Mr. Longways looked up under his brows at me with a very curious leer. "Did you ever hear," says he, "of The Rose of Paradise?"
[Illustration: MR. LONGWAYS LOOKED UP UNDER HIS BROWN EYES AT ME WITH A VERY CURIOUS LEER.]
I shook my head.
"Then I'll show her to you," said he; and he began unwinding the cord from about the roll of soft leather, the folds of which he presently opened. Then, as I looked down into his hand and saw what lay within the dressed skin, I was so struck with amazement that I could not find either breath or tongue to utter one single word.
III.
It was a ruby, the most beautiful I had ever seen, and about the bigness of a pigeon's egg.
At the sight of this prodigious jewel I was so disturbed in my spirits that I trembled as though with an ague, while the sweat star
