I
shoved my hand in deeper, and stirred the things about, but still I
did not reach it. A cold wave swept down my spine, and a sort of
emptiness came to the pit of my stomach. Then I turned red-hot, and
the sweat sprung out all over me. I wet my lips with my tongue, and
said to myself, 'Don't be an ass. Pull yourself together, pull
yourself together. Take the things out, one at a time. It's there, of
course, it's there. Don't be an ass.'
"So I put a brake on my nerves and began very carefully to pick out
the things, one by one, but, after another second, I could not stand
it, and I rushed across the room and threw out everything on the bed.
But the diamonds were not among them. I pulled the things about and
tore them open and shuffled and rearranged and sorted them, but it
was no use. The cigar-case was gone. I threw everything in the
dressing-case out on the floor, although I knew it was useless to
look for it there. I knew that I had put it in the bag. I sat down
and tried to think. I remembered I had put it in the satchel at Paris
just as that woman had entered the compartment, and I had been alone
with her ever since, so it was she who had robbed me.
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