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He opened his hand. The five-franc piece was gone.

“You see how easy it is! A working jeweller, with his nippers, cuts a ring with a date engraved upon it: 23rd of October. It’s a simple little trick of sleight-of-hand, one of many which I have in my bag. By Jove, I didn’t spend six months with Dickson, the conjurer,[C] for nothing!”

[C] The Exploits of Arsène Lupin. By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Cassell). IV. The Escape of Arsène Lupin.

“But then …?”

“Out with it!”

“The working jeweller?”

“Was Horace Velmont! Was good old Lupin! Leaving the countess at three o’clock in the morning, I employed the few remaining minutes before the husband’s return to have a look round his study. On the table I found the letter from the working jeweller. The letter gave me the address. A bribe of a few louis enabled me to take the workman’s place; and I arrived with a wedding-ring ready cut and engraved. Hocus-pocus! Pass!… The count couldn’t make head or tail of it.”

“Splendid!” I cried. And I added, a little chaffingly, in my turn, “But don’t you think that you were humbugged a bit yourself, on this occasion?”