"
"He came back in a few minutes, but so transformed in outward
appearance that Ducie scarcely knew him."
"Behold!"
"Sister Agnes knelt for a few moments and bent her head in silent
prayer."
"He put his hand to his side, and motioned Mirpah to open the letter."
* * * * *
Illustrations to "The Bretons at Home."
[Illustration: "BEHOLD!"]
THE ARGOSY.
_APRIL, 1891._
THE FATE OF THE HARA DIAMOND.
CHAPTER XIV.
DRASHKIL-SMOKING.
"It must and shall be mine!"
So spoke Captain Ducie on the spur of the moment as he wrote the last
word of his translation of M. Platzoff's MS. And yet there was a keen
sense of disappointment working within him. His blood had been at fever
heat during the latter part of his task. Each fresh sentence of the
cryptogram as he began to decipher it would, he hoped, before he reached
the end of it, reveal to him the hiding-place of the great Diamond. Up
to the very last sentence he had thus fondly deluded himself, only to
find that the abrupt ending of the MS. left him still on the brink of
the secret, and left him there without any clue by which he could
advance a single step beyond that point.
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