“I wonder,” said the silvern voice, “that you, who possess so many beautiful things, should consent to have so ill-omened a curiosity in your house.” “I do not fear the evil charm of this little ivory image,” said Colonel Deacon, “although its history goes far to bear out the truth of the legend. Its last possessor lost his most cherished possession a month after the Buddha came into his hands. He fell down his own stairs--and lost his life!” Madame de Medici languidly surveyed the figure through the upraised emerald. “Really!” she murmured. “And the one from whom he procured it?” “A Hindu usurer of Simla,” replied the Colonel. “His daughter stole it from her father together with many other things, and took them to her lover, with whom she fled!” Madame de Medici seemed to be slightly interested. “I should love to possess so weird a thing,” she said softly. “It is yours!” exclaimed the Colonel, and placed it in her hands. “Oh, but really,” she protested. “But really I insist--in order that you may not forget your first visit to my house!” She shrugged her shoulders. “How very kind you are, Colonel Deacon,” she said, “to a rival collector!” “Now that the menace is removed,” said Colonel Deacon with laboured humour, “I will show you my most treasured possession.” “So! I am greatly interested.” “Not even this rascal Rene,” said the Colonel, stopping before a safe set in the wall, “has seen what I am about to show you!” Rene started slightly and watched with intense interest the unlocking of the safe. “If I am not superstitious about the ivory Buddha,” continued the Colonel, “I must plead guilty in the case of the Key of the Temple of Heaven!” “The Key of the Temple of Heaven!” murmured a lady standing immediately behind Madame de Medici. “And what is the Key of the Temple of Heaven?” The Colonel, having unlocked the safe, straightened himself, and while everyone was waiting to see what he had to show, began to speak again pompously: “The Temple of Heaven stands in the outer or Chinese City of Pekin, and is fabulously wealthy. No European, I can swear, had ever entered its secret chambers until last year. One of its most famous treasures was this Key. It was used only to open the special entrance reserved for the Emperor when he came to worship after his succession to the throne--that was, of course, before China became a Republic. The Key is studded almost all over with precious stones. Last year a certain naval man--I'll not mention his name--discovered the secret of its hiding-place. How he came by that knowledge does not matter at present. One very dark night he crept up to the temple. He found the Keeper of the Key--a Buddhist priest--to be sleeping, and he succeeded, therefore, in gaining access and becoming possessed of the Key.” A chorus of excited exclamations greeted this dramatic point of the story.