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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57236 ***
+
+
+
+
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+
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+
+
+THIEVES' WIT
+
+An Everyday Detective Story
+
+BY HULBERT FOOTNER
+
+
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+Publishers New York
+
+Published by arrangement with George H. Doran Company
+
+
+
+
+  _Copyright, 1918,
+  By George H. Doran Company_
+
+  _Printed in the United States of America_
+
+
+
+
+THIEVES' WIT
+
+
+
+1
+
+My first case!--with what an agreeable thrill a professional man
+repeats the words to himself.  With most men I believe it is as it was
+with me, not the case that he intrigues for and expects to get but
+something quite different, that drops out of Heaven unexpected and
+undeserved like most of the good things of life.
+
+Every now and then in an expansive moment I tell the story of my case,
+or part of it, whereupon something like the following invariably
+succeeds:
+
+"Why don't you write it down?"
+
+"I never learned the trade of writing."
+
+"But detective stories are so popular!"
+
+"Yes, because the detective is a romantic figure, a hero, gifted with
+almost superhuman keenness and infallibility.  Nobody ever accused me
+of being romantic.  I am only an ordinary fellow who plugs away like
+any other business man.  Every day I am up against it; I fall down;
+some crook turns a trick on me.  What kind of a story would that make?"
+
+"But that's what people want nowadays, the real thing, stories of the
+streets day by day."
+
+Well, I have succumbed.  Here goes for better or for worse.
+
+Before beginning I should explain that though it was my first case I
+was no longer in the first bloom of youth.  I was along in the thirties
+before I got my start and had lost a deal of hair from my cranium.
+This enabled me to pass for ten years older if I wished to, and still
+with the assistance of my friend Oscar Nilson the wig-maker I could
+make a presentable figure of youth and innocence.
+
+During my earlier days I had been a clerk in a railway freight office,
+a poor slave with only my dreams to keep me going.  My father had no
+sympathy with my aspirations to be a detective.  He was a close-mouthed
+and a close-fisted man.  But when he died, after having been kept on
+scanty rations for years, the old lady and I found ourselves quite
+comfortably off.
+
+I promptly shook the dust of the freight office from my feet and set
+about carrying some of the dreams into effect.  I rented a little
+office on Fortieth street (twenty dollars a month), furnished it
+discreetly, and had my name painted in neat characters on the frosted
+glass of the door: "B. Enderby"--no more.  Lord! how proud I was of the
+outfit.
+
+I bought a fire-proof document file for cases, and had some note-paper
+and cards printed in the same neat style:
+
+  B. ENDERBY
+  _Confidential Investigator_
+
+
+You see I wished to avoid the sensational.  I was not looking for any
+common divorce evidence business.  Since I had enough to exist on, I
+was determined to wait for important, high-priced, kid-glove cases.
+
+And I waited--more than a year in fact.  But it was a delightful time!
+Fellows were always dropping in to smoke and chin.  My little office
+became like our club.  You see I had missed all this when I was a boy.
+Any youngster who has ever been speeded up in a big clerical office
+will understand how good it was.  Meanwhile I studied crime in all its
+aspects.
+
+I worked, too, at another ambition which I shared with a few million of
+my fellow-creatures, viz.: to write a successful play.  I started a
+dozen and finished one.  I thought it was a wonder of brilliancy then.
+I have learned better.  In pursuance of this aim I had to attend the
+theatre a good deal, and from the top gallery I learned something about
+actors and actresses if not how to write a great play.
+
+I mention the play-writing for it was that which brought me my first
+case.  I used to haunt the office of a certain prominent play-broker
+who was always promising to read my play and never did.  One afternoon
+in the up-stairs corridor of the building where she had her offices I
+came face to face with the famous Irma Hamerton.
+
+Nowadays Irma is merely a tradition of loveliness and grace.
+Theatregoers of this date have nothing like her to rejoice their eyes.
+Then, to us humble fellows she stood for the rarest essence of life,
+the ideal, the unattainable--call it what you like.  Tall, slender and
+dark, with a voice that played on your heartstrings, she was one of the
+fortunate ones of earth.  She had always been a star, always an idol of
+the public.  Not only did I and my gang never miss a show in which she
+appeared, but we would sit up half the night afterwards talking about
+her.  None of us naturally had ever dreamed of seeing her face to face.
+
+We met at a corner of the corridor, and almost collided.  I forgot my
+manners entirely.  My eyes almost popped out of my head.  I wished to
+fix that moment in my life forever.  Imagine my confusion when I saw
+that she was crying, that glorious creature!--actually the tears were
+running down her soft cheeks like any common woman's.  Do you wonder
+that a kind of convulsion took place inside me?
+
+Seeing me, she quickly turned her head, but it was too late, I had
+already seen them stealing like diamonds down her cheeks.  I stared at
+her like a clown, and like a clown I blurted out without thinking:
+
+"Oh, what's the matter?"
+
+She didn't answer me, of course.  She merely hurried faster down the
+hall, and turned the next corner.
+
+When I realised what I had done I felt like butting my silly head
+through one of the glass partitions that lined the corridor.  I called
+myself all the names in my vocabulary.  I clean forgot my own errand in
+the building, and went back to my office muttering to myself in the
+streets like a lunatic.
+
+I was glad no one dropped in.  In my mind I went over the scene of the
+meeting a hundred times I suppose, and made up what I ought to have
+said and done, more ridiculous I expect than what had happened.  What
+bothered me was that she would think I was just a common fresh guy.  I
+couldn't rest under that.  So I started to write her a note.  I wrote
+half a dozen and tore them up.  The one I sent ran like this:--I blush
+to think of it now--
+
+
+MISS IRMA HAMERTON,
+
+DEAR MADAM:
+
+The undersigned met you in the corridor of the Manhattan Theatre
+Building this afternoon about three.  You seemed to be in distress, and
+I was so surprised I forgot myself and addressed you.  I beg that you
+will accept my apology for the seeming rudeness.  I have seen you in
+all your plays, many of them several times over, and I have received so
+much pleasure from your acting, and I respect you so highly that it is
+very painful to me to think that I may have added to your distress by
+my rudeness.  I assure you that it was only clumsiness, and not
+intentional rudeness.
+
+  Yours respectfully,
+      B. ENDERBY.
+
+
+The instant after I had posted this letter I would have given half I
+possessed to get it back again.  It suddenly occurred to me that it
+would only make matters worse.  Either it would seem like an
+impertinent attempt to pry into her private affairs, or a bold move to
+follow up my original rudeness.  A real gentleman would not have said
+anything about the tears, I told myself.  My cheeks got hot, but it was
+too late to recall the letter.  I was thoroughly miserable.  I did not
+tell any of my friends what had happened.
+
+That night I went alone to see her play.  Lost in her part of course
+and hidden under her makeup she betrayed nothing.  There was always a
+suggestion of sadness about her, even in comedy.  When that lovely deep
+voice trembled, a corresponding shiver went up and down your spine.
+
+I thought about her all the way home.  My detective instinct was
+aroused.  I tried to figure out what could be her trouble.  There are
+only four kinds of really desperate trouble: ill-health, death, loss of
+money, and unrequited love.  To look at her in the daylight without
+make-up was enough to dispose of the first.  It was said that she had
+no close relatives, therefore she couldn't have lost any recently.  As
+for money, surely with her earning capacity she had no need to trouble
+about that.  Finally, how could it be an affair of the heart?  Was
+there a man alive who would not have cast himself at her feet if she
+had turned a warm glance in his direction?  Rich, successful and adored
+as she was, I had to give it up.
+
+About five o'clock the next afternoon the surprise of my life was
+administered to me.  I received a large, square, buff-coloured envelope
+with a brown border, and written upon with brown ink in immense,
+angular characters.  On opening it my hand trembled with a delicious
+foreboding of what was inside, meanwhile better sense was telling me
+not to be a fool.  It contained a card on which was written:
+
+
+"_Miss Irma Hamerton will be glad to see Mr. B. Enderby if it will be
+convenient for him to call at the Hotel Rotterdam at noon on Thursday._"
+
+
+For a moment I stared at it, dazed.  Then I went up in the air.  I did
+a sort of war-dance around the office.  Finally I rushed out to the
+most fashionable outfitters to get a new suit before closing time.
+Thursday was the next day.
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+I had never been inside that exclusive of exclusive hotels, the
+Rotterdam.  I confess that my knees were a little infirm as I went
+through the swing doors, and passed before the nonchalant, indifferent
+eyes of the handsome footmen in blue liveries.  "Ahh, they're only
+overgrown bell-hops!" I told myself encouragingly, and fixed the
+Marquis behind the desk with a haughty stare.
+
+Walking in a dream I presently found myself being shown into a corner
+room high up in the building.  I was left there alone, and I had a
+chance to look around.  I had never seen anything like it, except on
+the stage.  It was decorated in what I think they call the Empire
+style, with walls of white panelled wood, picked out with gold, and
+pretty, curiously shaped furniture.  Everywhere there were great
+bunches of pink roses, picked that morning, you could see, with petals
+still moist.  It smelled like Heaven might.
+
+That was all I had time to take in when the door opened, and she
+entered.  She was wearing a pink lacy sort of thing that went with the
+roses.  She didn't mind me, of course.  She was merely polite and
+casual.  But just the same I could see that she was deeply troubled
+about something.  Trouble makes a woman's eyes big.  Makes a beautiful
+woman twice as beautiful.
+
+She went to the point as straight as a bullet.
+
+"I suppose you are wondering why I sent for you?"
+
+I confessed that I was.
+
+"It was the heading on your letter paper.  What do you mean by
+'confidential investigator'--a detective?"
+
+"Something a little better than an ordinary detective, I hope."
+
+She switched to another track.  "Why did you write to me?"
+
+This took me by surprise.  "There was no reason--except what the letter
+said," I stammered.
+
+Several other questions followed, by which I saw she was trying to get
+a line on me.  I offered her references.  She accepted them
+inattentively.
+
+"It doesn't matter so much what other people think of you," she said.
+"I have to make up my mind about you for myself.  Tell me more about
+yourself."
+
+"I'm not much of a hand at the brass instruments," I said.  "Please ask
+me questions."
+
+This seemed to please her.  After some further inquiries she said
+simply: "I wrote to you because it seemed to me from your letter that
+you had a good heart.  I need that perhaps more than detective skill.
+I live in a blaze of publicity.  I am surrounded by flatterers.  The
+pushing, thick-skinned sort of people force themselves close to me, and
+the kind that I like avoid me, I fear.  I am not sure of whom I can
+trust.  I am very sure that if I put my business in the hands of the
+regular people it would soon become a matter of common knowledge."
+
+Her simplicity and sadness affected me deeply.  I could do nothing but
+protest my honesty and my devotion.
+
+"I am satisfied," she said at last.  "Are you very busy at present?"
+
+"Tolerably," I said with a busy air.  It would never have done to let
+her think otherwise.
+
+"I would like you to take my case," she said with an enchanting note of
+appeal, "but it would have to be on the condition that you attended to
+it yourself, solely.  I would have to ask you to agree not to delegate
+any part of it to even the most trusted of your employees."
+
+This was easy, since I didn't have any.
+
+"You must, please, further agree not to take any steps without
+consulting me in advance, and you must not mind--perhaps I might call
+the whole thing off at any moment.  But of course I would pay you."
+
+I quickly agreed to the conditions.
+
+"I have been robbed of a pearl necklace," she said with an air of
+infinite sadness.
+
+I did not need to be told that there was more in this than the ordinary
+actress'-stolen-jewels case.  Irma Hamerton didn't need that kind of
+advertising.  She was morbidly anxious that there should be no
+advertising in this.
+
+"It was a single strand of sixty-seven black pearls ranging in size
+from a currant down to a pea.  They were perfectly matched, and each
+stone had a curious, bluish cast, which is, I believe, quite rare.  As
+jewels go nowadays, it was not an exceptionally valuable necklace,
+worth about twenty-six thousand dollars.  It represented my entire
+savings.  I have a passion for pearls.  These were exceptionally
+perfect and beautiful.  They were the result of years of search and
+selection.  Jewellers call them blue pearls.  I will show you what they
+looked like."
+
+She went into the adjoining room for a moment, returning with a string
+of dusky, gleaming pearls hanging from her hand.  They were lovely
+things.  My unaccustomed eyes could not distinguish the blue in them
+until she pointed it out.  It was like the last gleam of light in the
+evening sky.
+
+"The lost necklace was exactly like this," she said.
+
+"Had you two?" I asked in surprise.
+
+She smiled a little.  "These are artificial."
+
+I suppose I looked like the fool I felt.
+
+"A very natural mistake," she said.  "Some time ago my jeweler advised
+me not to wear the real pearls on the stage, so I had this made by
+Roberts.  The resemblance was so perfect that I could scarcely tell the
+difference myself.  It was only by wearing them that I could be sure."
+
+"By wearing them?" I repeated.
+
+"The warmth of my body caused the real pearls to gleam with a deeper
+lustre."
+
+"Lucky pearls!" I thought.
+
+"They almost seemed alive," she went on with a kind of passionate
+regret.  "The artificial pearls show no change, of course.  And they
+have to be renewed in a short time."
+
+I asked for the circumstances of the robbery.
+
+"It was at the theatre," she said.  "It occurred on the night of
+February 14th."
+
+"Six weeks ago!" I exclaimed in dismay.  "The trail is cold!"
+
+"I know," she said deprecatingly.  "I do not expect a miracle."
+
+I asked her to go on.
+
+"I had an impulse to wear the genuine pearls that night.  I got them
+out of the safe deposit vault in the afternoon.  When I saw the real
+and the artificial together I was afraid of making a mistake, so I made
+a little scratch on the clasp of the real strand.  I wear them in the
+first act.  I have to leave them off in the second act, when I appear
+in a nurse's uniform, also in the third when I am supposed to be ill.
+In the fourth act I wear them again.
+
+"On the night in question I wore the real pearls in the first act.  I
+am sure of that, because they were glowing wonderfully when I took them
+off--as if there was a tiny fire in each stone.  I put them in the
+pocket of the nurse's uniform and carried them on the stage with me
+during the second act.  In the third act I was obliged to leave them in
+my dressing-room, because in this act I am shown in bed.  But I thought
+they would be safe in the pocket of the dress I took off."
+
+"The instant I returned to my dressing-room, I got them out and put
+them on, suspecting nothing wrong.  It was not until after the final
+curtain that upon taking them off, I was struck by their dullness.  I
+looked for my little mark on the clasp.  It was not there.  I found I
+had two strings of artificial pearls."
+
+I asked her the obvious questions.  "Did you have any special reason
+for wearing the genuine pearls that night?"
+
+"None, except that I loved them.  I loved to handle them.  They were so
+alive!  I was afraid they might lose their life if I never wore them."
+
+Somehow, I was not fully satisfied with this answer.  But for the
+present I let it go.
+
+"Was any one with you when you got them out of the safety deposit box?"
+I asked.
+
+"I was quite alone."
+
+"Did any one know you were wearing them that night?"
+
+"No one."
+
+"Were there any strangers on the stage?"
+
+"No.  My manager at my request is very particular as to that.  I have
+been so annoyed by well-meaning people.  No one is admitted.  In this
+production the working force behind is small.  I can give you the name
+of every person who was on the stage that night."
+
+"Has any one connected with the company left since then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Who has the entrée to your dressing-room while you are on the stage?"
+
+"Only my maid.  But she is not expected to remain there every moment.
+Indeed, on the night in question I remember seeing her watching the
+scene from the first entrance."
+
+"During which time your room was unlocked?"
+
+"Very likely.  But the door to it was immediately behind her."
+
+"Have you any reason to suspect her?"
+
+"None whatever.  She's been with me four years.  Still, I do not except
+her from your investigation."
+
+"Does she know of your loss?"
+
+"No one in the world knows of it but you and I."
+
+"And the thief," I added.
+
+She winced.  I was unable to ascribe a reason for it.
+
+"Do you care to tell me why you waited six weeks before deciding to
+look for the thief?" I asked as gently as possible.
+
+"My jeweller--who is also an old friend, has secured three more blue
+pearls," she answered quickly.  "He has asked me for the necklace, so
+that he can add them to it.  I cannot put him off much longer without
+confessing that I have lost it."
+
+"But shouldn't we tell him that it has been stolen?" I asked surprised.
+
+She energetically shook her head.
+
+"But jewellers have an organisation for the recovery of stolen jewels,"
+I persisted.  "The only way we can prevent the thief from realising on
+the pearls is by having the loss published throughout the trade."
+
+"I can't consent to that," she said with painfully compressed lips.  "I
+want you to make your investigation first."
+
+"Do you mind telling me who is your jeweller?"
+
+"Mr. Alfred Mount."
+
+"If you could only tell me why he must not be told," I insinuated.
+
+She still shook her head.  "A woman's reason," she murmured, avoiding
+my glance.
+
+"You know, of course, how you increase my difficulties by withholding
+part of your confidence."
+
+There was a little tremble in her lovely throat.  "Don't make me sorry
+I asked you to help me," she said.
+
+I bowed.
+
+"See what you can do in spite of it," she said wistfully.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+I need not take the space to put down all the operations of my early
+reasoning on the case.  I had plenty to think about.  But every avenue
+my thoughts followed was blocked sooner or later by a blank wall.
+Never in my whole experience have I been asked to take up such a blind
+trail--and this was my first case, remember.  Six weeks lost beyond
+recall!  It was discouraging.
+
+I narrowed myself down to two main theories:
+
+(a) The pearls had been stolen by experienced specialists after long
+and careful plotting or,
+
+(b) They had been picked up on impulse by a man or woman dazzled by
+their beauty.  In this case the thief would most likely hoard them and
+gloat over them in secret.
+
+Not the least puzzling factor in the case was my client herself.  It
+was clear that she had been passionately attached to her pearls; she
+spoke of them always in almost a poetic strain.  Yet there was a
+personal note of anguish in her grief which even the loss of her
+treasure was not sufficient to explain.  She was a quiet woman.  And
+strangest of all, she seemed to be more bent on finding out who had
+taken them, than on getting them back again.  She had waited six weeks
+before acting at all, and now she hedged me around with so many
+conditions that the prospect of success was nil.
+
+I had an intuition which warned me that if I wished to remain friends
+with her I had better be careful whom I accused of the crime.  It was a
+puzzler whichever way you looked at it.  However, an investigator must
+not allow himself to dwell on the hopelessness of his whole tangle, but
+must set to work on a thread at a time.  Whichever way it turned out, I
+was to have the delight for a long time to come of seeing her
+frequently.
+
+I was there again the next afternoon.  This day I remember the room was
+fragrant with the scent of great bowls of violets.  The lovely
+dark-haired mistress of the place looked queenly in a dress of purple
+and silver.  As always when there were a number of people around she
+was composed in manner, one might say a little haughty.
+
+There was quite a crowd.  It included a middle-aged lady, a Mrs.
+Bleecker, a little over-dressed for her age and envious-looking.  She,
+it transpired, was Miss Hamerton's companion or chaperon.  The only
+other woman was a sister star, a handsome, blonde woman older than Miss
+Hamerton, very affectionate and catty.  I have forgotten her name.  The
+men were of various types.  Among them I remember the editor of a
+prominent newspaper, a well-known playwright and Mr. Roland Quarles.
+The latter was Miss Hamerton's leading man.  He looked quite as
+handsome and young off the stage as on, but seemed morose.
+
+Miss Hamerton introduced me all around in her casual way, and left me
+to sink or swim by my own efforts.  None of the people put themselves
+out to be agreeable to me.  I could see that each was wondering
+jealously where I came in.  However, since I had a right to be there, I
+didn't let it trouble me.  This is life!  I told myself, and kept my
+eyes and ears open.  I was not long in discovering that these
+"brilliant" people chattered about as foolishly as the humblest I knew.
+Only my beautiful young lady was always dignified and wistful.  She let
+others do the talking.
+
+I stubbornly outstayed them all.  The men very reluctantly left me in
+possession of the field.  As for the lady companion I saw in her eye
+that she was determined to learn what I had come for.  However, Miss
+Hamerton coolly disposed of her by asking her to entertain a newcomer
+in the next room while she talked business with me.
+
+These people wearied her.  She relaxed when they had gone.  She said to
+me: "I had you shown right up because I want my friends to become
+accustomed to seeing you.  I hope you did not mind."
+
+I replied that I was delighted.
+
+"I suppose I ought to account for you in some way," she went on, "or
+their curiosity will run riot.  What would you suggest?"
+
+"Oh, let them suppose that I am a playwright whose work you are
+interested in."
+
+She accepted the idea.  How delightful it was for me to share secrets
+with her!
+
+My particular purpose in making this call was to urge her again to take
+the jeweller into her confidence.  I pointed out to her that we could
+hope to do nothing unless we blocked the thief from disposing of the
+pearls.  Very reluctantly she finally consented, stipulating, however,
+that the jeweller must be told that she had just discovered her loss.
+I explained to her that we must look back to make sure that the jewels
+had not already been offered for sale, but on this point she stood
+firm.  She gave me a note of introduction to Mr. Alfred Mount.
+
+I delivered it the following morning.  At this time Mount's was the
+very last word in fashion.  It was a smallish store but most richly
+fitted up, on one of the best corners of the avenue, up near the
+cathedral.  Every one of the salesmen had the air of a younger son of
+the aristocracy.  They dealt only in precious stones, none of your
+common stuff like gold or silver.
+
+I was shown into a private office at the back, a gem of a private
+office, exquisite and simple.  And in Mr. Alfred Mount I saw that I had
+a notable man.  One guessed that he would have been a big man in any
+line.  So far I knew him only as one of the city's leading jewellers.
+By degrees I learned that his interests were widespread.
+
+He was a man of about fifty who looked younger, owing to his flashing
+dark eyes, and his lips, full and crimson as a youth's.  In a general
+way he had a foreign look, though you couldn't exactly place him as a
+Frenchman, an Italian or a Spaniard.  It was only, I suppose, that he
+wore his black hair and curly beard a little more luxuriantly than a
+good American.  His manner was of the whole world.
+
+My involuntary first impression was dead against the man.  He was too
+much in character with the strange little orchid that decorated his
+buttonhole.  Later I decided that this was only my Anglo-Saxon
+narrowness.  True, he kept a guard on his bright eyes, and his red lips
+were firmly closed--but do we not all have to train our features?  He
+was a jeweller who earned his bread by kow-towing to the rich.  My own
+face was not an open book, yet I considered myself a fairly honest
+creature.
+
+He read my letter of introduction which stated that I would explain my
+business to him.  Upon his asking what that was I told him quietly that
+Miss Hamerton had been robbed of her pearls.
+
+He started in his chair, and pierced me through and through with those
+brilliant black eyes.
+
+"Give me the facts!" he snapped.
+
+I did so.
+
+"But you," he said impatiently, "I don't know you."
+
+I offered him my card, and explained that Miss Hamerton had retained my
+services.
+
+He was silent for a few moments, chewing his moustache.  It was
+impossible to guess what was going on behind the mask of his features.
+Suddenly he started to cross-question me like a criminal lawyer.  How
+long had I been in business?  Was I accustomed to handling big cases?
+Had I any financial standing?  What references could I give?  And so
+on, and so on.
+
+My patience finally gave way under it.  "I beg your pardon," I said
+stiffly.  "I recognise the right of only one person to examine me in
+this manner.  That is my client."
+
+He pulled himself together, and, I must say, apologised handsomely.
+Like all big men he was often surprisingly frank.  "Forgive me," he
+said winningly.  "You are quite right.  I am terribly upset by your
+news.  I forgot myself.  I confess, too, I am hurt that Miss Hamerton
+should have acted in this matter without first consulting me.  I am a
+very old friend."
+
+I was glad she had done so, for something told me I never should have
+got the job from him.  I did not tell him how she had come to engage
+me, though he gave me several openings to do so.
+
+"I am not a narrow man," he said in his best manner.  "I will not hold
+it against you.  Only show me that you are the man for the job, and I
+will aid you with all my power."
+
+I accepted the olive branch.  "I spoke too hastily myself," I returned.
+"I shall be glad to tell you anything you want to know about myself."
+
+We basked in the rays of mutual politeness for a while.  Still that
+instinctive dislike of the man would not quite down.  He asked no more
+personal questions.
+
+"Have the police been notified?" he enquired.
+
+"Miss Hamerton imposes absolute secrecy."
+
+"Quite so," he said quickly.  "That is wise."
+
+I had my doubts of it, but I didn't air them.
+
+"Have you any clues?" he asked.
+
+"None as yet."
+
+"What do you want me to do?"
+
+"To publish the loss through the channels of the trade, with the
+request that if any attempt is made to dispose of the pearls we should
+instantly be notified.  The owner's name, and the circumstances of the
+robbery must be kept secret."
+
+"Very good," he said, making a memo on a pad.  "I will attend to it at
+once, and discreetly.  Is there anything else I can do?"
+
+"I hoped that with your knowledge of jewels and the jewel market you
+could give me something to work on," I said.
+
+"All I know is at your command," said he.  He talked at length about
+jewels and jewel thieves, but it was all in generalities.  There was
+nothing that I could get my teeth into.  He gave it as his opinion that
+the pearls were already on their way abroad, perhaps to India.
+
+"Then you think that the robbery was engineered by experts?"
+
+He spread out his expressive hands.  "How can I tell?"
+
+We parted with mutual expressions of good will.  I said, "I expect I
+shall have to come often to you for help."
+
+"I expect you to," he said earnestly.  "I want you to.  Myself and my
+establishment are at your service.  Let no question of expense hamper
+you."
+
+I found later that he really meant this.  I was, however, very
+reluctant to draw on him.
+
+When I saw Miss Hamerton the next day I asked her a question or two
+concerning Mr. Alfred Mount with the object of finding out if he were
+really such an old friend as he made out.
+
+"I have always known him," she said simply.  "That I happen to buy
+things from him is merely incidental.  He was a friend of my father's
+and he is a very good friend to me.  He has proved it more than once."
+
+I was tempted to ask: "Then why were you so reluctant to take him into
+your confidence?"  But I reflected that since she had already refused
+to tell me, I had better keep my mouth shut, and find out otherwise.
+
+"Mr. Mount asked if we had notified the police," I said, merely to see
+how she would take it.
+
+I regretted it.  Her expression of pain and terror went to my heart.
+She was no longer the remote and lovely goddess, but only a suffering
+woman.
+
+"Oh, you did not, you have not?" she stammered.
+
+"Certainly not," I said quickly.  "I knew you didn't wish it."
+
+She turned away to recover herself.  What was I to make of it?  One
+would almost have said that she was a party to the theft of her own
+jewels.
+
+And yet only a few minutes later she burst out in a passionate plea to
+me to discover the thief.
+
+"It tortures me!" she cried, "the suspense, the uncertainty!  This
+atmosphere of doubt and suspicion is suffocating!  I wish I never had
+had any pearls!  I wish I were a farmer's daughter or a mill girl!
+Please, _please_ settle it one way or the other.  I shall never have a
+quiet sleep until I _know_!"
+
+"Know what?" I asked quietly.
+
+But she made believe not to have heard me.
+
+
+
+
+4
+
+I spent the next two or three days in quiet work here and there.  The
+most considerable advance I made was in picking an acquaintance with
+McArdle, the property man of Miss Hamerton's company.  Watching the
+stage door I discovered that the working-force behind the scenes
+frequented the back room of a saloon on Sixth avenue for lunch after
+the show.  The rest was easy.  By the third night McArdle and I were on
+quite a confidential footing.
+
+From him I heard any amount of gossip.  McArdle was of the garrulous,
+emotional type and very free with his opinions.  The star was the only
+one he spared.  From his talk I got the principal members of the
+company fixed in my mind.  Beside Mr. Quarles there was George
+Casanova, the heavy man, a well-known actor but, according to McArdle,
+a loud-mouthed, empty braggart, and Richard Richards, the character
+heavy, a silly old fool, he said, devoured by vanity.  Among the women
+the next in importance after the star was Miss Beulah Maddox, the heavy
+lady, who in the opinion of my amiable informant giggled and ogled like
+a sewing-machine girl, and she forty if she was a day.
+
+Discreet questioning satisfied me that McArdle was quite unaware that a
+robbery had been committed in the theatre.  If he didn't know it,
+certainly it was not known.
+
+Out of bushels of gossip I sifted now and then a grain of valuable
+information.  He informed me that Roland Quarles was in love with the
+star.  For some reason that I could not fathom he was especially bitter
+against the young leading man.  He would rail against him by the hour,
+but there seemed to be no solid basis for his dislike.
+
+"Does she favour him?" I asked.
+
+"Nah!" he said.  "She's got too much sense.  He's a four-flusher, a
+counter-jumper, a hall-room boy!  Lord! the airs he gives himself you'd
+think he had a million a year!  He's a tail-ender with her, and he
+knows it.  He's sore."
+
+"Who seems to be ahead of him?" I asked with strong curiosity.
+
+"There's a dozen regulars," said McArdle.  "Two Pittsburgh
+millionaires, a newspaper editor, a playwright and so on.  But if you
+ask me, the jeweller is ahead in the running."
+
+"The jeweller?" I said, pricking up my ears.
+
+"Spanish looking gent with whiskers," said McArdle.  "Keeps a swell
+joint on the avenue.  Mount, his name is.  He's a wise guy, does the
+old family friend act, see?  He's a liberal feller.  I hope he gets
+her."
+
+This bit of information gave me food for thought.  I thought it
+explained my intuitive dislike of Mount.  The thought of that old
+fellow presuming to court the exquisite Irma made me hot under the
+collar.
+
+I went to the store of Roberts, the manufacturer of artificial pearls.
+This place was as well-known in its way as Mount's, since Roberts had
+sued the Duke of Downshire and the public had learned that the pearls
+His Grace had presented to Miss Van Alstine on the occasion of their
+marriage were--phony.  It also was a very fancy establishment but like
+its wares, on a much less expensive scale.
+
+I fell in with a sociable and talkative young salesman, who at my
+request showed me a whole tray full of pearl necklaces.  Among them I
+spotted another replica of Miss Hamerton's beautiful string.
+
+"What's this?" I asked carelessly.
+
+"Blue pearls," he rattled off.  "Latest smart novelty.  A hit.  Mrs.
+Minturn Vesey had one sent up only yesterday.  She wore it to the opera
+last night."
+
+"There isn't such a thing really as a blue pearl, is there?" I asked
+idly.
+
+"Certainly.  These are copies of genuine stones like all our stock.
+Some time ago a customer sent in the real necklace to have it copied,
+like they all do.  This was such a novelty Mr. Roberts had a pattern
+made and put them on sale.  It's a winner!"
+
+"I wouldn't want a thing everybody had bought," I said.
+
+"I don't mean everybody," he said.  "But just a few of the very
+smartest.  It's too expensive for everybody.  Seven hundred and fifty.
+The original is priceless."
+
+"How many have you sold?"
+
+"About ten."
+
+"Who else bought them?"
+
+He reeled off a string of fashionable names.
+
+"That's only six."
+
+"The others were sold over the counter."
+
+The affable youngster was a little aggrieved when I left without buying.
+
+Mr. Mount was both surprised and deeply chagrined when I told him that
+exact replicas of Miss Hamerton's pearls were to be had at Roberts' by
+anybody with the price.  He didn't see how he could stop it either.  It
+appeared there was a standing feud between Roberts and the fashionable
+jewellers, in which Roberts had somewhat the advantage because the
+regular trade was obliged to employ him.  No one else could make such
+artificial pearls.
+
+With Mr. Mount's assistance I had the sales of the replicas quietly
+traced.  Nothing resulted from this.  All but two of the sales were to
+persons above suspicion.  These two had been sold over the counter, one
+to a man, one to a woman, and as the transactions were over two months
+old, I could not get a working description of the buyers.
+
+On another occasion I went into Dunsany's, the largest and best-known
+jewelry store in America, if not in the world, and asked to see some
+one who could give me some information about pearls.  I was steered up
+to a large, pale gentleman wearing glasses, very elegantly dressed, of
+course.  I put on my most youthful and engaging manner.  I heard him
+addressed as Mr. Freer.
+
+"Look here," I said, "I expect you'll want to have me thrown out for
+bothering you, but I'm in a hole."
+
+My smile disarmed him.  "What can I do for you?" he asked impressively.
+
+"I'm a fiction writer," I said.  "I'm writing a story about blue
+pearls, and somebody told me there was no such thing.  Was he right?"
+
+"Sometimes the black pearl has a bluish light in it," said Mr. Freer.
+"But it would take an expert to distinguish it.  Such pearls are called
+blue pearls in the trade."
+
+"I suppose you haven't got one you could show me?" I said.
+
+He shook his head.  "They rarely come into the market.  There is only
+one place in New York where they may be found."
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"Mount's.  Mr. Alfred Mount has a hobby for collecting them.  Naturally
+when a blue pearl appears it is generally offered first to him.  You'd
+better go to see him.  He knows more about blue pearls than any man in
+the world."
+
+"One more question?" I said cajolingly, "in my story I have to imagine
+the existence of a necklace of sixty-seven blue pearls ranging in size
+from a currant down to a pea, all perfectly matched, perfect in form
+and lustre.  If there was such a thing what would it be worth?"
+
+When I described the necklace I received a mild shock, for the pale
+eyes of the man who was watching me suddenly contracted like a
+frightened animal's.  The muscles of his large pale face never moved,
+but I saw the eyes bolt.  He smiled stiffly.
+
+"I couldn't say," he said.  "Its value would be fabulous."
+
+"But give me some idea," I said, "just for the sake of the story."
+
+He moistened his lips.  "Oh, say half a million," he said.  "It would
+not be too much."
+
+I swallowed my astonishment, and thanked him, and made my way out.
+
+Here was more food for cogitation.  Why should a few idle questions
+throw the pearl expert at Dunsany's into such visible agitation?  I had
+to give it up.  Perhaps it was a twinge of indigestion or a troublesome
+corn.  Anyhow I lost sight of it in the greater discovery.  Half a
+million for the necklace, and Miss Hamerton had told me that buying it
+pearl by pearl it had cost her little more than twenty-five thousand!
+
+
+Meanwhile there was an idea going through my head that I had not quite
+nerve enough to open to my client.  It must be remembered that though I
+was making strides, I was still green at my business.  I was not nearly
+so sure of myself as my manner might have led you to suppose.  To my
+great joy Miss Hamerton herself broached the subject.
+
+One afternoon she said, apropos of nothing that had gone before: "I'm
+sorry now that I introduced you to my friends.  Though I do not see how
+I could have seen you without their knowing it."
+
+"Why sorry?" I asked.
+
+She went on with charming diffidence--how was one to resist her when
+she pleaded with an humble air: "I have thought--if it would not tie
+you down too closely--that you might take a minor rôle in my company."
+
+My heart leaped--but of course I was not going to betray my eagerness
+if I could help it.
+
+"As to your friends having seen me," I said, "that doesn't make any
+difference.  Disguise is part of my business."
+
+"Then will you?" she eagerly asked.
+
+I made believe to consider it doubtfully.  "It would tie me down!" I
+said.
+
+"Oh, I hope you can arrange it!" she said.
+
+"Could it be managed without exciting comment in the company?"
+
+"Easily.  I have thought it all out.  I have an assistant stage manager
+who plays a small part.  By increasing his duties behind, I can in a
+perfectly natural way make it necessary to engage somebody to play his
+bit.  I shall not appear in the matter."
+
+"I have had no experience," I objected.
+
+"I will coach you."
+
+Could I resist that?
+
+"It would be better to put in an operative."
+
+"Oh, no!  No one but you!"
+
+"Well, I'll manage it somehow," I said.
+
+She sighed with relief, and started that moment to coach me.
+
+"You are a thug, a desperate character.  You appear in only one scene,
+a cellar dimly lighted, so you will not be conspicuous from in front.
+You must practise speaking in a throaty, husky growl."
+
+In order to prolong the delightful lessons I made out to be a little
+stupider than I was.
+
+I was engaged the next day but one through a well-known theatrical
+agent where Miss Hamerton had instructed me to apply for a job.  Just
+how she contrived it I can't say, but I know I came into the company
+without anybody suspecting that it was upon the star's recommendation.
+In the theatre, of course, she ignored me.
