"You are to open the locket.

Where is it ?--show it to us." And the locket which Captain Clubbe's wife had given to Dormer Colville was handed from one to another.

It was not of great value, but it was of gold with stones, long since discoloured, set in silver around it.

It was crushed and misshapen.
"It has never been opened for twenty years," they told each other.

"It has been mislaid in an obscure village in England for nearly half a century." "The Vicomte de Castel Aunet--who is so clever a mechanician--has promised to bring his tools," said Monsieur de Gemosac.