"
Mrs. Haxton smiled sourly.
"We are dealing in candor," she cried. "Pray complete your confession,
Baron von Kerber."
The Austrian did not abandon his dejected pose, but he took up the
parable readily.
"There is one slip of papyrus you have never seen, Mr. Fenshawe," he
said. "Perhaps you have been surprised that such a careful scribe as
Demetriades gave no details of the loot? I kept them back. There were
fifty camel-loads of precious vessels and rare stuffs brought from the
East. There were one hundred and twenty camel-loads of gold coins, and
two camels carried leather wallets filled with pearls and rubies and
diamonds."
Irene could not restrain a little gasp of wonderment at von Kerber's
amazing catalogue. Her grandfather looked at her.
"You were wiser than I, little girl," he murmured. "You warned me that
these people were deceiving me, yet I refused to listen."
"Oh, one has to follow the path that promises success," interrupted von
Kerber savagely. "Had I told you these things you would have been the
first to inform the Italian government.
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