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Rh police carried the heavy steel box into the room from which the emerald had been stolen. Max went with them, but almost immediately he reappeared, and now he invited the rest to follow him. They filed in slowly.

The room, Hereford now saw, had been restored as nearly as it could be to the same condition as on the night of the robbery. New furniture as much as possible like that destroyed by the fire, had been brought from other parts of the hotel and arranged here. The bed, the chairs—every article of furniture—were in the places the first had occupied; and the original box was in its former position at the foot of the bed.

Max first asked his audience to arrange themselves as near as possible to the entrance door, so as not to interfere with his opera-