most exact nicety. That cavity was there when I bought the idol and has in no way been altered since. The shape of the Diamond, as you have seen for yourself, is rather peculiar. Is it therefore possible that mere accident can be at the bottom of such a coincidence? Is not my theory of the Wandering Idol much more probable as well as far more poetical? You smile again. You English are the greatest sceptics in the world. But it is time to go. We have seen all there is to be seen, and the temperature of this place will not benefit my rheumatism." So the lamp was put out, and Idol and Diamond were left to darkness and solitude. In the vaulted room, at the entrance to the winding way that led to the cavern, Ducie's eyes were again bandaged. Then up the twenty-two stone stairs, and so into the carpeted room above, where was the scent of _pot-pourri_. From this room they came by many passages and flights of stairs back to the smoking-room, where Ducie's bandage was removed. One last pipe, a little desultory conversation, and then bed. M. Platzoff being out of the way for an hour or two next afternoon, Captain Ducie contrived to pay a surreptitious visit to his host's private study. On the carpet he found one of the two paper pellets which he had dropped from his fingers the previous evening. There, too, was the same faint, sickly smell that had filled his nostrils when the handkerchief was over his eyes, which he now traced to a huge china jar in one corner, filled with the dried leaves of flowers gathered long summers before. CHAPTER XVI. JANET'S RETURN. "There he is! there is dear Major Strickland!" The tidal train was just steaming into London Bridge station on a certain spring evening as the above words were spoken. From a window of one of the carriages a bright young face was peering eagerly, a face which lighted up with a smile of rare sweetness the moment Major Strickland's soldierly figure came into view. A tiny gloved hand was held out as a signal, the major's eye was caught, the train came to a stand, and next moment Janet Holme was on the platform with her arms round the old soldier's neck, and her lips held up for a kiss. The publicity of this transaction seemed slightly to shock the sensibilities of Miss Close, the English teacher, in whose charge Janet had come over; but she was won to a quite different view of the affair when the major, after requesting to be introduced to her, shook her cordially by the hand, said how greatly obliged he was to her for the care she had taken of "his dear Miss Holme," and invited her to dine next day with himself and Janet. Then Miss Close went her way, and the Major and Janet went theirs in a cab, to a hotel not a hundred miles from Piccadilly. Janet's first words as they got clear of the station were: "And now you must tell me how everybody is at Dupley Walls." "Everybody was quite well when I left home, except one person--Sister Agnes."