And then came a third and a fourth.
In a minute's time, following the crack from one edge to the other and certainly without digging deeper than half an inch, the captain had taken out eighteen diamonds of the same size.
During this minute, there was not a cry, not a movement around the sun-dial. The heirs seemed paralyzed with a sort of stupor. Then the fat gentleman muttered:
"Geminy!"
And the corporal moaned:
"Oh, captain!... Oh, captain!..."
The two sisters fell in a dead faint. The lady with the little dog dropped on her knees and prayed, while the footman, staggering like a drunken man, held his head in his two hands, and Louise d'Ernemont wept.
When calm was restored and all became eager to thank Captain Jeanniot, they saw that he was gone.
Some years passed before I had an opportunity of talking to Lupin about this business. He was in a confidential vein and answered: