16A disquieting thought came to d**k. Suppose Rulon had been bluffing when he had showed him the belt the day before. d**k could feel stones within the belt he had taken from his body, but suppose after all they should not be the real ones? Before leaving the hotel, d**k returned to his own room, where he made haste to turn on the light, and rip the belt open.
It was all right! The blood coursed generously through his veins again. These were the veritable pearls that he held in his hands; the lovely, delicate, shimmering beauties; dusky and cool and slightly irregular like women’s cheeks! And in his own hands he held them! he was the master of these beauties; their fate lay in his hands!
Dick burned the cotton in his fireplace. He snipped the string that held the pearls, and told off thr
