"I cannot doubt it," replied the officer who had just descended,

Barbara looked at the dancer defiantly.

"I've told you already I know nothing about it. You, if any one, should be better able to say what has become of it..."

"Quoi?" exclaimed Nur-el-Din in genuine surprise, "comment?"

"Because," said Barbara, " a long black hair--one of your hairs--was found adhering to the straps with which I was fastened!"

"Tiens!" said the dancer, her black eyes wide with surprise, "tiens!"

She was silent for a minute, lost in thought. The man, Rass, suddenly cocked his ear towards the staircase and said something to Nur-el-Din in the same foreign tongue which Barbara had heard them employ before.

The dancer made a gesture, bidding him to be silent.

"He was at my dressing-table that night;" she murmured in French, as though to herself, "then it was he who did it!"