Almost, I could
feel the horror with which he must have trembled when steps came along
the corridor, when the door was tried and finally broken in by force
without any cry of his being heard. I guessed how he had rushed to the
window, opened it, only to stare down at the depths below and return
desperately, to stand at bay; to protest to the avengers that he had not
the jewels; that he had been deceived; that he was innocent of any
intention to defraud them; that he would explain all, make anything
right if only they would give him time.
But they had not given him time. They had punished him for robbing them
of the diamonds by robbing him of his life. They had made him pay with
the extreme penalty for his treachery; and yet in the flickering
candle-light the stricken face, blood-spattered though it was, seemed to
leer slyly, as if in the knowledge that they had been cheated in the
end.
The confusion of the room promised badly for my hopes, nevertheless
there was a chance that the murderers, intent only on finding the
diamonds or some letters relating to their disposal, might, if they
found the treaty, have hastily flung it aside, as a thing of no value.
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