as so low I could hardly hear him. "Dicky, you're off your trolley, and
I'm a damned--"

He raised his arm and dropped it.

"Well, never mind what," he finished with a lift of the shoulders. "But
I want to say something. It's about what I offered you for those stones.
The price--the amount I named--wasn't even a decent gamble; but it was
all I could go, and oh, I wanted one so badly, Dicky! And now you've
made me feel like a dog. And I can't take your gift, old chap, any more
than I could afford to offer you the real value of one of these
beautiful stones. Here." And he passed them back to me.

"I _know_ each of them to be worth anywhere from forty to fifty thousand
dollars," he said quietly. "They're the kind the crowned heads scoop for
jewels of state."

I nodded, and, getting up carelessly, I strolled to a window.

"Devilish lovely night," I said, poking my head out. And it was. Stars
overhead and all that sort of thing, and lots of them below, too--I
could hear them singing over on Broadway.

"All right, old chap; then here they go into the street," I said. "If my
friend can't have 'em, then no jolly crowned heads shall. That's flat!"

Billings started forward with a regular scream.

I waved him back. "Don't come any nearer, old chap," I said, holding my
arm out of the window, "or, dash me, I'll drop them instantly. Six
stories, you know--stone flagging below."

"But, Dicky--"

"If you don't say you'll take 'em, time I count three, I'll give 'em a
toss, by Jove! One!"

"Here, Dicky! Don't be a--"

"Two!" I counted. No bluff, you know; I meant jolly well to do it.

"Just one word--one second, Dicky!" he yelled. "Let me off with one,
then. Dicky! Dicky, old chap! Be a good sportsman!"

I hesitated. Dash it, one hates to take an advantage.

Billings stretched out his arm appealingly. "Do, old chap!" he pleaded.
"Give me just one--one only!"

His hand shook like a quivering what's-its-name leaf.

I yielded reluctantly: "Oh, well then, call it off with one," I said.
And with a sigh I tossed him one of the rubies and dropped the other in
the pocket of my smoking-jacket. Billings wiped his forehead, and then
he thanked me and wiped his eyes.

"So good of you to give in, old chap," he snuffled. "Never will forget
you for it!"

"Oh, I say, chuck it, you know!" I protested.

"Whole family will thank you," he went on in his handkerchief. "Princely
magnanimity and all that sort of thing--you'll just _ha