That seemed a strange proceeding: she felt a touch of alarm for her father, and, passing again by the study, peeped; could see nothing for the key, but heard voices.
This messenger of Hogarth, she next thought, was a criminal: he might betray...so she stole into an adjacent room, to peep by a side door of the study, and though a key projecting toward her barred her vision, the talkers were near this point, and she could hear.
“The diamond block”, O'Hara said, “is the same which he rolled across the bridge this morning; to that I'll swear”.
“Then it must be the very same block he showed me”, Frankl said in a whisper; “that thing was worth millions....!”
“Undoubtedly it was the same”.
“Oh, but Lord”, groaned the Jew in an anguish of self-deprecation, “where were my eyes? where were my wits? I must have been dreaming! No, that's hard!”
“Well—nil desperandum! Let us be acting, sir!”
“My own land—!”
“They are still safe enough: come—”
“He may have lost one or two—in his excitement. Thousands gone! He may have hidden some!”