"Will give over his attempt to obtain it when he really knows I will not part with it on any condition."
"He may; but his words, which you have repeated for me, make me believe he will do something desperate in order to get possession of it. You must look out for him—you must be on your guard constantly."
"Why, Inza!" laughed Frank, in astonishment; "I never heard you speak like this before. You really appear as if you felt a foreboding of some terrible thing."
"Perhaps I do," she said, very gravely, for a light-hearted girl.
Frank looked down at the ring on his hand. Surely it was an ugly trifle to make so much trouble.
"Do you see those fine lines on the surface of the stone?" he asked.
They were faintly visible to the naked eye.
"There is something peculiar about those lines," he said. "This stone is so hard that nothing seems to scratch it, and I am sure those lines were not made by the ring accidentally striking against hard objects. They were there when it came into my possession. I do not think another line or mark has been made upon it since I have owned it."
"That is odd."
"Odd! It is remarkable. It makes it appear that these lines were traced there with some instrument that could mark the stone, and that they have a secret meaning."