+
+Two nights later I made my debut.  Mine was such a very small part no
+one in the company paid any attention to me, but for me it was a big
+occasion, I can tell you.  In the way of business I have faced death on
+several occasions with a quieter heart than I had upon first marching
+out into view of that thousand-headed creature across the footlights.
+With the usual egotism of the amateur I was sure they were all waiting
+to guy me.  But they didn't.  I spoke my half dozen lines without
+disaster.  I felt as if the real me was sitting up in the flies
+watching his body act down below.  Indeed, I could write several
+chapters upon my sensations that night, but as somebody else has said,
+that is another story.
+
+What is more important is the discovery of my first piece of evidence.
+
+At the end of the performance I was crossing the quiet stage on my way
+out of the theatre, when I saw a group of stage-hands and some of the
+minor members of the company by the stage-door with their heads
+together over a piece of paper.  I joined the group, taking care not to
+bring myself forward.  Another happened along, and he asked for me:
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+Richards answered: "McArdle here found a piece of paper on the stage
+with funny writing on it.  It's a mystery like."
+
+"Let's have a squint at it," said the newcomer.
+
+I looked over his shoulder.  It was a single sheet of cheap note-paper
+of the style they call "dimity."  It had evidently been torn from a
+pad.  It seemed to be the last of several sheets of a letter, and it
+was written in a cryptogram which made my mouth water.  I may say that
+I have a passion for this kind of a puzzle.  I give it as I first saw
+it:
+
+
+  &FQZZDRR CV REW RIPN PFRBQ AT HXV
+  DGGZT EP FOBQ IVTCVMXK SJQ TZXD EA
+  TJTI ZK.
+
+  S CEDBBWYB SWOCNA VMD Y&F GC AVSNY
+  NCA &MW&M&L.  HZF EDM HYW ZUM IKQ
+  BSCOAIIQVV ZXK FJOP WOD.  KWX DWVXJ.
+  LEE FVTHV G&HJT LSZAND EBCC BFKY NCAFP
+  VEDFSF.  BSQ ZWVXJ YXM II PL GC DCR FPBV
+  EA&BO ULS RLZQ WB NELJ KZNEDLKDUAA.
+  CSQVE VDEV-FBACP!  S'WX OS QQTB EHHZXV.
+
+  J.
+
+
+I had no proof on beholding this meaningless assortment of letters that
+it had anything to do with my case, but I had a hunch.  The question
+was how to get possession of it without showing my hand.  I kept silent
+for a while, and let the discussion rage as to the proper way to
+translate it.
+
+My excitable friend McArdle (who did not know me, of course, in my
+present character), naturally as the finder of the paper took a leading
+part in the discussion.  The principals of the company had not yet
+emerged from their dressing-rooms.  My opportunity came when McArdle
+stated in his positive way that it was a code, and that it was not
+possible to translate it without having the code-book.
+
+"A code is generally regular words," I suggested mildly, as became the
+newest and humblest member of the company.  "Nobody would ever think up
+these crazy combinations of letters.  I should say it was a cryptogram."
+
+McArdle wouldn't acknowledge that he didn't know what a cryptogram was,
+but somebody else asked.
+
+"Substituting one letter for another according to a numerical key," I
+said.  "Easy enough to translate it if you can hit on the key."
+
+One thing led to another and soon came the inevitable challenge.
+
+"Bet you a dollar you can't read it!" cried McArdle.
+
+I hung back until the whole crowd joined him in taunting me.
+
+"Put up or shut up!" cried McArdle.
+
+The upshot was that we each deposited a dollar with old Tom the
+door-keeper, and I took the paper home.
+
+It was the most ingenious and difficult cryptogram I ever tackled.  The
+sun was up before I got it.  It was a richer prize than I had hoped
+for.  Here it is:
+
+
+"disposed of and your share of the money is here whenever you want to
+get it.
+
+I strongly advise you not to leave the company.  You say she has not
+discovered her loss.  All right.  But these phony pearls soon lose
+their lustre.  She might get on to it the same night you hand in your
+resignation.  Then good-night.  I'll be back Monday.  J."*
+
+
+* For the benefit of those of curious minds I will give the key to the
+cryptogram.  The simplest form of this kind of puzzle is that in which
+every letter has a certain other letter to stand for it.  It may be the
+one before it, the one after it, or a purely arbitrary substitution.
+In any case the same letter always has the same alias.  That is child's
+play to solve.  I soon discovered that I was faced by something more
+complex.  Observe that in one place "night" appears as EA&BO, whereas
+in the next line it is FBACP.  "Company" masqueraded in this
+extraordinary form: &MW&M&L.  Here was a jawbreaker!  To make a long
+story short I discovered after hundreds of experiments that the first
+letter of the first word of each sentence was ten letters in advance of
+the one set down; the second letter eleven letters ahead, and so on up
+to twenty-five, then begin over from ten.  With each sentence however
+short the writer began afresh from ten.  He added to the complications
+by including the character & as the twenty-seventh letter of the
+alphabet.  The fragmentary sentence at the top of the page held me up
+for a long time until I discovered that the first letter was
+twenty-three numbers in advance of the right one.  Several mistakes on
+the part of the writer added to my difficulties.
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+In my experience I have found in adopting a disguise that it is no less
+important to change the character than the personal appearance.  As the
+new member of Miss Hamerton's company I called myself William Faxon.  I
+appeared as a shabby, genteel little fellow with lanky hair and
+glasses.  The glasses were removed only when I went on the stage in the
+dark scene.  On top of my bald spot I wore a kind of transformation
+that my friend Oscar Nilson furnished.  It combed into my own hair, was
+sprinkled with grey and made me look like a man on the shady side of
+forty somewhat in need of a barber.  The character I assumed was that
+of a gentle, friendly little party who agreed with everybody.  The
+people of the company mostly despised me and made me a receptacle for
+their egotistical outpourings.  They little guessed how they bored me.
+
+When I joined the company it had been agreed between Miss Hamerton and
+I that thereafter she had better come to the office to hear my reports.
+It was her custom to call nearly every afternoon about five.  She
+insisted on hearing every detail of my activities, and listened to the
+story from day to day with the same anxious interest.
+
+Since she had first broken out in my presence she seemed not to mind to
+show her feelings to me.  Indeed I guessed that it was a kind of relief
+to the high-strung woman who was always in the limelight, to let
+herself go a little.  Her implied confidence was very gratifying to me.
+She never gave me the key to her anxiety in so many words, but by this
+time I was beginning to guess the explanation, as I suppose you are,
+too.
+
+When I had deciphered the cryptogram I went to bed in high
+satisfaction.  I knew then that I was on the right track.  The man (or
+woman) I was after was in Miss Hamerton's company.  I slept until
+afternoon.  Miss Hamerton had expected not to come that day so I called
+her up to say I had news.  She said she couldn't come, but the coast
+was clear, and could I come to her?
+
+I found her pale and distrait.  "Not bad news?" she asked
+apprehensively.  "I'm not equal to it!"
+
+"But how do I know what is bad and good to you?" I objected.
+
+She ignored the complaint.
+
+When I explained the circumstances of the finding of the cryptogram,
+and showed her my translation I received another surprise.  A sigh
+escaped her; an expression of beatific relief and gladness came into
+her face.  The roses returned to her cheeks.  She jumped up.
+
+"You're a welcome messenger!" she cried.  "Oh, I'm happy now!  I won't
+worry any more!  I know!"
+
+I suppose I looked blank.  She laughed at me.  "Don't mind me!" she
+begged.  "You're on the right track!  You'll soon know everything!"
+
+She moved around the room humming to herself like a happy girl.  She
+buried her face in a bowl of roses and caressed them tenderly.  "If I
+knew who had sent them," I thought, "perhaps it would give me a clue."
+But what had the cryptogram to do with it?
+
+Suddenly to my surprise she said: "Stay and have dinner with me here,
+Mr. Enderby.  I was going to a party, but I will send regrets.  I don't
+want to be with any of them!  I'm so happy!  I would either have to
+hide it, or explain it.  I want to be myself for a while."
+
+I did not require much persuasion.  It was like dining in Fairyland!
+By tacit consent we avoided any reference to the case.  I shall never
+forget that hour as long as I live.  We were alone, for the unpleasant
+Mrs. Bleecker thinking that Miss Hamerton was dining out, had gone off
+to some friends of hers.
+
+Afterwards I went home to disguise myself, and then proceeded to the
+theatre.  I had already photographed the cryptogram, and put the
+negative in my safe.  McArdle was lying in wait for me, and I allowed
+him to drag it out of me, that I had not been able to translate it.  He
+collected the stakes in high glee.
+
+The paper was passed from hand to hand until it literally fell to
+pieces.  No one could make anything of it of course.  I encouraged the
+talk and helped circulate the paper, and watched from behind my
+innocent pieces of window-glass for some one to betray himself.  But I
+saw nothing.  The conviction was forced on me that I had a mighty
+clever one to deal with.
+
+During my long waits I loitered from dressing-room to dressing-room,
+and let them talk.  As opportunities presented themselves I quietly
+searched for the first page of that letter, though I supposed it had
+been destroyed.
+
+Eighteen actors and actresses and a working force of six comprised the
+field of my explorations.  However, the fact that punctuation played a
+part in the cryptogram, not to speak of the choice of words, convinced
+me that both the writer and reader of it must be persons of a certain
+education, so I eliminated the illiterates.  This reduced me at one
+stroke to five men and four women.  Of these two of the men were
+obviously too silly and vain to have carried out such a nervy piece of
+work, while one of the women was a dear old lady who had been on the
+stage for half a century, and another was a bit of dandelion fluff.
+These exclusions left me with five, to wit: Roland Quarles, George
+Casanova, Kenton Milbourne, Beulah Maddox and Mary Gray.
+
+Roland Quarles I have already mentioned.  Both he and Casanova were
+actors of established reputations who had been in receipt of handsome
+salaries for some seasons.  I scarcely considered them.  Milbourne was
+my dark horse.  He was a hatchet-faced individual, homely,
+uninteresting, unhealthy-looking.  His fancy name sat on him strangely.
+He looked like a John Doe or a Joe Williams.  Miss Maddox was a large
+woman of the gushing-hysterical type; Miss Gray a quiet well-bred girl
+who kept to herself.
+
+While I concentrated on those named, I did not, however, overlook the
+doings of the others.  With all the men I was soon on excellent terms
+but the women baffled me.  Women naturally despise a man of the kind I
+made out to be.  You can't win a woman's confidence without making love
+to her, and that was out of my line.
+
+On Thursday night of the week after I joined, Miss Beauchamp, who
+played a maid's part, spoiled a scene of Miss Hamerton's by missing her
+cue.  It was not the first offense, and she was fired on the spot.
+This girl was the bit of fluff I have mentioned.  The occasion
+suggested an opportunity to me.  There was no time to be lost so I went
+to Miss Hamerton at once.  In my humble, shabby character I meekly
+bespoke the part for a "friend."  Miss Hamerton was startled.  She said
+she would consider it.
+
+I had no sooner got home that night than she called me up to ask what I
+had meant.  I did not want to argue with her over the telephone, so I
+asked her to see me next morning.  She said she would come to my office
+as soon as she had breakfasted.
+
+Using all my powers of persuasion it took me more than an hour to win
+her consent to my putting a woman operative in the vacant part.  Not
+only did I have to have a woman in the company, I told her, but I
+needed an assistant outside.  Not by working twenty-four hours a day
+could I track down all the clues that opened up.  She would never have
+given in, I believe, had it not been for the mysterious comfort she had
+found in the cryptogram.
+
+The rehearsal was called for three and I had barely time to get hold of
+my girl.
+
+This brings me to Sadie Farrell, a very important character in my story.
+
+I had been keeping company with her for a short while.  At least I
+considered that I did, though she denied it.  She scorned me.  That was
+her way.  Sadie had always lived at home.  Her father and mother were
+dead now, and she lived with her sister.  Like all home girls she was
+crazy to see a bit of life.  Her heart was set on being a high-class
+detective.  That was the only hold I had over her.  I had promised her
+that the first time I had occasion to engage a woman operative, I would
+take her.
+
+Moreover, Sadie was full of curiosity concerning Miss Hamerton, whose
+praises I was always singing.  She was never jealous though.  Sadie had
+a wise little head, and she knew the difference between the feeling I
+had for that wonderful woman, and for her darling self.
+
+Sadie was at home when I got there.  "What, _you_!" she said, making
+out to be bored to death.  "I thought I was going to have a peaceful
+afternoon."
+
+I couldn't resist teasing her a little.  "Cheer up," I said.  "I'm
+going right away again.  I thought maybe you'd like to come out with
+me."
+
+"On a week day!" she said scornfully.  "Run along with you, man, I've
+got something better to do."
+
+"I bet I can make you come," I said.
+
+She tossed her head.  "You know very well you can't make me do
+anything."
+
+"I bet you a dollar I can make you come."
+
+She smelled a mouse.  "What are you getting at?" she demanded.
+
+"I wanted to take you to the theatre."
+
+"It's too late for a matinee."
+
+"How about a rehearsal?"
+
+Her eyes sparkled.  "A rehearsal!  Wouldn't that be wonderful!  Oh,
+you're only fooling me."
+
+"Not at all," I said, "Miss Hamerton herself invited you."
+
+"Miss Hamerton!  Shall I see her?"
+
+"Sure.  And what's more, you are the person to be rehearsed."
+
+She simply stared at me.
+
+"She offers you a small part in her company," I drawled.
+
+"_Me!_" said the amazed Sadie.  "Why--how--how did it happen?"
+
+"Well you see, I have come to the point where I need an operative in
+the company, and I got her to take you."
+
+"When is it?" she gasped.
+
+"Three o'clock," I said.  It was then twenty minutes to.
+
+Sadie rushed to me and gave my arms a little squeeze.  "Oh, Ben, you
+darling fool!" she cried, and ran for her hat before I could follow up
+my advantage.
+
+On the way down town I coached her in what she must do.  She mustn't
+let it be suspected that she had never acted before.  She must tell the
+stage manager she had been sent by Mrs. Mendoza, the agent.  She must
+ask forty dollars a week and come down to thirty.  She must make out
+that the part was much inferior to those she had been playing.  After
+the rehearsal she was to come to my office, where Miss Hamerton would
+meet us, and give her a lesson in making up.
+
+Sadie simply nodded her wise little head like a bird and said nothing.
+Only at the prospect of receiving instruction from the wonderful Irma
+Hamerton herself, did her eyes gleam again.  I didn't have time then to
+tell her what she had to know about the case.  I let her get out at the
+station nearest the theatre, while I went on to my office.  It was
+safer, of course, for me not to appear at the rehearsal as Sadie's
+sponsor.
+
+I had no doubt of Sadie's acquitting herself creditably.  If I had had,
+no matter what my personal feelings were, I would not have employed her
+in this case.  But she was as wise as she was pretty.  Under those
+scornful airs she was as true as steel, and she had the rare faculty of
+keeping a close tongue in her head.
+
+Sadie had a sort of Frenchy look, long, narrow eyes and pointed chin.
+This just happened to suit the part of the maid in the play.  If I had
+looked a month I could not have found a better girl, not to speak of
+the pleasure I anticipated in working side by side with my own girl.
+Moreover, I was hoping by my conduct of the case to force Sadie to
+admit that I was not quite such a bonehead as she liked to make out.
+
+Everything went off as planned.  Sadie I heard, made a good impression
+at rehearsal, and at a nod from Miss Hamerton, the stage manager
+engaged her.  Miss Hamerton told me afterwards that Sadie went through
+the rehearsal like an old stager.  They arrived at my office
+separately, and the lesson in making up was given.  Miss Hamerton laid
+herself out to be kind to Sadie.  I think she scented a romance.
+Anyhow, inside five minutes Sadie was hers body and soul.  Like me, she
+would have stopped at nothing to serve her.
+
+After that I told Sadie all the facts in the case.  In her woman's way
+of reasoning she arrived at the same conclusion that I had reached
+after my style.
+
+"It's the work of a clever gang," she said.  "They have put a member,
+perhaps more than one in the company."
+
+"But what a lot of trouble to take," I objected, "since the necklace
+was not known to be of any great value."
+
+"Somebody knew."
+
+"If they knew about blue pearls they must also have known that Mount
+was the only buyer."
+
+"Maybe they were shipped to India," she said.  "I suspect that East
+Indians have forgotten more about pearls than Mr. Mount ever knew."
+
+The very first time she appeared on the stage, Sadie justified my
+confidence in her powers.  Notwithstanding the excitement of making her
+debut, she managed to keep her wits about her.  Women are wonderful
+that way.  During her only scene on the stage she had to wait at one
+side for a few minutes.  While she stood there close to the canvas
+scene she heard a bit of a conversation on the other side of it.
+Unfortunately she had not been in the company long enough to recognise
+the voices.
+
+A man said.  "Yes, sir, forty thousand dollars."
+
+"Go way!" was the reply.  "How do you know?"
+
+"I saw it entered in his bank book.  I was in his dressing-room, and I
+saw it on the table.  When he went out I looked in it out of curiosity.
+He deposited forty thousand dollars last week."
+
+"Where do you suppose he got it?"
+
+"Search me."
+
+"Some fellows have all the luck, don't they?"
+
+Then the voices passed out of hearing.
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+I have not mentioned Mr. Alfred Mount lately though I saw him often on
+matters connected with the case.  He was an interesting character.  It
+was only by degrees that I realised what an extraordinary man I had to
+deal with.  After our first meeting his manner towards me completely
+changed.  He appeared to be sorry for his brusqueness on that occasion.
+Now he was all frankness and friendliness.  Nothing crude, you
+understand, just the air of one man of the world towards another.  I
+could not help but feel flattered by it.
+
+While we worked together so amicably the mutual antagonism remained.  I
+knew he still resented Miss Hamerton's having employed me without
+consulting him, and I believed that he was working independently.  For
+my part, you may be sure, I told him nothing but what I had to.  I
+found no little pleasure in blocking his subtle questioning by my air
+of clumsy innocence.  I told him nothing about the cryptogram.
+
+I never called at his office again.  Sometimes he dropped into mine,
+his bright eyes wandering all around, but more often I called on him at
+his apartment over the store.  For he occupied the second floor of the
+beautiful little building which housed his business.  There was however
+nothing of the old-fashioned shop-keeper about his place.  I never saw
+such splendour before or since.  But it took you a while to realise
+that it was splendour, for there was nothing showy or garish.
+Everything he possessed was the choicest of its kind in the world.
+Even with my limited knowledge, when I stopped to figure up the value
+of what I saw, I was staggered.  I saw enough at different times to
+furnish several millionaires.
+
+Mount had a strange love for his treasures in which there was nothing
+of the usual self-glorification of millionaires.  He had a modest,
+almost a tender, way of referring to his things, of handling them.  I
+learned quite a lot about tapestries, rugs, Chinese porcelains,
+enamels, ivories and gold workmanship from his talk.  He did not care
+for paintings.
+
+"Too insistent," he said.  "Paintings will not merge."
+
+The man was full of queer sayings, which he would drawl out with an eye
+to the effect he was creating on you.
+
+He never allowed daylight to penetrate to his principal room, a great
+hall two stories high, lined with priceless tapestries.
+
+"Daylight is rude and unmanageable," he said.  "Artificial light I can
+order to suit my mood."
+
+Another odd thing was his antipathy to red.  That colour almost never
+appeared in his treasures.  In the tapestries greens predominated; the
+rugs were mostly old blues and yellows.  The great room never looked
+quite the same.  Sometimes it was completely metamorphosed over night.
+I understood from something he let fall that the other floors of the
+building were stored with his treasures.  He had them brought down and
+arranged according to his fancy.  The only servant ever visible was a
+silent Hindoo, who sometimes appeared in gorgeous Eastern costume,
+encrusted with jewels.  It occurred to me that that was how his master
+ought to dress.  The sober clothes of a business man, however elegant,
+were out of place on Mount.  Long afterwards I learned that it was his
+custom when alone to array himself like an Eastern potentate, but I
+never saw him dressed that way.
+
+One day, to see what he would say, I asked him point blank what was the
+value of Miss Hamerton's lost pearls.
+
+He consulted a note-book.  "She paid me at different times exactly
+twenty-five thousand, seven hundred for them."
+
+"I know," I said quietly.  "But what was their value?"
+
+He bored me through and through with his jetty eyes before answering.
+Finally he smiled--he had a charming smile when he chose, and spread
+out his hands in token of surrender.  His hands were too white and
+beautiful for a man's.
+
+"I see you know the truth," he said.  "Well--I am in your hands.  I
+hope you will keep the secret.  Only a great deal of unhappiness could
+result from its becoming known."
+
+"I shall not tell," I said.  "But how much are they worth."
+
+"I really couldn't say," he said frankly.  "There is nothing like them
+in the world, nothing to measure them by, I mean.  It would depend
+simply on how far the purchaser could go."
+
+"Wouldn't they be difficult to dispose of?"
+
+"Very.  That is our hope in the present situation."
+
+"Do you suppose the thief knew what he was getting?"
+
+"I doubt it.  To distinguish the blue cast is a fad of my own.  They
+ordinarily go with the black pearls."
+
+Later he returned to the subject of his own accord.  "Since you have
+learned or guessed so much, I should tell you the whole story, for fear
+you might have a doubt of Miss Hamerton."
+
+"No danger of that," I said quickly.
+
+He looked at me strangely.  I suppose he was wondering if I presumed to
+rival him there.  He immediately went on smoothly:
+
+"She, of course, has no suspicion of the true value of the pearls.  Nor
+does she guess that they were in my possession for years.  I let her
+have them one or two at a time.  Do you blame me--" he spread out his
+expressive hands again.
+
+"They are the most beautiful pearls in all the world," he murmured
+softly, "the fruit of all my knowledge and my patience.  Pearls in a
+case are not pearls.  Only when they lie on the warm bosom of a woman
+are pearls really pearls.  I wished to have the pleasure of seeing
+Irma--Miss Hamerton wearing them.  I could not give them to her.  So I
+devised this innocent deception.  Wouldn't you have done the same?"
+
+Maybe I would.  Anyhow I didn't feel called upon to argue the matter
+with him, so I kept my mouth shut.
+
+His long eyes narrowed.  "If you had seen her wear the real pearls you
+would understand better," he said dreamily.  "They glowed as if with
+pleasure in their situation.  Her skin is so tender that the veins give
+it a delicate bluish cast exactly matched by my exquisite pearls!"
+
+To me there was something--what would you say, something delicately
+indecent in the way Mount spoke of Miss Hamerton.  It made me indignant
+deep down.  But I said nothing.
+
+"I am a fool about precious stones," he went on with that disarming
+smile.  "No shop-keeper has any right to indulge in a personal passion
+for his wares.  Pearls come first with me, then diamonds.  Would you
+like to see my diamonds?"
+
+Without waiting for any answer he disappeared into the next room.  I
+heard the ring of a burglar-proof lock.  Presently he returned bearing
+a little black velvet cushion on which lay a necklet of gleaming fire.
+
+"I am no miser," he said smiling.  "Quantity does not appeal to me, nor
+mere bigness.  Only quality.  This is my whole collection, seventy-two
+stones, the result of thirty years' search for perfection."
+
+I gazed at the fiery spots speechlessly.  Before taking this case I had
+never thought much of precious stones.  They had seemed like pretty
+things to me, and useless.  But upon looking at these I could
+understand Miss Hamerton's reference to her pearls as living things.
+These diamonds were alive--devilishly alive.  They twinkled up at Mount
+like complaisant little slaves outvying each other to flatter their
+master.  The sheer beauty of them caught at the breast.  Their fire bit
+into a man's soul.  Seeing it, I could understand the ancient lusts to
+rob and murder for bits of stone like these.
+
+"Aren't they lovely?" Mount murmured.
+
+"Yes, like a snake," I blurted out.
+
+He laughed.  "That feeling seems strange to me.  I love them."
+
+"Put them away!" I said.
+
+He continued to laugh.  He caressed the diamonds with his long, white
+fingers.  "Wouldn't you like to see Miss Hamerton wear them?" he asked
+softly.
+
+"No, by God!" I cried.  "She's a good woman."
+
+He laughed more than ever.  It was a kind of Oriental laugh, soft,
+unwholesome.  "I'm afraid you suffer from the Puritan confusion of the
+ideas of beauty and evil," he said.
+
+"Maybe I do," I said shortly.
+
+"Some other time I will show you my emeralds and sapphires," he said.
+
+I hated the things, yet I was eager to see them.  That shows the effect
+they had on you.  I was struck by his omission of rubies.
+
+"How about rubies?" I asked.
+
+He shivered.  "I do not care for rubies.  They are an ugly color."
+
+I welcomed the chill, raw air of the street after that scented chamber.
+After the elegant collector of jewels my crude and commonplace
+fellow-citizens seemed all that was honest and sturdy.  I was proud of
+them.  Yet I enjoyed going to Mount's rooms, too.  One could count on
+being thrilled one way or another.
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+As time went on I dismissed the women of the company from my
+calculations--though I still kept an eye on them through Sadie.  Of the
+men I had most to do with two, Roland Quarles and Kenton Milbourne, the
+first because I liked him, and the second because I didn't.
+
+Though I had no evidence against him, the idea that Milbourne was the
+thief had little by little fixed itself in my mind.  It was largely a
+process of elimination.  All the others had proved to my satisfaction
+one way or another that they couldn't have committed the robbery.  With
+the exception of Quarles, none of them had the brains to conceive of
+such a plan, or to hide it afterwards.  I didn't know if Milbourne had
+the brains, indeed the more I went with him the less I knew.  Yet he
+did not seem to have a guard over himself.  I laid several ingenious
+little traps to get a sight of his bank-book, but did not succeed in
+finding out even if he possessed such a thing.
+
+Milbourne was a pasty, hatchet-faced individual, very precise and
+conscientious in his manner, and exceedingly talkative.  That was what
+put me off.  He talked all the time, but I learned nothing from it.
+With his sharp, foxy features and narrow-set eyes he had the look of a
+crook right enough, but after all looks are not so important as
+disposition, and this heavy, dull-witted, verbose fellow was the
+epitome of respectability.  He was not at all popular in the company,
+principally, I fancy, because of his over-nicety.  He bragged of the
+number of baths he took.  He was not "a good fellow."  He never joked
+nor carried on with the crowd.  In the play he took the part of a
+brutal thug, a sort of Bill Sykes, and played it well though there was
+nothing in his appearance to suggest the part.  He was the fox, not the
+bull-dog.  Imagine a man with the appearance of a fox and the voice of
+a sheep and you have Milbourne.
+
+Shortly after I joined the company I was allotted to share his
+dressing-room.  He told me that he had requested the stage-manager to
+make the change, because he objected to the personal habits of his
+former roommate.  So I had every opportunity to observe him.  A lot of
+good it did me.  He talked me to sleep.  He would recite all the news
+of the day which I had just read for myself, and commented on it like a
+country newspaper.  You couldn't stop him.
+
+Roland Quarles I cultivated for a different reason.  I did not suspect
+him.  As a popular leading juvenile his life for years had been lived
+in the public eye and there was no reason in the world save pure
+cussedness why he should be a thief.  I liked him.  I was working hard,
+but one can't be a detective every waking minute.  I sought out Roland
+to forget my work.  I had started disinterestedly with the whole
+company, but I gradually came to feel an affection for Roland,
+principally because, much to my surprise, he seemed to like me.
+
+I have said he was a morose young man.  Such was my first impression.
+He did not make friends easily.  He was hated by all the men of the
+company, because he despised their foolish conceit, and took no pains
+to hide it.  But the women liked him, I may say all women were
+attracted to him.  He did not plume himself on this, it was a matter of
+great embarrassment to him.  He avoided them no less than the men.
+
+He was exceedingly good-looking and graceful, and there was not the
+slightest consciousness of it in his bearing.  In that among young
+actors he stood alone.  He had a sort of proud, reserved, bitter air,
+or as a novelist would say, he seemed to cherish a secret sorrow.  His
+mail at the theatre was enormous.  He used to stuff it in his pocket
+without looking at it.
+
+I got my first insight into his character from his treatment of me.  Of
+the entire company he and Milbourne were the only members who never
+made my meek insignificance a target for unkind wit.  Of them all only
+this high and mighty young man never tried to make me feel my
+insignificance.  For a while he ignored me, but it seemed to strike him
+at last that I was being put upon by the others, whereupon in an
+unassuming way he began to make little overtures of friendship.  I was
+charmed.
+
+One night after the show he offered me a cigar at the stage door, and
+we walked down the street smoking and chatting until our ways parted.
+He was not on during the second act, and after my brief scene I got in
+the habit of stopping a while in his room before I went up to change.
+He had good sense.  It was worth while talking to him.  We became very
+friendly.  He was only a year or two younger than I, but to me he
+seemed like a mere kid.
+
+One night in the middle of our talk he said: "You're not like an actor.
+You're human."
+
+"Don't you like actors?" I asked curiously.
+
+"It's a rotten business for men," he said bitterly.  "It unsexes them.
+But here I am!  What am I to do about it?"
+
+I learned as I knew him better that the popular young actor,
+notwithstanding the adulation of women--or perhaps because of it, led
+an exemplary life.  The dazzling palaces of the Great White Way knew
+him not.  It was his custom to go home after the show, have a bite to
+eat in solitude, and read until he turned in.
+
+One night he invited me to accompany him home.  He had a modest flat in
+the Gramercy Square neighbourhood with an adoring old woman to look
+after him.  The cheerful fire, the shaded lamp, the capacious easy
+chair, gave me a new conception of bachelor comfort.  Books were a
+feature of the place.
+
+"Pretty snug, eh?" he said, following my admiring eyes.
+
+"Well, you're not like an actor either," said I.
+
+He laughed.  "After the theatre this is like Heaven!"
+
+"Why don't you chuck it?" I asked.  "You're young."
+
+He shrugged.  "Who wants to give an actor a regular job?"
+
+We had scrambled eggs and sausages.  I stayed for a couple of hours
+talking about the abstract questions that young men loved to discuss.
+When I left he was as much of an enigma to me as when I arrived.  He
+was willing to talk about anything under the sun--except himself.
+Without appearing to, he foiled all my attempts to draw him out.
+
+Hard upon this growing friendship it was a shock to learn from Sadie as
+a result of her work during the days, that it was Roland Quarles who
+had deposited forty thousand dollars in his bank.
+
+"Impossible!" I said in my first surprise.
+
+"I got it direct from the bank," she said.  "It was the Second
+National.  He deposited forty thousand in cash on April Sixth."
+
+My heart sunk.
+
+"But that doesn't prove that he stole the pearls," said Sadie.  She
+shared my liking for the young fellow.
+
+"I hope not," I said gloomily.  "But if it wasn't he then our promising
+clue is no good."
+
+"Maybe he won it on the Stock Exchange."
+
+"That doesn't explain the cash.  No broker pays in cash."
+
+"Well I can think of ten good reasons why he couldn't have done it,"
+Sadie said obstinately.  She had too warm a heart, perhaps, to make an
+ideal investigator.
+
+That night Roland asked me home to supper again.  This was about a week
+after the first occasion.  The old woman had gone to bed and he cooked
+creamed oysters in a chafing-dish, while I looked at the paper.
+
+"Wouldn't it be nice to have white hands waiting at home to do that for
+you?" I suggested teasingly.
+
+"Never for me!" he said with a bitter smile.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"What I can have I don't want.  What I want I can never have."
+
+"You never can tell," I said encouragingly.  I was thinking what a
+superb couple the handsome young pair made on the stage.  It seemed low
+to cross-examine him while he was preparing to feed me, but there was
+no help for it.
+
+"The market is off again," I said carelessly.  "Chance for somebody to
+make money."
+
+"How can you make money when the market is going down," he said
+innocently.
+
+If the innocence was assumed it was mighty well done.  However, I told
+myself his business was acting.
+
+"By selling short," I said.
+
+"I never understood that operation."
+
+I explained it.
+
+"Too complicated for me," he said.  "I consider the whole business
+immoral."
+
+I agreed, and switched to talk of solid, permanent investments.  He
+immediately looked interested.
+
+"You seem to know something about such matters," he said.  "Suppose a
+man had a little money to invest, what would you advise?"
+
+"Your savings?" I asked with a smile.
+
+"Lord!  I couldn't save anything.  No, I have a friend who has a few
+thousand surplus."
+
+Being anxious to believe well of him I snatched at this straw.  Maybe a
+friend had entrusted him with money to invest.  Hardly likely though,
+and still more unlikely that it would be handed over in cash.  I gave
+him some good advice, and the subject was dropped.
+
+Later we got to talking about acting again.  He said in his bitter way:
+
+"I shall soon be out of it now, one way or the other."
+
+"What do you mean?" I asked.
+
+"I mean to leave the stage at the close of this engagement or before."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"God knows!" he said with his laugh.  "Go to the devil, I expect."
+
+I couldn't get anything else out of him.  It was all mysterious enough.
+He sounded utterly reckless when you got below the surface, but somehow
+it was not the recklessness of a crook.
+
+Worse was to follow.
+
+First, however, I must put down how the situation stood with Milbourne,
+because I shall not return to him for some time.  Kenton Milbourne!  I
+have to smile every time I write it, the fancy appellation was so
+unsuitable to the tallow-cheeked, hatchet-faced talker who bore it.  I
+believed Milbourne had stolen the pearls, and I worked hard to justify
+my belief, but without being able to lay anything bare against him.
+
+Every night he talked me to a standstill.  He seemed to be a man
+totally devoid of individuality, temperament, a mere windbag.  But I
+told myself that dullness is the favourite and most effective disguise
+of a sharper.  His talk was a little too dull to be natural, and once
+in a while I received an impression that he was anything but dull.
+
+One night I said to him as Roland had said to me: "You don't seem like
+an actor.  How did you get into this business?"
+
+"Drifted into it," he said.  "Always knew I could act, but was too busy
+with other things.  I had an attack of typhoid in Sydney four years ago
+which shattered my health.  When I was getting better a friend gave me
+the part of a human monster to play, just to help me pass the time.  I
+made a wonderful hit in it.  They wouldn't let me stop.  Since then
+I've never been idle.  I haven't any conceit, so they offer me the
+horrible parts."
+
+"Sydney?" I said.
+
+"I was raised in Australia.  I came to America last Fall because there
+was a wider field for my art."
+
+I put this down in my mind as a lie.  I do not know Australia but I
+suppose they have their own peculiarities of speech, and this man
+talked good New York.
+
+I asked idly what parts he had played in Australia.  He named three or
+four and I made careful mental notes of them.  I thought I had him
+there.
+
+The next day I consulted old files of an Australian stage paper in the
+rooms of the Actors' Society.  To my chagrin I found his name, Kenton
+Milbourne listed in the casts of the very plays he had mentioned.  I
+was far from being convinced of his genuineness, however.  I wrote to
+Australia for further information.
+
+Under cover of my meek and gentle air, I continued to watch him close.
+I could have sworn he was not aware of it, which shows how you may fool
+yourself.  His apparent stupidity still blocked me.  But one night when
+he lifted the tray of his trunk I saw the edge of a book underneath.
+
+"Anything good to read?" I said, picking it up before he could stop me.
+
+A peculiar look chased across his face, which was anything but
+stupidity.  The title of the book was: "The World's Famous Jewels."
+
+"Aha! my man!" I thought.  I dropped it, saying: "That's not in my
+line."
+
+This was how matters stood when things began to happen which drove all
+thought of Kenton Milbourne out of my mind.
+
+The next day Sadie came into the office to report, looking so
+confoundedly pretty that it drove the detective business clean out of
+my mind for the moment.  What with her thirty dollars a week from the
+theatre and her additional salary as operative (which Miss Hamerton
+insisted on her taking) Sadie was in affluent circumstances, and for
+the first time in her life she was able to dress as a pretty girl
+ought.  With her Spring hat and suit, her dainty gloves and boots, all
+from the best shops, she was as smart a little lady as you'd find from
+one end of the Avenue to the other.
+
+"You look sweet enough to eat!" I said, grinning at her like a Cheshire
+cat.
+
+"Cut it out!" she said with her high and mighty air.  "It's business
+hours.  I'm operative S.F."
+
+"What's that for, swell figure?"
+
+"Wait till after the whistle blows."
+
+"After hours you're Miss Covington the actress, and I'm not allowed to
+know you."
