There was a knock at the door.
Peggy nearly screamed as she backed away. "That can't
Mr, Perrigord!" she wailed. "Oh, it can't be! He'll ruin us if he learns this. He hates drinking, and he says he's going to write an account again for the papers. Abdul! Maybe it's Abdul. He'll have to do it now. He'll have to____"
"Dat," said Captain Valvick suddenly, "is a very funny knock. Lissen!"
They stared, and Morgan felt a rather eerie sensation. The knock was a complicated one, very light and rapid, rather like a lodge signal. Valvick moved over to open it, when it began to open of itself in a rather singular and mysterious way, by sharp jerks…
"Ps-s-sst!" hissed a voice warningly.
Into the room, after a precautionary survey, darted none other than Mr. Curtis Warren. His attire was much rumpled, including torn coat and picturesquely grease-stained white flannels; his hair stood up, and there was some damage done to his countenance. But a glow of fiendish triumph shone from it. He closed the door carefully and faced them with a proud gesture.
Before they could recover from the shock of stupefaction and horror, he laughed a low, satisfied, swaggering laugh.
Thrusting his hand into his pocket, he drew it forth and held up, winking and glittering on its gold chain, the emerald elephant.
"I've got it back!" he announced triumphantly.