liable to develop themselves from the
state of doubt to the state of certainty--would impel you into practical
action to preserve the jewel--would direct your steps, with that motive
in view, into the room which you entered--and would guide your hand to
the drawers of the cabinet, until you had found the drawer which held
the stone. In the spiritualised intoxication of opium, you would do
all that. Later, as the sedative action began to gain on the stimulant
action, you would slowly become inert and stupefied. Later still you
would fall into a deep sleep. When the morning came, and the effect of
the opium had been all slept off, you would wake as absolutely ignorant
of what you had done in the night as if you had been living at the
Antipodes. Have I made it tolerably clear to you so far?"

"You have made it so clear," I said, "that I want you to go farther.
You have shown me how I entered the room, and how I came to take the
Diamond. But Miss Verinder saw me leave the room again, with the jewel
in my hand. Can you trace my proceedings from that moment? Can you guess
what I did next?"

"That is the very point I was coming to," he rejoined. "It is a question
with me whether the experiment which I propose as a means of vindicating
your innocence, may not also be made a means of recovering the lost
Diamond as well. When you left Miss Verinder's sitting-room, with
the jewel in your hand, you went back in all probability to your own
room----"

"Yes? and what then?"

"It is possible, Mr. Blake--I dare not say more--that your idea of
preserving the Diamond led, by a natural sequence, to the idea of hiding
the Diamond, and that the place in which you hid it was somewhere in
your bedroom. In that event, the case of the Irish porter may be your
case. You may remember, under the influence of the second dose of
opium, the place in which you hid the Diamond under the influence of the
first."

It was my turn, now, to enlighten Ezra Jennings. I stopped him, before
he could say any more.

"You are speculating," I said, "on a result which cannot possibly take
place. The Diamond is, at this moment, in London."

He started, and looked at me in great surprise.

"In London?" he repeated. "How did it get to London from Lady Verinder's
house?"

"Nobody knows."

"You removed it with your own hand from Miss Verinder's room. How was it
taken out of your keeping?"

"I have no idea how it was taken out of my keeping."

"Did you see