+
+"Well, there's Sunday."
+
+"But this is only Tuesday."
+
+"I've got to respect my boss, haven't I?"
+
+"What if I kissed you anyhow?"
+
+"I'd box your ears!" she said quick as lightning.
+
+And she would.  I sighed, and came back to earth.  It was not that I
+was afraid of the box on the ears, but she was right, and I knew it.
+As soon as I started that line of talk I resigned my proper place as
+the boss of the establishment.
+
+"What's new?" I asked.
+
+"I found out something interesting to-day," she said.  "Miss Hamerton's
+in love with Roland Quarles."
+
+"I guessed that long ago," I said calmly.
+
+Sadie was much taken aback.  Evidently she had expected to stun me.
+"You never said anything about it," she said pouting.
+
+"I left it for you to find out for yourself."
+
+"She never believed he had anything to do with the robbery," Sadie said
+with a touch of defiance.
+
+"Then why was she so distressed in the beginning?"
+
+"Well, there was something that would have looked like evidence to a
+man," said Sadie scornfully.  "So naturally she didn't want to tell
+you."
+
+"Did she tell you?" I asked, a little huffed at the thought that Sadie
+was getting deeper in the confidence of my client than I.
+
+"Yes, to-day.  She didn't tell me about her feelings, of course.  I
+guessed that part."
+
+"What is this mysterious thing?"
+
+"She only told me because since she saw the cryptogram she knows there
+couldn't be anything in it."
+
+This was getting denser instead of more clear.  "What was there about
+the cryptogram that eased her mind?" I asked.
+
+"She knows that it couldn't have been written to Roland Quarles because
+he has no idea of leaving the company."
+
+"Oh, hasn't he!" I thought to myself.  How strangely loving women
+reason.  Aloud I said: "Now for the thing that a mere man would have
+considered evidence."
+
+"Don't try to be sarcastic," said Sadie.  "It doesn't suit you."
+
+"Who's forgetting that I'm the boss now?" I said severely.
+
+She made a face at me and went on: "It seems that Miss Hamerton and
+Roland Quarles had a bet on about the pearls."
+
+This was something new.  I pricked up my ears.
+
+"She laughed at him because he thought he knew something about jewels,
+and she says he scarcely knows a pearl from an opal.  They argued about
+it, and she finally bet him a box of cigars against a box of gloves
+that he wouldn't be able to tell when she wore the genuine pearls.
+That is how she came to wear them the night they were stolen."
+
+"The devil!" I exclaimed.
+
+"But he has never spoken about it since.  She believes that he has
+forgotten all about the bet."
+
+I walked up and down the room considering what this meant.
+
+"You needn't look like that," said Sadie.  "We know he didn't do it.
+Wouldn't he have paid his bet if he had?"
+
+"It seems so," I said.  I didn't know what to believe.
+
+"There's another reason," said Sadie, "sufficient for a woman."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"He's in love with her.  He's making love to her now.  He couldn't do
+that if he had robbed her."
+
+"I don't know," I said grimly.  "If he could rob her, I suspect he
+could make love to her."
+
+
+That night at the theatre I devoted my attention pretty exclusively to
+Quarles.  God knows I was not anxious to ruin the young fellow, but
+Sadie's communication taken in connection with the cryptogram and that
+mysterious cash deposit was beginning to look like pretty strong
+evidence.  This being my first case, I attached more importance to
+"evidence" than I would now.
+
+I was in his dressing-room when he left to go on for the third act.  He
+had only a short scene at the beginning, and as he went out, he asked
+me to wait till he came off.
+
+I watched him go with a sinking heart for I hated to do what I had to
+do.  He was so handsome, so graceful, and with that burden on his
+breast, so invariably kind to me, I felt like a wretch.  Nevertheless,
+I told myself for the sake of all of us I had to discover the painful
+secret he was hiding.
+
+I knew exactly how long I had before he would return.  I swung the door
+almost shut, as if the wind had blown it, and made a rapid, thorough
+search.  There was a pile of letters on his dressing-table as yet
+unopened.  Nothing suspicious there.  Nothing in the drawers of his
+dressing-table.  There was no trunk in the room.  His street coat was
+on a form hanging from a hook.  I frisked the pockets.  There was a
+handful of letters, papers in the breast pocket.  Shuffling them over I
+came upon a sheet of "dimity" note-paper without an envelope.  Opening
+it I beheld a communication in cryptogram exactly like the other.
+
+I could hear the voices on the stage.  Roland was about to come off.  I
+hastily returned all the papers to his pocket as I had found
+them,--except the cryptogram.  That I put in my own pocket.
+
+When he came in we picked up our conversation where we had dropped it.
+
+As soon as I got home I made haste to translate my find.  I had saved
+the numerical key I used before.  I instantly found that it fitted this
+communication also.  This is what I got:
+
+
+"I. has known of her loss for a couple of weeks.  She has put two
+detectives in the company.  Faxon and the girl Covington.  I have this
+straight.  Watch yourself.  J."
+
+
+So this is why Quarles cultivated my friendship!  I thought, feeling
+all the bitterness of finding myself betrayed.  I could no longer doubt
+my evidence.  My friendly feelings for the young fellow were curdled.
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+I woke up next morning with a leaden weight on my breast.  I had no
+zest in the day which bore with it the necessity of telling Miss
+Hamerton what I had learned.  I put off the evil moment as long as
+possible.  During the morning Sadie came into the office for
+instructions.  I had not the heart to tell her.  I sent her over to
+Newark on a wild goose chase in connection with some of McArdle's
+activities.
+
+I was not expecting Miss Hamerton that afternoon.  At three I called
+her up and said that I had something important to report.  She said she
+was expecting some one later, and did not want to go out.  Could I come
+to her?  This pleased me, for since I had to strike her down it was
+more merciful to do it at home.  I went.
+
+She had never looked lovelier.  Her room was a bower of Spring flowers,
+and she in a pale yellow dress was like the fairest daffodil among
+them.  She was full of happiness, her cheeks glowing, her eyes
+sparkling.  It did not make my task any easier.  I angrily rebelled
+from it.  But she was already asking me what was the matter.
+
+I told her bunglingly enough, God knows, of the second cryptogram and
+where I had found it.  It crushed her like a flower trodden underfoot.
+
+Presently, however, she began to fight.  "The first thing the thief
+would do when he found himself under surveillance," she faltered,
+"would be to try to divert your attention to some one else."
+
+"He would hardly choose one ordinarily so far above suspicion as the
+leading man," I said reluctantly.
+
+"He may have known, since he knows so much, that you were already
+suspicious of Ro--of the other."  She could not get his name out.
+
+I felt like the criminal myself, trying to convince her against her
+heart.  "Taken by itself the letter would not be conclusive, but with
+the other things----"
+
+"What other things?"
+
+"Well, his provoking you by a bet to wear the genuine pearls."
+
+"There's nothing in that," she said quickly.  "If he had had an
+ulterior motive he would have spoken of the bet since.  He would have
+lost it, wouldn't he, to keep us from suspecting?"
+
+I conceded the reasonableness of this--taken by itself.  "But his bank
+account?"
+
+"Bank account?" she repeated, startled.  We had not told her of this.
+
+"On April sixth Mr. Quarles deposited forty thousand dollars in cash in
+the Second National Bank."
+
+All the light went out of her face.  "Oh!  Are you sure?" she gasped.
+
+"I have seen the entry in his pass-book.  I verified it at the bank."
+
+Her heart still fought for him.  "But my necklace was worth only
+twenty-five thousand.  And a thief would never be able to realise the
+full value of it."
+
+I shrugged.  Naturally I did not care to add to her unhappiness by
+telling her that the pearls were worth half a million.  She thought
+from my shrug that I meant to convey that if her lover had been guilty
+of one theft why not others?
+
+It crushed her anew.  She had no more fight left in her.  She sank back
+dead white and bereft of motion.  "He's coming here," she whispered.
+"What shall I say to him?  What shall I say?"
+
+"Don't see him," I cried.
+
+"I must.  I promised."
+
+I sat there, I don't know for how long, staring at the carpet like a
+clown.
+
+The telephone rang and we both jumped as at a pistol shot.
+
+I offered to answer it, but she waved me back.  She went to the
+instrument falteringly--but I was surprised at the steadiness of her
+voice.  "What is it?" she asked.
+
+"Let him come up," she said firmly.  By her stricken white face I knew
+who it was.
+
+I jumped up in a kind of panic.  "I will have myself carried up to the
+roof garden so I won't meet him," I said.
+
+"No, _please_," she murmured.  "I want you here."
+
+"But he must not meet me!" I cried.
+
+"Wait in the next room."  Her voice broke piteously.  "Oh, I must have
+some one here--some one I can trust!"
+
+What was I to do?  I obeyed very unwillingly.  As soon as he entered I
+found that the transom over the door was open, and I could hear
+everything that passed between them.  Of all the difficult things that
+have been forced on me in the way of business, that half hour's
+eavesdropping was as bad as any.
+
+He must have been highly wrought up because he apparently never noticed
+her state.  His very first speech was tragically unfortunate.  He spoke
+in a harsh strained voice as if the painful thing he had kept hidden so
+long was breaking out in spite of him.
+
+"Irma, how soon can you replace me in the cast?"
+
+"Eh?" she murmured.  I could imagine the painful start she suppressed.
+
+"I want to get out.  I can't stand it any longer."
+
+"But why?" she whispered.
+
+"I hate acting!  It is not a man's work."
+
+"Have you just discovered it?" she asked with a little note of scorn
+very painful to hear.
+
+"No," he said gloomily, "I've always known.  If I had been left to
+myself I never would have acted.  But I came of a family of actors.  I
+was brought up to it.  I kept on because it was all I knew.  It is only
+since I have acted with you that it has become more than I can bear."
+
+"Why, with me?" she whispered.
+
+"Because I love you!" he said in a harsh, abrupt voice.
+
+"Ah!"  The sound was no more than a painful catch in her breath.
+
+"Oh, you needn't tell me I'm a presumptuous fool," he burst out.  "I
+know it already.  You don't know the height of my presumption yet.  I
+love you!  The silly make-believe of love that I have to go through
+every night with you drives me mad!  I love you!  I am ashamed to make
+my living by exhibiting a pretence of love!"
+
+"It was your father's profession and your mother's," she murmured.
+
+"They were the real thing," he said gloomily.  "They had a genuine
+call.  They loved their work.  I hark back to an earlier strain, I
+guess.  I have no feeling for art to make it worth while.  I hate the
+tinsel and show and make-believe.  I want to lead a real life with
+you----!"
+
+No man has any right to hear another man bare his heart like this.  I
+went to the open window and leaned out.  I had forgotten Roland's
+supposed guilt.  My instinct told me that a guilty man could not have
+spoken like this.
+
+Even on the window-sill though I tried not to hear, an occasional word
+reached me.  We were so high up that little of the street noises
+reached us.  Bye and bye I heard Roland say "money" and I was drawn
+back into the room.  This, I felt, it was my business to hear.
+
+He was still pleading with his heart in his voice.  "A month ago I
+would just have left without saying anything to you.  I don't even know
+that I am fit for anything else but acting.  I could not ask you to
+give it up without having something else to offer you.  I suffer so to
+see you on the stage.  To see your name, your person, your doings all
+public property drives me wild!  I cannot stand seeing you show your
+lovely self to the applause of those vulgar fools!"
+
+"You are mad!" she whispered.
+
+"I know--but I have had a stroke of luck----!"
+
+"Luck?"
+
+"I have come into some money.  Oh, nothing much, but enough to give me
+a start in some new country--if you could come with me!  Oh, I am a
+fool to think it.  But I had to tell you I loved you.  You would be
+quite justified in laughing, and showing me the door.  But I love you!
+It seemed cowardly to go away without telling you."
+
+"You are asking me to give up my profession?" she murmured unsteadily.
+
+"I ask nothing.  I expect nothing.  But if you could--!  You'd have to
+give it up.  It would kill me otherwise.  I could stand better having
+none of you than half."  He laughed harshly.  "Am I not ridiculous?
+Tell me to go."
+
+"I am not so enamoured of make-believe either," she murmured.
+
+She was weakening!  I trembled for her.  This wretched business had to
+be cleared up before they could hope for any happiness.
+
+"If I loved you I could give it up," she whispered, "but I am not sure."
+
+It was like a glimpse of Heaven to him.  "Irma!" He cried her name over
+and over brokenly.  "My dear love!  Then there is a chance--I never
+expected--Oh! don't raise me up only to cast me down lower than before!"
+
+I went to the window-sill again and leaned out.
+
+There I was still when she came in.  She was trembling and breathing
+fast.
+
+"He has gone," she said.
+
+She led me back into the outer room.  She noticed that the transom was
+open.  "You heard?" she said startled.
+
+"Some," I said uncomfortably.  "More than I wanted to."
+
+"I don't care," she said.
+
+"Have you promised to marry him?" I asked.
+
+She shook her head.  "I have promised nothing.  I asked for time."
+
+"Good!" I said involuntarily.
+
+She looked at me startled.  "You heard!" she said defiantly.  "Were
+they the words of a guilty man?"
+
+"Not if I know anything about human nature," I said promptly.
+
+The sweetest gratitude lighted up her face.  "Oh, thank you!" she said.
+She was very near tears.  "Anything else would be unbelievable!"
+
+"Give me one day more," I suggested.
+
+"No!  No!" she cried with surprising energy.  "I will not carry this
+tragic farce any further.  I hate the pearls now.  I would not wear
+them if I did get them back.  They are gone.  Let them go!"
+
+"But Miss Hamerton----" I persisted.
+
+"Not another word!" she cried.  "My mind is made up!"
+
+"I must speak," I said doggedly.  "Because you as much as said you
+depended on getting honest advice from me.  You can't stop now.  If you
+marry Mr. Quarles, the fact that you have suspected him though it was
+only for a moment will haunt you all your life.  No marriage is a bed
+of roses.  When trouble does come your grim spectre will invariably
+rise and mock you.  It must be definitely laid in its grave before you
+can marry the man."
+
+The bold style of my speech made her pause.  I had never spoken to her
+in that way before.  She eyed me frowning.
+
+"I hope you know it's not the job I'm after," I went on.  "I never had
+work to do that I enjoyed less.  But you put it up to me to give you
+honest advice."
+
+"I can't spy on the man I love," she faltered.
+
+"You can't marry the man you suspect," I returned.
+
+"I don't suspect him."
+
+"The suspicious circumstances are not yet explained."
+
+"Very well, then, I'll send for him to come back, and he will explain
+them."
+
+I had a flash of insight into the character of my young friend.  "No!"
+I cried.  "If he knew that you had ever suspected him, he would never
+forgive you."
+
+"Then what do you want me to do?" she cried.
+
+"Give me twenty-four hours to produce proofs of his innocence."
+
+She gave in with a gesture.
+
+
+Leaving Miss Hamerton I walked twice around Bryant Square to put my
+thoughts in order.  I wished to believe in Roland's innocence almost as
+ardently as she did, but I had to force myself to keep an open mind.  A
+fixed idea one way or the other is fatal to any investigator.  So I
+argued against him for a while to strike a balance.  I told myself
+there was a type of man who would stop at absolutely nothing to secure
+the woman he desired.  In the bottom of my heart, like anybody else, I
+had a sneaking admiration for the type.
+
+True, I had never heard of a man robbing a woman in order to secure the
+means to support her.  Still, human psychology is an amazing thing.
+You never can tell!  I reminded myself of all the other times I had
+been brought face to face with the apparently impossible.  Particularly
+is human nature ingenious in justifying itself.
+
+I finally made up my mind to search Roland's apartment that night.  On
+my previous visits I had marked a little safe there.  Surely it must
+contain some conclusive evidence one way or the other.  What I hoped to
+find was some natural and honest explanation of the sum of money he had
+received.
+
+Around the theatre that night Roland and I were as friendly as usual.
+The shadow was somewhat lifted from his dark eyes.  They burned with an
+expectant fire.  An extraordinary restlessness possessed him.  For all
+he said he hated it, that time anyway, he outdid himself in playing his
+rôle.  As far as I could see, he and Irma held no communications
+outside the play.
+
+In pursuance of the plan I had made, I insisted on his supping with me
+that night.  I was free to leave the theatre after the second act, so I
+went on ahead to order the supper I said.  He was to meet me at the
+Thespis club at half-past eleven.  I did order the supper there, then
+hurried on to his flat, arriving some time before his customary hour of
+coming from the theatre.
+
+His old housekeeper having seen me in his company on several occasions
+expressed no surprise at my coming.  I said I would wait for him, and
+she left me to my own devices in the front room.  I satisfied myself
+that she had gone to her own room on the other side of the kitchen,
+three doors away, then I set to work.
+
+I had brought a bunch of skeleton keys and a set of miniature
+housebreaking tools.  I didn't require them, for I found that the
+little safe had one of the earliest and simplest forms of a lock.  Part
+of my apprenticeship had been spent in learning how to open such locks
+merely by listening to the fall of the tumblers as one turned the knob.
+All that was required was patience.  It was a little after ten.
+Supposing that Roland waited for me at the Thespis club only half an
+hour, I had two hours in which to work.  It was painfully exciting.  I
+had my first glimpse of the point of view of a housebreaker.
+
+The safe door swung open at last.  I looked inside with a beating
+heart.  It contained but little; a diary, which I left for the moment;
+a wallet containing a sum of money, a bundle of papers enclosed by an
+elastic band.  I went over the papers hastily; they consisted of
+insurance policies, theatrical contracts and business letters of old
+dates which had nothing whatever to do with my case.
+
+However, there was still a little locked drawer to investigate.  After
+a number of tries I fixed a key that would open it.  The first thing I
+saw was a number of pieces of men's jewelry that Roland doubtless used
+for stage properties.  The second thing I saw was a beautiful little
+antique box made of some sweet-smelling wood which contained several
+notes in Irma's handwriting and some withered flowers.  The third and
+last thing was a seal leather case such as jewellers display.  Upon
+pressing the spring the cover flew back and I saw lying on a bed of
+white velvet a string of wonderful dusky pearls.
+
+For many moments I gazed at them in stupid astonishment.  God knows
+what I expected to find.  Certainly not that.  What did it mean?  It
+looked just the same as the string Miss Hamerton had showed me.  I
+counted them.  There were sixty-seven pearls.  Was it another of
+Roberts' replicas?  Perhaps Roland had bought it and stowed it away for
+sentimental reasons.  That seemed pretty far-fetched.
+
+I carried it to the electric light.  There I could see the blue cast
+like the last gleam of light in the twilight sky.  The bits of stone
+had a wonderful fire, life.  An instinct told me they were genuine
+pearls.  But if they were it must be _the_ string, for Mount had said
+there were no others.  I remembered that Miss Hamerton had told me she
+had made a little scratch on the clasp and I eagerly looked for it.
+There was a kind of mark there.  At this point I shook my head and gave
+up speculating.
+
+I slipped the case in my pocket, locked the drawer and locked the safe
+again.  I switched off the lights and let myself quietly out of the
+flat.
+
+I decided to go to the Thespis club as if nothing had happened.  I was
+not at all anxious to meet Roland until I knew where I stood, but I
+reflected that if I failed him it might rouse his suspicions and
+precipitate a catastrophe before I was ready for it.  There was not
+much danger that he would look in his safe that night if I kept him
+late.  His housekeeper would tell him I had been there, but I could
+explain that.  In the morning I would have him watched.
+
+Roland was at the club when I arrived.  "I've been at your rooms," I
+said instantly.  "I had an idea I was to wait for you there.  But I got
+thinking it over and decided I had made a mistake."
+
+"You've got a memory like a colander," he said good-naturedly.  "Better
+do something about it."
+
+We sat down to our supper.  Roland was in for him, extraordinary
+spirits.  All the while we ate, drank and joked I was wondering in the
+back of my head what kind of a change would come over his grim, dark,
+laughing face if he knew what I had in my pocket.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+Few would envy me my task next morning.  I called up Miss Hamerton
+merely saying that I would come to the hotel half an hour later.  Sadie
+came in, but having kept from her what had already happened, I could
+not tell her this.  I was not obliged to tell her all the developments
+of the case, of course, but she had a moral right to my confidence, and
+so I felt guilty and wretched every way.  Sadie I knew would be
+terribly cut up by the way things were tending, and I had not the heart
+to face it, with what I had to go through later.
+
+Miss Hamerton received me with great bright eyes that looked out of her
+white face like stars at dawn.  The instant she caught sight of my face
+she said: "You have news?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"Good or bad?" she whispered breathlessly.
+
+There was no use beating around the bush.  "Bad," I said bluntly.
+
+A hand went to her breast.  "Tell me--quickly."
+
+I drew out the case.  She gave no sign of recognising it.  I snapped it
+open.  "Is this the lost necklace?" I asked.
+
+With a little cry, she seized upon it, examined the pearls, breathed
+upon them, looked at the clasp.  "Yes!  Yes!" she exclaimed, joy
+struggling in her face with an underlying terror.  "Where did you get
+it?"
+
+"Out of a safe in Mr. Quarles' flat."
+
+She looked at me stricken stupid.
+
+I had to repeat the words.
+
+"Oh!--you would not deceive me?" she whispered.
+
+"I wish to God it were not true!" I cried.
+
+"In his room--his room!" she muttered.  Suddenly she sank down in a
+crumpled white heap on the floor.
+
+I gathered her up in my arms and laid her on the sofa.  I called Mrs.
+Bleecker, who came running, accompanied by Irma's maid.  A senseless
+scene of confusion followed.  The foolish women roused half the hotel
+with their outcries.  I myself, carried the beautiful, inanimate girl
+into her bedroom.  For me it was holy ground.  It was almost as bare as
+a convent cell.  It pleased me to find that she instinctively rejected
+luxury on retiring to her last stronghold.  I laid her on her bed--the
+pillow was no whiter than the cheek it bore, and returned to the outer
+room to await the issue.  All this time, I must tell you, Mrs. Bleecker
+was relieving her feelings by abusing me.  From the first I had
+apprehended hatred in that lady.
+
+I waited a few minutes, feeling very unnecessary, and wondering if I
+would not do better to return to my office, when Mrs. Bleecker came
+back, and with a very ill grace said that Miss Hamerton wanted to know
+if it was convenient for me to wait a little while until she was able
+to see me, and would I please say whatever was necessary to people who
+called.  I almost wept upon receiving this message.  I sent back word
+that I would stay all day if she wanted me.  Mrs. Bleecker glared at
+me, almost beside herself with defeated curiosity.  I had the necklace
+safe in my pocket and she was without a clue to what had happened.
+
+So there I was established as Miss Hamerton's representative.
+Everybody took orders from me, and wondered who I was.  The word had
+spread like wildfire that the famous star had been taken ill, and the
+telephone rang continuously.  I finally told the hotel people what to
+say, and ordered it disconnected.  I had a couple of boys stationed in
+the corridor to keep people from the door.  I sent for two doctors, not
+that Irma was in any need of medical attention, but I wished to have
+the support of a professional bulletin.  I told them what I thought
+necessary.  They were discreet men.
+
+Miss Hamerton had no close relatives, and I could not see the sense of
+sending for any others.  I forbade Mrs. Bleecker to telegraph them.  In
+a case of this kind solitude is the best, the most merciful treatment
+for the sufferer.  As it was I pitied the poor girl having to endure
+the officious ministrations of her inquisitive servants, but I did not
+feel justified in interfering there.
+
+Only two men were allowed past the guard in the corridor, Mr. Maurice
+Metz, the famous theatrical manager, and Mr. Alfred Mount.  The former
+stormed about the room like a wilful child.  His pocketbook was hard
+hit.  I was firm.  He could not see Miss Hamerton, he must be satisfied
+with my report.  Miss Hamerton had suffered a nervous breakdown--with
+that phrase we guarded her piteous secret, and it would be out of the
+question for her to act for weeks to come.  It was her wish that the
+company be paid off and disbanded.
+
+"Who the devil are you?" he demanded.
+
+"I speak for Miss Hamerton," I said with a shrug.  I remembered how
+humbly I had besieged this man's door with my play a few weeks since,
+and now I was turning _him_ down.
+
+To satisfy him I had Mrs. Bleecker in.  He demanded of her who I was.
+
+"I don't know," she snapped.
+
+Nevertheless she had to bear me out.  Miss Hamerton had sent word that
+the company was to be paid off with two weeks' salary, and the amount
+charged to her.  I referred Mr. Metz to the doctors.  They impressed
+him with medical phrases he didn't understand.  He finally departed
+talking to himself and waving his hands.
+
+Mr. Mount, of course, was very different.  He came in all suave
+sympathy, anxious to uphold me in every way.  I had wished to see him
+for a special purpose.  I couldn't allow the possibility of a ghastly
+mistake being made.
+
+I produced the fateful little seal leather box, and snapped it open
+again.  "Are these the lost pearls?" I asked.
+
+The man had wonderful self-control.  No muscle of his face changed.
+Only his black eyes flamed up.  He took the case quietly, but those
+eyes pounced on the pearls like their prey, and wolfed them one by one.
+He returned the case to me.  A curious smile wreathed the corners of
+his voluptuous mouth.
+
+"Those are the pearls," he said quietly.
+
+"You are _sure_?"
+
+"Sure?"  He spread out his hands.  "There are no other such pearls in
+the world."
+
+I returned the case to my pocket.
+
+"Where did you find them?" he asked.
+
+"At present I am not free to say how they were recovered," I replied.
+"No doubt Miss Hamerton will give it out later."
+
+"I think I understand," he said with a compassionate air.  "I suppose
+there will be no prosecution."
+
+"I do not know," I said blandly.
+
+"Maybe it would be better never to speak of the matter to her?" he said
+softly.
+
+I shrugged.  I wasn't going to let him get any change out of me.
+
+"Anyhow it's a triumph for you," he said graciously.  "Allow me to
+congratulate you."
+
+Was there a faint ring of irony in his words?  In either case I never
+felt less triumphant.  What booted it to return her jewels if I had
+broken her heart?  I bowed my acknowledgment.
+
+As he left he said: "Come and see me sometimes, though the case is
+closed.  You are too valuable a man for me to lose sight of."
+
+I bowed again, mutely registering a resolve to ask him a thumping
+figure if he ever did require my services.
+
+Meanwhile I had the reporters to deal with.  I have a strong
+fellow-feeling for the boys.  As a class they are the most human lot of
+fellows I know.  They do not make the rotten conditions of their
+business.  But they certainly are the devil to deal with when they get
+you on the defensive.  They seemed to spread through that hotel like
+quicksilver, bribing the bell-boys, the maids, even the waiter who
+brought up my dinner.  If we had not been on the eleventh story I
+should have expected to find them peeping in the windows.
+
+I did not dare see them myself.  In my anomalous position they would
+have made a monkey of me.  In my mind's eye I could see the story of
+the mysterious stranger who claimed to represent Miss Hamerton, etc.,
+etc.  I had to take every precaution, too, to keep them from that fool
+of a Mrs. Bleecker.  I carefully drilled the doctors in what they
+should say, and then sent them down to their fate.  They came off
+better than I expected.  Of course the lurid tales did appear next day,
+but they were away beside the mark.  Nothing approaching the truth was
+ever published.
+
+A little before five everybody had gone, and I was alone in the
+sitting-room gazing out of the window and indulging in gloomy enough
+thoughts, when I heard the door behind me open.  I turned with a sigh,
+expecting fresh complaints and demands from the old harridan.  But
+there was Irma trying to smile at me.  She was wearing a white negligée
+affair that made her look like a fragile lily.  She walked with a firm
+step, but her face shocked me.  It looked dead.  The eyes open, were
+infinitely more ghastly than when I had laid her down with them closed.
+Mrs. Bleecker and the maid followed, buzzing around her.  She seemed to
+have reached the limits of her patience with them.
+
+"Let me be!" she said as sharply as I ever heard her speak.  "I am
+perfectly well able to walk and to speak.  Please go back to the
+bedroom.  I have business to discuss with Mr. Enderby."
+
+They retired, bearing me no love in their hearts.
+
+"I must go away, quite by myself," she said, speaking at random.  "Can
+you help me find a place, some place where nobody knows me?  If I do
+not get away from these people they will drive me mad!"
+
+"I will find you a place," I said.
+
+"Perhaps I'd better not go alone," she said.  "If I could only find the
+right kind of person.  I'm so terribly alone.  That nice girl you
+brought into the company, Miss Farrell, do you think she would go with
+me?"
+
+There was something in this more painful than I can convey.  "She'd
+jump at the chance," I said brusquely.
+
+"You have been so good to me," she said.
+
+"You can say that!" I said, astonished.
+
+"Oh, I've not quite taken leave of my senses," she said bitterly.  "If
+I had not known the truth, it would have been much worse."
+
+This struck me as extraordinary generosity in a woman who loved.
+
+"I--I have something else to ask of you," she said in the piteous
+beseeching way that made me want to cast myself at her feet.
+
+"Anything," I murmured.
+
+"Mr. Quarles is coming here at five.  Please see him and tell him--Oh!
+tell him anything you like, anything that will keep him from ever
+trying to see me again."
+
+I nodded.  "You had better lose no time in getting out of this," I
+suggested.  "Can you be ready by to-morrow morning?"
+
+"I will start packing now," she said.  "It will give me something to
+do."
+
+How well I understood the hideous blankness that faced her.
+
+"Don't let those women bother you," I said.  "Refer them to me."
+
+"They mean well," she said.
+
+"I will answer for Miss Farrell," I said.  "She'll be here at nine
+to-morrow."
+
+She started to thank me again, but I would not let her go on.  I really
+could not stand it.
+
+"Very well, you will see," she said with a smile, and left me.
+
+Shortly afterwards Roland Quarles came striding down the hall.  I
+opened the door to him.  He was astonished to find a strange man in the
+room.  He did not recognise me without my Faxon makeup.
+
+"Enderby," I said in response to his enquiring glance.  "You met me
+here once before."
+
+"What's this I hear downstairs about Miss Hamerton being sick?" he
+demanded anxiously.
+
+"She has had a nervous breakdown," I said.
+
+He was not deceived.  "What does that mean?" he demanded.  "She was
+quite well yesterday."
+
+I shrugged.
+
+"Can I see her?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I will speak to Mrs. Bleecker, then."
+
+"You can't see her, either."
+
+"Who are you?" he demanded, as so many others had done.
+
+I gave him my card, hoping that he would take the hint, and save me
+further explanations.
+
+Not a bit of it.  "Investigator?  What does that mean?  Detective?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"What's it all about?" he cried irritably.  "Why are you looking at me
+like a policeman?"
+
+"Look at me close," I said.
+
+He stared at me angry and puzzled.  "I have seen you before--more than
+once----"  Then his face changed.  "Faxon!" he cried.  "Is it Faxon?"
+
+"The same," I said.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
+
+This parade of innocence began to exasperate me.  "Do you need to ask?"
+I said.
+
+"Oh, for Heaven's sake don't play with words," he burst out.  "Tell me
+what's the matter and be done with it."
+
+"Miss Hamerton's pearl necklace was stolen from the theatre two months
+ago.  She engaged me to recover it."
+
+"Her pearls!  Stolen!" he ejaculated, amazed.  I could not have asked
+to see it better done.
+
+"Do you still want me to go on?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, drop the mystery!" he cried.  "You fellows fatten on mystery!"
+
+"As Faxon in the theatre I was perfectly sincere in my friendship for
+you," I went on.  "I liked you.  But little by little against my will I
+was forced to believe that you were the thief."
+
+This touched him, but not quite in the way I expected.  "Me?  The
+_thief_?" he gasped--and suddenly burst into harsh laughter.  "How did
+you arrive at that?"
+
+I was no longer inclined to spare him.  "In the first place you
+provoked a bet with Miss Hamerton which induced her to wear the real
+pearls on the night they were stolen."
+
+His face turned grave.  "True," he said.  "I forgot that.  What else?"
+
+"On April sixth you deposited forty thousand dollars in cash in the
+Second National Bank."
+
+He paled.  "Anything more?"
+
+"Do you care to explain where you got it?" I asked.
+
+"Not to you," he said proudly.  "Go on with your story."
+
+"My first clue was in the cryptic letter found on the stage."
+
+"I remember.  You couldn't translate it."
+
+"But I did."
+
+"What's it got to do with me?"
+
+"Nothing.  But I found a second letter written in the same cryptogram
+and about the same matters in your pocket."
+
+"That's a lie!" he said.
+
+"If you want to see it it's at my office."
+
+"If you did find such a paper in my pocket it was planted there."
+
+"I should be glad to believe you were not the man," I said mildly.
+
+"Spare me your assurances," he said scornfully.
+
+He was silent for a while, thinking over what I had told him.  Slowly
+horror grew in his face.  "But--but this is only a devilish combination
+of circumstances," he stammered.  "You haven't proved anything."
+
+"The pearls have been recovered," I said.
+
+"Where?" he shot at me.
+
+"In your safe."
+
+His legs failed him suddenly.  He half fell in a chair, staring at me
+witlessly.  "Oh, my God!" he muttered huskily.  "Those, _hers_!"
+
+I believe I smiled.
+
+"And you--you have told her this story?" he faltered.
+
+"That's what I was engaged for."
+
+"Oh, my God!" he reiterated blankly.  "What shall I do!"
+
+His agony was genuine enough.  In spite of myself I was moved by it.
+"Better go," I said.  "The matter will be hushed up, of course."
+
+"Hushed up!" he cried.  "Never!"
+
+This theatrical pretence of innocence provoked me afresh.  "Oh, get
+out!" I said.  "And be thankful you're getting off so easily!"
+
+He paid no attention to me.  "I must see her," he muttered.
+
+"What do you expect to gain by bluffing now?" I said impatiently.  "You
+must see that the game is up."
+
+"I will not leave here without seeing her," he said with a kind of dull
+obstinacy.
+
+"You have me at a disadvantage," I said bitterly.  "You know I can't
+have you thrown out without causing a scandal."
+
+He scarcely seemed to hear me.  "I will go when she sends me," he
+muttered.
+
+"All right, my patience is equal to yours," I said.
+
+So there we sat, he with his ghastly white face turned towards the door
+into the inner rooms, moistening his lips from time to time, I looking
+out of the window.
+
+To make matters worse, Mrs. Bleecker came clucking in.  She, knowing
+nothing, fell on Quarles' neck, so to speak, and told him all her
+troubles with sidelong shots at me.
+
+He paid little attention to her vapouring, only repeating in his
+ghastly, blank way: "I must see Irma."
+
+"Of course!" said Mrs. Bleecker.  "I'll tell her you're here."
+
+"Mrs. Bleecker, as a friend, I advise you not to interfere," I said
+sternly.
+
+She went out, flouncing her skirts at me.
+
+To my surprise, Miss Hamerton presently came in.  I cannot say what led
+her to do it, perhaps she was hoping against hope that he could defend
+himself.  There was no sign of weakness in her now.  Her face was as
+composed as marble.  Mrs. Bleecker did not return.
+
+"Irma," he cried, "send this fellow away."
+
+I made haste to go, but she kept me.  "Mr. Enderby must stay," she
+said.  "He is your friend," she added.
+
+He made a gesture of despair.  A hideous silence descended on the three
+of us.
+
+"You asked to see me," she said at last.
+
+"Irma, do you believe this of me?" he cried like a soul out of Hell.
+
+"I am willing to hear anything you have to say," she murmured.
+
+"What does evidence matter?" he cried.  "Do you believe me capable of
+such a thing?"
+
+"Am I not forced to?" she said very low.
+
+His head dropped.  I never saw such hopeless wretchedness in a man's
+face.  I felt like an executioner.
+
+"Speak up!" I said sharply.  "We are anxious to believe in you."
+
+He shook his head.  "It doesn't matter," he said in a stifled voice.
+"I doubt if I could clear myself.  Anyway I shan't try.  It--it is
+killed!"
+
+He bent a look of fathomless reproach on her.  "Good-bye, Irma," he
+said quietly.  "I'm glad I was the means of your getting your jewels
+back.  I never knew they had been stolen."
+
+This to me was the purest exhibition of cheek I had ever met with.  I
+was hard put to it to keep my hands off the man.  If she had not been
+there!  He went.  And when I turned around Irma had gone back into the
+next room.  I was angry through and through, and yet--and yet----!  A
+nagging little doubt teased me.
