"The box stood in the middle of the room, near the foot of the bed of the Javanese envoy. It has been the custom of the envoy ever since leaving Java to sleep in the same room with the emerald. The steel box was wrapped in heavy paper as, according to the Javanese, it had been since leaving San Francisco, where the Javanese had been embarrassed by crowds which followed them upon the streets, attracted by the strange design of the box.
"This was the situation at eleven o'clock.
"About twelve the envoy was awakened by sounds of tearing paper and realized that some one was tearing the paper from the box. The noise was so loud and the tearing went on so heedlessly of the fact that he had moved that—in the darkness—he assumed that more than one man, enough to over-
