"Oh, I do more than 'hope,' count, I have succeeded. I knew last night where both pearl and letter were. To-morrow night—ah, well, let to-morrow tell its own tale. Only be in the square at the hour I mention, and when I lift a lighted candle and pass it across the salon window, send the guard here with the passports. Let them remain outside, within sight, but not within range of hearing what is said and done. You alone are to enter, remember that."
"To receive the jewel and the letter?" eagerly. "Or, at least to have you point out the hiding-place of them?"
"No; we should be shot down like dogs if I undertook a mad thing like that."
"Then, monsieur, how are we to seize them? How get them into our possession, his Majesty and I?"
"From my hand, count; this hand which held them both before I went to bed last night."
"Monsieur!" The count fell back from him as if from some supernatural presence. "You found them? You held them? You took possession of them last night? How did you get them out of the house?"
"I have not done so yet."
"But can you? Oh, monsieur, wizard though you are, can you get them past her guards? Can you, monsieur, can you?"
"Watch for the light at the window, count. It will not be waved unless it is safe for you to come and the pearl is already out of the house."
"And the letter, monsieur, the damning letter?"