P22 THE STRAND V. AGAZINE.

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| X 2 ot 34 i o .

VLN UHINK OVER THE MATTER,

“\What do you mean 7 ”

“ I mecan, will you treat a fellow squarcly, and not give him away.”

“ Certainly,” he answered, *and scerecy and despatch i1s our motto.”

“Well, I'll think over the matter,” | replied, “and come and sce you again.”

Hisanger and 1rritability made themselves mantfest. But, without waiting for him to continuc the argument, I left the place with an instinctive feeling that I had agan struck the trail ; for it instantly occurred to mc that old Moscs Cohen had gonce to Morocco in cerpany with Jobson, who had changed his name to Rowland, and 1f 1 could establish that fact there could be but one deduction, namely, that they had gone to try and scll the great cat's-eye. 1 directed my attention now to tracing Row- land, and I found that he and his wifc went to Lyons, then doubled back to Marscilles again, and took passage in the French steamer La FPelouse for Algiers, and i that stcamer old Cohen also satled.

The scent was getting hot now, and my surmises were becoming hard facts. In going to Lyons, Rowland had been actuated, no doubt, by the belief that he was making it more difficult for him to be traced ; and when he and his wife came back to Mar- seilles, they had again changed their name, and were then known as Mr. and Mrs. St John Clair, and 1n that name they were entered on the passenger list of La FPelouse.

was not the shghtest doubt, for the description 1 received of them tallied exactly with the Rev. Arthur Jobson and his wife, who had bcen in Colombo.

Perhaps I need scarcely say that as soon as I could pos- sibly get a stcamer I was speeding to Algiers after them, and, arrived there, I ascertained they had pro- cecded to Mogador. ‘T'his was the place, then, where they hoped to find a market, and 1o Mogador I resolved to go. But I saw the necessity for taking counscl with the French authorities in Algiers, and I appealed to Colonel Jules Marcet, who was in charge of the garrison. This gentleman promised to aid me 1moevery possible way, and he furnished me with an escort of ten Arab soldiers 1 charge of two [French oflicers, and an interpreter, and, as I could tolerate no delay, we sct off at once.

On rcaching NMogador, 1 lecarnt that “an old Jew trader,” speaking Arabic perfectly, had recently arrived m company with a white man and his wife, and the Jew had brought with him a most wonderful gem, which he was anxious to scll to the Sultan, who was then at his summer palace about twenty miles mnland. Accordingly the Jew and the white man and his wife had gone out to him. It was now nccessary to take such steps as would render 1t tolerably certain that I should recover the long missing gem. To do this some subterfuge would have to be resorted to, for the Sultan was a wily monarch, and, had he been co dis- posed, he might have sent the stone to some safe place of keeping in the heart of his country, and have defied anyone to obtain possession o1 it. I thercfore, with the approval of the officers of my escort, had a message conveyed to him to say that I had come from England to sec him on a very urgent matter indeed, and I humbly craved that he would grant me an audience, as my business was of such a nature that his mterests might suffer if he refused to sec me.

After waiting a few days his barbaric Majesty's answer came, and it was to the cffect that the interview I solicited would he granted. and on the morrow an cscort