"All that only frightens me!" said she.... "If you do not really think you are running any risk, will you let me go with you?... My dear, we will go together to identify those pearls, will we not?" Thomery rose to take his leave, laughing and protesting. "Why, dear Sonia, it would be in the highest degree improper on my part, were I to agree to such a proposition!... One of two things: either there is no danger, and I should be very sorry that I had let you go out in such shocking weather; or, if there is danger, I should be still more distressed were I to drag you into it with me.... I do beg of you, Sonia, do not insist on it.... I am not a child!... And I will be very careful--very wary!..." * * * * * Shortly after this, Thomery took leave of Sonia Danidoff. He went straight to the Cafe de la Paix, where he had arranged to meet the diamond broker.... She was punctual. She greeted Thomery with her most winning smile. "I am persuaded, monsieur, that Madame Sonia Danidoff was interested by the offer you made her?" "Quite so," replied Thomery.... "Should we go to your jeweller's, without further loss of time?" "If you really wish to do so, monsieur! Indeed it would be the best thing to do...." Thomery hailed a cab. He and the diamond agent entered it together, and she gave the driver an address. Twenty minutes later they left the cab and were standing before the house where the present possessor of the pearls was to be found. Thomery knew no more now about the person he had come to interview, than he did when he started: that is to say, practically nothing. The diamond broker had cleverly evaded giving any direct answers to the sugar refiner's questions: she had confined herself to stating what would be the probable price demanded for the pearl collar--which question interested Thomery least of all! They mounted, in single file, a rather poor sort of staircase: on the second floor the woman stopped. A narrow door faced them.... The woman rang.... They waited.... "Someone is coming!" said the woman. "I hear footsteps." The door was opened half-way. "Who is it?" asked a man's voice. "I, dear friend," answered the woman. The door opened wide: the same voice said: "Come in, monsieur." Thomery had barely stepped inside the room, when the diamond broker, who was close behind, flung a long silk scarf round his neck, and, pushing his knee into his victim's back for a support, he attempted to give, with Herculean force, the famous stroke of Father Francis Vigozous; energetic, Thomery did not lose his presence of mind.... He knew that to resist such a pull by simple force was impossible.... Quickly he threw himself backwards, thus giving to the strangling pull and falling on top of the woman, who had played this dastardly trick on him. From his constricted throat came a hoarse "Ah!" like a death rattle.