nding
itself bereft of its accustomed court of counter-attractions?)

"Well, here we all are, sitting forward on the edges of our chairs,
holding onto the seats with both hands, ears pricked forward, eyes
shining... The suspense," Phinuit avowed, "is something fierce!"

"I am sorry."

"What d'you mean, you're sorry? You're not going to back out?"

"Having never walked into the arrangement you propose, it would be
difficult to back out--would it not?"

Monk forgot that he was suffering acutely, forgot even the beautiful
and precious hand that was soothing his fevered brow, and rudely
shaking it off, sat up suddenly. The eyebrows were distinctly minatory
above eyes that loosed ugly gleams.

"You refuse?"

Lanyard slowly inclined his head: "I regret I must beg to be excused."

"You damned fool!"

"Pardon, monsieur?"

A look of fury convulsed Liane's face. Phinuit, too, was glaring, no
longer a humourist. Monk's mouth was working, and his eyebrows had got
out of hand altogether.

"I said you were a damned fool--"

"But is not that a matter of personal viewpoint? At least, the question
would seem to be open to debate."

"If you think arguments will satisfy us--!"

"But, my dear Captain Monk, I am really not at all concerned to satisfy
you. However, if you wish to know my reasons for declining the honour
you would thrust upon me, they are at your service."

"I'll be glad to hear them," said Monk grimly.

"One, I fancy, will do as well as a dozen. It is, then, my considered
judgment that, were I in the least inclined to resume the evil ways of
my past--as I am not--I would be, as you so vividly put it, a damned
fool to associate myself with people of a low grade of intelligence,
wanting even enough to hold fast that which they have thieved!"

"By God!" Monk brought down a thumping fist. "What are you getting at?"

"Your hopeless inefficiency, monsieur.... Forgive my bluntness."

"Come through," Phinuit advised in a dangerous voice. "Just what do you
mean?"

"I mean that you, knowing I have but one object in submitting to
association with you in any way, to wit, the recovery of the jewels of
Madame de Montalais and their restoration to that lady, have not had
sufficient wit to prevent my securing those jewels under your very
noses."

"You mean to say you've stolen them?"

Lanyard nodded. "They are at present in my possession--if that
confesses an act of theft."

Monk laughed discordantly. "Then I