Page:Rowland--The closing net.djvu/162

146 His big sardonic face lengthened and he gave a groan like a dying horse. "I have been r'robbed again. It is terrible. I am sick from it." He pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his face, and for the moment he actually looked sick. "I haf been r'robbed of gems vort twenty t'ousand pounds."

"What!" I cried.

"Yes. I am sick from it—very sick. I cannot eat nor dr'rink. It seems there is an epidemic of r'robbery. Yoost now I r'read in der paper of this dirty Channel business. Mein Gott!"

"What!" I cried again. "Did those jewels belong to you?"

"Dose jewels? No. But I haf lost some of my own—vort twenty t'ousand pounds"; he brought the figure out with a gasp. "Two great rubies and an emerald."

There are times, my friend, when even the training of one's whole life is scarcely enough to enable a man to keep his face. My grip tightened on the arms of the big leathern chair and I felt the blood leaving my face. But my expression exactly coincided with the baron's feelings, and he did not notice anything amiss.

"Yes," said he, "it is terrible, is it not? Efery year ven I go home I take a pr'resent to my dear vife in Pest. This time I got vat I have been long looking for. I found a goot bargain. Nefer haf I seen such stones in pr'rivate hands. But I vas a fool. I carried t'em about in my pocket. It is a bad habit of mine. Der odder day I vent to der races und dere my pocket vas picked. It is that vich so hurts. Isidor Rosenthal to haf his pocket picked