+
+So ended, as I thought, the case of the blue pearls.  Little did I
+suspect what was on the way.
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+The following day was a blue one for me.  Deprived of all the exciting
+activities of the past few weeks I was at a loss what to do with
+myself.  Moreover, I was dissatisfied with the result of those
+activities.  I had won out, so to speak, but my client had not.  For
+her only tragic unhappiness had come of it.  Meanwhile that little
+inner voice continued to whisper that I had _not_ got to the bottom of
+the case.  I could not put that young fellow's amazed and despairing
+face out of my mind.  It did not fit into the theory of his guilt.  On
+top of it all I had had a quarrel with Sadie the night before.
+
+About noon my uncomfortable thoughts were broken into by the entrance
+of Sadie herself with storm signals flying, to wit: a pair of flashing
+blue eyes and a red flag hoisted in either cheek.  I had supposed that
+she was already on the way to Amityville with Miss Hamerton, where they
+were to stay at a sanatorium conducted by a doctor friend of mine.
+
+Before I could speak she exploded like a bomb in my office.  "Ben,
+you've been a fool!"
+
+"Eh?" I said, blinking and looking precious like one, I expect.
+
+She repeated it with amplifications.
+
+"So you said last night," I remarked.
+
+"But I hadn't seen her then."
+
+"Aren't you going to the country?" I asked, hoping to create a
+diversion.
+
+"Yes, at two o'clock.  But I had to see you first."
+
+"To tell me what you thought of me?"
+
+"To beg you to do something."
+
+"What is there to do?"
+
+"You have made a hideous mistake!  Ruined both their lives!"
+
+I may have had my own doubts, but it wouldn't have been human to
+confess them in the face of an attack like this.  "Easy, there!" I said
+sulkily.  "Have you discovered any new evidence?"
+
+"Oh, evidence!" she cried scornfully.  "I know he _couldn't_ have
+stolen her pearls, and in your heart you know it, too."
+
+"Sorry," I said sarcastically, "but in conducting my business I have to
+consult my head before my heart."
+
+"I know it!" she said bitterly.  "That's why you've been a fool!"
+
+"Well, next time I'll consult a clairvoyant."
+
+"Oh, don't try to be clever!  It's too dreadful!  If you had seen her!
+She will never act again.  And he!--he will likely kill himself, if he
+has not already done it."
+
+This struck a chill to my breast.  Sadie had an intuitive sense that I
+could not afford to despise.  At the same time having been called a
+fool, I couldn't back down.
+
+"I don't see what better he can do," I said hardily.
+
+"You can say that!" she said aghast.  "You don't mean it!"
+
+A very real jealousy made me hot.  That handsome young blackguard had
+all the women with him.  "Are you in love with him, too?" I asked
+sarcastically.
+
+It was a mistake.  She had me there.  "You're doing your best to make
+me," she retorted.
+
+"What are you abusing _me_ for?" I complained.  "I did no more than
+what I was engaged to do."
+
+"She was distracted!" said Sadie.  "She couldn't think for herself.
+She depended on you."
+
+"Well, I did the best I could for her," I said doggedly.  "You seem to
+think that I enjoyed doing it.  There is a perfect case against him."
+
+"There is not!" she said quickly.  "Your own evidence that you set such
+a store by is full of holes!"
+
+I invited her to point them out.
+
+"One of your points against him is that he lately came into possession
+of a lot of money, presumably the proceeds of the theft.  Yet you found
+the pearls on him, too.  One fact contradicts the other."
+
+"How do I know what other activities he's been engaged in?"
+
+"You do not believe that."
+
+"I beg your pardon," I said stiffly.  "Permit me to know my own
+beliefs."
+
+"If it wasn't true it wouldn't anger you."
+
+"I am not angry."  I smiled to prove it.
+
+"How can I talk to you if you act like such a child!" cried Sadie.
+
+"Never mind my actions.  Stick to his."
+
+"You know very well that he could not have carried out several
+successful robberies without a lot of experience.  His whole open life
+gives the lie to that.  Have we not gone into every part of it?"
+
+"I know I found the pearls on him," I said doggedly.  "They could not
+very well have been planted in a locked drawer in his own safe.  He did
+not even claim that they were."
+
+She ignored this.  "And that cryptogram," she went on, "I mean the
+first one.  It didn't say so in so many words, but the inference was
+unmistakable that Miss Hamerton's pearls had been disposed of, and that
+part of the proceeds was waiting for the thief.  How do you account for
+that?"
+
+I did not try to account for it.  I pooh-poohed it.  "He convicted
+himself," I insisted.  "We invited him, we begged him to explain.  He
+could not."
+
+"Would not, you mean."
+
+"What's the difference?"
+
+She favoured me with an extraordinary glance of scorn.  "And you set up
+to understand human nature!"
+
+"Well, let me have your understanding of it," I said sarcastically.
+
+"He was in love with her," said Sadie.  "I suppose you don't question
+that."
+
+"No, strange as it seems, I believe he was in love with her."
+
+"That makes goose eggs of all your fine reasoning!  Reason all night
+and it wouldn't make sense.  He might have stolen anybody else's pearls
+but never hers.  It was she who wronged love in believing that he
+could.  To find out that she suspected him killed his love dead.
+Losing that, what did he care about his reputation?  If he does away
+with himself it will be not because he was accused of a theft, but
+because she killed his trust in her, and he doesn't care to live
+without it."
+
+I listened to all this with an affected smile of superiority, but it
+reached me.  Every word that the unhappy Quarles had uttered fitted in
+with Sadie's theory.
+
+"Suppose some one accused you of stealing Miss Hamerton's purse to buy
+me a present," she went on, artfully changing her tone.  "I would make
+a tremendous virtuous fuss, of course, but in my heart I couldn't love
+you any less, though you might not have the sense to know it.  But if
+they said you had stolen my purse to buy me something, how I would
+laugh!  It's too silly for words."
+
+I was rapidly weakening, but it was damnably hard to own up.
+
+"The same with this case.  You think I'm in love with Quarles because I
+defend him.  That's just like a man!  The truth is, what hurts me is to
+see you deceive yourself, and then look fatuous about it."
+
+She was now wielding a double-edged sword.  "But if the woman who loves
+him was deceived, surely I have some excuse," I said meekly.
+
+"That's the weakness of her character--or the penalty of her position,
+whichever you like.  She is so surrounded by flattery and meanness, it
+has taught her to suspect even her lover."
+
+"But how did the pearls get in his safe?" I cried, begging for mercy.
+
+"I don't know.  It's a mystery.  I'm only trying to show you that you
+haven't solved the mystery yet."  Once more she changed her tone, the
+witch!  "I'm so keen to have you make a great success of the case, Ben.
+And to help a little."
+
+That completed the rout of my forces.  "Sadie, darling," I cried.  "In
+my heart I feel the same as you.  I would have given in at once if you
+hadn't begun by slapping my face!"
+
+There was a little private interlude here.  Boss and operative were
+lost sight of.
+
+"Now let's get to work!" I said.
+
+"I hope it's not too late!" she said sadly.
+
+
+
+
+11
+
+I hastened down to Quarles' rooms near Gramercy Square.  I found his
+old housekeeper in tears.  My glimpse beyond her showed me that the
+place was partly dismantled.  I found that she was half-heartedly
+packing.  She did not know me without my Faxon makeup, and refused any
+information.  I suspected that she had been forbidden to speak.
+However, by adroit and sympathetic questioning, and because the poor
+old soul was bursting with her troubles, it finally came out with a
+rush.  She thought her master had lost his mind, he had acted so
+strangely, but such was her awe of him, she had not dared question his
+commands.
+
+All night long he had paced his bedroom and sitting-room, pausing only
+to burn papers and cherished mementos in the grate.  When she had risen
+from her bed and timidly enquired if he were ill, he had harshly
+ordered her back to her room.  There she had lain trembling until
+morning, grieving because she thought she had offended him.
+
+He had left his breakfast untasted.  Afterwards he had called her to
+him, and in a voice and manner totally unlike his own, had announced
+that he was going away, and had given her instructions that terrified
+her.  His furniture was to be sent to an auctioneer's under an assumed
+name, and was to be put up on the first sale day.  She was to keep what
+it brought in lieu of wages.  His clothes were to be sent to the
+Salvation Army.  His jewelry and knick-knacks she might sell or keep as
+she chose.  On second thoughts he had written out his instructions in
+the form of a letter to her in case any of her acts should be
+questioned.  He had then called a taxi from the stable he usually
+patronised, and had departed without any baggage.  This last fact
+alarmed her more than all the rest.
+
+All this read fatally clear.  I was careful, however, to make light of
+it to the grief-stricken old woman.  I assumed an authority which she
+willingly deferred to.  I ordered her to put the rooms in order, and
+not to make any other move until she heard from me again.  She was
+vastly cheered.  What she dwelt on most tragically was the necessity of
+sending all his beautiful suits to the ragged crew who profited by the
+Salvation Army's benefactions.
+
+I found out from the taxi stable that Quarles had been driven to the
+Pennsylvania station.  I got hold of his driver, a man frequently
+employed by him.  He had remarked his strange appearance this morning.
+On reaching the station Quarles had asked the porter who opened the cab
+door what time the next train left for Baltimore.  On learning that he
+had but three minutes to catch it, he had thrust a bill in the
+chauffeur's hand, and rushed away.  This had been at ten o'clock; it
+was now nearly one.  I had the same driver carry me to the station,
+where I telephoned Sadie, snatched a bite to eat, and caught the next
+express South.
+
+It was not the most cheerful journey I have taken.  I had four hours to
+think over the tragic possibilities of my mistake, and it was small
+comfort to reflect that it was a natural mistake.  Quarles, with his
+three hours' start had only too much time to put his purpose into
+effect.  My only hope was that he might instinctively be led to wait
+until night.  Darkness has an invincible attraction for desperate souls.
+
+Arriving in Baltimore I had the whole wide city to choose from, and not
+a clue.  No chance of anybody's having marked him in the crowd that
+left the train there.  However, I happened to know of a certain select
+hotel invariably patronised by the elite of the profession, and I went
+there on a chance.  The clerk I saw did not know Mr. Quarles, but upon
+my describing him he said that such a young man had been in the hotel
+during the afternoon.  He was not registered there.  He recollected him
+because he had stopped at the desk to ask an unusual question.  Did the
+clerk know where there was a taxidermist in town?  Together they had
+looked up an address in the business directory, and the young man had
+departed.  He had not returned.
+
+I hastened to the taxidermist's wondering greatly what could have been
+Quarles' errand in such a place.  Casting back in my mind, I remembered
+having seen several little cases of mounted butterflies among his
+treasures.  There was something pathetically innocent in the wide open
+trail the young fellow was leaving behind him.  This surely was no
+experienced criminal.
+
+The store was kept by a benignant old man who somehow seemed to belong
+with the stuffed birds and pet dogs that lined the walls of his little
+place.  I also saw many little frames of impaled beetles and
+butterflies such as I had seen in Quarles' rooms.  The entire place had
+an old world look.
+
+The old fellow was a kindly, garrulous soul who required not the
+slightest pressure to set him talking.  Quarles, it appeared, had made
+quite an impression on him.  "A handsome young fellow!" he said, "and
+such a gentleman."  Quarles, he said, had been attracted into his shop
+by the butterflies, and they had fallen into talk about butterfly
+hunting, of which sport both were devotees.  Quarles had finally
+purchased three beautiful specimens of something with a terrible Latin
+name.
+
+As he was about to leave, Quarles had remarked that he was on his way
+out of town for a jaunt, and he had neglected to provide himself with
+any cyanide.  It seems that cyanide is what they use to kill the
+insects.  In all innocence the old man had furnished it, and his
+customer with one more question had departed.  Where was there a second
+hand clothes dealer?
+
+Cyanide of potassium, deadliest of poisons!  I hastened to the second
+hand store with a sickness at the heart.
+
+They remembered Quarles here, too.  The story he had told here was that
+he wanted some worn old clothes to wear to a masquerade.  He had been
+furnished with a complete outfit, hat, suit, shirt, socks and shoes.
+While things were being wrapped up, he had mentioned idly that he was a
+stranger in town, and he had a couple of hours to kill.  He wanted to
+know of a trolley line that would take him out in the country.  The
+storekeeper had recommended the Annapolis short line as the pleasantest
+ride on a mild evening.
+
+This had been about four, and it was now a little after six.  I had
+caught up on him a little, I found that the cars left for Annapolis
+every half hour.  By good luck the car which had left at four returned
+while I was waiting in the station.  I interviewed the conductor.  He
+remembered Quarles.  His attention had been attracted to him because,
+although he held a ticket to Annapolis, he had suddenly risen and left
+the car at the Severn river bridge station.  I took the six-thirty car
+for Annapolis.  The conductor told me that the station at the bridge
+was used principally by summer residents who had their motor boats meet
+them here.  At this season, early in May, there was but little business
+there.  It was almost dark when I got off, a balmy, Spring evening.  It
+was a lonely-looking spot.  There was a little settlement up a hill,
+with a path from the station, but I guessed that if my man had been
+attracted by the loneliness of the situation, he would not go that way.
+I looked about.  Crossing the track and climbing down to a deserted
+strip of beach beside the wide river, I found with my flashlight that a
+solitary person had gone that way before me.  He was wearing a shapely
+shoe.  This would surely be he.  The tracks drew me along beside the
+river towards its mouth, which was in view.  On the other side, farther
+down, sparkled the lights of the Naval Academy.
+
+Rounding a point, in a little cove hidden from the world, I found the
+remains of a fire on the sand.  The embers were still glowing.  Poking
+among them I found scraps of scorched felt and woollen cloth and bits
+of broken glass.  Here obviously, Quarles had changed his clothes, and
+had destroyed the expensive garments he wore to the scene.  Evidently
+he was counting on the fact that there is little trouble taken to
+establish the identity of a poorly dressed suicide.  The glass was no
+doubt what remained of the case of butterflies he had bought.  Some
+coins in the ashes added their mute testimony of his desperate
+intention.
+
+I hurried on.  The footprints recommenced beyond the fire, their shape
+somewhat altered, for he had changed his shoes with the rest.  His fine
+shoes he must have filled with stones and thrown in the river for I
+found no remains of leather in the fire.  I hoped that with the time he
+had spent doing all this he would now be but a short distance ahead of
+me.  Unfortunately half a minute--half of that, would be enough for him
+to accomplish his purpose.
+
+I came to the main road from Baltimore to Annapolis which crosses the
+Severn by another long bridge.  Automobiles crossed it at intervals.
+Since the footprints were not resumed in the sand across the road it
+was clear he had turned into it one way or the other.  The river seemed
+likeliest.  I started out on the bridge, dreading most of all to hear a
+splash just out of my reach.  It was now quite dark.
+
+Out in the middle of the bridge close to the draw I came upon a
+motionless, slouching figure with battered hat pulled down over the
+face.  Notwithstanding the shapeless clothes the tall slenderness was
+unmistakable.  He was leaning with his elbows on the guard rail
+regarding something that he held in one hand.  The object caught a
+spark from the red light of the draw overhead.  It was the vial of
+cyanide.  My heart bounded with relief.  I was in time--but barely.
+
+"Quarles," I said softly.
+
+He straightened up with a terrified hissing intake of the breath.  I
+turned the flashlight on myself to save lengthy explanations.
+
+"_You!_" he said after a moment, in a low bitter tone.  "God! must you
+dog me here!"
+
+"I am your friend," I said.
+
+He laughed.  "Friend!" he said.  "That's good!"  Then his tone changed.
+"You'd better be on your way," he said threateningly.  "I'm in no mood
+for fooling."
+
+"I've been trying to overtake you since noon," I said, merely to be
+saying something.  An instinct told me there was nothing like a little
+conversation to let down a desperate man.
+
+"Why, in God's name?" he demanded.  "What good am I to you now?"
+
+"I no longer believe you guilty."
+
+"I don't give a damn what you believe."
+
+"I want you to help me find the thief."
+
+"It's nothing to me who took the pearls.  She's got 'em back again.
+You'd better go on.  I won't stand for any interference."
+
+"You won't do it now," I said confidently.
+
+"Won't I!"
+
+He made a move to uncork the little vial.  I struck his wrist and it
+fell to the ground.  We searched for it frantically in the dark.  I had
+the light, and I saw it first.  I put my heel on it, and ground the
+fragile, deadly thing into the planks of the bridge floor.  He cursed
+me.
+
+"There is still the water," I said.
+
+"I'm a swimmer," he said sullenly.  "I couldn't go down.  I meant to
+climb on the rail and take the stuff, so it would look like drowning.
+But there are plenty of ways."
+
+"Be a man and _live_!" I said.
+
+He laughed again.  "There's nothing in that cant for a man who's sick
+of the game."
+
+"Live for her sake," I hazarded.  "She loves you."
+
+"You've mistaken your job, old man," he said with grim amusement.  "You
+ought to be a playwright.  Write her a play.  She's a great actress.
+Yah!  I'm sick of it!  Love!  There's no such thing.  Not in women!
+This is real, anyhow."
+
+I had got him talking.  Something told me the crisis was past.  I took
+a new tack.
+
+"She certainly has treated you badly," I said.  "I don't wonder you're
+sore.  I know just how you feel."
+
+He turned on me with clenched fist and a furious command to be silent.
+"It's no damned policeman's business what I feel!"
+
+"Revenge is sweet," I murmured.
+
+It brought him up all standing.  In the dark I heard him breathing
+quickly.
+
+"Do you want to crawl away like a cur and die in a hole?" I asked.
+
+"Why in Hell can't you let me alone?" he said fretfully.  "What do you
+want to drag me back for?"
+
+I saw I had him going now.  "Make her suffer," I urged.  "The most
+perfect revenge in the world is yours if you want it, because she loves
+you."
+
+"What are you getting at?"
+
+"Prove your innocence to her."
+
+"I doubt if I could," he said weakly.  "I shouldn't know how to begin.
+I seem to be caught in a net."
+
+"I am offering to help you."
+
+"What's your game?" he demanded suspiciously.
+
+"I've made a serious mistake," I said.  "I've got my professional
+reputation to think of.  Besides, I'm only human.  I don't want to have
+your untimely end on my conscience."
+
+"It needn't be.  I'm my own master."
+
+I decided to risk all on one throw.  I laid a hand on his shoulder.
+"Look here," I said frankly.  "You and I are not strangers.  We took to
+each other from the first, though I happened to be wearing a disguise.
+I have suffered like the devil all day.  Forgive me my part in
+yesterday's affair, and be my friend.  Friendship isn't such a common
+thing in spite of all the talk about it.  I should think you'd
+recognise the real thing when it's offered to you."
+
+"Rubbish!" he grumbled.  "I don't believe in friendship.  I never had a
+real friend."  But he didn't shake my hand off.
+
+"Try me."
+
+"Oh well, you've spoiled it for to-night, anyway.  I'll listen to what
+you've got to say.  Where can we go?  I haven't a cent.  And nothing
+but these filthy rags."
+
+"That's a trifle," I said joyfully.  "I'll find a place."
+
+
+
+
+12
+
+We proceeded on across the bridge into the town of Annapolis.  First I
+took Roland to a lunch room and commanded him to eat.  I had a time
+getting him to swallow the first mouthful, but that once down, he
+developed a ravenous appetite.  I suppose he had not eaten in thirty
+hours.  It was comical to see how, with a stomachful of hot food inside
+him, a zest in living renewed itself.  The more his resolution
+weakened, the louder he inveighed against life.  But he had a sense of
+humour.  He suddenly became conscious of the absurdity of his attitude,
+and we laughed together.  From that moment he was safe, and he was
+mine.  There is nothing to cement a friendship like laughter.
+
+Afterwards I got a room in an obscure hotel.  Roland sat down on the
+edge of the bed, and proceeded to give me his version of the matters
+that perplexed me so.  In the middle of a sentence he fell over and
+slept like a dead man.  I stole out and telegraphed Sadie at Amityville
+that I had him safe and sound.  Returning, I sat by the hour watching
+him.  My heart was soft for the human creature I had snatched from the
+brink.  He looked very boyish and appealing as he lay sleeping.  He
+seemed years younger than I.  I cannot tell you how glad I was to think
+that there was warmth in the young body, and sentience under the shut
+lids.
+
+Shortly after midnight he awoke as suddenly and thoroughly as he had
+fallen asleep.  Then he wanted to talk.  He was bursting with talk.  I
+swallowed my yawns and set myself to listen.  I let him talk in his own
+way, no questions.  For a long time I listened to what I already knew,
+the tale of his jealous, hopeless passion for Irma.  Sometimes he had
+suspected that she inclined towards him, but it seemed preposterous to
+ask her to give up her profession for him.  On the other hand he knew
+he could not endure sharing his wife with the public.  He had decided
+to go away without speaking--and then the miraculous legacy had dropped
+from the skies.
+
+"Tell me all about that," I commanded.
+
+"I promised not to tell," he said reluctantly.
+
+"This is a matter of life and death.  Why was a promise exacted?"
+
+"To avoid publicity."
+
+"There will be none," I said.  "I pledge myself to guard the secret as
+well as you could."
+
+"I destroyed the letter I got, with the others," he said.  "But I read
+it so often I can give it to you almost word for word."
+
+"Too bad it was destroyed!" I said.
+
+"Oh, you can verify the contents by the Amsterdam Trust Company who
+paid me the money."
+
+"But if you have a clear case what did you run for?" I asked amazed.
+
+"You will never understand," he said with a wry smile.  "I seemed to
+die at that moment when I saw that Irma believed I was capable of
+robbing her.  What did I care about my case?"
+
+Hearing that, my opinion of Sadie's perspicacity went up marvellously.
+"Go on," I said.
+
+I took down the letter from his dictation.  It was written, he said, on
+expensive note-paper, without address, crest or seal, in a large and
+somewhat old-fashioned feminine hand.
+
+
+"DEAR MR. QUARLES:
+
+Although you have never heard of me I think of you as my dearest
+friend.  I have followed your career from the time of your first
+appearance on the stage.  I am one of those unfortunates who, condemned
+to live, are cut off from life.  I watch life pass from behind my iron
+screen.  It is you who, all unconscious, have supplied me with a dream
+to cheat my emptiness.  I have warmed my cold hands at your fire.
+
+"Now they tell me my release is at hand.  I wish to show my gratitude
+to you in the only way that is possible to me.  An artist's career is
+difficult and uncertain.  I want to remove a little of the uncertainty
+from yours.
+
+"I must avoid giving rise to silly gossip which would grieve my
+relatives.  To avoid the publicity of probate I am making secret
+arrangements beforehand.  An old friend will carry out my wishes for me
+when I am gone.
+
+"The doctors give me a week longer.  Upon my death this letter will be
+mailed to you.  You will then hear from the Amsterdam Trust Company
+that a sum of money awaits your order.  You will never know my name.
+But if you should let even the bare facts become known, some busybody
+would eventually connect them with my name, and unhappy gossip result.
+Therefore I ask you as a man of honour to keep the whole transaction
+locked in your breast."
+
+
+"That is all," said Roland.  "It was signed: 'Your grateful friend.'"
+
+"Did you look in the recent obituaries for a clue?" I asked.
+
+"Yes," he confessed.  "There was none."
+
+"Go ahead with your story.  We'll return to the letter later."
+
+"At first I thought it was a hoax," he resumed, "but sure enough, in
+two or three days I received a letter from the Trust Company asking me
+to call.  I saw the President.  He said that the sum of forty thousand
+dollars had been deposited with them to be turned over to me in cash.
+He said it had been bequeathed to me by one who desired to remain
+unknown.  He said he did not know himself who my benefactor was.  He
+had dealt with a lawyer.  He said that there was but one condition
+attached to the legacy, namely that I give my word never to speak of
+the matter.  I had met this Mr. Ambler the president, and he had seen
+me act, so there was no difficulty about identifying me.  I left his
+office carrying the money, and carried it to my own bank to deposit.
+That is all there is to that."
+
+"Good!" I said.  "The Amsterdam Trust Company is a solid institution,
+and the president a well-known man.  They will still be there if we
+need them."
+
+"It mustn't get in the newspapers," he said nervously.
+
+"Trust me for that.  I'm not going to make you break your word.  Now
+about the bet you made with Miss Hamerton."
+
+He winced at the sound of her name.  "There's no more in that than
+appears on the surface," he said irritably.  "I couldn't have told the
+paste from the genuine.  I wanted to give her a box of gloves.  But she
+never claimed them, and I forgot about it."
+
+"The cryptogram you have already explained," said I.
+
+"I did not know there was such a paper in my pocket."
+
+"Hold on," he cried suddenly, "about that bet.  I have just remembered
+that I once had a talk about precious stones, pearls, with a man in the
+company."
+
+"Milbourne?"
+
+"Sure!  How did you know?"
+
+"I believe he took them.  But it's going to be a job to prove it."
+
+"It was just a trifling conversation," Roland resumed, thinking hard.
+"I can't remember exactly.  He marked the beauty and oddity of Ir--of
+Miss Hamerton's necklace.  I think he said he hoped that she did not
+risk wearing real pearls on the stage.  That may have been to find out
+if I knew they were artificial.  I told him she did not wear the real
+ones.  There was more talk.  He seemed to know about pearls, and I
+believe I asked him how to tell the real from the artificial.  I never
+thought of it then, but looking back I see that it may have been that
+talk which gave me the idea of making a bet with Ir--with her.  Oh, I
+have been a fool!"
+
+"This is all interesting," I said, "but it doesn't give us anything
+solid to go on.  Now for the main thing.  How did the real pearls get
+in your safe?"
+
+Roland struck his forehead.  "I have been everybody's dupe!" he groaned.
+
+"It's a part we all have to play occasionally," I said soothingly.  "Go
+ahead."
+
+"About this time I began to get circular letters from a firm of
+jewellers called Jones and Sanford with an address on Maiden Lane,
+where all the jewellers used to be.  They were fac-simile letters, very
+well written."
+
+"The kind that are made to look like personal letters, but like false
+teeth, deceive nobody?"
+
+"Precisely.  I got one every few days.  They were all to the effect
+that the writers as brokers, were prepared to sell precious stones at
+prices much under those asked by the big jewellers.  There was a lot of
+rigmarole about saving on overhead charges, interest on valuable stocks
+and so on, about what you would expect in such letters.  There were a
+lot of imposing-looking references, too."
+
+"At first I paid no attention to the letters; precious stones didn't
+interest me.  But when I got all that money I began to read them.  You
+see I--I wanted to make Irma a present, and I knew she loved pearls
+better than anything else in the world."
+
+I let a whistle of astonishment out of me.  "Do you mean to say you
+bought Miss Hamerton's pearls with the idea of presenting her with
+them, to add to her collection?"
+
+He nodded shamefacedly.  "I didn't know she had been robbed."
+
+"How long had you had them?"
+
+"Just a few days."
+
+He told me that he had asked Miss Hamerton to marry him, and intended
+the necklace for a wedding-gift if she consented.
+
+"You were a downy bird!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Wait till I tell you," he said.  "They were a slick pair.  You might
+have been taken in yourself."
+
+"Did they know you?" I asked, still full of amazement.
+
+"Certainly.  I paid for them by check, certified check."
+
+"Which they cashed within half an hour!"
+
+"Maybe.  I never enquired."
+
+"Sold Miss Hamerton's pearls back to Miss Hamerton's leading man!" I
+cried.  "My boy, we have something out of the common in crooks to deal
+with!"
+
+"They had a well-furnished suite on an upper floor of a first-class
+office building," he resumed.  "I was there three or four times.  I saw
+other customers coming and going.  Everything was business-like and all
+right looking.  Even the stenographer had a prim New England air.  They
+showed me all kinds of precious stones.  I bit at the pearls because I
+recognised that they were the same kind Irma had.  They asked eight
+thousand dollars for them."
+
+"You knew, didn't you, that Miss Hamerton's necklace was worth much
+more than that?"
+
+"Yes.  But I had been told hers were very fine and perfect.  I supposed
+these to be not so good."
+
+"And so you paid your money on a chance, and took them home."
+
+"Not quite as fast as that.  The jewellers seemed to take it as a
+matter of course that I would have the pearls examined by an expert
+before purchasing.  They suggested that I take them up to Dunsany's."
+
+"_Dunsany's_?" I said amazed.
+
+"Yes.  Wasn't that enough to lull suspicion?  Dunsany's is more than a
+jewelry store; it's a national institution."
+
+"But you never took them there?"
+
+"Indeed I did," was the surprising answer.  "Sanford and Jones' clerk
+went with me.  We saw Mr. Freer, the firm's expert on pearls."
+
+I whistled again.  Freer, the man at Dunsany's to whom I had told my
+little fiction of the fiction-writer, and who had looked so queer when
+I mentioned blue pearls!
+
+"Large gentleman, elegantly-dressed, with a face like a boiled
+dumpling?"
+
+"Sure!" cried Roland.  "Do you know him, too?"
+
+"Go on with your story!" I said.
+
+"Mr. Freer examined the pearls and told me they were genuine, and of
+good quality.  He valued them at about twelve thousand dollars."
+
+"The devil he did!" I cried.  "This case is spreading wider and wider.
+Freer is in the gang, too.  To think of their having a picket in
+Dunsany's!"
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because he like everybody else in the trade had been informed that the
+only necklace of blue-black pearls in the world had been stolen.  He
+knew, moreover, that it was worth----"  But here prudence stopped my
+tongue.
+
+"Worth what?" asked Roland.
+
+"Well, much more than twelve thousand."
+
+"The only blue pearls in the world?" he said, puzzled.
+
+"There's a lot about this necklace you don't know," I said smiling.
+"All in good time.  Go on with your story."
+
+"Well, that's all, isn't it?" said he.  "At least you know the rest.
+Why these fellows were so careful of details, you will even find their
+imprint in gold inside the case.  Jones and Sanford, such and such a
+number, Maiden Lane."
+
+"Hm!  I have a case on my hands now!" I said meditatively.  "It may
+take me six months or more to clean this up."
+
+"I'll work with you," he said.
+
+"My dear fellow, I like you better every minute," I said, smiling at
+him.  "But you'd make the worst detective in the world."
+
+"Oh, well, maybe I would," he said.
+
+"There's no need for you to await the outcome of the case," I said.
+"We have the evidence right in hand to clear you.  I'll lay it before
+Miss Hamerton to-morrow morning."
+
+My young friend surprised me again.  He leaped up with his dark eyes
+positively blazing.  "You'll do nothing of the kind!" he cried
+passionately.  "That affair is done, done for ever.  If you interfere,
+I won't be responsible for the consequences.  She has her pearls back.
+Let her be.  My time will come when she reads of the capture and the
+trial of the real thieves in the public newspapers!"
+
+
+
+
+13
+
+Back in New York next day, I made haste to get to work on the half
+dozen clues with which Roland had furnished me.
+
+I may say in passing, though the visit had no important results, that I
+called on Mr. Ambler of the Amsterdam Trust Company.  At first he
+declined to give me any information whatever, but when I hinted that a
+certain suspicion rested on Mr. Quarles, he corroborated Roland's story
+as far as he knew it.  He declined to give me the name of the attorney
+who had brought the money to the bank.  "My endorsement of Mr. Quarles'
+story should be amply sufficient to clear him," he said, with the air
+of a bank president.
+
+"Undoubtedly," I said, bowing, and left.
+
+Since there appeared to be no immediate connection between Roland's
+legacy and the theft of the pearls, I let that go for the present.
+
+I went to the address of the jewellers on Maiden Lane, but found, as I
+expected, that the birds had flown.  An irate renting agent aired his
+opinion of Messrs. Sanford and Jones, but could give me no information
+of their whereabouts.  They had leased the offices for a year, and
+after five weeks' tenancy, quietly moved out.
+
+"Don't you ask references from prospective tenants?" I asked.
+
+"They gave A1 references," he mourned.
+
+I took down the names of their references for future use.  One of them
+was Mr. Freer of Dunsany and Company.
+
+My next call was upon Mr. Alfred Mount in his office behind the store
+of exquisite fashion.  His greeting, while polite, was slightly cooler
+than of yore.  As a man of the world, I was expected to gather from it,
+that our relations were now at an end.  It warned me to be wary.  I was
+already on my guard, because I knew that he hated Roland, and hoped to
+profit by his disgrace.
+
+"Anything new?" he asked casually.
+
+"Yes--and no," I said.  "I am not satisfied that we have got quite to
+the bottom of our case."
+
+"Do we ever get quite to the bottom of anything?" he asked.
+
+"I do not believe that Quarles was alone in this," I said as a feeler.
+
+"What makes you think so?" he asked quickly.
+
+"Nothing definite," I said.  "Just a feeling."
+
+He shrugged.
+
+"I believe that expert jewel thieves made a fool of him," I suggested.
+
+"It is possible," said Mount, looking bored.
+
+"If so, it is much to the interest of your business to run them down.
+So I have come to ask for your co-operation."
+
+"My dear sir," Mount replied with his indulgent, worldly smile, "the
+world is full of trouble.  I do not try to escape my share; I face it
+like a man, or as near like a man as I can.  But I never go searching
+for more.  We have by your skill recovered the jewels.  The reasons for
+not pursuing the matter any further are to me obvious.  Better let well
+enough alone."
+
+I appeared to give in to him.  "Maybe you're right.  I thought I saw a
+chance to earn a little glory."
+
+"There will be plenty of opportunities for that," he said affably.
+"You can count on me."
+
+We parted in friendly fashion.
+
+So much for Mr. Alfred Mount.  At least he would never be able to say
+later that I had not given him his chance.
+
+I went to the magnificent marble building which houses Dunsany and
+Company, and asked boldly for Mr. Walter Dunsany, great-grandson of the
+founder of the house, and its present head.  I was admitted to him
+without difficulty.  I found him a jeweller and a man of affairs of a
+type very different from him I had just come from.  Mr. Dunsany was a
+simple, unassuming man, direct and outspoken.  In short, a man's man.
+I was strongly attracted to him, and I may say without vanity that he
+seemed to like me.  From the first he trusted me more than I had any
+right to expect.
+
+At this time he was a man of about forty-five years old, somewhat bald,
+and beginning to be corpulent, but with a humorous, eager, youthful
+glance.  He glanced up from my card with a whimsical smile.
+
+"Confidential investigator?  More trouble, I suppose?"
+
+"I'm afraid so," I said.  "Have you an employee named Freer, an expert
+on pearls."
+
+"I had until a few days ago."
+
+An exclamation of disappointment escaped me.
+
+"What's the matter with Freer?" he asked.
+
+"I suppose you don't know where he is?"
+
+"On his way back to Holland, I suppose.  He came from there ten years
+ago.  Why?"
+
+"One more question first.  I am assuming that you know that a certain
+famous necklace of blue pearls has been stolen?"
+
+"Mount's pearls?  Certainly.  Everybody in the trade was advised."
+
+"You are sure Freer knew?"
+
+"Certainly.  It was his business first."
+
+"Yet a week or so ago, that necklace was brought into your store by a
+man who was considering the purchase of it.  He submitted it to Freer.
+Freer pronounced the stones genuine, and said that the necklace was
+worth about twelve thousand."
+
+Mr. Dunsany jumped up and paced the room agitatedly.  "Freer!" he
+exclaimed.  "Impossible!  You are sure of your facts!"
+
+I described the operations of Messrs. Sanford and Jones.
+
+"Not impossible, I suppose," he said more quietly.  "This sort of thing
+has happened to me before.  I doubt if there was ever a time when I was
+not harboring some thief or another.  They never steal from me, you
+understand.  They are the pickets, the outposts, who watch where the
+jewels go, and report to Headquarters.  But Freer!  He had been with me
+ten years.  He had an instinct for pearls!"
+
+"Headquarters?" I said eagerly.  "Then you agree with me that there is
+an organised gang at work?"
+
+"That's no secret," he said.  "Every jeweller knows that there is a
+kind of corporation of jewel thieves.  It is probably ten years old,
+and better organised and administered than our own association."
+
+"Why don't you break it up?"
