"Oh, don't!" said Carrbroke. "I thought we'd agreed that all that was buried, never to be dug up again. But look here, we must have it now; there is one thing I want to know." "What?" said Denis, with a peculiar mirthful look in his eyes. "It is very horrible," continued Carrbroke. "I did not mean to ask you, but I feel I must. Of course your Leoni believed he was doing right for the sake of France, and to serve his master, but I never understood where he managed to hide the ruby. Do you know?" "I did not know till yesterday." "Ah, did he tell you then?--But no, I will not ask you to break his confidence." "It is not to break his confidence, for he did not tell me," replied Denis. "I learned it from Saint Simon, for he saw it on the boat." "Saw the ruby in the boat?" cried Carrbroke. "Why, how did it get there?" Denis was silent for a moment or two, and then whispered something, with a peculiar smile upon his lips as he placed them near his companion's ear. "What!" cried Carrbroke, starting back and staring in wonderment at his companion. "He hid it there? Then that accounts for his peculiar fixed look." "Yes. He was fencing when a young man, and his adversary's rapier point completely destroyed his left eye." "Ah!" whispered Carrbroke, beneath his breath. "I see. Then the eye is false--made, you say, of gold, enamelled to look exactly like the other, a little hollow globe." "Yes; an _etui_, we may call it now, but never meant to conceal that gem." "Horrid!" cried Carrbroke. "Yes," said Denis quietly; "but believe it if you can." "Oh," cried Carrbroke, "I believe; but if he had liked it could never have been found." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A week later the parting of the two lads was like that of brothers, and it was full of promises of what they would do when they met again. Perhaps they encountered later on at the Field of the Cloth of Gold; but history only says-- THE END. End of Project Gutenberg's The King's Esquires, by George Manville Fenn