The servant shook his head. "I did not see the star. I was only in the room a moment to receive the Herr Count's order about the carriage."
Steinrück looked in extreme astonishment at the empty case. "Have you not been in the room since?"
"No, Herr Count."
"Has no one else been here?"
"The forester's son was here when I left the room, and, I think, was here alone for some time."
There was suspicion more than hinted at in these words, but the Count shook his head decidedly. "Nonsense! that's impossible. Has no one else been here? Bethink yourself."
"No, Herr Count; no one has even been in the corridor."
"But the bedroom on that side,--it is a thoroughfare."
"Only from the sleeping apartment of the Frau Countess by the tapestried door."
Steinrück turned pale, and involuntarily he clinched his hand, but he still combated the dawning suspicion. "Look for it," he said. "The star must be found; perhaps I mislaid it among the books and papers."