o were so anxiously awaiting them.

For half an hour the Very Young Man recounted his adventure, with
praises of Aura that made the girl run to her sister to hide her
confusion. Then once more the party started its short climb out of the
valley of the scratch. In ten minutes they were all safely on the
top--on the surface of the ring at last.

CHAPTER XL

THE ADVENTURERS' RETURN

The Banker, lying huddled in his chair in the clubroom, awoke with a
start. The ring lay at his feet--a shining, golden band gleaming
brightly in the light as it lay upon the black silk handkerchief. The
Banker shivered a little for the room was cold. Then he realized he had
been asleep and looked at his watch. Three o'clock! They had been gone
seven hours, and he had not taken the ring back to the Museum as they
had told him to. He rose hastily to his feet; then as another thought
struck him, he sat down again, staring at the ring.

The honk of an automobile horn in the street outside aroused him from
his reverie. He got to his feet and mechanically began straightening up
the room, packing up the several suit-cases. Then with obvious awe, and
a caution that was almost ludicrous, he fixed the ring in its frame
within the valise prepared for it. He lighted the little light in the
valise, and, every moment or two, went back to look searchingly down at
the ring inside.

When everything was packed the Banker left the room, returning in a
moment with two of the club attendants. They carried the suit-cases
outside, the Banker himself gingerly holding the bag containing the
ring.

"A taxi," he ordered when they were at the door. Then he went to the
desk, explaining that his friends had left earlier in the evening and
that they had finished with the room.

To the taxi-driver he gave a number that was not the Museum address, but
that of his own bachelor apartment on Park Avenue. It was still raining
as he got into the taxi; he held the valise tightly on his lap, looking
into it occasionally and gruffly ordering the chauffeur to drive slowly.

In the sumptuous living-room of his apartment he spread the handkerchief
on the floor under the center electrolier and laid the ring upon it.
Dismissing the astonished and only half-awake butler with a growl, he
sat down in an easy-chair facing the ring, and in a few minutes more was
again fast asleep.

In the morning when the maid entered he was still sleeping. Two hours
later he rang for her,