+
+"Break it up!" he echoed.  "It is my dearest ambition!  There has never
+been a meeting of our association but what I have urged with all my
+eloquence that we get together and break up the thief trust.  They will
+not support me.  Everybody suspects that he has spies in his
+establishment, perhaps like Freer in a responsible position.  The
+crooks seem to have us where they want us.  They have never robbed us,
+you see.  There is a sort of unwritten agreement, you leave us alone
+and we'll leave you.  The other men in the association say: 'If our
+customers are careless with their jewels, we are not responsible.'  But
+I say we are!  These crooks have put us in a position where, if we do
+not go after them, we may be said to be in league with them."
+
+"Mr. Mount is a member of the association, I suppose?"
+
+"Mount?  Oh yes, he's the president.  To give Mount credit I must say
+that he has always supported me in this matter, though not so warmly as
+I would have liked.  But I am considered a fanatic."
+
+"Why don't you and he do it together?" I asked.
+
+"He won't go into it without the backing of the Association."
+
+"Why don't you go it alone?" I said.  "You are powerful."
+
+He glanced at me sharply.  "I will when I see my way," he said.  "Such
+police officers and detectives as have happened to come under my
+observation have not seemed to me the right men for the job.  When I
+find my man----"
+
+"Will you consider me as an applicant for the job?" I asked quietly.
+
+He studied me hard.  "I should be difficult to satisfy," he said.
+
+"First of all as to references," I said.  There were some good men who
+backed me.  I gave him their names.
+
+"How about Mount?" he asked.
+
+"I have already applied to him for the job," I said frankly, "and was
+turned down.  He is satisfied with the recovery of the pearls.  As long
+as he has refused to go in, I think it would be better not to let him
+know about our plans.  That, however, is up to you."
+
+"I shall not let him know," Mr. Dunsany said briefly.
+
+
+To make a long story short, I succeeded in satisfying Mr. Dunsany of my
+fitness to undertake the matter in hand.  We concluded a defensive and
+offensive alliance.  He let me understand that expense was to be no
+object.  I saw him every day.  We met at his club, which was as safe a
+place as we could find.
+
+I gave him my full confidence, of course.  With Roland's consent I told
+him everything that had occurred up to that time.  Mr. Dunsany for his
+part had a whole file of evidence that he had quietly collected.  He
+turned it over to me.  It was interesting, and in the end valuable, but
+it had nothing to do with the case of the blue pearls.
+
+We laid our plans with infinite care.  There was no hurry now, and
+every move was planned in advance.  Absolute secrecy was imperative.
+Mr. Dunsany and I agreed not to take a soul on earth into our
+confidence.
+
+It was necessary to hire a small army of operatives.  I did not figure
+in this.  I had Peter Keenan, an old friend of mine, who was not known
+generally among my friends, act for me.  Peter was a faithful,
+conscientious soul, not at all brilliant.  He hired a suite of offices
+on Forty-second street and set up the "International Detective Agency."
+Peter was the nominal head, and Sadie the real directress of this
+establishment.  Here the operatives were hired and sent on their
+errands.  Each did his little task knowing nothing of the general plan.
+
+Meanwhile Mr. B. Enderby was to be found all day in his office on
+Fortieth street with his feet on the desk, chinning with his young
+friends or composing a new play.  You see the second cryptogram led me
+to suspect that they were aware of my identity, and in case I were
+watched, as I surely would be, I desired to give the impression that I
+had dropped all activities in connection with jewels or jewel thieves.
+I communicated with Sadie by letter.  Uncle Sam is at once the most
+public and the safest messenger.  For emergencies we arranged a system
+of telephone calls.
+
+It would be a tedious task to set down all the routine work of the
+agency.  There were mistakes, disappointments and blind trails without
+number.  To begin with, Sadie was ordered to trace Freer, the pearl
+agent, also Sanford and Jones, the bogus jewellers, and any of their
+employees.  All this entailed great labour, and it was absolutely
+barren of result.  These people seemed to have vanished into thin air.
+In the case of Kenton Milbourne she was more successful.  She wrote:
+
+"In my character of Miss Covington the actress, I called on several of
+the women of Miss Hamerton's company who gave me their addresses when
+we disbanded.  From their gossip I learned without having to ask
+questions, that Kenton Milbourne has not disappeared.  They have all
+met him on Broadway.  He is apparently living the ordinary life of an
+actor out of a job, going around to the different agencies to list his
+name, etc.  His address is No. -- West 49th street.
+
+"I have allotted three of our best men to keep Milbourne under
+surveillance.  The first, D.B., who has been an actor, is working
+independently of the other two.  He has engaged a room in the same
+house and will make friends with M.  The other two operatives, A.N. and
+S.C., are to trail him turn and turn about."
+
+Thus the ground was laid out.  Making my report in turn to Mr. Dunsany,
+I said: "It's all very well as far as it goes, but we must do some
+original work.  Tracking the theft of Miss Hamerton's pearls is
+following a cold trail.  Our work is destroyed by the fact that the
+jewels have been recovered.  We must branch out."
+
+"What do you propose?" said he.
+
+"Let us lay a tempting bait for a new robbery, and catch them
+red-handed."
+
+"Go ahead!"
+
+"Are you prepared to risk something choice in diamonds or pearls?"
+
+"Anything I have in stock."
+
+"Very well.  First, however, we've got to get a man accepted into the
+inmost circle of the thief trust."
+
+
+
+
+14
+
+Mr. Walter Dunsany and part of his family sailed for Liverpool on the
+following Wednesday.  The fact was liberally commented on in the
+newspapers.  A squad of reporters saw him off at the pier, and got a
+statement from him on the country's business prospects.
+
+I must offer my little tribute of admiration to Mr. Dunsany.  I have
+yet to meet his equal for daring and gameness.  Middle-aged men are not
+generally conspicuous for these qualities, and when they are rich into
+the bargain--why, to hang on to what they've got is usually their
+highest aim.  But Mr. Dunsany insisted on playing the rôle of danger in
+our projected drama.  He eagerly accepted a part that the most
+hot-headed young adventurer might have quailed from.  I would never
+have allowed him to go in ahead of me, but unluckily an expert
+knowledge of gems was required.  That he had and I had not.  He
+insisted anyway that I must be free for the general command of all our
+forces.
+
+Twelve days after Mr. Dunsany's departure, one John Mattingly, in
+appearance a sober, decent, elderly artizan, descended the second-class
+gangway of one of our speediest ocean ferry-boats, and went to Ellis
+Island with the other immigrants.  Landed in due course at the foot of
+Manhattan Island, he gazed at the towering buildings with a wondering
+eye, and allowed himself to be guided to an humble hotel in the
+neighbourhood.
+
+I was not there to meet him for a very good reason, but later in the
+day I received a note apprising me of his arrival.  Two days later I
+had another telling me that having presented letters of recommendation,
+he had been engaged in the gem-setting shops of Dunsany and Co.  I
+cannot do better than quote from his own reports.  Far from being the
+usual cut and dried affairs, they were little human documents of
+humorous observation.
+
+
+REPORT OF J. M. #2
+
+_Wednesday, June 3rd._
+
+The morning after I landed, according to our program, I went to
+Dunsany's to apply for a job.  I wonder if any merchant before me ever
+had the experience of besieging the doors of his own shop in a like
+humble capacity.  Probably not.  I enjoyed the experience.  As soon as
+I opened the door I began to learn things about my own place.  I always
+thought that my democratic ideas encouraged my employees to treat me
+exactly like one of themselves, but I found that they did not--quite.
+Walking through the aisles I perceived a new atmosphere, a casualness,
+an indifference in the salesmen which shocked me at first, then made me
+want to laugh.  The joke was on me!
+
+My letter of recommendation, which I had written myself, naturally,
+gained me the entrée to the present head of the firm, i.e., my son
+Edward.  I approached his office with some nervousness.  Here would be
+the first grand test of my disguise.  Would the son recognise his
+father?  And if he did, would he have the wit not to give me away
+before others?  And if he did not, would I be able to keep my own face
+in the ludicrous situation?
+
+I should say that in the matter of disguise I have followed your
+instructions carefully.  The wig or toupee or transformation with which
+you furnished me, completely changes my appearance.  I have also
+applied the stubbly beard and short moustache as you showed me how to
+do.  I am letting my own hair grow beneath and will soon be able to
+leave off the false, which will be a relief as it is both hot and
+sticky.  In addition it occurred to me to leave aside certain dental
+work which cost me a lot of money.  The result is startling, and very
+satisfactory to our purpose.
+
+My clothes I bought ready-made in a London emporium.  Need I say more?
+The hat is a wonder, a sort of decrepit music-master affair of black
+felt.  It is undoubtedly third or fourth hand--or should I say fourth
+head?  I took care to have it well fumigated.
+
+Eddie did not recognise me.  He favoured me with some sharp glances
+which discomposed me not a little, but this was only natural caution in
+engaging an unknown man.  In our business we have to be careful.  I was
+well-pleased with Eddie's manner, succinct and business-like without a
+trace of arrogance.  Much better than my own manner, I dare say.
+
+Eddie was plainly annoyed by the situation, nor could I blame him.  It
+was, of course, very irregular.  In effect we were breaking the alien
+labour law, beside opening up the prospect of labour troubles in our
+own shop.  I knew exactly what was passing in the boy's mind, and I was
+longing to reassure him.  Instead I had to make believe to be slightly
+overawed in the presence of my little boy!
+
+He had no choice in the matter, because I had virtually instructed him
+to employ this Mattingly.  In addition to the letter of recommendation
+I had written him from London saying that I was sending such a man, an
+experienced jewel-setter, I had said, and had described Mattingly's
+appearance, so that he had no need to ask me to identify myself.
+
+Finally after asking a number of questions, to all of which I had the
+answers pat, Eddie engaged me.  I followed him to an upper floor, hard
+put to it to keep from grinning at the idea of my boy showing me the
+way around the place.  Fortunately the spectacles I wear help me to
+preserve an owl-like gravity.
+
+He took me to Ashley, the foreman of the gem-setting department.
+Ashley has been with us forty years.  He is a surly, lovable old crab.
+It was under Ashley that I got my training in handicraft twenty-five
+years ago.  Ashley regarded me with no favourable eye, but bowed to the
+mandate of the head of the firm, of course.  He gave me a boy's work
+cleaning old settings, and kept a sharp watch on me.  Later I succeeded
+in mollifying him a little by showing a certificate of good standing in
+the English jewellers' union, and by asking the name of the local
+secretary so that I could apply for membership here.
+
+He has not forgiven me, though, for being put in over the youngsters'
+heads.  "A blank-blank furriner!" his irascible eye seems to say.  I
+thought I had taken the measure of the old man's irascibility, having
+worked under him.  And in late years I would have said: "Here is one
+man in my shop who is not afraid to speak his mind to me."  But Eddie
+had not been gone five minutes before I found that Ashley had never
+spoken _all_ of his mind to me.  I found, too, that his irascibility
+had been tempered to the boss's son.  The boss himself, masquerading as
+a meek, alien workman, now received the full benefit of it.
+
+I am glad I made the resolution before coming here not to let anything
+I might learn on the inside, apart from actual dishonesty, influence me
+in dealing with my men later.  Already I confess my patience has been
+tried.  I thought I was a radical myself, but I find I am way behind
+the times.  There is one young fellow, Mullen by name, a hothead, a
+socialist, who exasperates me every time he opens his mouth.  He is so
+sure that his crazy ideas are right!  Yet he is none the worse workman
+for that.  He and old Ashley are the leaders of the two elements in the
+shop, and I'm sorry to say the old man generally comes off second best
+in their verbal encounters.
+
+During one of their arguments the first day, I was much amused, and a
+little alarmed, when the talk turned on me.
+
+"You with your socialist talk!" cried Ashley to Mullen scornfully.  "A
+man would think every boss was a horned devil!  There's our old man
+now, what's the matter with him?"
+
+"I don't know him," said Mullen with a leer.  "We ain't on visiting
+terms."
+
+"He talks to us, simple and friendly, just like one of ourselves," said
+Ashley.
+
+"Sure!" cried Mullen.  "It don't cost him nothin'!  I ain't seen him
+give up nothin' but talk, though.  That's what he keeps you quiet with,
+a little soft talk like strokin' the dog!"
+
+"He don't set up to be no more than a man like myself!" said my
+defender.
+
+"Sure, and he is no more!" cried the other.  "I've got as good an
+appetite for my meals as him, and my kids is as strong and handsome as
+his.  But there he is sailing across the ocean in a soot de luxe, and
+here am I sweating at his bench."
+
+"Well, what are you going to do about it?" asked Ashley, whereat all
+the men on his side crowed.
+
+"Do?" cried Mullen.  "I'm goin' to give him fair value for his wages,
+that's what I'm goin' to do.  But I don't have to lick the hand that
+pats me!"
+
+"A man can do what he likes with his own, I guess," said Ashley.
+
+"'Tain't his own!" was the surprising answer.  "He didn't earn it, did
+he?  It was the surplus that his dad made out of us workmen, and his
+grand-dad before him."
+
+"His grand-dad started as a workman like ourselves," said Ashley.
+"Only he was the best workman, so he went ahead."
+
+"I doubt that," said Mullen coolly.  "'Tain't the best workman that
+gets ahead, but the sharpest.  Grand-dad was sharp enough to get ahead
+of the other workman.  All right, I say.  Let him enjoy what he can
+get.  But does that give his family the right to run us to the end of
+time?"
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" asked Ashley again.  All his
+supporters laughed.
+
+Mullen turned to me unexpectedly.  "What have you got to say about it,
+mate?  You know what they think about such things across the water.
+Give us your ideas."
+
+"I don't know the boss," I said feebly.  "How can I tell?"
+
+"I don't mean him," said Mullen scornfully.  "He's nothing but a rich
+man.  I mean about labour and capital."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Ah! they tame them over there just like they do here, I see," said
+Mullen, turning away.
+
+I would like to fire that fellow when I get out of this--but, of
+course, in common decency I must not.
+
+Meanwhile I suppose you are wondering what all this has to do with our
+case.  Have patience with me.  I am so absolutely alone in my new life,
+I must have somebody to air my thoughts to.  The evenings are the
+hardest to put in.  The club calls me with a siren voice.  Eddie's wife
+is away, too, and I think of the boy dining alone.  I wish we had taken
+him into our confidence, but I suppose it was wiser not to.
+
+I have changed my boarding-place.  Couldn't stand the fare at Mrs.
+McMahon's.  I am now at a French place No. -- West 29th street.  It is
+humble enough to suit my altered station in life, but the cooking being
+French is not impossible.  I have mitigated my lot by buying a jug of
+excellent Bordeaux at Bardin's, which I have with my dinner without
+exciting suspicion.  I am aiming to get the name of a "character" which
+will enable me to do pretty much as I please.
+
+The only break I have made so far was upon the avenue yesterday.  I was
+on my way home from work and my wits were wool-gathering.  I was
+dreaming, I suppose, of where I would like to go for dinner.  Along
+came Warner Macklin, an elegant old dandy and a club acquaintance of
+mine.  Without thinking, I nodded to him as I would ordinarily.  You
+should have seen his affronted stare.  The old snob!  Anyhow it
+testifies to the efficacy of my disguise.
+
+If you would like to look me over I will be walking up and down in
+front of the dairy lunch on Thirty-fourth street East of Sixth avenue
+at Twelve-thirty to-morrow, Thursday.  J.M.
+
+
+REPORT OF J. M. #4
+
+_Tuesday, June 9th_
+
+I have not written you since Saturday, because there was nothing new to
+report, and I didn't want to take up your time with any more
+discussions on Labor versus Capital.  I am receiving a liberal
+education in these matters, very salutary.  After working at my bench
+all day I find my point of view much changed.  But I do not like that
+Mullen fellow!
+
+I am pretty well shaken into my job by now.  The local union is
+considering my application for membership favourably, so I am not a
+bone of contention in the shop.  But I hope there is something more
+exciting than this ahead.
+
+I have neither seen nor heard anything suspicious in any of my
+fellow-employees.  I would be willing to swear they are all honest, but
+you have told me, others too, that I'm too ready to believe the best of
+my fellow-creatures, so I'm keeping an open mind.
+
+To-day there was a little shake-up in the shop on account of vacations.
+I got a step up.  Ashley put me at the bench where jewels are removed
+from old settings on orders to be reset.  This is exactly what we need
+to carry out our plans, and it comes sooner than he hoped--but not too
+soon for me.  However, I do not mean to rush things, but will proceed
+with due caution.
+
+My heart still yearns every time I pass a first-class restaurant.  J.M.
+
+
+
+
+15
+
+At this stage I cannot better carry my story forward than by continuing
+to quote from the reports of different operatives.  To me these are
+fascinating documents.  Their sober matter-of-factness is more
+thrilling than the most exciting yarn.  With a wealth of seemingly
+irrelevant detail they build up a picture more convincing than any
+except those of a master of fiction.  One has to be in the secret, of
+course.  The operatives themselves are not supposed to know what it is
+all about, though they may guess a little.  But to be in the secret of
+a case and to read the reports bearing on it from a hundred angles,
+gives one a strange sense of power.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF D. B.
+
+According to my instructions I applied for board at number -- West
+Forty-Ninth street, Mrs. Atwood, landlady.  I gave my name as Winston
+Darnall, and made out I was a character actor just in from the road.  I
+engaged the rear hall room top floor.  The place is an ordinary actor's
+house, considerably run down.  The landlady has only lately bought the
+business from another woman, so it hasn't got the familiar friendly air
+of a long-established place.
+
+At the supper table I recognised my man Kenton Milbourne from the
+description furnished.  He's an unusual looking man--unusually homely.
+He doesn't keep to himself at all, like a fellow with something on his
+mind.  He seems to be on good enough terms with the other boarders, but
+they keep out of his way because he's such a tiresome talker.  There's
+one or two old fellows that go around with him.  They sit in the
+parlour and talk by the hour about what dandy actors they are.
+
+Milbourne has the large front room on the third floor.  As luck would
+have it, the hall room adjoining was vacant, and there is only a thin
+board partition between, because the hall-room was originally an
+alcove.  But I judged this was too much of a good thing.  I was afraid
+of taking the hall room for fear of putting M. wise.  Maybe later, when
+we're friends I can move.
+
+I wasn't in any rush to pick up Milbourne.  Thought I'd better wait
+awhile and give him a chance to make up to me.  Meanwhile I jollied the
+landlady.  She was a talker like all of them.  Milbourne, it seems, is
+her pet.  She holds him up as a model for the other boarders because he
+paid her four weeks board in advance when her rent fell due.  This
+seems to indicate he means to stay a while.
+
+All the boarders look up to Milbourne with a kind of respect because
+he's just closed his season with a first-class company, while the rest
+are mostly with repertoire companies, and cheap road shows.
+
+The second night I was there, Milbourne braced me in the parlour.
+Looking for a new listener, I guess.  He started in to tell me what a
+hit he made with the Irma Hamerton production.  If this man is a crook
+he's the smoothest article I ever ran up against.  Because he isn't
+smooth at all.  He talks all the time about himself as simple as a
+child, but at that he don't tell you much.  He's got a dull eye which
+don't seem to take in nothing, and he talks in a slow, monotonous way
+and says a thing over and over until you're doped.
+
+A couple of nights later some of the younger boarders were having a bit
+of a rough house in the parlour and M. asked me up to his room where we
+could talk in peace.  His room was bare like.  He don't show any
+photographs or pictures or gimcracks.  Seems he never even unpacks his
+trunk.  It was a big trunk even for an actor, and packed neat and full
+as a honeycomb.  Whenever he wants a little thing he unlocks it, takes
+out what he's after, and locks it again, even though he's right in the
+room.  The key is on a chain fastened to his waistband.
+
+His talk was mostly about the Irma Hamerton company.  He told me what
+he says is the rights of the story about her sickness, and the
+unexpected closing in the middle of good business.  She was in love
+with her leading man, Roland Quarles, according to him.  Nothing was
+too bad for him to say about Quarles.*
+
+
+* My operative went into considerable detail here as to Milbourne's
+opinion of Roland.  Most of it I have deleted, since it was no more
+than meaningless abuse.
+
+B.E.
+
+
+I didn't take much stock in all this.  It is the way a poor actor likes
+to talk about one who rises above him.
+
+About Quarles and Miss Hamerton; Milbourne said that just as she was
+going to marry him she found out that he had a wife already.  Without
+exactly saying so, he let on that it was he, Milbourne, who had put her
+wise to the young man.  That's the way they go on.  She had hysterics,
+he said, and broke up the show.  As proof of his story, he said that
+Quarles had disappeared and nobody knew where he was, not even his old
+servant.
+
+As I talk more with Milbourne I see that he isn't so simple as he likes
+to make out.  He has a way of sandwiching in little questions in his
+dull talk, that amounts to pretty effective cross-examining in the end.
+He didn't get anything on me though.  My story hasn't any holes in it
+yet.  I have an idea that I've had considerably more experience acting
+than he has.
+
+Sometimes he lets slip a clever remark that don't fit in with his
+character of a bonehead at all.  For instance, we were talking about
+the Chatfield case that all the papers are full of now, and Milbourne
+says:
+
+"Put a police helmet on any man, and right away his brain seems to take
+the shape of it.  Cops think as much alike as insects.  Let a crook
+once get on to their way of thinking, and he can play with them like a
+ball on a rubber string."
+
+He let this out by accident.  Afterwards he looked at me sharp to see
+if I had taken anything amiss.  I never let on.
+
+I have been in this house a week now, and Milbourne and I are supposed
+to be quite intimate friends.  Last night on my way up stairs I saw a
+light under his door, so I knocked.  His door is always locked.  He
+wasn't any too glad to see me, but he couldn't very well keep me out,
+because he hadn't started to undress yet.  He was having a little
+supper: a bottle of a syrupy kind of wine and biscuits with some
+blackish stuff he said was caviare.  I didn't take any.  I marked the
+labels, and to-day I went into a swell store and inquired the prices.
+The wine was Imperial Tokay.  It is $2.50 the small bottle.  The
+caviare was $1.50 for a little pot.  I give this for what it's worth.
+Seems funny if a man has a taste for such swell eats he should put up
+at a joint like Mrs. Atwood's.
+
+D. B.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF A. N.
+
+Operative S.C. and I were instructed to trail a certain K. Milbourne,
+supposed to be an actor, and report on his habits and his associates.
+We were furnished with his description, and sent to watch the building
+at No. -- West 49th street, where he boards.  This house is a few doors
+from Eighth Avenue.  We kept watch from outside a corner saloon over
+the way.  We turned up our collars and stood around like the regular
+corner loafers.
+
+At 10:05 A.M. our man came out and walked up the long block to
+Broadway.  We followed across the street.  He turned down Broadway with
+the crowd.  We split up, one on one side of the street, one on the
+other.  He often stopped in front of store windows, but didn't seem to
+mind the windows so much as to look sideways to see who was passing.
+He turned in at 1402 Broadway, a big office building.  I slicked up and
+went after him.  Went up in the same elevator.  He gave everybody in
+the car a sharp look.  Got out at the eighth floor, and went into an
+office marked: "Mrs. Mendoza: Theatrical Agency."
+
+I went back down-stairs to wait.  This building has an entrance on
+Broadway and one on Thirty-ninth street.  S. C. took the Broadway door,
+and I watched the side street.
+
+Forty minutes later or 11:15 he came out my door.  He walked around
+into Broadway, and S. C. picked us up again.  He took us down as far as
+Thirty-fourth, and then turned around and went back to Forty-second,
+without leaving Broadway or stopping anywhere.  Turned West on
+Forty-second, and went into the office of the D. and E. Booking agency
+in the Forrest Theatre.  Stayed twenty-five minutes.  Came out and went
+down West side of Broadway.  At Thirty-ninth street met an actor and
+stood with him twenty minutes talking loud, and looking around them the
+way they do, to see if anybody is noticing.  The talk was all
+theatrical gossip which I was instructed not to report.
+
+Looked at his watch and went on down to the 36th-37th street block,
+where he walked up and down about seven times, stopping at each end to
+look in the same store window, and then coming back.  We watched from a
+music store where we were making out to listen to the piano-player.
+
+At 12:50 he met a man as if by surprise.  They greeted each other so
+loud everybody rubbered.  But it was all a stall.  Right away they came
+down to business and talked low and serious to each other.  My partner
+and I brushed against them, but we couldn't hear much.  Too much noise
+in the street.
+
+I heard Milbourne say: "The grub is rotten!  More than flesh and
+blood----"
+
+His friend replied: "My dear fellow, it's worth it, isn't it?  Be
+reasonable.  You're safe.  We're all safe----"
+
+The two of them turned North walking arm in arm, still talking low.  At
+the Forty-ninth street corner they parted.  Milbourne turned West, on
+his way home presumably, and his friend continued North.  S. C. went
+with M. and I took after the stranger.
+
+He was a big fat man, but energetic.  He looked like a theatrical
+manager or a promoter.  He wore a silk hat and a cutaway coat which
+flapped out as he walked.  He had very big feet which slapped the
+pavement loudly as he walked along in his energetic way.  It was a
+regular fat man's walk, the knees giving a little with every step.
+Height about 5 foot 10: weight about 220: dark brown hair and eyes.
+Eyes with a bright, hard expression.  Heavy brown moustache with curled
+ends.  Carried a cigar in his mouth which he never lighted, but kept
+twisting around while he talked.
+
+At Fiftieth street he crossed over and went down the subway stair spry
+as a kid.  Got on the first train: I took a seat in the adjoining car.
+At the next station, Columbus Circle, he suddenly jumped up and left
+the train.  But I was with him.  He stayed on the station platform.
+For a little while the two of us were alone there.  He gave me a good
+hard look.  When the next train came along he took it.  I was in the
+next car again.
+
+At Seventy-Second street he got out again.  This time he went up to the
+street.  He stood on the corner for a while.  I watched from behind the
+glass doors of the subway station.  I thought he was waiting for
+somebody.  But suddenly he made a run for a passing car.  I had to hump
+myself to get on it, but I did.
+
+For near an hour we rode around, hopping from car to subway, and back
+to a car again, with a ride in a taxi in between.  Of course I knew by
+this time that he was on to me, but I stuck, hoping for a bit of luck.
+
+Later at the Ninety-sixth street station he darted down the steps
+again, me a good second.  This station is always crowded.  A woman
+blocked me at the gate, and he gained a few seconds.  There was an
+express train waiting.  Just as I reached it the guard closed the door
+in my face.  Fatty was just inside.  As the train started he turned
+around and thumbed his nose at me.  I felt cheap.
+
+A. N.
+
+
+
+
+16
+
+REPORT FROM AUSTRALIA
+
+_Melbourne, May 20th_
+
+Referring to your inquiry of the 10th ultimo respecting one Kenton
+Milbourne said to be an actor formerly of this place, we beg to report
+as follows:
+
+You are in error in supposing that Kenton Milbourne formerly acted in
+Australia, and sailed for America last year.  Mr. Milbourne is at
+present appearing as ---- in ----.  The company is now touring the
+province of New South Wales.  Mr. Milbourne has never been to America.
+We enclose one of his published pictures which you will see at a glance
+is not that of the same man whose picture you sent us.
+
+Mr. Milbourne is an actor of character parts, fairly well known in the
+profession here, though not of wide public reputation.  His personal
+character is of the best.  His real name is John Whittlesey, and he
+comes of respectable parents in moderate circumstances, still living in
+the town of Perth, Western Australia.
+
+As to the photograph you enclosed, we are informed by a friend of Mr.
+Milbourne's that this is undoubtedly Evan Whittlesey, younger brother
+of John and the black sheep of the family, who went to America ten
+years ago, after having been implicated in the robbery of Morton's
+Bank, Melbourne.  No proceedings were ever taken against him.
+
+From the same informant we learn that no one in Australia has heard of
+Evan Whittlesey since he went away, except possibly his brother who is
+reticent on the subject, suggesting that what information he has of his
+brother is not perhaps creditable.
+
+At this writing we are unable to furnish any information regarding Evan
+Whittlesey's early life beyond what is contained in the general
+statement that he was "wild," that is to say, a trial to his parents
+and his respectable brother--whose stage name he appears to have
+borrowed for his American activities.  If you desire us to go to the
+expense of a thorough investigation of Evan Whittlesey's past, please
+authorise by cable.
+
+Trusting to be favoured with your future commands, etc.
+
+WILLARD, WILLARD AND GAINES.
+
+
+The next report from which I will quote is Sadie's.  It contained an
+unpleasant surprise.  In order to make it clear I must briefly explain
+the arrangements of the International Detective Bureau.  We had three
+offices en suite on the sixth floor of a building on West Forty-Second
+street.  The door of the first room faced the elevators, and upon it
+was lettered our sign.  Within was a neat railing, behind which sat
+Peter Keenan the ostensible head of the establishment, and an
+ornamental stenographer.  The door to the adjoining room was hidden
+behind a tall file.
+
+The second little room was supposed by the employees to be Keenan's
+private office, but in reality it was designed as a sanctum for Sadie.
+There was a telephone here by which she might talk to me in safety.
+Sadie had her own door on the corridor and was never seen in the front
+room.
+
+The third office which was at right angles to the first and second was
+intended for the operatives in general when we were obliged to have
+them in.  They were not supposed to come in without being instructed to
+do so.  The other operatives looked on Sadie as one of themselves, and
+considered Keenan the boss.  The door to the third room opened on a
+side corridor so that the men were never seen around the front office.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF S. F. (SADIE FARRELL)
+
+Last evening at 5:15 operative S. C. came into the office without
+instructions.  He had been told like the others to mail in his reports,
+and keep in touch with Mr. Keenan by telephone.  The excuse he gave was
+that the man he was trailing had led him around so fast and so far that
+it had used up all his money.  I had Mr. Keenan give him some money and
+call him down, and thought no more about it.  Unfortunately, it appears
+to-day that his disobedience has had very unfortunate results.
+
+This morning I heard loud talking in the front office.  Mr. Keenan
+explained later that a queer old man had come in, and had told a long
+rambling story about being persecuted.  It seems that he wanted to
+engage the agency to protect him.  It seemed a natural enough thing--we
+have had these harmless cranks before.  Mr. Keenan soothed him down by
+telling him we were too busy to do proper justice to his case, and
+referred him to the police station.  Neither of us thought anything
+more about it.
+
+This afternoon shortly before five I heard the old man's voice again in
+the outer office.  Mr. Keenan had stepped out to post some papers to
+you.  The old man was excited, and I could hear by Miss Reilly's voice
+that she was very much frightened.  So I went to her assistance.
+
+I saw a bent, old man in shabby black, with wild, straggly hair, broken
+teeth and red-rimmed eyes, a repulsive sight.  The instant I laid eyes
+on him I saw that he was not very insane.  His manner was both servile
+and threatening.  It was like stage insanity, incoherent jabbering and
+wild gestures.  The girl was frightened half out of her wits.
+
+I asked him what he wanted, and he calmed right down.  His speech was
+unintelligible as if he had some of those tablets in his mouth that
+actors use to make their voice thick.  He made no more trouble.  He
+bowed and smirked and backed out of the door.  The last thing I heard
+was a silly kind of laugh.
+
+By this time I was full of suspicions.  He had quieted down much too
+quickly.  Besides, there was something familiar about the horrible old
+man.  I had Miss Reilly enquire of the elevator boys.  They said the
+old man had been in three times.  Last evening as well as twice to-day.
+Last night he came up in the elevator with operative S. C.  To-day, I
+believe, he hung around down-stairs until he saw Mr. Keenan go out.
+
+S. C. called up about this time to report that Milbourne had not left
+his boarding-house all day.  Mr. Keenan questioned the operative over
+the phone at my prompting, and we discovered that S. C. had no proof
+that Milbourne was in the house.  We learned that S. C. had lost
+Milbourne about 3:30 yesterday among the several entrances to a
+department store.  He had merely supposed that he had gone home later.
+
+I then ventured to call up Milbourne's boarding-house.  If he had been
+there, I would, of course, have lost the connection, but he was not.
+His landlady told me that he had telephoned her yesterday afternoon
+that he had been called out of town, and not to expect him home until
+to-night.  Which shows how little we can depend on these operatives.
+Since talking to this woman I have received D. B.'s report from inside
+the house, confirming what she told me.
+
+Puzzling over in my head what it could be that gave the old man a
+familiar look, I suddenly got it.  Do you remember when Milbourne first
+joined Miss Hamerton's company he played the part of the old forger,
+afterwards given to Richards?  The management thought Milbourne's
+conception was too realistic, but Milbourne himself was childishly
+proud of his make-up in that part.  He showed us a photograph, do you
+remember?  Well, that was the same old man, wrinkles, scraggly hair,
+mean smile and all.  The same clothes.
+
+It is easy to figure out now what happened.  After giving the operative
+the slip in the department store, Milbourne went to some friend's room
+or thieves' hangout and disguised himself.  He then returned to the
+neighbourhood of the boarding-house on 49th street and watched the
+watchers there.  When S. C. was relieved by A. N. at five, Milbourne
+followed S. C. into the office.  He was smart enough to see on his
+first visit to-day that Mr. Keenan was not the real head of the office,
+and so he bothered us until I betrayed myself.  Hence the laugh when he
+went out.
+
+I need not say how sorry I am for the accident.  I blame myself quite
+as much as S. C.  Luck played right into Milbourne's hand this time.  I
+see how important it is.  He knows of the connection between you and I,
+consequently all your trouble to let it be supposed that you are out of
+the case goes for nothing now.
+
+I have replaced S. C. with the new man, W. J., who came so well
+recommended.  I have put S. C. at clerical work.  Shall I discharge him
+altogether?
+
+S. F.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF J. M.  No. 5
+
+_June 15th_
+
+On Saturday afternoon after work according to your instructions I took
+one of the unset diamonds with which I am provided to M----'s pawnshop
+at No. -- Third Avenue.  I was very glad to have the second act of the
+drama open, and the fun begin.  To tell the truth, I am very weary of
+the work bench at Dunsany's this hot weather.  If I ever return to my
+proper character I will have more sympathy for my workmen.  I believe
+now that it is not poverty that makes the working classes restless so
+much as monotony.
+
+M----'s, as you know, is a large and prosperous three-ball
+establishment near Fifty-Seventh street.  The proprietor is a youngish
+man, a typical pawnbroker, with eyes as hard and bright as shoe
+buttons.  Such eyes I am sure, would look on at the murder of a parent
+unconcerned--if there was anything in it.  I believe you are right in
+your estimate of the man.  Good as his legitimate business appears to
+be, he is no doubt not averse to the other kind--if it looks safe.
+
+But he was afraid of me.  He offered to lend me money on my diamond,
+but declined to purchase.  He demanded to know how it had come into my
+possession.  I replied with a long and affecting tale of the hardships
+of an immigrant couple, no longer young.  It was our last bit of
+property, I said, the stone out of my wife's engagement ring.  The ring
+itself she still wore with its empty setting.  Such was the pathos of
+the tale that I almost succeeded in convincing myself that it was true.
+It didn't matter, of course, whether the pawnbroker believed it or not,
+but it had to be a good story on the face of it, because it would be
+fatal to my chances of success if I gave the impression of being a fool.
+
+The hard eyes gave no sign one way or another.  One could hardly expect
+a pawnbroker to be moved by a hard luck story.  He told me to come back
+on Monday at noon, and he would see what he could do for me.
+
+I hastened up there as soon as we were released for the lunch hour
+to-day.  There were two men loitering in the store; men of the same
+kidney as the astute proprietor apparently, very sprucely dressed.
+M---- himself ignored me for the moment and this precious pair gave me
+the "once over" as they say.  I could feel their eyes boring into me
+like gimlets.  However, it is possible to be too sharp to be
+discerning.  They were deceived.  A scarcely perceptible sign passed
+between them and the pawnbroker, and the latter suddenly became aware
+of the existence of his shabby customer.
+
+He now showed me what he intended for a real friendly air.  He couldn't
+buy my diamond himself, he said, but seeing he felt so sorry for me he
+would send me to a diamond broker he knew, who would do business with
+me if I satisfied him it was on the level.  He gave me an address near
+by.  I enclose the card, but neither the name nor the address means
+anything of course.  I went there at once, risking a call down from the
+foreman if I was late getting back to the shop.
