In response to his nephew's concern as to his condition Raikes replied by saying: "I may have something to tell you by eleven o'clock to-night; will you be on hand?" "Sure!" answered Bob with breezy goodwill. From time to time Raikes glanced at the clock. His last scrutiny had revealed the hour of nine. Sixty interminable minutes more remained ere he could see the Sepoy. Slowly the leaden hands crawled over the indifferent face. At last the half hour struck. A strange impatience possessed him. Perhaps the Sepoy might begin a little earlier than usual. He could, at least, suggest such a courtesy by his precipitation; it was far better than this unendurable wait. With this anticipation he decided to proceed to the apartment of this singular narrator. After taking his usual precautions, which seemed more or less of a mockery in view of the succession of disasters which had overtaken him, and again establishing the spinster in a position where she could maintain an unobstructed view of the entrance to his room, Raikes proceeded hurriedly along the various passageways, which finally concluded in his point of destination. He rapped gently upon the door, which he discovered to be slightly ajar. There was no response. His second attempt to attract attention was pronounced enough to urge the door aside and enable him to make a comprehensive survey of the interior. It was unoccupied; and of his last assault upon the panel the only recognition was a sullen echo in the hallway. About to retire, his glance fell upon the table in the center of the room. At once a sudden trembling seized him. A burning fever surged through his veins; an irresistible impulse overwhelmed; for there, in inconceivable negligence, lay the shagreen case which he had so reluctantly returned to its owner only the night before. And then--the malign agreement of his outward husk with his inner degradation was revealed. His eyes, already criminal, reflected the kaleidoscopic succession of temptation and surrender; desire and thievery. He scanned the passageway without in either direction. No one was in sight. A silence of respectable retirement prevailed that enabled him to hear his heartbeats almost, which surged along his veins to his ears and stifled the final gasp of the still, small voice within. The next instant, with a lithe animal leap of astonishing quickness, Raikes, darting into the apartment, grasped the precious case and retreated as rapidly over the threshold. Scarcely had the stealthy rogue vanished from the room when the door of a closet in the rear opened softly and revealed the Sepoy. Upon his face a smile, surely evil, otherwise inscrutable, appeared, as he proceeded to the chair by the table, turned down the light in the lamp a trifle, and abstracted from his waistcoat pocket a small red case, the contents of which he examined with absorbed attention.