"Really, you know, I'd rather not," responded Musard, in some embarrassment. "It's a long story, for one thing, and it's not quite--how shall I express it--it's a bit on the horrible side to relate in the presence of ladies." "I do not think that need deter you," remarked one of the young officers drily. "We are all pretty strong-minded nowadays--since the War." "Oh, we should love to hear it," said the lady journalist, who scented good "copy." "Shouldn't we?" she added, turning to some of the ladies near her. "Yes, indeed!" chorused the other ladies. "Do tell us." "Go ahead, Musard--you see you can't get out of it," said Phil. "Perhaps, Phil, as Mr. Musard does not think it a suitable story--" commenced Miss Heredith tentatively. Her eye was fixed anxiously on the clock, which was verging on twenty minutes past seven, and she feared the relation of her old friend's experience might make them late at the Weynes. But at that moment Tufnell approached his mistress and caught her eye. A slight shade of annoyance crossed her brow as she listened to something he communicated in a low voice, and she turned to her guests. "I must ask you to excuse me for a few moments," she said. She rose from her place and left the room. As the door closed behind her the ladies turned eagerly to Musard. "Now, please, tell us about the ruby," said several in unison. The explorer glanced at the eager faces looking towards him. "Very well, I will tell you the story," he said quietly, but with visible reluctance. CHAPTER IV "It was before the war. Many strange things have happened in the world before the Boche broke loose with his dream of 'Deutschland ueber Alles.' I had been to Melville Island trying to match a pearl for the Devonshire necklace, and I went from the pearl fisheries to New Zealand, led there by rumours of the discovery of some wonderful black pearls. It was, however, a wild-goose chase. These rumours generally are. One of the experts of the New Zealand Fishery Department had been exploring the Haurakai Gulf, and returned to Auckland with a number of black pearls, which he had found in an oyster-bed on one of the Barrier Islands. He thought his fortune was made, though, being a fishery expert, he ought to have known better. They were black pearls right enough, but they came from edible oysters, and were valueless as jewels--not worth a shilling each. "I put up at the Royal hotel, Auckland, waiting for a ship to take me back to England. I had arranged to return round the Cape, to look at a parcel of diamonds which were expected to arrive at Capetown from the fields in about six weeks' time. The day before I was due to sail, a rough-looking man named Moynglass, a miner, came to the hotel to see me. He had heard of me as a mining expert, and he had a business proposition which he wanted to place before me.