r, seem to take a
particular interest in her."

"I hate to see a woman maltreated," replied Adolphe frankly.

"I tell you it is no concern of yours," replied the other, crushing
Jean's letter into his jacket pocket and tossing away his cap, while
Adolphe re-bound his cut hand with the handkerchief which was already
saturated with blood.

"Sit down and let's have a drink," said Ansell, lighting a candle, for
the lamp was now very dim, and producing another bottle of red wine
from the cupboard.

The pair seated themselves, and drank merrily to their own success,
after which Ralph Ansell produced from his pockets the jewellery and the
bundle of bank-notes, which he proceeded to examine.

Beneath the light of the single candle stuck in the tin candlestick the
fine stones sparkled--diamonds, emeralds, and rubies--as "The American"
produced them in a mass from his pocket and laid them upon the table.

"Quite a decent lot," he remarked. "Old Levy will give us twenty
thousand francs for them, if we pretend we're not hard up. He went back
to Amsterdam on Friday, but I'll wire him later on, and get him over."

"But we're not hard up," laughed "The Eel" with a grin of satisfaction.

"No--not quite," answered his companion, taking off the india-rubber
band from the bundle of notes and carefully counting them, one by one.
There were seventy-five blue and pink notes of the Bank of France for
one thousand francs each--or three thousand pounds, as well as the loose
cash.

Ralph Ansell swallowed another glass of wine.

"I'm sorry we had such horribly bad luck with that safe," he remarked.
"But we were fortunate in getting away as we did. We were not a moment
too soon, either."

"They saw us cross the garden," Adolphe said. "I don't like being fired
at."

"By Jove! If I had met anyone he'd have gone down, I assure you,"
declared Ralph. "I had my revolver ready."

"A good job that we got out as we did. It is always a risky thing to try
and get political papers. Remember the affair at the Austrian
Ambassador's, when a stranger offered poor Bonnemain twenty thousand
francs to get certain documents? I kept watch outside the Embassy that
night, and we were nearly caught--all of us."

"Well--this is enough to keep the flag flying for a bit," said Ansell,
as he proceeded to divide the bank-notes, placing fifty in his own
pocket and giving Adolphe twenty-five.

The men had some sharp words, as thieves always have when it comes