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Updated: May 5, 2025
The demand for Miss Cooper's testimony had been prompted by the "diversion" I am using his own word she had occasioned when she left the room, and afterward threw the proceedings into wild disorder by her scream. The interrupted verdict had failed to hold Maillot only by the narrowest margin; Miss Cooper's adventure had served to turn the scale against him.
So he was not in the most agreeable frame of mind when he stepped out of his dog-cart, that Tuesday evening, before the little villa of the Avenue Maillot. At his reception by Madame Lescande and her mother he took heart a little. They appeared to him what they were, two honest-hearted women, surrounded by luxury and elegance.
However, at the time I did n't waste many minutes over an unprofitable mental catechism; there were other and more vital matters requiring immediate attention. I asked Maillot a good many questions, but elicited no further information germane to the tragedy. So I presently said: "Have you any idea what your uncle did with the ruby after having shown it to you?"
Maillot sat plucking aimlessly at the margin of a newspaper, the tiny fragments floating unheeded to the floor; while Miss Fluette, strikingly handsome with her transparent complexion, her red-brown hair, and clear hazel eyes, sat imperiously beside him, alone in her assurance as to the outcome. The young man seemed to have forgotten her presence, so deep was his abstraction.
And now, too, I recalled the triumphant light in his pale eyes, while we were inspecting the concealed safe the only time I had detected any expression in them as if he had already anticipated the predicament Maillot would be in after relating his story of what had brought him to this house, and the occurrences of last night. How could he have had an inkling of all this?
Tell him you have performed your part of the bargain; tell him that the second Miss Belle is yours, the ruby shall be his; tell him he shall never get his hands on it one tick of the clock before. "He won't hesitate; I know Alfred Fluette. If you follow my instructions explicitly, the young lady will be Mrs. Royal Maillot by this time tomorrow night.
As Maillot dropped into his chair, Stodger could no longer contain himself. Drawing me into the hall, though the door was left wide open, he said, in a whisper that was heavy with importance: "You 'd never guess whose coachman it was." I made no attempt to, and my stout friend impressively announced: "Fluette's." "What!" Surprise jerked the exclamation from me; but I kept my voice subdued.
"Take this little box to Fluette," were the words with which his uncle charged him; "show him the contents, but" and here Maillot said the old gentleman probed him through and through with a look "on no account allow the ruby to go out of your possession not even for the briefest instant. Whatever else he may be, Alfred Fluette is no fool.
As for myself, I couldn't carry the news fast enough to Maillot and to Mr. Fluette, and to Belle and Genevieve. My enthusiasm met its first damper when the cell door swung open, and the young fellow walked out a free man. It is true that his gratitude was immeasurable; he could find no words to express it, and he wrung my hand until strong man that I am I had to tear away from him.
But Burke had something more to say. "Perhaps," slowly "you would like to see that safe, Mr. Swift. I know where it is located, and can save you a needless search. It will have to be opened later on, I imagine." "All right," I said, with much interest. "Lead the way." Burke rose, with a queer glance at Maillot, and turned toward the curtained alcove.
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