--in itself an insult of the genuineness of
that great stone which had been his pride?

A murmur--that was all it could be called--broke from his fever-dried
lips and died away in an inarticulate gasp. Then, suddenly, sharply, a
cry broke from him, an intelligible cry, and we heard him say:

"No imitation! no imitation! It was a sun! a glory! No other like it! It
lit the air! it blazed, it burned! I see it now! I see--"

There the passion succumbed, the strength failed; another murmur,
another, and the great void of night which stretched over--I might
almost say under us--was no more quiet or seemingly impenetrable than
the silence of that moon-enveloped tent.

Would he speak again? I did not think so. Would she even try to make
him? I did not think this, either. But I did not know the woman.

Softly her voice rose again. There was a dominating insistence in her
tones, gentle as they were; the insistence of a healthy mind which seeks
to control a weakened one.

"You do not know of any imitation, then? It was the real stone you gave
her. You are sure of it; you would be ready to swear to it if--say just
yes or no," she finished in gentle urgency.

Evidently he was sinking again into unconsciousness, and she was just
holding him back long enough for the necessary word.

It came slowly and with a dragging intonation, but there was no
mistaking the ring of truth with which he spoke.

"Yes," said he.

When I heard the doctor's voice and felt a movement in the canvas
against which I leaned, I took the warning and stole back hurriedly to
my quarters.

I was scarcely settled, when the same group of three I had before
watched silhouetted itself again against the moonlight. There was some
talk, a mingling and separating of shadows; then the nurse glided back
to her duties and the two men went toward the clump of trees where the
horse had been tethered.

Ten minutes and the doctor was back in his bunk. Was it imagination,
or did I feel his hand on my shoulder before he finally lay down and
composed himself to sleep? I can not say; I only know that I gave no
sign, and that soon all stir ceased in his direction and I was left to
enjoy my triumph and to listen with anxious interest to the strange and
unintelligible sounds which accompanied the descent of the horseman down
the face of the cliff, and finally to watch with a fascination, which
drew me to my knees, the passage of that sparkling star of light hanging
from h