“How?” I asked dismayed, for I confess that I feared the discovery. To be thus intimately associated with a band of expert crooks was a new experience.
“Quite easily,” he replied. “I’ll show you.” Then turning to his wife, he said: “Just bring Lu Chang in, will you, Hylda?”
Madame passed into the next room and returned with a small Pekinese in her arms.
“Lu Chang is quite quiet and harmless,” laughed Duperré as his wife handed the dog to me.
As my hands came in contact with the animal’s fur I realized that it was dead—and stuffed!
Duperré laughed heartily as he watched my face. I confess that I was mystified.
He took the dog, which had probably been purchased from a naturalist only that day, and ripping open the pelt behind the forelegs he quickly drew out the stuffing. Then into the cavity he hurriedly thrust the broken rings and pendants.
I watched him with curiosity. It seemed such an unusual proceeding. But I recollected that I was dealing with strange associates—people whom I afterwards found to be perhaps the most ingenious crooks in Europe.
“Poor Lu Chang,” exclaimed my old company commander with a laugh. “If you drown him he won’t feel it!”
Duperré watched the expression of surprise upon my face as he packed the whole of the broken jewelry into the dog.