+
+It was a room on the second floor of a typical Third avenue house, shop
+below, furnished rooms above, and the elevated road pounding by the
+windows.  Evidently there had been a hasty attempt to make it look like
+an office; a desk had been brought in and the bed removed.  Behind the
+desk sat a fat man rolling a cigar between his thick lips, and trying
+to look as if he were not expecting me.  He looked prosperous in a
+common way, with his silk hat on the back of his head, and his immense
+gaping cutaway.  His face was red and what passes for good-humoured
+with little pig eyes lost in fat.  A huge moustache with curled ends,
+decorated it, the kind of moustache that I thought even New York
+politicians had given up nowadays.  In a phrase, the man looked like a
+ward leader of fifteen years ago.  The most characteristic thing about
+him was his bustling energy, unusual in one so fat.
+
+This alleged diamond broker was making out to be very much occupied
+with business.  He kept me waiting a while.  As soon as he took the
+diamond in his hand I saw that he knew nothing about stones.  He didn't
+even have a glass to examine it.  Evidently the word had been passed to
+him that it was all right.  But if he knew nothing about diamonds, he
+was well experienced in humanity.  He put me through a gruelling
+cross-examination which I supported as best I could.  My delicate
+problem was to lead him to suspect I was a crook, without letting him
+think I was a fool.  To this end I elaborated the story of my old
+wife's engagement ring.  He listened to it with a leer in his little
+eyes, as much as to say: "Pretty good old fellow!  But you needn't take
+all that trouble with me!"
+
+He expressed himself as satisfied, and we passed to the discussion of
+the price.  I asked something near the stone's real value.  He laughed,
+and offered me a fifth of that.  We were presently hotly engaged in
+humankind's first game, bargaining.  He loved it.  Unfortunately I was
+handicapped by the necessity of getting back to work.  We agreed on a
+price which was about a quarter of the stone's value.  No doubt he
+would have had more respect for me if I had held out longer.  He paid
+me out of an enormous roll of greasy bills.
+
+I was sorry to see the stone go.  It was a good one, nearly two carats.
+It was not safe of course to mark it in any visible way, but I have had
+this and the other decoy diamonds carefully described and photographed,
+so that we will have no difficulty in identifying them later.
+
+As I was about to leave he shook my hand in friendly fashion, and still
+with that indescribable leer, expressed a hope that he might do further
+business together.
+
+I mumbled something about a pair of earrings.
+
+"Good!" he said.  "Let me see them.  Even if you don't want to let me
+have them, I'll appraise them for you so you won't get cheated.  Come
+to me.  I'm looking for a better office, so you'll find me gone from
+here.  What's your address?  I'll let you hear from me."
+
+I declined to give it.
+
+"Cautious, eh?" he laughed uproariously.  "You needn't mind _me_!
+M---- (the pawnbroker) will tell you where you can find me."
+
+I got back to my work just in time to avoid a fine.
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF J. M.  No. 6
+
+_June 18th_
+
+I suspected that I might be trailed from the alleged diamond broker's
+office back to my work, and I hoped that I might be.  Evidently I was
+yesterday.  On my way to my luncheon place on Thirty-Fourth street I
+ran into my fat friend.  He came towards me with his coat-tails flying.
+He has very large feet which slap the pavement resoundingly.  His knees
+give a little which furnishes an undulatory motion, a roll to his walk.
+
+He hailed me blithely, and immediately announced that he was looking
+for a bite to eat.  Somewhat sullenly, for I did not wish to appear too
+glad to see him, I confessed that I was on the same errand, and we
+turned into the dairy restaurant together.  He laid himself out to win
+my liking.  His loud, jolly, fat-man ways provide a cover for a
+considerable astuteness.  It was my game to make out that I was
+startled to be found in that neighbourhood, and that my conscience was
+none too good.  It was his game to put me at my ease and have it
+understood that everything went between friends.  Nothing was said,
+however, about his business or mine.
+
+I stuck to my lately-arrived immigrant story, and he symphathised with
+my lonesomeness in a strange land.  He was a bachelor, he said, and
+often lonesome himself.  This line led presently to an invitation for
+me to join him last night for a little sociability at the Turtle Bay
+Café on Lexington Avenue.  I accepted it.  I am sure by his eagerness
+to cultivate my acquaintance that he knows I work in Dunsany's.
+
+I met him at eight o'clock, and we secured a little table to ourselves
+in a sort of alcove.  The Turtle Bay is just one of the usual saloons,
+mahogany, plate glass and electric lights.  The principal lure of such
+places is the dazzling flood of light they cast on the pavement.  They
+have discovered the subtle psychological appeal of light.  Away with
+night and its terrors!
+
+My fat friend was liberally hospitable.  I allowed my suspicious sullen
+manner to be charmed away by degrees.  In a way he is really
+entertaining with his gross humour and rude vitality.  I suppose any
+one can charm when they have a mind to.  The cloven hoof, however,
+peeped out in his brutal snarls at the newsies and beggars who came to
+our table.  On the whole I enjoyed myself.  It was a lot better than
+mooning in my wretched room, or wandering the sultry streets thinking
+of the cool and comfortable club.
+
+The will being good on both sides we got along famously.  No actual
+confidences have passed between us yet, but we are ripe for them.  As
+we mellowed together I allowed it to peep out that I had a bitter
+grudge against society, and would stop at nothing to feed it.  He
+enthusiastically applauded my sentiments.
+
+"Life is a bank!" he said, "that's got to be busted into if a man wants
+to enjoy any of the good things!"
+
+I am to call him George Pawling.  We have a date to meet at the Turtle
+Bay again to-morrow night.  I hinted that I might have another diamond
+or two.
+
+I was glad to hear from you that this man is undoubtedly one of the
+gang.  So I am on the right track!
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+
+17
+
+I don't want to give you too much of the operatives' reports.  I tell
+myself it is not to be expected anybody would have the same absorbing
+interest that I have in all the ramifications of the case.  So I will
+go on with my story in the ordinary way.
+
+After the catastrophe, it will be remembered, Miss Hamerton and Sadie
+had gone into the country to a little retreat I chose for them.  After
+a day or two Sadie, seeing that Miss Hamerton could be left alone,
+would in fact be better alone, returned, and took up her work on the
+case as has been seen.  Later, that is about the first of June, Miss
+Hamerton was so far recovered as to be able to go to Southampton, and
+open her cottage for the season.  Now, towards the end of the month, I
+learned that she had come to town for a few days to talk over next
+season's plans with her manager.  All of which was encouraging as far
+as her health and spirits were concerned.  But thinking of my friend
+Roland, I was not anxious to see her recover too quickly.  I had kept
+my promise to him, and Miss Hamerton was unaware that I was still busy
+on her case.
+
+I was shy about going to see her.  My feeling was, considering her
+position and mine, that if she wished to keep up the connection she
+ought to give me some sign.  I confess I was a little hurt that I had
+not received any.
+
+One day as I was returning to the office after lunch I met her
+strolling up the avenue with Mount.  When I caught sight of her the
+whole street brightened for me with her loveliness.  I watched her
+coming for half a block before she saw me.  She seemed well; she had a
+good colour, and her face was vivacious--more vivacious than it used to
+be, a little too vivacious.  She seemed to have become aware of the
+necessity of vivacity.  When she laughed her eyes were sombre.
+
+She was dressed in a strange bright blue--few women could have carried
+off that dazzling colour so well, with coral red at her girdle and on
+her hat.  She walked through the crowd with the beautiful
+unconsciousness that was part of her stage training.  The staring, the
+whispering, the craning of necks neither troubled nor pleased her.
+Alfred Mount, who was no child in the world, could not quite hide his
+pride at being seen with her.  He, too, was gorgeously arrayed, a
+little too well-dressed for a man of his age.  But I had to grant his
+youthful air, and good looks.
+
+I raised my hat, and was for keeping on, but she stopped short.
+
+"Are you going to pass me by?" she cried with charming reproachfulness.
+
+I became as proud and conceited as Mount, thus to be singled out by
+her.  Everybody stared at me.  Mount's greeting was affable and
+chilly--like winter sunshine.  I fell into step beside them.
+
+"Why haven't you been to see me?" she demanded.
+
+"Why didn't you let me know you were in town?" I countered.
+
+"I didn't like to bother one so busy," she said.
+
+This to me from her!  I walked on air.
+
+"How is business, Enderby?" Mount asked in a faintly sneering tone.
+
+"Poor," I said calmly.  "Everybody appears to be behaving themselves."
+
+"Ah!" said he.
+
+"What stories he could tell us if he would!" my dear lady said
+admiringly.
+
+I smiled, as I suppose was expected of me.  Little did she suspect that
+the only case I had was hers.
+
+We walked on chatting idly.  What was said wouldn't be worth repeating,
+I expect, even if I could remember it.  For me the mere sound of her
+voice was enough.
+
+There was no mention of the unhappy things that were past.  We were all
+engaged in a tacit conspiracy to look forward.  She told me of the new
+play that was proposed for her.  She insisted that I must read it
+before the matter was finally determined.
+
+"You have such wonderful good sense!" she said.  "And not at all
+affected by the actor's point of view."
+
+Mount's face looked a little pinched at this warm praise.  I wondered,
+had he been consulted about the play.  If he really honoured me with
+his jealousy he was foolish.  I did not dream of aspiring to be
+anything more than her honest, faithful friend.  Sadie, I hoped, was my
+destined mate while Irma Hamerton was--why she was the sun over us all.
+Sadie herself felt the same towards her as I did.  On the other hand I
+was jealous of Mount.  I considered him presumptuous to aspire to our
+sun, as he plainly did.  He wasn't half good enough--half?--he wasn't
+worthy to tie her shoe.  Besides, I was anxious about Roland.
+
+At Forty-second street they were turning West to the theatre district,
+and I bade them good-bye.  Miss Hamerton covered me with confusion by
+asking me to dine with her at her hotel the same night.
+
+"Is it to be a party?" I asked.
+
+"No, indeed," she said.  "Nobody but Alfred."
+
+This "Alfred" was new.  It had always been "Mr. Mount."  It set my
+teeth on edge.
+
+I accepted and left them.
+
+Dinner was served in her exquisite little drawing-room now loaded with
+sweet peas.  For some reason that I have forgotten, the tiresome old
+Mrs. Bleecker was not in evidence--still I did not have a good time.  I
+believe none of us had.  "Alfred" still stuck in my crop.  I reflected
+jealously, that if it had not been for the accidental meeting with me,
+Mount would have been alone with her.  No doubt he was thinking of
+that, too.  Everything from _hors d'oeuvres_ to _chartreuse_ was
+exquisite, but I had no zest in it.
+
+It was "Alfred" this and "Alfred" that.  Really it seemed as if my dear
+lady was rubbing it in.  I suppose that was her delicate way of letting
+me know of her intentions.  I fancied I perceived a certain
+apprehensiveness in her as to how I was going to take it.  Perhaps I
+flattered myself.  Anyhow it was enough to make the angels weep.  She
+was not in the least in love with him, she _could not_ have been, but
+after the way of dear, ignorant women she was trying to persuade
+herself that she was.  Hence the "Alfreds."  I thought of my passionate
+young friend eating his heart out in a hall bedroom and my food choked
+me.
+
+Irma made some half laughing reference to the relief of being freed
+from Mrs. Bleecker's presence.
+
+"If she bothers you why don't you let her go?" said Mount.
+
+"Poor soul!  What would she do?" said Irma.  "She'd never get another
+situation, she's so disagreeable.  Besides, I don't know that I could
+do any better."
+
+"Hardly worth while," said Mount.  "You won't need a chaperon much
+longer."
+
+This was plain enough.  It killed conversation for a moment or two.  I
+was sure Irma sent an imploring glance in my direction, but I kept my
+eyes on my plate.  Was it imploring me not to judge her, or imploring
+me to support her in what she meant to do, or imploring me to save her
+from it?  How was a man to tell?  I am sure she would have been glad if
+I had forced the question into the open, but I didn't know how to do
+it.  True, I could have dropped a bomb in the middle of the table that
+would have shattered Mount's hopes, merely by telling what I knew of
+Roland.  But my lips were sealed by my promise to him.
+
+Mount made some facetious remark at which we laughed and fled from the
+disconcerting subject.  But it seemed as if we could not avoid it for
+long.  The most innocent line of conversation had a way of landing us
+squarely in front of it.  As when Irma said:
+
+"Have you heard that Beulah Maddox has started again to get a divorce?"
+
+Miss Maddox had been the heavy woman in our company.
+
+"That is the eleventh time she has started proceedings, isn't it?" said
+I.
+
+"Constant in inconstancy!" murmured Mount.
+
+"Miss Maddox's emotions are like soap-bubbles," I said.
+
+"Do you think women are fickle?" Irma asked with a direct look in which
+there was something very painful.
+
+I, thinking of poor Roland agonizing over his shorthand book until
+after midnight every night, could not help but shrug slightly.
+
+"If they are it's the men's fault!" said Irma bitterly.  "The men I
+have known would make constancy in women an indication of imbecility!"
+
+So there we were again!
+
+"Funny, isn't it," drawled Mount, "how the sexes have no use for each
+other, yet love stones still sell."
+
+We laughed again.  You had to admit Mount was a good man at a dinner
+table.
+
+I excused myself early on the plea of business, and went direct to
+Roland.  Here I find I am a little ahead of my story, for I have not
+told you of his present circumstances.
+
+Roland had forsworn the stage.  In this, as in everything else, he was
+an extremist, and he had cut himself off absolutely from his former
+life.  People were always deceived by Roland's quietness.  That
+composed face and indifferent manner concealed a capacity for white hot
+passion.  As a matter of fact, I suppose, really passionate people are
+always like this, they couldn't live with themselves else, but we are
+blind to it.  Roland had the spirit of a fanatic.  He was always
+torturing himself one way or another.  You couldn't help being fond of
+him he was so noble--and so silly.
+
+Now, if you please, he had sold everything he possessed, and with the
+proceeds had pensioned off his old servant with an annuity.  The
+mysterious legacy which had counted so against him, he had turned over
+to me with instructions to use it in bringing the thieves of Irma's
+pearls to justice.  I couldn't very well refuse the money without
+confessing that Walter Dunsany was backing me, and no one in the world,
+not even Sadie, was to know of the relations between Mr. Dunsany and
+me.  Besides, if I hadn't taken it he would have done something more
+foolish with it.  So I was holding it in trust.
+
+Having divested himself literally of every cent, Roland set about
+finding a job.  Among his old acquaintances there were several
+prominent men who would have been glad to put him in the way of a good
+berth, but of course he would not apply to them.  I could have done
+something for him myself, but he would not let me.  He wanted to stand
+on his own bottom, he said.  He set about answering advertisements, and
+visiting employment bureaus like any green lad from the country.
+
+Roland with his romantic good looks could not be insignificant in any
+sphere however humble.  He had some quaint experiences.  More than once
+he had to fall back on his good looks to save himself, as he thought,
+from starvation.  He served as a demonstrator for a while, and another
+time as a model.  Roland used to say at this time that he hated his
+good looks, and I really think he meant it.
+
+He finally landed a job as assistant bookkeeper and invoice clerk with
+a coffee importer on Water street.  How he hypnotised them into
+believing he could keep books I can't say.  His salary was ten dollars
+a week, and he lived within it, which you will grant was something of a
+change for the late darling of the matinees.  He had a hall bedroom on
+East Seventeenth street, and ate outside.  In the evenings he boned
+shorthand.  His idea was to become first an expert law stenographer,
+and finally to study law.
+
+I found him as usual in the wretched little room, bending over the
+shorthand manual with a green shade over his eyes.  I was his only
+visitor in those days.  He was thinner than of yore, not so harassed
+perhaps, but grimmer.  There were deep hawklike lines from his proud
+nose to the corners of his bitter lips.  It made me savage to see him
+wasting his splendid youth in this fashion.
+
+"I've just had dinner with Irma," I said.
+
+"Yes?" he said calmly.
+
+You never could get any change out of Roland.  Whatever he felt he
+never dropped that hawk mask.
+
+"Mount was there."
+
+"Charming fellow, Mount."
+
+"Do you like him?" I asked amazed.
+
+"I neither like him nor dislike him," he said evenly.  "He's a charming
+fellow, isn't he?"
+
+"Oh, that's the tag they put on him," I said impatiently.
+
+He returned his attention to the shorthand book.  This unnatural
+pretence of indifference exasperated me beyond bearing.
+
+"I believe they're preparing to get married," I said brutally.
+
+"We expected that, didn't we?"
+
+"Don't you _care_?"
+
+"Not overmuch."
+
+I knew he lied.
+
+"What do you want to put on this pretence with me for?" I demanded.
+"If you were really as callous and unfeeling as you make out I wouldn't
+bother with you."
+
+He merely smiled.
+
+I was determined to rouse him.  "She doesn't love him," I said.
+
+"He's rich," he returned with a sneer.
+
+All the time I was trying to goad him I was getting more worked up
+myself.  "That's not it!" I answered angrily.  "Nobody knows it better
+than you.  She's sound to the core.  It's only your black temper that
+sees evil in her!"
+
+"Then how do you explain Mount?" he asked.
+
+"That's her instinct," I said.  "It would be any good woman's instinct.
+She's trying to persuade herself that she loves him to fill the
+horrible emptiness of her heart since you failed her."
+
+"I fail her?" he said with his eyebrows making two peaks.
+
+"Precisely.  You have no right to allow her to go on thinking that you
+are guilty."
+
+"I don't care to go into that again," he said with his immovable
+stubbornness.
+
+"If there is a catastrophe it will be your fault," I cried.
+
+"Really, as I've told you often, you've missed your vocation, Ben," he
+said with his bitter smile.  "You're so romantic.  Let's change the
+subject."
+
+"I won't," I cried.  "I'm glad I'm romantic, if that's what it is.  I
+love her a sight better than you ever did, because I have no hopes
+there myself.  I am thinking of her.  You think of nothing but yourself
+and your childish pride!"
+
+"Bravo, Ben!" he said mockingly.
+
+"I can't stand aside and see her marry Mount.  He's too old.  There's
+an evil spot in him some place that I can't put my finger on."
+
+"Well, what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"I came to you to get you to let me off my promise to say nothing."
+
+That roused him as nothing else could.  He sprang up, his face dark
+with passion.  He actually threatened me with his fist.
+
+"You swore to me!" he cried.  "By God! if you break your oath----"
+
+"Keep your hair on," I said.  "Am I not here asking you to let me off?"
+
+"I will not let you off," he said.  "This is my affair, and mine
+only----"
+
+"How about her?" I put in.
+
+He did not hear me.
+
+"You mean to be my friend, but friendship has no right to dictate
+another man's private affairs.  I lead my life as I have to.  You lead
+yours.  No interference.  That's the only way we can be friends.  The
+only way you can help me in this is by bringing the thieves to book."
+
+"But that's going to be a long chase," I groaned.  "Meanwhile Mount is
+making hay.  What's the use of publishing the truth if the mischief is
+already done?"
+
+He shrugged.  "If she can bring herself to marry Mount----!"
+
+The self-sufficiency of a passionate young man!  I could almost have
+wept at my helplessness against his obstinacy.  "Be fair!" I cried.
+"It is our experience, our knowledge of men that warns us against
+Mount.  How can she tell?"
+
+"This does no good," he muttered.
+
+In his bitter wrongheadedness I believe that he almost wished that Irma
+might find out her mistake too late.
+
+But I would not give up, though I felt it was useless.  "What happiness
+can there be for any of us if Irma comes to grief?" I said.
+
+"Oh, for God's sake drop it!" he cried painfully.  "What's the good of
+tearing open these old sores.  You're off on the wrong tack.  I've told
+you often enough.  What if you did tell her I was innocent, and she
+turned back to me.  That would be worse.  I have nothing for her.  I
+don't believe in her.  She's dead to me.  You can't revive that sort of
+thing."
+
+"Very well, then," I said.  "It would be more merciful never to tell
+her that you are innocent."
+
+That touched him.  "Oh----!" he said sharply taken aback.  "A man
+doesn't like to dwell under that sort of accusation!"  He quickly
+recovered himself.  "Just as you think best," he said hardily.
+
+But let him make believe all he liked, the one little glimpse had
+convinced me that he was human after all.
+
+
+
+
+18
+
+It was on the way home from Roland's room in the dark and silent side
+streets that I first discovered I was being trailed.  Since receiving
+Sadie's report of Milbourne's visit to her office I had expected this.
+It troubled me little.  My position as commander-in-chief kept me
+behind the lines, and they would not learn much by following me.  My
+mail I got from the post-office myself, and our telephone conversations
+as a rule would not have conveyed anything to an outsider, if he did
+succeed in intercepting them.  At the same time it was annoying to know
+oneself watched.  I wondered if there was any advantage to be gained
+from a counter stroke.  Since they had succeeded in bringing me into
+the open, I had a mind to take an open shot at them.  I began to lay my
+plans forthwith.
+
+My shadow picked me up as I issued from my house next morning.  He
+waited outside the restaurant where I had my breakfast and accompanied
+me to the office.  Looking out of my office window I could actually see
+him sitting on a bench in Bryant Park opposite.  He was a slender young
+man with an unwholesome complexion and mean, sharp eyes, a "sleuth" of
+the cheapest type.  I wondered somewhat since they thought me worth
+following, that they had not chosen a better instrument than that.
+
+He had a good long wait, for I sent out for sandwiches at lunch time.
+At two o'clock he was relieved by a man, considerably beefier but not a
+bit more intelligent-looking.  It apparently had not occurred to either
+of them to investigate if I was watching them.
+
+I determined to reach back at my enemies through their own spy.  Having
+telephoned Sadie to have two good men meet me at the New Amsterdam
+Hotel at five-thirty, I sallied forth.  My shadow resumed his
+attendance at my heels in the most obvious way.  What kind of a fool
+did he think I was!  It was child's play to shake him off.  I merely
+went through the drug-store in the Times Building and downstairs to the
+subway station.  I crossed under the tracks, mixed in the crowd on the
+up-town platform, and ascended to the street again.  I saw my gum-shoe
+artist no more.
+
+I met the two men Sadie sent me, gave them their instructions and went
+home.  My only fear now was that I might not be able to find my trailer
+again.  But bye and bye to my satisfaction I saw the beefy one loafing
+across the street.  I went out and dined well, while he looked through
+the restaurant window.  I took in a show, letting him cool his heels
+outside the theatre and afterwards I treated myself to one of old
+Adam's rabbits and a mug of ale.  It was near midnight when I was
+through with that and the time was ripe for my little comedy.  I wended
+my way towards the office with gum-shoes hard on my trail.
+
+The little building where I have my office is given over entirely to
+business, and is closed for the night at ten o'clock.  Like the other
+tenants, I am provided with a latchkey, in case I have to get in after
+hours.  I am often there late, but I have never met any of the other
+tenants at night.
+
+It all went through as on roller bearings.  I walked down Fortieth
+street softly whistling "Mighty Lak' a Rose," which was my signal to
+the two men.  They were posted in the shadow of the last doorway I had
+to pass before turning into my own.  The block is a quiet one at that
+hour.
+
+I let myself into my building and waited just inside the door.  When
+gum-shoes came along all unsuspicious, my two friends jumped him, and
+holding his mouth, hustled him in after me, before he well knew what
+had struck him.  We improvised a gag out of a handkerchief, and carried
+him up-stairs to my office.  The fellow did not even kick.
+
+We dumped him in a chair and turned on the lights.  Then we stood off,
+and the three of us burst out laughing simultaneously.  You never saw a
+more comical sight than the expression of that poor bloodhound who
+suddenly found himself treed by his quarry!  I now had no further use
+for the two men, so I tipped them and they left us.  I locked the door
+after them and put the key in my pocket.  I told my prisoner he might
+unfasten his gag, and I sat down at my desk facing him.  On the desk I
+prominently displayed a wicked-looking automatic.  I had no idea of
+using it, but it made a potent argument.
+
+Having laughed at the man I felt almost friendly towards him.  I
+offered him a cigar.
+
+He ignored it, and I put it away.  "What do you mean by this outrage!"
+he demanded.
+
+I laughed afresh.  "Come off, Jack!" I said.  "You must think I'm a
+downy chick."
+
+At that he climbed down, and asked for the cigar quite humbly.  "What
+do you want of me?" he muttered.
+
+"Just a little heart to heart talk," I said grinning.
+
+"You can't make me talk," he growled.
+
+I played with the revolver.  "There's not a soul in the building but
+ourselves," I said offhand.
+
+The janitor lived on the top floor, but I supposed he didn't know that.
+
+He wilted right down.  He had no nerve at all.  "I ain't got nothin'
+against you personally," he whined.  "I only got my living to make the
+same as yourself."
+
+"Who hired you to trail me?" I asked.
+
+"I don't know what guy's got it in for you," he stammered.  "Honest, I
+only got my orders from the office."
+
+"What office?"
+
+"If you queer me there I'll lose my job.  I'm a married man with two
+children."
+
+"I'll tell them I put a gun to your head."
+
+"Aw, let me go.  I ain't got nothin' against you."
+
+I picked up the gun.  "Come across!  Who hired you."
+
+"The ---- Detective Agency," he stuttered.
+
+He named one of the largest Agencies in town.  Of course, I didn't know
+but what he was lying, but I meant to find out before I let him go.  I
+turned a threatening scowl on him, and let my hand stray towards the
+gun again.
+
+"I want the truth," I said.
+
+He watched my hand like one hypnotised.  Little drops of sweat broke
+out on his forehead.  "For God's sake, Mister--!" he chattered.  "For
+God's sake--!  I'm telling you the truth.  I'm only a poor operative.
+I don't know who wants to get you!"
+
+"You'll have to prove it," I said.
+
+"Call up the Agency," he stuttered.  "They're open all night.  My name
+is Atterbury.  I'm number 68."
+
+The instrument was at my hand.  I got the number, and was presently
+answered by a brash young voice demanding to know what I wanted.
+
+"This is B. Enderby," I said, "of number -- West 40th Street.  Have you
+got an operative working for you named Atterbury, number 68 on your
+books?"
+
+"I don't know you," returned the voice.  "We don't give any information
+over the phone.  Call around and let us look you over."  He hung up.
+
+This little passage made me downright hot, and I suppose it showed in
+my face when I looked at the detective again.
+
+"Wh-what's the matter?" he stammered.
+
+"They refuse to identify you."
+
+He became still paler and clammier if that were possible.  "Let me--let
+me call them," he stammered.
+
+I shoved the instrument towards him and waited.  When he got his number
+he fell all over himself trying to explain.  "Who is this, Dixon?--Oh,
+Jones.  Jones--for God's sake!--this is Atterbury.  Square me, can't
+you?  This guy Enderby--I mean Mr. Enderby's got me sewed up in his
+office.  He's got me covered--for God's sake, square me!  Or I'm a
+goner!"
+
+He shoved the instrument towards me.  I kept one hand on my gun,
+inwardly I was shaking with laughter.  "This is Enderby again," I said
+into the transmitter.  "Now you have the situation.  What about it?"
+
+"I know you!" cried the brash voice, now thoroughly scared.  "I've got
+your name and number.  If anything happens to our man we've got you
+dead to rights."
+
+"Sure," I said laughing.  "You identify him, then?"
+
+"Sure, I do!  And if anything happens to him----"
+
+"That's all I wanted to know," I said.  "Good-bye."  And this time I
+did the hanging up.
+
+I got up and unlocked the door.  "Get!" I said to Mr. Atterbury.  "If
+you take my advice, old man, you'll go into some other line."
+
+He made grand time on the stairs.
+
+
+The head of the ---- Detective Agency was Dongan, a well-known and able
+man, once the head of the New York Detective Bureau.  He belonged to a
+school of investigation different from mine, but I respected his
+ability and I knew him to be above reproach.  I was sure in this
+situation I could not do better than go direct to him.  I called next
+morning.
+
+"So you're in the same line?" he said looking at my card.
+
+"That accounts for my business with you," I replied.
+
+"What can I do for you?"
+
+"Haven't your people told you what happened in my office last night?"
+
+"No.  Explain yourself."
+
+"We _are_ in the same line.  Hunting down crooks.  The supposition is
+that we handle only clean business.
+
+"What are you getting at?" he demanded scowling.
+
+"I came to ask you to explain why you're tracking me in the legitimate
+pursuit of my business.  You will agree, I think, that it looks fishy."
+
+"I don't know anything about it," he said crossly.  "I don't know you."
+
+"I will wait while you enquire," I said mildly.
+
+He went into his outer office.  In about five minutes he returned
+bringing a younger man.
+
+"Well, you seem to have the goods on us, Enderby," he said ruefully.
+"It was a small job and I was not consulted."
+
+"Our client never told us you were a detective," said the other man.
+
+"I will make the excuses," said his employer dryly.  "Describe the man
+who engaged us to trail Mr. Enderby."
+
+"Gave his name as Lawlor.  Fleshy man about forty-five years old.  Red
+face, big black or dark brown moustache.  Wears a cutaway coat and silk
+hat, very active in his movements."
+
+"Has unusually large feet," I added, "which he slaps down in a peculiar
+way when he walks."
+
+"Why, yes," said the young man, surprised.  "You know him?"
+
+"Not so well as I would like to," I said dryly.  "What address did he
+give you?"
+
+"We haven't got his address?"
+
+"Where were your reports to be sent?"
+
+The young man consulted a card.  "Box 229, Station W, New York."
+
+"Well, that's something," I said, and rose.  "When you report to him
+please don't mention that I've been in."
+
+"There will be no more reports," said Dongan shortly.  "We'll return
+his money."
+
+"If you want to make up to me for the trouble you've put me to, make
+him one more report," I suggested.  "Simply tell him that upon learning
+that I was a detective, Mr. Dongan directed that the business be
+refused."
+
+"I will do that," Dongan said.
+
+"When would you ordinarily report to him?" I asked.
+
+"This morning," the young man replied.  I guessed from his foolish
+expression that a lurid account of the last night's proceedings had
+already been written.
+
+"Good!" I said.  "Will you please send it right off?  I want to watch
+the letter box."
+
+Dongan agreed.
+
+I hastened to Oscar Nilson's shop.  An hour or so later I issued from
+under his hands, as perfect a specimen of the snuffy old man, the
+shabby genteel, as you could have found in any public reading-room from
+Chatham Square to Cooper Union.  Oscar is a wonder.
+
+By noon I was at Station W, which is away uptown on Columbus avenue.
+Peeping through the glass front of Box 229 I saw that the letter from
+Dongan had not yet arrived, at least the box was empty.  A little while
+later I had the satisfaction of seeing the letter with the ----
+Detective Agency imprint on the corner shoot into the box.
+
+For a weary two hours thereafter I made believe to amuse myself with
+the store windows of the block, up and down, both sides.  Since I was
+the very picture of a harmless old loafer, my movements attracted no
+notice.
+
+At last he hove in view on foot.  There was no danger of overlooking
+this man in a crowd.  I spotted him nearly two blocks away.  He came
+dipping down the street with his vast cutaway spread to the breeze and
+his feet slapping the pavements, just as the different operatives had
+described him.  With a shape and peculiarities so marked, a crook must
+needs be doubly clever to keep out of the toils.  I suspected I was up
+against a good one.  There was little of the crook in his appearance.
+His fat, rosy face bore an expression of good will to all men.
+
+He issued out of the post-office with the open letter in his hand, and
+looking not quite so good-natured.  He started North again, still on
+foot.  Walking at that rate it was impossible for an apparently
+decrepit old man to keep up his character, so I was presently obliged
+to get on a car.  It was an open car and I could keep track of him for
+several blocks.  Indeed, with the stops, we travelled very little
+faster than he did.  When I got too far ahead, I got off and let him
+overtake me.
+
+He turned West on One Hundredth street and disappeared in a cheap
+apartment house, one of a long row.  When I came abreast of the stoop I
+saw him in the vestibule, poking his fat fingers in one of the letter
+boxes.  Marking the position of the box I passed on.
+
+Returning presently, I saw that the box belonged to Apartment 14.  The
+name upon it was R. Winters.  I do not, however, mean to tax your brain
+with any more of Fatty's innumerable aliases.  From one of the reports
+I learned that his nickname was "Jumbo."  Hereafter I shall call him
+that.
+
+I loafed up and down the street debating my next move.  It is a crowded
+street and I was not conspicuous.  Many an old dodderer walks up and
+down watching the children's games with a vague glance.  I was very
+keen to have a look at the inside of Apartment 14.  Thinking of Irma
+and Roland and the necessity of accomplishing something quickly, I am
+afraid I was not content to act with the caution that Mr. Dunsany and I
+had agreed was necessary.  The most obvious suggestion was to send
+Jumbo a fake telegram, calling him out.  But in that case, when he
+discovered the sell he would know that I was on to him.  I wanted to be
+sure of a case against him first.
+
+While I was still pondering the matter, Jumbo issued forth again
+accompanied this time by a woman of his own age and type who might have
+been his wife.  From the style of her dress I judged that they were off
+on an expedition, and my heart beat high.  I made sure that they were
+really leaving the neighbourhood, by seeing them on an Amsterdam avenue
+car bound down-town.
+
+Returning, I rang the bell in the vestibule several times to make sure
+there was no one else at home.  The latch never clicked.  I took
+advantage of some one's coming out to enter, and climbed the stairs
+until I came to the door marked 14.  I knocked without receiving any
+answer.  The doors of these flats are childishly easy to open unless
+the tenant puts on a special lock.  In this case it had not been done.
+A calling card properly manipulated did the trick.  I found myself
+inside.
+
+I shall not go into a lengthy description of the place because there
+was nothing to describe.  It was an ordinary flat of four small rooms,
+and from the look of it might have been outfitted complete by an
+installment house.  There was nothing to suggest the taste of the
+owners, at least not until you came to the kitchen.  Here there was an
+immense ice chest crammed with the choicest and most expensive eatables
+and drinkables.  That was where their hearts lay!  There was also a
+great store of fine liquors and cigars.
+
+One bit of evidence rewarded my search, and only one.  There were no
+letters, no papers, not a scrap of writing of any kind, except two
+lines on a piece of paper which I found under the blotting-pad of the
+cheap little desk by the sitting-room window.  It had evidently slipped
+under and had been forgotten.  A clever crook, of course, is no
+cleverer than an honest man.  He is sure to make a little slip
+somewhere.  In the two lines of writing I once more beheld the famous
+cryptogram.  I pocketed it in high satisfaction.
+
+I had got as far in my search as the imitation Japanese vases on the
+mantel-piece.  I was peeping inside one of them when I heard a slight
+sound behind me.  I turned around and beheld Jumbo swelling and
+purpling with silent rage in the doorway.  I confess I was a good deal
+shaken by the apparition, though I managed to put down the vase with a
+good appearance of composure.  He had stolen in as noiselessly as a
+cat.  No matter how clear one's conscience may be, one is taken at a
+disadvantage discovered in the posture of a burglar.
+
+For a while we looked at each other in silence.  I cautiously reassured
+myself that my gun was safe in my pocket.  I saw that Jumbo was making
+a tremendous effort to hold himself in, and I realised that he had more
+to fear from a showdown than I had.  I began to breathe more easily.  I
+had taken off my hat for coolness, and the wig was sewn inside the
+band.  He obviously knew me.  Perhaps it was as well for me.  If he had
+supposed me an ordinary sneak thief he might have struck me down from
+behind with a blow of that mighty fist.
+
+He began to swear at me thickly and softly.  I remember wondering if he
+were going to have an apoplectic seizure, and hoping he wouldn't
+because it would spoil my case.
+
+"I have you covered from my pocket," I warned him, in case his feelings
+got the better of his judgment.
+
+"Yah!  I'm not going to touch you!" he snarled.  "I don't have to."
+
+He got his rage under partial control.  "Go ahead and finish looking,"
+he said with a grim sort of humour.
+
+"I have finished," I said.
+
+"Well, what did you find?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"You're dead right you didn't find nothing," he triumphantly retorted,
+"because there ain't nothing to find!  I'm straight, I am!  I don't
+fear nobody.  I don't know what you think you're after, but I'll tell
+you this, I'm sick of this spying business!  I warn you to drop it, or
+I'll crush you as I would a fly!  Who are you, you--amateur!  I know
+all about you.  You ain't got nothin' behind you.  You're a
+four-flusher, a cheap skate!  Keep away from me or I'll make you sorry
+you set up to be a sleuth!"
