Pozendine stretched out his sticky fingers, and the hands of the two men met. Then they sat together and talked all day as if there never had been any enmity between them, planning the coup which was to get them back their post, with a mental reservation that when this was accomplished there was yet another account to settle. CHAPTER VII. THE RUBY BRACELET. Once was my shield as white as driven snow, Once was mine honour clean, and I, a man, Could gaze upon my fellows, meet their eyes With eyes as honest--but all that is past. _Old Play_. "See," said Ma Mie, holding her arm to the light and displaying the splendour of the bracelet, "is it not beautiful, Hawkshawe?" The pale amber of her silken robe fell partially on the jewels as she said this, and flinging it back with a graceful gesture Ma Mie again raised the soft outline of her arm, and with lips half parted gazed upon the red glow of the rubies with a childish delight. They were standing near a window of Hawkshawe's house, at the very window from which the light streamed out, a long banner of brightness, when Jackson went back from his solitary ramble on the jetty. The glare that dazzled outside fell softly through the bamboo _jalousie_, and warmed the scarlet of the rubies on Ma Mie's arm to a thousand different tints. A curious steely blaze came into Hawkshawe's eyes, and the wrinkles around them gathered into deeper folds as he bent over the gems. For the time the look of avarice in his features gave them a wondrously Jewish cast. His aquiline nose seemed to fall over his lips, and the lips themselves tightened into a long, hard outline. He gently unclasped the bracelet and held it in his hand, then he tossed it lightly in the air, and as it fell back like a star he caught it deftly. "The stones are of the purest water, Ma Mie, but I alone have the right to clasp them on you. Let me do so now." He fastened the jewel once more on her. "Now," he said, "they look perfect--now that I have put them on you myself, and you can feel that they have come from me. Is it not so?" He drew her toward himself, while all the time his eyes remained fixed on the gems with a terrible greed in their expression. She remained as he had placed her, her head leaning against his shoulder and her eyes half closed. "Shall I break it to her?" muttered Hawkshawe. "It has to be done very soon, and might be done now." They remained for a moment silent. "Ma Mie," said Hawkshawe, "would you be very sorry if I were to go away for a short time?"