"Not old to look at! Then how on earth—— I should like to know how you managed all that. What have you been doing to the poor gentleman?"
"That'sh my affair," said Dick. "An' if I don' tell you you won' find that out anyway!"
"There's only one way you could have done it," said Paradine, pretending to hesitate. "It must have been done by some meddling with magic. Now what—— Let me see—yes—— Surely the Stone I brought your poor mother from India was given to me as a talisman of some sort? You can't have been sharp enough to get hold of that!"
"How did you know?" cried Dick sharply. "Who told you?"
"I am right, then? Well, you are a clever fellow. I should like to know how you did it, now?"
"Did it with the Shtone," said Dick, evidently discomposed by such unexpected penetration, but unable to prevent a little natural complacency. "All my own idea. No one helped me. It—it washn't sho bad for me, wash it?"
"Bad! it was capital!" cried Marmaduke enthusiastically. "It was a stroke of genius! And so my Indian Stone has done all this for you. Sounds like an Arabian Night, by Jove! By-the-by, you don't happen to have it about you, do you? I should rather like to look at it again. It's a real curiosity after this."
Paul trembled with anxiety. Would Dick be induced to part with it? If so, he was saved! But Dick looked at his uncle's outstretched hand, and wagged his head with tipsy cunning.
"I dareshay you would," he said, "but I'm not sho green as all that. Don't let that Stone out of my hands for anyone."