The Mukaukas, who was lying deathly pale with colorless lips, scarcely opened his eyes at his son's greeting.

It might have been thought that a bier was waiting in the next room and that the mourners had assembled here.
The piece of work was only half unrolled, but Orion at once saw the spot whence its crowning glory was now missing--the large emerald which, as he alone could know, was on its way to Constantinople.

His theft had been discovered.

How fearful, how fatal might the issue be! "Courage, courage!" he said to himself.

"Only preserve your presence of mind.