+
+All this had quite the opposite effect of what was intended.  As soon
+as Jumbo began to brag and blow, something told me he was not in the
+least to be feared.  However, for my own purposes, I assumed an air of
+confusion, and looked longingly toward the door behind him.  He was not
+at all anxious to detain me.  He circled away from the door, keeping
+his front carefully turned towards me.  I in turn backed out of the
+door, and he slammed it shut.
+
+
+As soon as I got home I made haste to translate my find.  It proved to
+me even more important than I had hoped.
+
+
+"Received of Jumbo six thousand cash, three thousand stock as my share
+of the blue pearls.
+
+"EVAN."
+
+
+I allowed myself a little feeling of triumph.  You will remember I had
+learned that Kenton Milbourne's name was Evan Whittlesey.  As for the
+mention of blue pearls, there were no others but Irma's in the world.
+This amounted to real _prima facie_ evidence then, the first bit I had
+secured.
+
+Would they find out that it was in my possession?  It must have been
+temporarily mislaid, they were in all other things so careful.  After
+my visit perhaps Jumbo would begin to think back.  I was not left long
+in doubt as to the matter.  They struck at me with a boldness and skill
+I was little prepared for.
+
+
+
+
+19
+
+REPORT OF J. M. #9
+
+_June 25th._
+
+To-day as I came out of the work-people's entrance to Dunsany's at noon
+Jumbo passed by on the sidewalk.  He tipped me a scarcely perceptible
+wink, and kept on, as I was with my fellow-workmen.  I suppose that he
+wished to catch me in the act, so to speak.  In other words he wants to
+have it understood between us that he knows I work there.  It is a step
+towards more confidential communications.
+
+We met as usual to-night at the Turtle Bay Café, but something had
+happened in the meantime, because Jumbo was glum and sour.  I made
+believe not to notice it.  After he had a drink or two he volunteered
+the reason.
+
+"A fellow broke into my rooms to-day, a sneak thief," he said.
+
+"No!  What did you do to him?" said I.
+
+"Oh, I half killed him and let him go.  He didn't get anything."
+
+This was obviously no explanation of his worried air.  I continued to
+question him about the affair with a friend's natural curiosity, but he
+suddenly became suspicious, so I let it drop.  I do not know if this
+has anything to do with your other activities, but I give it for what
+it's worth.
+
+Later in the evening when Jumbo's good-humour was somewhat restored, he
+referred to our noon meeting in a facetious way.
+
+"Thought you said you were out of a job," he said.
+
+I made believe to be somewhat confused.  "Ahh, I wasn't going to tell
+everything I knew to a stranger," I said.
+
+He made haste to commend me.  He affected a certain admiration of my
+astuteness.  "You're a deep one, English!  I bet you could teach me a
+trick or two!"
+
+Have I mentioned that "English" is becoming my monaker?
+
+By this time it is thoroughly understood between Jumbo and I that we
+are both "good sports," i.e., dependably crooked.  It saves a lot of
+bluffing on both sides.
+
+Jumbo asked me what my job was at Dunsany's.  I explained how I handled
+all the stuff that was sent in to be reset, my particular job being to
+remove the jewels from their old settings before handing them on to the
+expert craftsmen.
+
+"What a chance!" said Jumbo wistfully.  "But I suppose they have you
+watched."
+
+"Oh, yes," I said, and I went on to explain all the precautions against
+theft and loss, "but, of course----"  Here I made believe to be
+overtaken by caution.
+
+Jumbo's little eyes glistened.  "Of course what?" he demanded.
+
+I tried to turn the subject which only increased his eagerness.  He
+kept after me.
+
+"If a man knew the trick of making paste diamonds," I suggested, "and
+could substitute one occasionally----!  Of course he'd have to make
+them himself.  It wouldn't be safe to buy them."
+
+Jumbo whistled softly.  "Can you make them?" he asked.
+
+I confessed that I could.
+
+"But wouldn't the fellows get on to you, I mean the experts you hand
+the jewels on to?"
+
+As I have already told you, Jumbo knows next to nothing about diamonds,
+so I felt safe enough in my romancing.  "Not likely," I said.  "The
+paste jewels are first rate imitations at first.  It's only after a
+while that they lose their lustre.  Of course if I was found out, I'd
+pass the buck to the fellow who gave them to me.  After the new work is
+returned to the customer there's no danger until the work has to be
+cleaned or repaired."
+
+"How could a fellow keep all the different sizes and cuttings handy in
+his pocket?" Jumbo asked.
+
+"In his pocket!" I said scornfully.  "He'd be spotted the first day!
+You make the job last over night, see?  Weigh, measure and test the
+stone you want, and bring the phony stone to match it next morning."
+
+Jumbo was breathing hard in his excitement.  I suppose he saw an
+endless vista of profits, the risk all mine.  "But ain't the stones all
+cut different?" he asked.
+
+"Say, you want to know as much as I do," I said sarcastically.
+
+He fawned on me.  "You're dead right, 'boe.  That's your private
+affair."
+
+After we had another drink or two I made believe to drop my guard
+completely.  I left out the ifs and the coulds and admitted that my
+game at Dunsany's was as I had described it.  To prove it I brought out
+a couple of beautiful unset diamonds, which completed the conquest of
+Jumbo.
+
+"It's a cinch! a cinch!" he cried.  "A couple of good men could make
+fifty thousand a year easy and safe.  Fifty thousand after the
+commission was taken out."
+
+"What commission?" I demanded.
+
+"Thirty-three and a third per cent to them that disposes of the
+stones," said Jumbo evasively.
+
+I thought it wiser not to question Jumbo any farther in that direction
+at present.
+
+Jumbo went on enthusiastically.  "You and me'll be pardners!  This is
+our little private graft.  We won't let anybody else in, see?  You on
+the inside, me out, we were made for each other!"
+
+The coyer I made out to be, the more friendly was Jumbo.
+
+Finally, coming down to practical matters, he asked me what the stones
+were worth.  I told him the market value.
+
+"Of course I can't get anything like near that," he said.  "But I'll
+make the best dicker I can.  I'll let you know before I close with
+them."
+
+After some more persuasion I finally handed over the stones.  I knew he
+wouldn't play me false as long as he thought there were larger gains in
+prospect.
+
+We haggled for an hour over the division of the profits.  I
+passionately refused to consider fifty-fifty, since the work and the
+risk were all mine.  Half a dozen times the budding partnership seemed
+about to end.  We finally agreed on sixty and forty.  By holding out as
+I did, I believe I have lulled Jumbo's suspicions forever.
+
+The compact was cemented with a drink.
+
+We talked on about diamonds, and I saw a new idea form and grow in
+Jumbo's little swimming eyes.  Studying me speculatively, he put me
+through a lengthy cross-examination concerning my knowledge of precious
+stones.
+
+"You're one of these here experts yourself, ain't you?" he said at last.
+
+I modestly accepted the designation.
+
+"What did you leave England for?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"What's past is past," I said scowling.
+
+"Sure," he said hastily.  "I don't want to pry into your affairs."
+
+He changed the subject, but I could see him still chewing over the same
+idea, whatever it was.
+
+We were sitting as usual at one of the little tables down the side of
+the bar-room.  Jumbo excused himself for a few minutes.  When he came
+back he talked about one thing and another, but it was manifestly to
+gain time.  He glanced at the door from time to time.  I wondered what
+was saving for me.
+
+At about ten o'clock, a man came into the place alone, and went to the
+bar without, apparently, looking at us.
+
+"Why there's Foxy!" cried Jumbo in great surprise.
+
+He hailed his friend, and had him join us at our table.  They overdid
+the casual meeting a little.  I began to suspect that Jumbo had
+telephoned this man to come and join us, and I waited with no little
+curiosity to see what would come of it.
+
+The newcomer was a man of Jumbo's age, but looking much younger because
+he was slender and well built.  He was one of the plainest men I have
+ever seen but not in the sense of being repulsive, just plain.  He was
+a blonde with ashy, colourless hair, and features of the "hatchet"
+type, that is to say sharp nose, narrow, retreating forehead, with the
+hair beginning some distance back.  "Foxy" didn't seem to fit him very
+well, because he looked heavy-witted, stupid, but perhaps he can be
+sharp enough when he wants.  He had a dull, verbose style of talk, and
+a conceited air like a third-rate actor.
+
+Jumbo informed me with a scarcely concealed leer that Foxy was a "good
+fellow," in other words a crook like ourselves.  Verily, words come to
+strange passes!
+
+Presently we got to talking about diamonds again, and Jumbo in his
+character of the broker, exhibited the two he had just obtained from
+me.  He did not, however, in my hearing say where he had got them.  A
+look at me was a sufficient hint to say nothing about our compact.
+Presently I began to realise that Foxy in his heavier way was putting
+me through a sharper examination than Jumbo's.  My opinion of
+hatchet-face's cleverness went up several points.
+
+This man exhibited a considerable theoretical knowledge of diamonds as
+of one who might have read up on the subject.  For instance he knew the
+characteristics, the weight and the ownership of the world-famous
+stones.  He had, however, nothing of the eye-to-eye knowledge of the
+experienced jeweller.
+
+I apparently passed his examination satisfactorily.  He glanced at
+Jumbo in a meaning way, and the latter said:
+
+"Look ahere, English, you ought to be able to make a good thing on the
+side by appraising diamonds."
+
+My heart jumped at the possibilities this opened up.  Was I about to
+land the job of diamond expert to the gang?  "The profession's
+overcrowded," I said carelessly.
+
+"I could put you in the way of a job occasionally," said Jumbo.  "Some
+fellows Foxy and me knows would be glad to pay for a little advice
+about buying and selling stones."
+
+I began to hope that the end of our labours might be in sight.  The
+next question dashed me a little.
+
+"Have you ever heard of Mrs. ---- ----?" Foxy asked.*
+
+
+* He named one of the most prominent society women in New York.--B.E.
+
+
+Of course I had, she is one of my best customers.  I shook my head.
+
+He gave me some details of her history which would have astonished Cora
+---- could she have heard them.  "She has a fine string of sparklers,"
+he remarked in conclusion.
+
+"Has she?" I said innocently.  I had sold them to her.
+
+"She's at Newport now," said Foxy casually.
+
+"Hell! what's the use of beating round the bush!" said Jumbo in his
+hearty way.  "Ain't we all friends together?  It's worth a nice little
+sum to you, English, if you can find out and report if it's the genuine
+stones that she wears around town up there."
+
+"But I can't leave my job," I objected.
+
+"Sure, he can't leave his job," said Jumbo at once.
+
+"He can go up on Saturday night's boat, and come back Sunday, can't
+he?" said Foxy.
+
+The matter was so arranged.  I suppose I am in for it next Saturday.
+Will you see that Mrs. ---- is warned in some manner?
+
+In the meantime I am to be taken to see the "friends" that buy and sell
+diamonds.  Here's hoping that this may prove to be the grand
+headquarters of the gang.
+
+When we left the place, Jumbo excusing himself, pulled Foxy aside, and
+held a brief, whispered consultation with him, which boded ill for
+somebody.  Their faces were distorted with anger.  Foxy took the
+west-bound cross-town car, and we walked over to the subway.
+
+Jumbo anxious, I suppose, to make me feel that I had not been left out
+of anything, said: "Me and Frank had a little trouble to-day.  There's
+a bull poking his nose into our private business."
+
+Hoping to hear more, I heartily joined with him in consigning the whole
+race of "bulls" to perdition.
+
+"Oh, this is only an amateur-like," said Jumbo.  "He's running a little
+private graft of his own.  He ain't dangerous.  Me and Foxy's got it
+fixed to trim him nicely."
+
+This was all I could get.  I mention it, thinking that it may be of
+interest to you.
+
+I suppose if either of my worthy friends ever suspected that I was not
+a "good fellow," my life would not be worth a jack-straw.  The same
+menace lurks behind Jumbo's swimming pig-eyes, and Foxy's dull ones.
+But I am enjoying the spice of danger.  The only thing that irks me are
+the tiresome hours at my work bench in Dunsany's.  I'll be glad when
+the game becomes livelier.  This is life!
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF A. N.
+
+_June 25th._
+
+K. Milbourne came out of his boarding-house at 9:20 to-night.  Walked
+East to Seventh avenue, North on Seventh to Fifty-eighth street, and
+East to a resort near Third Avenue called "Under the Greenwood Tree."
+This is a saloon and restaurant with a large open air garden in the
+rear where a band plays.
+
+I waited outside upwards of an hour.  Then I went in to see if I had my
+man safe.  I found there was a back entrance from the garden out to
+Fifty-ninth street, and he was gone.  I'm sorry, but "accidents will
+happen!"  I returned to the boarding-house.  Milbourne came home at
+11:35, and judging from the light in his room, went directly to bed.
+
+A. N.
+
+
+
+
+20
+
+As soon as I had read the two foregoing reports which reached me in the
+first mail, I called up Sadie for the purpose of telling her to have
+the operative A. N. transferred to some other duty, as he had obviously
+outlived his usefulness where Milbourne was concerned.  This was the
+day following my encounter with Jumbo in his flat.
+
+Keenan answered the phone.  He said Sadie had just gone out after
+reading her mail.  She had told him she didn't know how long she would
+be.  We did not take Keenan very far into our confidence.  He knew he
+was not clever, poor fellow, and did not mind his exclusion.
+
+His word made me vaguely uneasy, for I knew of nothing to take Sadie
+out that morning, and she was very scrupulous about letting me know
+before embarking on anything new.  However, there was nothing to do
+until I heard from her.
+
+I plunged into the work awaiting me.  That was considerable.  I am only
+giving you an occasional report or part of a report which helps on the
+story a little.  There were dozens of other lines we were obliged to
+follow that never returned us anything for our work.  The office end of
+my business is the part I like least.
+
+At noon I called the other office again.  Sadie had not come in, said
+Keenan, nor had she sent any word.  I was downright anxious by this
+time.  Sadie must know that I would call her up, I told myself.  Surely
+she would never stay away so long without sending in word, unless she
+were prevented.  I called up her sister with whom she lived.  They had
+not heard from her there since she had left as usual that morning.
+
+I spent a horrible afternoon, condemned to inaction, while my brain
+busied itself suggesting all the dreadful things that might have
+happened.  Curiously enough I thought only of the ordinary accidents of
+the streets.  The truth never occurred to me.
+
+The blow descended about half-past four.  Terrible as it was it was
+like relief to hear anything.  It came in the form of a special
+delivery letter, mailed as in irony from Station W.  Within were two
+lines more of that damned cryptogram, thus:
+
+  SP JAH FUXLJG QCXQ WYE DFB&U OWK-
+  MZM&YW SY EUS UYHJL FVDH QMWZCDBK
+  QBC OYFG YB UOWX.
+
+
+Meaning:
+
+"If you return what you stole yesterday in the first mail to-morrow all
+will be well."
+
+On the back of the paper was written another message:
+
+"They have got me, Ben.  Save me!"
+
+
+This went to my breast like a knife.  It was unquestionably Sadie's
+handwriting.  The wild words were so unlike my clever self-contained
+girl it broke me all up.  For a while I could not think, could not
+plan.  I could only reproach myself for having put one so dear to me in
+danger.
+
+Fortunately for humans, old habits of work reassert themselves
+automatically.  My brain screwed itself down upon the hardest problem
+of my career.  There was not the slightest use in flying up to the flat
+on One Hundredth street.  There would be no one there.  Neither could I
+call on the police for aid without precipitating the catastrophe.  If
+Sadie was to be saved it must be by unaided wits.
+
+I thought of Mr. Dunsany with hope and gratitude.  In him I had a line
+on the gang they did not as yet suspect.  I immediately called up
+Dunsany's and asked if I might speak to Mattingly in the jewel-setting
+department.  It was a risky thing to do, but I had no choice.  Knowing
+how the gang watched Dunsany's it would have been suicidal for me to
+have gone there to meet him.
+
+I finally heard his voice at the other end of the wire.  "This is
+Enderby," I said.  "Do you get me?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "what is it?"
+
+I had to bear in mind the possibility of a curious switchboard operator
+in Dunsany's listening on the wire.  "Are you going to meet your
+friends to-night?" I asked in ordinary tones.
+
+"Yes," he said, "same as usual."
+
+"Those fellows have played a trick on me," I said.  "They have copped
+my girl."
+
+"Not Sadie!" he said aghast.
+
+"Yes," I said.  "It's a deuce of a note, isn't it?"
+
+He took the hint, and his voice steadied.  "What do you want me to do?"
+
+"Find out if you can without giving yourself away where they have put
+her."
+
+"I'll try.  Where can I meet you?"
+
+"We can't meet.  But watch out for my friend Joe the taxi-driver.  He
+stands outside your joint up on Lexington avenue.  The number of his
+licence is 11018.  It's painted on the sidelamps."
+
+"I get you," said Mr. Dunsany.
+
+
+I cannot give a very clear account of the next hour or two.  It was
+like a nightmare.  I knew a young fellow that drove a taxi which he
+hired from a big garage by the day.  I was depending on him to help me
+out.  I had often employed him.  I searched him out, taking suitable
+precautions against being trailed.  He agreed to hire me his cab for
+the night and I went to his room to change clothes with him.  The
+visored cap in itself was a pretty good disguise.  I had made an
+engagement by telephone with my good friend Oscar Nilson, and he fixed
+me up so my own mother wouldn't have known me.
+
+In my anxious eagerness I arrived at the Turtle Bay Café long before
+the hour.  None of the men I was looking for had arrived, and I was
+compelled to drive around the streets for another half hour or more.  I
+turned down the little flag on the meter, to avoid taking any business.
+Once more I had a drink at the bar without seeing any of my men.  The
+third time I returned I caught a glimpse of Mr. Dunsany's face at one
+of the tables, and I waited outside as if for a fare who had gone in
+for a drink.
+
+After a while I could stand it no longer.  My torturing curiosity drove
+me inside.  I went to the bar taking care not to look towards the
+alcove where the three sat.  I found I could see them in the mirror
+without turning my head.  Mr. Dunsany, or "English," as I shall call
+him, and "Foxy" each presented a side view, while Jumbo, seated
+farthest within the alcove, faced me.  Foxy was Milbourne, as you have
+already guessed.
+
+All the alcoves down the side of the room were fully occupied.  Even if
+I had been able to secure a place in either of the adjoining
+compartments, I doubt if I could have heard any of my men's talk.  They
+had their heads very close together.  There was an infernal racket in
+the place.  I had to content myself with watching Jumbo's lips, wishing
+vainly that I might read them.  I had to be careful not to seem to
+stare, for at any moment he might raise his eyes and meet mine in the
+mirror.  My face was revealed in every line by the strong lights behind
+the bar.
+
+As far as I could make out Jumbo and Foxy were trying to urge something
+on English to which he resisted.  His reluctance was so well done I
+could not decide if it were real or assumed.  Once more I was compelled
+to pay tribute to my friend and assistant.  What a lucky chance it was
+that had led me to him.  He was a wonder!
+
+The other two were an ugly-looking pair at that moment, the one face
+gross and mean, the other sharp and mean.  They had dropped their
+masks.  I wondered now how I could have thought even for a moment that
+Milbourne was stupid.  His long nose, his close-set eyes, the whole
+eager thrust-forward of his gaunt face suggested the evil intelligence
+of the devil himself.  Not for nothing was this man called Foxy.
+
+After a while they seemed to come to an understanding.  Jumbo sat back
+and putting his hand in his pocket, looked around for the waiter.  I
+made a quiet exit to my cab outside where I waited the turn of events.
+
+They must have had another drink for it was still some moments before
+they issued from between the swinging doors.  I saw English's eyes go
+at once to the number on my side lamps, which he read off with visible
+satisfaction.  He gave me a fleeting glance as I sat nodding on the
+driver's seat.  English was making out to show the effects of his
+liquor a little.  The other two were cold sober.
+
+"Say, boys," said English, "let's taxi it up; I'll blow."
+
+I made believe to come to life, hearing that, and hopping out touched
+my cap and opened the door.
+
+Foxy frowned and held back.  "What's the use?" he grumbled.
+
+"Aw, come on," said English.  "I ain't had an auto ride since I
+landed."  His slightly foolish air was beautifully done.
+
+Neither Jumbo nor Foxy liked the idea, but they liked less calling
+attention to themselves by a discussion in the street.  So they all
+piled in.  Jumbo gave me a number on Lexington avenue which would be
+about half a mile North of where we then were.
+
+There was a hole in the front glass at my ear for the purpose of
+allowing fare to communicate with driver.  With the noise of the
+engine, however, I could hear no more than the sound of their voices.
+It seemed to me that both Foxy and Jumbo were admonishing English not
+to drink so much if he couldn't carry it better.
+
+I found my number on a smallish brown stone dwelling facing the great
+sunken railway yards, and drew up before it.  It was one of a long row
+of houses, all exactly alike.
+
+As my fares climbed out, English said to Jumbo: "How long will we be in
+here?"
+
+"Not long," was the answer.
+
+"Then wait," said English to me.  A glance of intelligence passed
+between us.
+
+"You must like to throw your money away," grumbled Foxy, as they
+mounted the steps.
+
+They were admitted by a negro man-servant.
+
+I examined the surroundings more particularly.  The excavating of the
+great yards opposite has damaged the neighbourhood as a residential
+district and the tidy little houses were somewhat fallen from their
+genteel estate.  Small, cheap shops had opened in one or two of the
+basements, and beauty parlours, or dry-cleaning establishments on the
+parlour floors.  Only one or two houses of the row retained a
+self-respecting air, and of these the house I waited before was one.
+The stone stoop had been renovated, the door handles were brightly
+polished, and the windows cleaned.  Simple, artistic curtains showed
+within.  In fact it had all the earmarks of the dwelling of a
+well-to-do old-fashioned family which had refused to give up its old
+home when the first breath of disfavour fell upon the neighbourhood.
+
+I should further explain that the houses were three story and basement
+structures with mansard roofs over the cornices.  At the corner of the
+street, that is to say three doors from where my cab was standing,
+there was a new building four stories high, which contained a brightly
+lighted café on the street level and rooms above.  In other words what
+New Yorkers call a Raines' Law Hotel.
+
+The three men remained inside the house about forty-five minutes, I
+suppose.  It seemed like three times that space to me, waiting.  They
+appeared at last, talking in slightly heightened tones, which suggested
+that they had partaken of spirituous refreshment inside.  Their talk as
+far as I could hear it was all in respectful praise of a lady they had
+just left.  She was a "good fellow," a "wise one," "long-headed."
+
+At the cab door they hesitated a moment as if in doubt of their next
+move.
+
+"It's early," said Jumbo.  "Let's go back to the Turtle Bay."
+
+The others agreed.
+
+English let them get in first.  "Back to the Turtle Bay," he said to
+me.  His lips added soundlessly: "She is here!"
+
+When they got out again, English paid me off.  His expressive eyes said
+clearly that he wished to speak to me further.  The others stood close,
+and we dared not take any risk.
+
+I thanked him, touching my cap.  "Any time you want me, gen'lemen, call
+up Plaza 6771," I said.
+
+They went inside.
+
+I had given the first telephone number that came into my head.  It was
+that of an artist friend of mine who had a studio apartment on
+Fifty-ninth street.  I hastened up there in the car, and routed him out
+of bed.  Artists are used to these interruptions.  I had a little
+difficulty, however, in making myself known to a man half asleep.  He
+was decent about it, though.  He gave me tobacco, and telling me to
+make myself comfortable, went back to bed.
+
+In an hour or so the telephone bell rang, and to my joy I heard
+English's voice on the wire.
+
+"This you?" he said.  We named no names.
+
+"I get you," I said.  "Fire away."
+
+He plunged right into his story and though plainly labouring under
+excitement, was admirably clear and succinct.
+
+"She is confined in that house.  She was lured there this morning by a
+forged letter from you instructing her to go there for certain
+evidence.  I did not see her.  I understood from their talk that so far
+she is all right."
+
+"The house is occupied by a woman they call Lorina or Mrs. Mansfield.
+Handsome, blonde woman of forty; great force of character.  She is a
+member of the gang, perhaps the leader of it.  Anyway, they all defer
+to her.  She has a better head than either Jumbo or Foxy.  I was taken
+there to-night for the purpose of having her size me up.  Apparently
+she approved of me."
+
+"I understood that the girl is safe until to-morrow morning.  Then they
+plan"--his voice began to shake here--"to--to do away with her."
+
+"Unless I come across with the paper they want?" I interrupted.
+
+"Whether you do or not," he said grimly.  "They have no intention of
+letting her go.  They plan to get you, too, to-morrow."
+
+"How?"
+
+"I don't know.  I was not consulted."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"The--the job they are trying to force on me," he faltered, "is to
+dispose of her body.  They chose me because I am not suspected by you,
+not followed.  I am to carry it out of the house piecemeal.  Oh--! it's
+horrible!"
+
+"Steady!" I said.  "I promise you that won't be necessary.  Any more
+particulars?"
+
+"Mrs. Mansfield lives alone," he went on.  "She has three coloured
+servants, two maids and a man."
+
+"Did you find out where they slept?"
+
+"Yes.  The two maids on the top floor in the front room, the man
+somewhere in the basement."
+
+"Are they in the gang?"
+
+"No.  They do not know that Miss Farrell is in the house.  But the man,
+I understood, could be depended on absolutely.  Which means that he is
+ready for any black deed.  He is as ugly and strong as a gorilla."
+
+"What about the other internal arrangements of the house?"
+
+"On the first floor there is a parlour in front, dining-room and pantry
+behind.  On the second floor the front room is a sitting-room or
+office.  The telephone is here.  Mrs. Mansfield sleeps in the rear room
+on this floor.  Between her bedroom and the office there is an interior
+room, and that is where Miss Farrell is confined.  This room can be
+entered only through Mrs. Mansfield's bedroom."
+
+"Did you notice the locks on the doors?"
+
+"No.  There was nothing out of the common.  On the front door a Yale
+lock of the ordinary pattern."
+
+"Anything more?"
+
+"One thing.  Mrs. Mansfield goes armed.  She has a small automatic
+pistol with a maxim silencer which is evidently her favourite toy.  I
+hope I got what you wanted.  They were at me every minute.  I could not
+look around much."
+
+"No one could have done better!" I said heartily.
+
+"What do you want me to do now?"
+
+"Where are you?"
+
+"In my own boarding-house.  The party at the Turtle Bay soon broke up.
+The telephone here is in the restaurant in the basement, and everybody
+sleeps upstairs."
+
+"You had better stay at home until morning," I said, after thinking a
+moment.  "It is very likely that they are having you watched to-night."
+
+"But I must do something.  I couldn't sleep."
+
+"There is really nothing you can do now.  Stay where you can hear the
+telephone and I'll call you if I need you.  I'll call you anyway when I
+get her out safe.  If you do not hear from me by say, three o'clock, go
+to police headquarters, tell them all the circumstances, and have the
+house surrounded and forced."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"To-morrow morning if all goes well, you must go to work as usual.  I
+don't mean that we shall lose all our work so far if I can help it.
+They must not suspect you."
+
+"Don't take too big a chance, Ben, the girl----"
+
+"Don't worry.  The girl is worth fifty cases to me.  But I mean to save
+both."
+
+
+
+
+21
+
+I went home for some things I needed, and in less than half an hour
+after the telephone talk I was back in front of the Lexington avenue
+house, still at the wheel of my taxi.  I had, however, changed my
+clothes in the meantime.  I did not want the chauffeur's uniform I had
+worn earlier to figure in any description that might be circulated in
+the gang.
+
+Passing the house slowly I surveyed it from pavement to roof.  All the
+windows were dark.  The basement windows were open, but were protected
+as is customary by heavy bars.  The first floor and the second floor
+windows were closed.  The two windows on the top floor which were above
+the cornice, stood open.
+
+Turning the corner, I came to a stop outside the rear door of the
+saloon I have mentioned.  It was after the legal closing hour, but they
+were serving drinks in the back room.  I went in and ordered a beer.
+The desk and the hotel register were in this room.  You entered from a
+narrow lobby from which rose the steep stairs.  I paid for my drink and
+took it.  Choosing a moment when the waiter was in the bar, I rose to
+leave.  In the lobby I turned to the right instead of the left and
+mounted the stairs.  There was no one to question me.
+
+In one side pocket I carried a small but efficient kit of tools, in the
+other a bottle of chloroform and a roll of cotton.  My pistol was in my
+hip pocket.
+
+I went up the three flights without meeting any one, lighted by a red
+globe on each landing.  There was a fourth flight ending at a closed
+door which I figured must give on the roof.  It was bolted on the
+inside, of course, and I presently found myself out under the stars.
+
+This building, you will remember, was half a story higher than the row
+of dwellings which adjoined it.  It was therefore a drop of only six
+feet from the parapet of one roof to the parapet of the other.  Easy
+enough to go; a little more difficult perhaps to return that way.  From
+the parapet I stepped noiselessly to the roof of the first dwelling,
+and crossed the two intervening roofs to the house I meant to enter.  I
+had nearly two hours before Mr. Dunsany would put the police in motion,
+ample time, I judged.  Probably the first few minutes in the house
+would decide success or failure.
+
+There was a flat scuttle in the roof which, as I expected, was fastened
+from within.  I could have opened it with my tools, but it seemed to me
+quicker and safer to enter by one of the windows in the mansard.  In
+any case I would have to deal with the maids on that floor, and it was
+likely they slept behind locked doors.
+
+The cornice made a wide, flat ledge in front of these windows.  It was
+a simple task to let myself down the sloping mansard to the ledge and
+creep to the window.  Had I been seen from the pavement across the way
+it would have ruined all, but the street was deserted as far as I could
+see up and down.  There were no houses opposite.
+
+Pausing with my head inside the window I heard heavy breathing from the
+back of the room.  I cautiously let myself in.  Then I could
+distinguish two breathings side by side, and knew that both women were
+sleeping in the same bed.  I got out my cotton and chloroform.
+Fortunately for me negroes are generally heavy sleepers.  I let each
+woman breathe in the fumes before the cotton touched her face.  They
+drifted away with scarcely a movement.  I left the saturated cotton on
+their faces without any cone to retain the fumes.  In this way they
+could not take any injury.  The potency of the drug would soon be
+dissipated in the atmosphere.
+
+It was a hot night and the door of their room stood open.  I didn't see
+until too late, that a chair had been placed against the door to
+prevent the draft from the window slamming it.  I stumbled over the
+chair.  It made little noise, but the jar caused me to drop the
+precious bottle, and before I recovered it the contents was wasted.
+This was a serious loss.
+
+I crept down the first flight of stairs.  This landed me on the floor
+where the mistress slept.  As I approached the door of her room a
+shrill yapping started up inside.  I cursed the animal under my breath.
+English had not told me that the woman kept a dog.  It made things
+twice as difficult.  The noise sounded through the house loud enough,
+it seemed to me, to wake the dead.  I heard somebody move inside the
+room, and I hastened down the next flight of stairs, and crouched at
+the back of the hall outside the dining-room door.
+
+Over my head I heard the bedroom door unlocked, and presently the upper
+hall was flooded with light.  I was safely out of reach of its rays.  I
+offered up a silent prayer that the lady would not be moved to descend
+the stairs, for I pictured her carrying the automatic with the
+silencer.  True, I had my own gun, but for obvious reasons I was averse
+to firing it.
+
+She did not come down.  The dog apparently was satisfied that all was
+well, and ceased his yapping.  From his voice I judged the animal to be
+a Pomeranian.  Mistress and dog finally returned to the bedroom and the
+door was locked again.  With the dog and the lock on the door my
+problem was no easy one.  I had to enter that way before I could reach
+my girl.  She left the light burning in the upstairs hall.
+
+Before attempting to deal with the mistress it seemed to me necessary
+to dispose of the negro in the basement.  I went on downstairs not at
+all relishing the prospect.  There were swing doors both at the top and
+the bottom of the basement stairs which had to be opened with infinite
+caution to avoid a squeak.  On the stairs between it was as dark as
+Erebus.  On every step I half expected to find the gorilla-like
+creature crouching in wait for me, but when I finally edged through the
+lower door I was reassured by the sound of a rumbling snore.  The dog
+had not awakened him.
+
+He slept in the front room.  This had originally been the dining-room
+of the house.  I cautiously opened the door and looked in.  A certain
+amount of light came through the area windows from the street lamps.
+The negro's bed was against the wall between me and the windows.  These
+were the windows which were heavily barred outside.
+
+When I saw the bars and felt the door which was a heavy hardwood
+affair, and had a key in it, I thought it would be sufficient to lock
+the man in.  You see I was pretty well assured that none of these
+people would care to make a racket.  However, there was another door
+leading to the pantry, thence to the kitchen.  This had no lock on it,
+and I was compelled to find another means of confining him.
+
+Exploring the rear of the basement I came across a trunk in the back
+hall with a stout strap around it.  This I softly removed and
+appropriated.  Going on through the kitchen out into the yard I found
+stout clothesline stretched from side to side.  I cut down several
+lengths of it.
+
+While I was in the yard I made an important discovery respecting the
+lay of the back of the house.  The lower story extended out some
+fifteen feet above the upper floors.  The mistress' windows therefore
+opened on a flat extension roof.  These windows were opened and
+unbarred.  There was no light within the room.
+
+I returned with the strap and the lengths of rope to the negro's
+sleeping-room.  He was still snoring vociferously.  He lay on his back
+with his brawny arms flung above his head like an infant, and his great
+chest rose like a billow with every inhalation.  The bed was a small
+iron one with low head and foot.  It looked strong, but I knew that
+these things were generally of flimsy construction.
+
+First I laid my gun on the floor where I could snatch it up at need.
+Then with infinite care I passed my long trunk strap under the bed and
+over his ankles, and drew it close, but not tight.  This was intended
+for a merely temporary entanglement.  He never stirred.  I made a noose
+out of one of the pieces of rope and passed it carefully, carefully
+over his two hands.  During this he began to stir.  The snores were
+interrupted.  I passed the rope around the iron bar at the head of the
+bed, and as he came fully awake I gave it a sharp jerk binding his
+hands hard and fast.  I knotted the rope.
+
+I flung a pillow over his head, and sat on it to still any cries while
+I made a permanent job of trussing him up.  His great frame heaved and
+plunged on the bed in a paroxysm of brutish terror, finding himself
+bound.  You have seen a cat with a rope around it.  Imagine a mad
+creature thirty times the bulk of a cat.  But everything held.  The bed
+rocked and bounced on the floor, but there were four closed doors
+between me and the woman sleeping up-stairs, and I hoped the sound
+might not carry.
+
+It was all over in a moment or two.  The ropes were ready to my hand.
+Every time he heaved up I passed a fresh turn under him.  Presently I
+had him bound so tight he could not move a muscle.  True to the
+character of his race, he gave up the struggle all at once and lay
+inert.  There was a moment in which he might have cried out when I
+changed the pillow for a gag made out of the sheet, but by that time he
+was gasping for breath.  I knotted the gag firmly between his teeth.
+Smothered groans issued from under it.  I went over all the ropes twice
+to make sure nothing could slip.  I expected, of course, that he would
+wriggle out in the end, but I only needed a little while.
+
+Before proceeding further I gave my stretched nerves a moment or two to
+relax.  The big task was still to come.  Finally I stole up-stairs
+again.  When I closed the doors behind me I could no longer hear the
+negro's smothered groans.  The house was perfectly quiet.  As I softly
+crept up on all fours stair to stair I was busily debating how to open
+the attack.  Locked door, silent gun and dog made the odds heavy
+against me.
+
+By the time I was half way up the main stairway I had made a plan.
+Rising to my feet I mounted the rest of the way with a firm tread.
+Instantly the little dog inside broke into a frantic barking.  I heard
+his mistress spring out of bed.  I hastily unscrewed the electric light
+bulb, and throwing a leg over the banisters slid noiselessly down to
+the first floor again.  As before I sought the security of the back
+hall.
+
+She unhesitatingly opened the door--she was a bold one.  I heard her
+catch her breath to find the hall in darkness.  Her hand shot out, I
+heard the click of the switch, but of course there was no light.
+Instantly she began shooting.  The light "ping" of her weapon had an
+inexpressibly deadly sound.  The bullets thudded viciously into wood
+and plaster.  From the direction of the latter sounds, she was shooting
+along the upper hall and down the stairs.
+
+I knew she had ten shots, not more, and I counted them.  After the
+tenth, running forward in the hall, I set up a horrid groaning.  She
+was silent above.  I kept up the groaning, and threshed about on the
+floor alongside the stairs.
