“If your Majesty please,” began Pan Andrew, rising and taking out the crystal from beneath his coat, “I wish to deliver to your Highness the Great Tarnov Crystal.” The sunlight touched it as he held it up, and the room and its splendid company were suddenly agleam with wavy flecks of light, red and orange and blue and yellow; there was a dazzling brilliance to it that struck each eye with almost the force of lightning. The King literally sprang forward to take the wondrous thing from Pan Andrew’s hands. “What a marvel! What a thing of beauty!” he exclaimed, while a very murmur of astonishment ran through the circle of his attendants. “Where in the world is to be found any jewel one-half so miraculous as this?” “I know not,” answered Pan Andrew, “but it has been in the keeping of my family for many years.” “Then why do you deliver it up to me?” demanded the King. “It is worth a quarter at least of all the treasures in this palace.” “That I will explain. My family has held it in trust these two hundred years and more, and we have sworn to guard it until the secret of its hiding place became known, and then, since there would be great danger following such a discovery, to deliver it into the hands of the King.” “Then its hiding place has been discovered? But tell me first the reason for concealing such a wondrous stone.” “That, your Majesty, is a long story, which if your Majesty so desires I will deliver shortly in writing, but I may say briefly that when Tarnov fell before the Tartars these many years ago the citizens entrusted this crystal to a member of my family. He took oath to guard it zealously, with his life if need be, lest it fall into the hands of people who might abuse its powers, for its beauty hides strange properties which are allied to magic and sorcery and the Black Arts, and it has been at times a curse, a thing of mystery and a source of evil. When Tarnov was rebuilt new dwellers came there and the crystal remained in our family.” “How did the secret become known?” “I had a servant, a Tartar. He was with me for many years. It was my custom to conceal the crystal in the rind of a pumpkin, and many a time this man must have seen me scraping out the inside of a pumpkin and rubbing the shell with oils and gum in order to preserve it. Because he was a simple fellow, I took no pains at any time to conceal my task. But though lacking in wit, it seems that the man was not lacking in curiosity. And his curiosity, I now believe, led him to spy upon me, and eventually he discovered the use to which I put the preserved pumpkin rind. He left me about a year ago, and it was only a few months later that my house was attacked. I am sure that he sold his information to some Tartar chieftain.” “Could he suspect the value of the crystal?”