But he
could tell nothing more than he had already related. When doing
sentry-go immediately outside the gate of the Fort, the packet
had been slipped into the box, while the man was at the far end
of his beat. It was quite dark when this was done, and the
soldier confessed that he had not heard a sound, much less had he
seen anyone. The person who had brought the glorious gem had
watched his opportunity, and, soft-footed as a cat, had stolen
forward in the darkness to drop the precious parcel on the floor
of the sentry box. There the man had found it by the feel of his
feet, when he stepped in some time later to escape a shower. But
what time had elapsed from the placing of the parcel to its
discovery by the sentry it was impossible to say. It must,
however, as Random calculated, have been within the hour, since,
before then, it would not have been dark enough to hide the
approach of the person, whether male or female, who carried a
king's ransom in the brown paper parcel.
At first Random was inclined to place the sentry under arrest for
having failed so much in his duty as to allow anyone to approach
so near the Fort; but, as he had already reprimanded the man,
and, moreover, wished to keep the fact of the recovered jewel
quiet, he simply dismissed him.
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