A moment later and Balmayne was up again. Leona Lalage looked at him enquiringly. He had no breath to speak. With gleaming eyes Balmayne held two rusty old cases over his head. Leona grasped the motor lamp, and Balmayne forced back the clasps of the cases.
"Got them," he croaked, "What do you think of this, my noble Countess?"
A stream of living fire, a ripple of all the colours of the rainbow. Balmayne shut the cases as if jealous of the eyes of the night.
"Saved," he said. "Take these and hide them, take the rope and hide that. I must be off to Charing Cross like the wind. This is, perhaps, the best night's work I have had in my experience. Now begone." A moment later and the courtyard was deserted.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
A CHECK.
"No you don't," said Lawrence coolly. "Of course, it would be a very dramatic finish to the night's adventure, but I can't permit it. Go easy."
Charlton gave up the struggle. Those jewels, the cause of all his misfortunes, had lain there at the bottom of the well where he had intended them to stay. He hated the very mention of them. Had not diamonds inspired some of the most awful crimes since crime began?
They should stay there for all time, those stones with the blood upon them, but now, when they were being carried off by the woman who had robbed him of all that life holds dear, Charlton's passion flared out.