"'Alas!' cried the unhappy girl, 'what shall I do? He has gone to get some of his creatures to help him in his evil purposes.'

"For a moment a tense silence prevailed.

"The next instant, with eerie, jubilant interruption, the waiting-woman made the very air shudder with a laugh of such shrill exultation and riotous abandon that Lal Lu, for a moment forgetful of her own extremity, gazed with unconcealed amazement and alarm upon the almost hysterical creature.

"'Ha, ha!' she raved; 'be not afraid, Lal Lu. This royal pest, this insolent prince, will trouble you no more; you will never see him again.'

"'Ha!' exclaimed Lal Lu. 'You seem strangely positive. What do you mean?'

"'Did you see that scratch which the point of your dagger made upon the wrist of the prince?'

"'No,' replied Lal Lu, shrinking from the picture presented to her mind.

"'Well,' returned the grim-visaged woman with a return to her customary austerity, 'I did. The wound was slight; only a few easily subdued drops of blood followed; but, believe me, maiden, it will be sufficient.'

"'What do you mean?' demanded Lal Lu.

"'This,' returned the weird creature with repulsive, evil joy, which she made no attempt to disguise: 'The point of that dagger was steeped in the most deadly poison known in India. In twenty minutes, ha, ha! it is the prince who will be the empty casket.'"

As the Sepoy reached this point in his narrative he paused with startling abruptness.

Raikes, no longer under the influence of the seductive cadences, looked up sharply.

"Well?" inquired the Sepoy as he met the inquiring glance of his furtive auditor, "what of the flaw in the sapphire? Can you trace the blemish?"

"Devil seize me!" exclaimed Raikes, as he offered, by this apostrophe, an invitation which was certain, at no distant date, to be accepted.

"Devil seize me if I have thought of the sapphire!" and he began at once an apologetic inspection of the brilliant with the magnifying glass.

"Ha, ha!" laughed the Sepoy. "I must congratulate myself upon my powers of narration."

"Aye!" replied Raikes, as he continued his examination of the flaming bauble, "and also upon your irritating habit of concluding at the anxious moment. But see here," and he held the sapphire up to view; "I can see nothing wrong; possibly the light is bad. The searching glare of day is required to discover a blemish such as you speak of."

"Suppose you return to-morrow, then, directly after breakfast?"

suggested the Sepoy.

"I want your judgment. I dare not trust my own; my blindness may be voluntary."

"Very well, then," assented Raikes, who, now that he had nothing upon which to fasten his eyes, felt an easily comprehended uneasiness to leave the Sepoy. "I will be here at that time"; and with his customary emotionless adieux the guilty creature slipped through the doorway and speeded like a shriveled shadow along the various passages.

As he was about to enter his room he was hailed by his nephew.

"Uncle, you wanted to see me."

"True," replied Raikes, with a start of recollection, "I do; but suppose we postpone the interview until to-morrow."

"Very well," replied the young man easily, and Raikes, entering his room, fastened the door with his usual elaborate precaution.

His first movement was to disclose the interior of the recess containing his coin and his conscience.

A rapid examination convinced him that no further depredations had been committed upon the former, and the latter he secreted in the pocket of his waistcoat along with the diamond, which flashed its unregarded rebuke into his eager eyes.

At this juncture the singular drowsiness which had overtaken him so persistently in the past few days began to steep his dulling senses.

Warned by its approach, Raikes began to put into execution a newly conceived plan of retiring for the night and effective vigil over his treasure-trove.

Hastily drawing a chair before the radiator, and placing directly in front of that the table, from which with a savage sweep of the arm he swept the dull heap of coals rattling to the floor, Raikes established himself in the seat so provided and, leaning forward, awaited the final blandishments of the drowsiness which was not long in lulling him into that profound degree of slumber which is commonly supposed to be the reward of sound morals and Christian resignation.

(To be continued on Dickey No. 3, Series B.)

During the reading of this impossible helter-skelter of unrestrained imagination and composite style, the expression in the countenance of the listening woman had developed from its original sadness to an unmistakable geniality.

The pensive droop of her lips, little by little, nestled away into a smiling seriousness, and when Dennis, confronted with the habitual conclusion in italics, looked up with a grimace of recognition, his glance was met by a pair of kindly blue eyes, in which he believed he traced a charming suggestion of unaffected good fellowship.

Altogether unsuspected by himself, Dennis, with his intent, intelligent countenance, and the contrasting vivacity of his rich, Irish accent, had awakened an interest in the mind of his companion which months of adroit approach could not have achieved.

His genuineness was unquestionable.

His entire absorption in the story, his delightful and unconscious elimination of self, supplied this tired woman with elements of mental refreshment and genuine enjoyment which circumstances had compelled her to decide no longer existed.

Encouraged, therefore, by this unmistakable interest and the amiable attitude of attention which Dennis, with characteristic ingenuousness, accepted as a tribute to the narrative, he exclaimed:

"An' isn't it great, now? Did you ever hear such a tale as that?"

"I never did," was the smiling reply.

"An' wasn't that Raikes a div--a tight one, I mean?"

"He was, indeed," assented the lady, as she reviewed this sordid character and the incidents surrounding him, and contrasted the tumult of phrase and situation with her genial Addison and her placid Irving.

"An' would you like to hear the rest?" asked Dennis, as he produced the remaining bosom of Series B.

"Yes," replied the lady, "I believe I would. But just a moment before you begin," and regarding this oblivious young man with an expression in which a degree of speculation still lingered to tantalize its suggestion of frank indorsement, she hazarded:

"You have not lived in New York long?"

Wondering at the acuteness of this observation, Dennis responded by according to her the exact time of his brief residence.

"Ah!" exclaimed the lady, "I thought so."

"May I ask," inquired Dennis, wondering if, like the visitor from the bucolic district, he supplied unconscious data in his appearance for classification, "may I ask how you are able to tell that I'm here for a short time only?"

"Well," returned his companion with a degree of hesitation exquisitely refined as it shadowed through her fine countenance, and which she presently conquered as she replied to his question with that shade of frankness which, in the well-bred, can never be mistaken for anything else: "It requires about a year's residence in this bedlam to replace the genuine with the artificial; I see no evidence of such an unhappy transformation in you."