effort to recover his composure.

"It is nothing!" he gurgled. "The English gentleman's proposal with
regard to my daughter interested me, that is all."

Dubois and the innkeeper gazed intently into each other's eyes for a few
trying seconds. Then the Frenchman drew Marguerite closer to him, with
his uninjured arm, and said--

"Let us get married, _ma p'tite_. It is essential."

And married they were forthwith, a priest and an official from the
Mayor's office being in waiting at the hotel. Whilst they were signing
the register Gros Jean motioned Brett to one side.

"Allow me to thank you, M'sieu', for the kindness you have shown," he
murmured. "Touching that hidden room in the Cabaret, now. Do the police
really know of it? You were not joking?"

"Not in the least."

"Then, M'sieu', I accompany them to the Argentine," and he jerked his
thumb towards Dubois and his wife. "Paris is no place for me."

Soon after the ceremony Mme. Dubois asked to be allowed to visit Edith.
When the two women met Marguerite flung herself impulsively on her knees
and sobbed out a request for forgiveness. Miss Talbot should have been
very angry with her erring sister. She was not. She took the keenest
interest in the Frenchwoman's romantic history. They talked until
Fairholme became impatient. He had not seen Edith for two whole hours.

* * * * *

Six months later, when the Earl and Countess of Fairholme returned from
a prolonged wedding tour on the _Blue-Bell_ through the Norwegian
fiords, Brett was invited to dinner. Talbot was there, of course, and
Daubeney, and Sir Hubert.

"Constantinople must be a queer place," observed Jack after the first
rush of animated converse had exhausted itself.

"Surely there are no more diamond mysteries on foot!" cried his charming
sister, who looked delightfully well, and brown as a berry with the keen
sea breezes of the hardy North.

"Not exactly; but I made some inquiries through a friend of mine in the
Legation. Hussein-ul-Mulk and his two Paris friends are quite important
functionaries in the palace. You remember that the other pair of
scoundrels escaped to Smyrna?"

"Yes," cried everybody.

"Well, Mehemet Ali's relatives heard the truth about them by some means.
Within a reasonable time they were chopped into small pieces, with other
details that need not be repeated."

"Dogs, or pigs?" inquired Brett.

"Dogs!"

"I wish you wouldn't say such horrid th