In your discovery, Tress! Give me what is mine!"

"With pleasure, Pugh, if you will tell me what is yours."

"If--if you don't give me what was in the box I'll--I'll send for the
police."

"Do! Then I shall be able to hand to them what was in the box in order
that it may be restored to its proper owner."

"Its proper owner! I'm its proper owner!"

"Excuse me, but I don't understand how that can be; at least, until the
police have made inquiries. I should say that the proper owner was the
person from whom you purchased the box, or, more probably, the person from
whom he purchased it, and by whom, doubtless, it was sold in ignorance, or
by mistake. Thus, Pugh, if you will only send for the police, we shall
earn the gratitude of a person of whom we never heard in our lives--I for
discovering the contents of the box, and you for returning them."

As I said this, Pugh's face was a study. He gasped for breath. He actually
took out his handkerchief to wipe his brow.

"Tress, I--I don't think you need to use a tone like that to me. It isn't
friendly. What--what was in the box?"

"Let us understand each other, Pugh. If you don't hand over what was in
the box to the police, I go halves."

Pugh began to dance about the floor.

"What a fool I was to trust you with the box! I knew I couldn't trust
you." I said nothing. I turned and rang the bell. "What's that for?"

"That, my dear Pugh, is for breakfast, and, if you desire it, for the
police. You know, although you have breakfasted, I haven't. Perhaps while
I am breaking my fast, you would like to summon the representatives of law
and order." Bob came in. I ordered breakfast. Then I turned to Pugh. "Is
there anything you would like?"

"No, I--I've breakfasted."

"It wasn't of breakfast I was thinking. It was of--something else. Bob is
at your service, if, for instance, you wish to send him on an errand."

"No, I want nothing. Bob can go." Bob went. Directly he was gone, Pugh
turned to me. "You shall have half. What was in the box?"

"I shall have half?"

"You shall!"

"I don't think it is necessary that the terms of our little understanding
should be expressly embodied in black and white. I fancy that, under the
circumstance, I can trust you, Pugh. I believe that I am capable of seeing
that, in this matter, you don't do me. That was in the box."

I held out the crystal between my finger and thumb.

"What is it?"

"That is what I desire to learn."

"Let me