved from the wreck," he repeated slowly.

The manager's grave eyes were fixed on his.

"I'm not blaming you, Ferguson," said the colonel. "It was a plot to
ruin me, and it succeeded."

"What do you think happened?" asked the troubled Ferguson.

"The second package was a box filled with a very strong acid," said the
colonel. "Probably the box was made of soft metal