+
+Suddenly she came running down.  This was what I had prayed she might
+do.  She reached the switch in the lower hall and light flared out.
+Instantly I sprang up the outside of the stairway, vaulted over the
+banisters and stood half way up the stairs, cutting her off, I hoped,
+from additional ammunition.
+
+She stood at the foot of the stairs gun in hand, glaring up at me.  I
+saw a large, handsome woman with a rope of coarse blonde hair as thick
+as my wrist hanging down her back and eyes like lambent blue flames.
+By her snarl I saw that I had the advantage for the moment, but her
+eyes never quailed.  To give her her due she was as bold as a lion.  I
+know of few other women of her age who would look handsome under the
+circumstances.  She was wearing a pink negligee robe over her
+nightdress.  Her feet were bare, they were pretty feet, too.  The
+little dog sheltered himself behind her skirts barking madly.  I saw
+the woman glance down the hall.  No doubt she was wondering why the
+noise didn't bring the negro.
+
+"What do you want?" she demanded in a high and mighty tone.
+
+"Never mind what I want," I returned.  "Do what I tell you."
+
+"If you let me go to my room I'll give you what money I have," she said.
+
+"And load up again," I said smiling.
+
+"You can watch me.  I have two hundred dollars in the house.  It's all
+you get, anyway."
+
+"That's not what I came for."
+
+By that she knew me.  She bared her fine white teeth and raised her gun.
+
+"It's empty," I said laughing.  "I counted the shots."
+
+She swore with heartfelt bitterness like a man.
+
+I drew my own gun.  "This one is loaded," I said.
+
+I descended a step or two to enforce my orders.  I pointed the gun at
+her.  "Open the front door!" I commanded.  "Go into the vestibule and
+close it behind you."
+
+My purpose was to lock her between the two sets of doors while I
+searched for Sadie.  She scowled at me sullenly, and for a moment I
+thought I had her beaten; she seemed about to obey.  But reflecting
+perhaps that I didn't want to bring in outsiders any more than she, she
+took a chance.  Suddenly putting down her head she ran like a deer for
+the rear hall, the little dog whimpering in terror at her heels.
+
+The door at the head of the basement stairs banged open and she plunged
+down, calling on her servant.  I had to make a quick decision.  The way
+was presumably open to Sadie, but there were plenty of knives in the
+kitchen and if she liberated the man I would have to fight my way out
+of the house against the two of them.  I ran after her.  A rough house
+in the basement followed, doors slamming, chairs overturned, and the
+ceaseless yelping of the dog.
+
+She ran into the front room, saw the negro's predicament, and ran back
+through the pantries to the kitchen.  I was close at her heels.  She
+knew just where to find her knife, and she was out of the room again by
+the other door before I could stop her.  She ran back through the hall
+to the front room, slamming both doors in my face to delay me.  She
+tried to lock the second door, but I got my foot in it.
+
+She flung herself on the negro, sawing at his bonds with the knife.
+Fortunately there was some light in this room.  I dragged her off the
+bed.  I had only one arm free on account of the gun.  She tore herself
+free from me, and turning, came at me stabbing with the knife.  I
+thought my last hour had come.  I fired over her head.  She ran out of
+the room.
+
+I stopped to look at my prisoner's bonds.  I found them intact.  In
+bending over him my foot struck something on the floor.  I picked up
+her gun.  She had been obliged to drop it in order to use the knife.
+
+I ran after her.  As I put foot on the upper stairs I heard her slam
+her bedroom door and turn the key.  So there I had my work to do all
+over--but not quite all, for I had the gun now, and it was hardly
+likely she would have another.
+
+
+
+
+22
+
+I hammered on the door with the butt of my revolver--a little noise
+more or less scarcely mattered now, and commanded her to open it.
+
+She was not so easily to be intimidated.  Through the door she
+consigned me to the nether world.  "If you break in the door I'll croak
+the girl," she threatened.
+
+I believed her capable of it.  Remembering the knife she carried, I
+shuddered.
+
+We spent some moments in exchanging amenities through the door.  I
+wished to keep her occupied, while I threshed around in my head for
+some expedient to trap her.
+
+"All right!" I cried, giving the door a final rattle.  "I'll get the
+poker from the furnace."
+
+She laughed tauntingly.
+
+Of course I had no such intention.  I had suddenly remembered the open
+windows on the roof of the extension.  It seemed easier to drop from
+above than climb from below, so I went up-stairs.
+
+The room over Mrs. Mansfield's bedroom was unlocked and untenanted.  I
+took off my shoes at the threshold, and crept across with painful care
+to avoid giving her warning below.  Unfortunately the windows were
+closed.  I lost precious time opening one of them a fraction of an inch
+at a time.
+
+Finally I was able to lean out.  She had lighted up her room.  I could
+see the glow on the sill below.  To my great satisfaction I saw that
+she had pulled down the blinds, without, however, closing the window
+under me.  For while I looked the blind swayed out a little in the
+draft.  Evidently the possibility of an attack from that side had not
+occurred to her.
+
+It was a drop of about fourteen feet from the window sill on which I
+leaned to the roof of the extension below.  I dared not risk it.  Even
+suppose I escaped injury, the noise of my fall would warn her, and the
+moments it would take me to recover my balance might give her time to
+execute her foul plan.  I believed that she had my girl locked in the
+inner room (else I should surely have heard from Sadie).  This would
+give me one second, while she was unlocking the door--but only one
+second.
+
+The bed in the room I was in was made up.  Always with the same
+precautions of silence I fashioned a rope sufficiently long out of the
+two sheets and the cotton spread.  I fastened the end of the rope to
+the leg of a heavy bureau beside the window, and carefully paid it out
+over the sill.  Before trusting myself to it I planned every movement
+in advance.
+
+I must let myself down face to the building, I decided, until I had
+almost reached the roof.  Then I must drop, and with the reflex of the
+same movement spring into the woman's room.
+
+It worked all right.  I was already inside when she turned around.  It
+was well that it was so, because the door into the inner room stood
+wide.  I saw my girl lying on a couch.  Like a flash the woman had the
+lights out.  Quick as a cat she was through the door, knife in hand.
+But I had got my bearings with that one glimpse.  I was hard upon her.
+I flung my arms around her from behind, pinioning her close.  I dragged
+her back into the outer room.  She was surprisingly strong for a woman,
+but I was just a little stronger.  She spit out curses like an angry
+cat.
+
+I dragged her across the room to where the switch was.  I had to take
+an arm from her to search for it.  She renewed her struggles.  It took
+half a dozen attempts.  Once she escaped me altogether.  She still had
+the knife.  I do not know how I managed to escape injury.  She slit my
+coat with it.
+
+At last I got the blessed light turned on.  She was still jabbing at me
+with the knife, but I could see what I was doing now.  The little dog
+fastened his teeth in my ankle.  I kicked him across the room.
+
+Between the two doors I have mentioned there was a third door, which
+evidently gave on a closet.  It had a key in it.  I dragged my captive
+to it, and somehow managed to get it open.  I flung her in, knife and
+all, slammed the door, locked it, and leaned against the frame sobbing
+for breath.  I was half blinded by the sweat in my eyes.  The woman was
+all in, too, or I never should have got the door closed.  For a while
+she lay where she had fallen without sound or movement.  When his
+mistress disappeared the dog ran under the bed.  His little pipe was
+now so hoarse he could scarcely make himself heard.
+
+Presently the woman recovered her forces.  Springing up, she hurled
+herself against the door with as much force as she could gather in that
+narrow space.  The door opened out, and the lock was a flimsy one.  I
+saw that I couldn't keep her there for long.  I ran into the inner room.
+
+My dearest girl was lying on a couch, fully dressed and unfettered, but
+strangely inert, stupefied.  I was terrified by her aspect.  However,
+her body was warm and she was breathing, though not naturally.  She was
+not wholly unconscious.  Her head moved on the pillow, and her misty
+eyes sought mine with a faint returning gleam of sentience.  Obviously
+she had been drugged, and the effect was just now beginning to wear off.
+
+I could not stop to restore her there.  I gathered her up in my arms,
+snatched up her hat which was lying near, and ran out through the
+bedroom.  I had no more than got the bedroom door locked behind me,
+when the door of the closet burst open, and the woman fell out into the
+room.  She immediately threw herself against the other door, but as
+regarded that, my mind was easier.  It was a much heavier affair, and
+it opened towards her.  I need not point out that there is a
+considerable difference, between bursting a door out, and pulling it in.
+
+I carried my precious burden down the stairs, murmuring phrases in her
+ear that I did not know I had at my command.  She commenced to weep, a
+very encouraging sign.  I believe I wept with her.  She was dearer to
+me than my life.
+
+I paused at the front door to try to bring her to somewhat before
+venturing out into the street.  Unfortunately there was no water within
+reach.  I was afraid to take much time.  The woman up-stairs had
+obtained some kind of a weapon with which she was battering the door.
+In her insane passion she had forgotten all considerations of prudence.
+She finally managed to split one of the panels; the key, however, was
+safe in my pocket.  She hurled imprecations after us.
+
+I opened the outer door a little, and the fresh air revived my dearest
+girl marvellously.  Presently she was able to stand with a little
+assistance.  Her first conscious act was to pin on her hat with a
+piteous assumption of her usually composed manner.  For a long time she
+could not speak, but she knew me now, and leaned on me trustfully.
+
+I knew how best to reach her.  "Brace up!" I whispered urgently.  "Pull
+yourself together.  I need you.  Show me what you can do!"
+
+She smiled as much as to say she was ready for anything.  Such was her
+temper.
+
+We went out, closing both doors behind us.  I fully expected to see a
+knot of the curious on the steps, attracted by the strange sounds from
+within.  But the street was still empty.  There must be a lot of
+strange things happening that no one ever knows of.  We did not meet
+anybody until we got around the corner.  Here a policeman stood idly
+swinging his club and staring at the taxicab, speculating no doubt on
+the mystery of its apparent abandonment and wondering what he ought to
+do about it.  The back room of the saloon was now closed.
+
+I saluted him, inwardly praying that he would not be led to look down
+at my feet.  I had managed to keep my cap through all vicissitudes, but
+I had no shoes on.  I briskly opened the door, and helped Sadie in.
+
+"Here you are, Miss," said I.
+
+Then I ran completely around the car to avoid the bluecoat, and cranked
+her.  Even then I could hear in the stillness the muffled sound of the
+woman's blows on the door.  The policeman was apparently unaware of
+anything amiss.  Fortunately my engine popped at the first turn.  The
+policeman's suspicions of me were gathering, but he was a slow-thinking
+specimen.
+
+"Hold on a minute, fellow," he said at last.
+
+The car was then in motion, and I made believe not to hear him.
+Apparently he did not think it worth while to raise an alarm.
+
+I cannot tell you with what a feeling of thankfulness I left that
+neighbourhood behind me.
+
+I took Sadie direct to her sister's.  We found that young woman in a
+pretty state of fluster.  She was of an emotional type, very different
+from the matter-of-fact Sadie.  Maybe she didn't give it to me for
+leading her darling into danger!  But I was happy enough to be able to
+take it with a grin.  Sadie by this time could speak for herself.  She
+took my part.
+
+I telephoned from here to English at his boarding-house as I had
+agreed.  I still had more than half an hour to the good.
+
+He gave a restrained whoop when he heard my voice.  "You've got her!"
+he cried.  "You're both all right?"
+
+"Right as rain!"
+
+"Ben, you're a wonder!"
+
+At that moment I was quite prepared to believe it.
+
+"How did you manage it?" he asked.
+
+"Can't tell you now.  The game is only starting."
+
+"What am I to do?"
+
+"Go to bed.  Above all keep them from suspecting you.  The whole case
+depends on you now.  I will write you care Dunsany's on Monday."
+
+"Take care of yourself!"
+
+"Same to you!"
+
+Warning the girls to be ready to start for the country in an hour, I
+borrowed a pair of brother-in-law's shoes and returned the taxi to its
+garage.  I then went home and washed and dressed myself in my own
+clothes.  Afterwards I got out my own little car and went back for
+Sadie.  By this time the dawn was breaking.  It was Sunday.
+
+I found Sadie quite her own self again, and flatly rebellious at being
+ordered to give up the game and retire to the country.  In vain I
+explained to her that these people had their backs against the wall
+now, and that our lives were not worth a farthing dip if they ever
+caught sight of us.  Sister was now on my side, not, however, without a
+few back shots at the one who had first got her Sadie into the crooks'
+bad books.  It was not until I said that I was myself going to lie low
+for a while that Sadie gave in.  I'm afraid at that, that her opinion
+of me suffered a fall for the time being.
+
+The dearest girl was furious when she learned that I had almost been
+frightened out of my wits by the message from her they had sent me, so
+much so that I had been prepared to drop the whole case to save her.
+
+"That was what they were after!" she cried.  "I had to write it, of
+course, because she held a pistol to my head.  But I was sure you would
+understand.  If I had thought for a moment that you would let it
+interfere with the case I would have let her shoot."
+
+I shuddered.  One did not know whether to praise or blame such game
+folly.  However, I registered a little vow privately not to let Sadie's
+enthusiasm lead her into danger again.  Meanwhile I hugged her right
+there with sister looking on.  She promptly slapped my face--but not so
+hard as usual.
+
+I took the sisters to that same little sanatorium at Amityville, Long
+Island, where Sadie had been before with Miss Hamerton.  The
+doctor-proprietor was an old friend of mine.  A single warning word to
+him, and I knew they would be as safe as I could guard them myself.
+
+Notwithstanding Sadie's violent objections (she said she had been lured
+to Amityville under false pretenses), I motored right back to town.  I
+did intend to lay off for a day or two but I had to put my office in
+order first.  It was about eight o'clock when I got back to Manhattan.
+I put up my car and had an excellent breakfast.  I thought if I was
+going to be plugged it might as well be on a full stomach.  I did not
+deceive myself as to the risk I ran in visiting my office, but it was
+absolutely necessary for me to secure certain papers and destroy others.
+
+I took a taxi down and ordered the man to wait.  I cleaned everything
+up in case the place should be entered during my absence.  What papers
+I meant to take with me I deposited in a satchel, and took the
+precaution of strapping it to my wrist.  Then I locked up and returned
+down stairs.  I found that my chauffeur had moved away from the doorway
+a little, consequently I was exposed for a moment or two on the
+sidewalk.
+
+It was sufficient.  I heard that deadly little "ping" and
+simultaneously a sound like a slap on bare flesh.  I did not know I was
+hit, but I fell down.  Then a pain like the searing of a hot iron
+passed through my shoulder.
+
+"I'm shot!" I cried involuntarily.
+
+I realised that I was not seriously hurt.  However, I had no mind to
+get up and make myself a target for more.  I made believe to close my
+eyes, and lay still.  My mind worked with a strange clearness.  I saw
+the woman across the street.  She was poorly dressed with a shawl over
+her head, but I recognised the stature and the curves of my antagonist
+of the night before.
+
+The usual gaping crowd gathered.  Nobody had heard the shot but me.
+While all eyes were directed on me the woman coolly walked away across
+the park, tossing the gun into the middle of a bush as she went.  I
+said nothing.  It was no part of my game to have her arrested.
+
+I suspected that the openmouthed crowd surrounding me was full of
+spies, so I made out to be worse hurt than I was, groaning and writhing
+a little.  The wound helped me out by bleeding profusely.  One youth
+with an evil face made to take my satchel as if to relieve me.  The
+strap frustrated his humane purpose.  He was afraid to proceed further
+under that circle of eyes.
+
+Somebody had telephoned for an ambulance, and presently it came
+clanging up with a fresh crowd in its train.  The white clad surgeon
+bent over me.
+
+"I am not badly hurt," I whispered to him, "but please take me away
+quickly out of this mob."
+
+I was carried to Bellevue Hospital where I engaged a private room.  My
+wound, a slight affair, was cauterised--I had in mind the possibility
+of poison, and dressed.  Afterwards I enjoyed my first sleep in
+twenty-four hours.  I had left instructions that no one was to be
+admitted to see me, and that no information regarding my condition was
+to be given out.
+
+By the next day I was quite myself again.  I had already seen the
+reporters, and by the exercise of persuasion and diplomacy had managed
+to keep the affair from being unduly exploited in the papers.  The
+police, good fellows, were hard at work on the case, but they could
+hardly be expected to accomplish anything without the evidence which I
+did not intend to let them have.  The doctors who hate to see any one
+escape out of their hands so easily did their best to persuade me to
+stop a while in the hospital and "rest" but how could I rest with so
+much to do outside?
+
+Having decided that I must leave the hospital, it was a matter of
+considerable concern to me how this was to be effected without exposing
+myself to a fresh danger.  I had received a disguised telephone message
+from English to the effect that they were waiting for me.  I decided to
+confide in the visiting surgeon, an understanding man.
+
+"Sir," I said, "I am a private detective.  I have a gang of crooks
+almost ready to be rounded up.  Knowing it, they are desperate.  That
+is the explanation of the attack on me.  Now the chances are that the
+instant I step outside the hospital I'll stop another bullet.  What
+would you do if you were me?"
+
+"Call on the police," he said, of course.
+
+"I can't do that without exploding my charges prematurely."
+
+As I said, he was an understanding man.  He didn't bother me with a lot
+of questions, but took the case as he found it.  After thinking a
+while, he said:
+
+"How would it do if I had you transferred in an ambulance to my private
+clinic on ---- Street.  You see you'll be loaded on out of sight in the
+hospital yard here, and you will be driven right inside my place to be
+unloaded.  You lie flat in the ambulance and no one can see inside
+without climbing on the step, and a surgeon sits there."
+
+"Fine!" I said.  "You're a man of resource."
+
+He gave the order, and it was so done.  Arrived at his private hospital
+I dressed myself in street clothes, borrowing a coat to replace my
+bloody one, and calling a taxi had myself carried to Oscar Nilson's
+shop.
+
+
+
+
+23
+
+I have mentioned, I believe, that Oscar Nilson was a wig-maker, the
+best in New York.  His little shop on a quiet side street North of
+Madison Square is quaint enough to be the setting of an old-fashioned
+play.  The walls are lined with old cuts of historical personages and
+famous Thespians as historical personages, all with particular
+attention to their hirsute features.  On the counter stands a row of
+forms, each bearing some extraordinary kind of scalp.  Oscar deals in
+make-up as a side line and the air bears the intoxicating odour of
+grease paint and cold cream.
+
+Oscar's business is chiefly with the theatrical profession, but many an
+old beau and fading belle have found out that he knows more about
+restoring youth than the more fashionable beautifiers.  Oscar loves his
+business.  His knowledge, historical, artistic, scientific, is
+immense--but all in terms of human hair.  He can tell you offhand how
+Napoleon wore his in 1803 or any other year of his career, and will
+make you an exact sketch of the toupee ordered by the Duke of
+Wellington when his fell out.
+
+Oscar himself, strangely enough, or perhaps naturally, has next to no
+hair of his own, merely a little mousy fringe above the ears.  He has a
+jolly rubicund face and is held in high affection and esteem by his
+customers.  He flatters me by taking a particular interest in my
+custom.  I am the only one of his clients in the criminal line.
+
+He led me into one of the little cubicles where the trying-on takes
+place, and stood off to observe me from between narrowed lids.
+
+"What will it be now?" he said.  "I was sorry to read of your accident."
+
+"A mere trifle.  What would you suggest?  It must stand sunlight and
+shadow, and be something I can keep up for a while if necessary."
+
+"Let me think!  Your head and face offer a good starting-point for so
+many creations!"
+
+"In other words the Lord left me unfinished," I said, teasingly.
+
+"Not at all!  I meant that in your case there were no awkward
+malformations to be overcome."
+
+From which it will be seen that Oscar is a diplomat.
+
+"What would you say to a South American gentleman?" he asked.  "New
+York is full of them in the summer."
+
+I shook my head.  "No time to bone up a Spanish accent."
+
+"An officer of a liner on shore leave."
+
+"On shore they look like anybody else."
+
+"Well then, how about an Armenian fruit peddler?"
+
+"That would restrict my activities too much.  I must be able to go
+anywhere."
+
+"I see you have an idea of your own," he said.  "What is it?"
+
+"We've used several rough-neck disguises," I said.  "Suppose you fix me
+up as a swell this time.  I have a mind to stop at a fashionable hotel."
+
+"The very thing!" cried Oscar.  "A curled toupee, slightly silvered; a
+wash for the skin to give an interesting pallour; a little touching up
+about the eyes for an expression of world weariness; waxed moustache,
+monocle----"
+
+"Easy!  The burning-glass would give me dead away.  You have to be born
+to that."
+
+"Well you don't have to have the monocle," said Oscar regretfully.
+"But it's very aristocratic.  The costume must be exquisitely
+appointed--it will be expensive----"
+
+"Expense is no object in this case," I said.
+
+He set to work and an hour later I left his shop a changed man.  In the
+event of such a contingency I had already secured from Mr. Dunsany the
+name of his tailor, and I now left him a rush order for several suits.
+Meanwhile I bought the best I could ready made.  I went to the most
+fashionable outfitters and invested heavily.  Until they displayed
+their stock here, I had no idea that men might indulge such extravagant
+tastes.  All this was to be sent to the Hotel Rotterdam where I engaged
+an expensive suite.  I believed that it would be the last place in town
+where the gang would think of looking for me.
+
+I wished to persuade them that I had been scared off.  After having the
+cryptogram receipt photographed, I returned it in a plain envelope to
+Jumbo's flat.  By telephone I instructed Keenan to discharge all the
+operatives, close the Forty-second street office and advertise it for
+rent.  This place had outlived its usefulness.  Jumbo, Foxy, _et al._,
+had proved themselves more than a match for such operatives as could be
+hired.
+
+This done, I went out to Amityville to spend a day with Sadie.  I had
+promised to lay off for a little, and anyway I had to wait until my new
+clothes were done before being seen around town.  After the mad
+excitement of the past few days, we spent a heavenly peaceful interlude
+under the oaks of my friend's big place.
+
+While I was out there an interesting report from my sole remaining
+operative arrived.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF J. M. #10
+
+_June 27th._
+
+As soon as I heard that you and S. F. were all right I went to bed as
+you instructed.  It seemed to me that I had scarcely fallen asleep when
+I was awakened by my landlady at my door to say that a man wanted to
+see me.  It was no more than daybreak then.  Hard upon her knock Jumbo
+entered the room.  I had barely time to pull on my false hair and fix
+it.  Hereafter I shall have to sleep in it.
+
+Jumbo was in a state of no little excitement.  He gave me his version
+of what had happened.  Lorina, having apparently just escaped from her
+room, had called him up about half an hour before.  I am not sure but
+what Jumbo came to me because she had suggested a suspicion of me.
+However, I think it more likely that he just wanted moral support.  He
+was badly frightened.  Jumbo for all his bluff, is not a strong
+character.  He is dependent both on Foxy and on the woman, and now
+seems disposed to lean on me.  If he was suspicious my sleepiness and
+bad-temper upon being awakened must have reassured him.
+
+I dressed and we went right up to the Lexington avenue house.  Being
+Sunday, I had the day to myself.  Mrs. Mansfield had gone out leaving
+word that we were to wait until she came in or telephoned.  The maids
+believed that she had gone to consult the police.  These two were full
+of highly-coloured accounts of the supposed robbery of the night
+before.  The hulking black man, however, was silent and sullen.  He
+knew.  I wonder what you did to him.  I don't think I ever saw a more
+repulsive human creature--or one more powerful.
+
+Foxy arrived shortly after we did.  I am now admitted to terms of the
+closest equality by these two.  The understanding is that each knows
+enough to the discredit of the others to ensure faithfulness all
+around.  We all chafed at the enforced inaction, but dared not go
+against Lorina's instructions.  She is the boss.  The other two half
+expected the police to descend on the house momentarily.
+
+About ten o'clock Mrs. Mansfield returned in a taxi-cab.  This taxi, by
+the way, is her property and the driver is one of the gang.  The woman
+was handsomely dressed without disguise of any kind.
+
+We had a conference in the sitting-room up-stairs.  Mrs. Mansfield gave
+us some further details of the previous night.  As soon as she
+succeeded in breaking out of her room after telephoning to Jumbo and
+Foxy she hastened up to S. F.'s house, also to your place, both of
+which addresses she knew.  She said that she was disguised, so she must
+have some place outside where she changes her clothes.  She found she
+was too late at both places.  You had carried off S. F. in your
+automobile.
+
+Mrs. Mansfield then went down to Fortieth street.  From the park
+opposite, she watched your office for four hours.  You got inside too
+quick for her, she said, but when you came out she spotted you.  Her
+eyes gleamed like a devil's as she said it.  Fancy how my heart went
+down.
+
+She had then changed her clothes and come straight home.  She couldn't
+tell how seriously she had wounded you.  A general prayer went around
+the table that it would be your finish.  She said we should hear
+presently.
+
+She seems to have an unlimited number of men subject to her orders.
+While she waited for you at your office she had sent for several, and
+posted them near.  They mixed in the crowd that surrounded you when you
+fell.  One of them had been instructed to make away with your satchel.
+Another was to follow the ambulance to the hospital.  A third was to
+recover her gun after the excitement was over and return it to her.
+
+The first of these, an evil-looking young blackguard, came in while we
+talked.  He reported no success.  The satchel was strapped to your
+wrist, he said, and when he started to unfasten it the crowd began to
+murmur.  He said that you had been shot in the shoulder, and had been
+carried to Bellevue.  He gave it as his opinion that you were not as
+badly hurt as you made out.  This cheered me greatly.  Bitter
+disappointment was expressed around the table.
+
+Later another of Lorina's men reported by telephone that he had learned
+through an orderly in the hospital that you had suffered only a slight
+flesh wound, and would be able to leave the hospital next day.  On
+hearing this she gave her orders to have every exit from the hospital
+watched.  Instructions were to shoot to kill.  If it can be found out
+in advance what time you are going to leave, she means to be on hand
+herself.
+
+As soon as I could get out without exciting suspicion, I sent you a
+warning by telephone.
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+#11
+
+_June 28th._
+
+To-day I had to go to my work as usual, so I didn't see any of the gang
+until night.  In our present state of excitement and uncertainty we
+have abandoned the Turtle Bay as a meeting place.  I found my partners
+in anything but a good humour.
+
+In the first place they had learned through the friendly orderly that
+in spite of all their measures, you had been safely spirited out of the
+hospital in an ambulance.  It was learned by way of the ambulance
+driver that you had been carried to Dr. ----'s private hospital.  It
+was then too late to do anything.  By the time they got there, you had
+left, and the town had swallowed you up.
+
+The entire strength of the gang, excepting me, has been devoted all day
+to picking up your trail, so far without any success.  They have
+watched all your usual haunts, your flat, your restaurant, S. F.'s home
+and your office on Fortieth street.  Foxy brought in word that the
+International Bureau on Forty-Second street had been closed, and all
+the operatives discharged.  He trailed Keenan, the supposed manager to
+the office of the ---- Railway, where he was re-engaged for his old
+position.
+
+Jumbo came in with the information that the piece of evidence which
+they regarded as of such importance had been returned to him.  I don't
+know what this was.  Lorina, examining it, said that it appeared to
+have the remains of paste on the corners, and that you had probably had
+it photographed.
+
+Foxy gave it as his opinion that you had been scared off.  "We know
+there is no one backing him," said he.  "He has no financial resources.
+He can't keep it up."
+
+Lorina would have none of it.  Her eyes become incandescent with hatred
+when your name is mentioned now.  "Don't you believe it," she snarled.
+"That man will never give up.  I have seen his face and I know!  He's a
+bull-dog.  He will never rest until he has pulled us down, unless we
+stop him with a bullet."
+
+Jumbo became panicky.  His suggestion was for the gang to scatter and
+lie low for the time-being.
+
+Lorina scorned him.  She proceeded to point out to us all just where
+you stood.  She appeared to know as well as you do.  Her insight is
+uncanny.  You have no case, she said, except possibly against Foxy.
+You are too conceited to be satisfied with one.  You will not strike
+until you have a chance of landing the whole gang.
+
+"But how about the kidnapping?" asked Jumbo.
+
+"The police would have been here before this if Enderby wanted to
+proceed on that," she said.  "Why, he watched me walk away after I shot
+him; and never said a word.  No, I tell you he hasn't got the evidence
+yet, and we're safe until he gets it.  He's aiming to make a grand haul
+of the whole gang together, and get his name in the headlines."
+
+The others were considerably impressed.  They asked for instructions.
+
+"We've got to go on just as we are," said Lorina.  "Foxy must keep the
+room on Forty-Ninth street, Jumbo the flat on One Hundredth street, and
+I stay here.  Let everybody go about freely, and meet here as usual,
+that is, all except English.  English mustn't come here again.  Enderby
+isn't on to him yet.  Enderby, if I have the right dope, will lie low
+for a few days and then thinking that we are lulled to security, will
+quietly start to work again.  That's why we must keep our present
+hang-outs.  He's got to come to one of them to pick us up, and then
+we'll have _him_."
+
+This woman is a wonder in her way.  Fortunately, there is one fact that
+spoils all her reasoning--your humble servant.
+
+As we broke up she said a significant thing.  "Lord! the conceit of the
+man, thinking he can break up the gang!  Why if he did land all of us
+it wouldn't make any difference.  He hasn't got within a mile of the
+real boss!"
+
+Being excited she spoke more recklessly than usual.  So it appears that
+our work perhaps is just beginning!
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+
+24
+
+On Wednesday morning I motored to town and took up my residence in the
+Hotel Rotterdam.  I hardly knew myself amidst such grandeur.  For
+several days the situation remained in _status quo_.  I learned from
+English's daily reports that Lorina and her gang were still waiting for
+my first move.  I, for my part, was determined to make them move first.
+
+Only one of his reports gave me anything to do.  I quote from it:
+
+
+"Among all the men who come and go in this den of crooks there is one
+that has particularly excited my interest and compassion.  It is an
+extremely good-looking boy of eighteen or thereabouts whom I know
+simply as Blondy.  He seems so like a normal boy, jolly, frank and
+mischievous, that I keep wondering how he fell into Lorina's clutches.
+He reminds me of my boy Eddie at his age.  Lorina has him thoroughly
+intimidated.  She is more overbearing with him than the others.  He
+seems not to be trusted very far, but is used as errand boy and spy.
+His extreme good looks and ingenuous air, make him valuable to them I
+fancy.
+
+"Blondy's instinct seems to have led him to make friends with me,
+though as far as he knows I am no better than the rest.  At any rate we
+have had a few talks together and feel quite intimate.  Without any
+suggestion from me, he has kept this from the others.  It is quite
+touching.
+
+"I would like very much to get the boy out of this before the grand
+catastrophe.  I'm sure he's worth saving.  Naturally in my position I
+can't undertake any missionary work.  Could you with safety arrange for
+some one to get hold of the boy?  He tells me that he lives at the
+Adelphi Association House, No. ---- West 125th street.  Apparently it
+is a semi-philanthropic club or boarding-house for young men.  He
+passes there by the name of Ralph Manly."
+
+
+I was in almost as unfavorable a position for undertaking "missionary
+work" as Mr. Dunsany.  After thinking the matter over I decided to
+again ask the help of the famous surgeon who had befriended me in the
+hospital.  I called at his office for the ostensible purpose of
+consulting him as to my health.  When I was alone with him in his
+consulting room I made myself known.  Being a human kind of man,
+notwithstanding his eminence, he was interested in the dramatic and
+mysterious elements of my story.  Far from abusing me for taking up his
+valuable time, he expressed himself as very willing to help save the
+boy.
+
+We consulted a directory of charities in his office, and he found that
+he was acquainted with several men on the board of managers of the
+Adelphi Association.  This offered an opening.  He promised to proceed
+with the greatest caution, and promised to write to me at my hotel if
+he had any luck.
+
+Three days later I heard from him as follows:
+
+
+"I took my friend on the Adelphi board partly into my confidence, and
+between him and the doctor employed by the association to safeguard the
+health of the boys, the matter was easily arranged.  The doctor's
+regular weekly visit to the institution fell yesterday.  He saw the
+boy, and making believe to be struck by something in his appearance,
+put him through an examination.  He hinted to the boy that he was in
+rather a bad way, and instructed him to report to my office for advice
+this morning.
+
+"The young fellow showed up in a very sober state of mind.  He is
+really as sound as a dollar, but for the present I am keeping him
+anxious without being too explicit.  He appears to be quite as
+attractive a youth as your friend said.  I am very much interested, but
+am not yet prepared to make up my mind about him.  He is coming
+to-morrow at two-thirty.  If it is convenient for you to be here, I
+will arrange a meeting as if by accident."
+
+
+Needless to say, I was at the doctor's office at the time specified.  I
+found the blonde boy already waiting among other patients in the outer
+office.  It was easy to recognise him from Mr. Dunsany's description.
+He was better than merely good-looking; he had nice eyes.  He was
+dressed a little too showily as is natural to a boy of that age when he
+is allowed to consult his own taste exclusively.
+
+There happened to be a vacant chair beside him and I took it.
+Presently I addressed some friendly commonplace to him.  He responded
+naturally.  Evidently he was accustomed to having people like him.
+Soon we were talking away like old friends.  I was more and more taken
+with him.  Primarily, it was his good looks, of course, the universal
+safe-conduct, but in addition to that I was strongly affected by a
+quality of wistfulness in the boy's glance, of which he himself was
+quite unconscious.  Surely, I said to myself, a boy of his age had no
+business to be carrying around a secret sorrow.  The doctor, issuing
+from his consulting room, saw us hobnobbing together, and allowed us to
+wait until everybody else had been attended to.
+
+He had me into the consulting room first.  "Well, what do you think of
+him?" he asked.
+
+"I am charmed," I said.  "There are no two words about it."
+
+"So was I," he said, "but I didn't want to raise your hopes too high in
+my letter."
+
+After discussing a little what we would do with him, we had the boy in.
+
+"Ralph, my friend, Mr. Boardman, wished to be regularly introduced,"
+said the doctor.
+
+Boardman was the name I had taken in my present disguise.
+
+The boy shook hands nicely, he was neither too bashful, nor too brash,
+and some facetious remarks were made all around.
+
+"I tell Boardman," said the doctor, "that if he had done his duty by
+his country and had had half a dozen sons like you he would have no
+time to be worrying about his appendix now."
+
+"Has your father got half a dozen like you?" I asked.
+
+An expression of pain ran across the boy's face.  "I have no brothers,"
+he said.  "My father is dead."
+
+"Well, since you're a fatherless son, and I'm a sonless father--with an
+appendix, perhaps we can cheer each other up a little," I said.  "Will
+you have dinner with me at my hotel to-night?"
+
+Boys never see anything suspicious in sudden overtures of friendship.
+Ralph accepted, blushing with pleasure.
+
+The dinner was a great success.  I don't know which of us was the
+better entertained.  My young friend's prattle, ingenuous, boastful,
+lightheaded, renewed my own boyhood.  It was rather painful though to
+see one naturally so frank, obliged to pull up when he found himself
+approaching dangerous ground.  Then he would glance at me to see if I
+had noticed anything.
+
+I had him several times after that.  It was a risk, of course, but one
+must take risks.  At the same time I was pretty sure from Mr. Dunsany's
+reports that Ralph never talked of his outside affairs to any of the
+gang.  At least he never told Mr. Dunsany anything about his dinners
+with Mr. Boardman at the Rotterdam, and he was friendly with him.
+
+The dénouement of this incident really belongs a little later in my
+story, but for the sake of continuity I will give it here.
+
+I soon saw that I would have no difficulty in winning Ralph's full
+confidence.  His gratitude for friendliness was very affecting.  I
+could see that he often wished to bare his painful secret.  I let him
+take his own time about it.
+
+It was the doctor's offering him a position in a friend's office that
+brought matters to a head.  Ralph refused it with a painful air.  He
+could give no reason for it to the doctor.  Afterwards when I had him
+alone with me I saw that it was coming.
+
+"That certainly was decent of Dr. ----," he said diffidently.  "I don't
+know why he's so good to me."
+
+"Oh, you're not a bad sort of boy," I said lightly.
+
+"You, too," he said shyly.  "Especially you.  I--I never had a man
+friend before."
+
+I smiled encouragingly.
+
+"I suppose you wonder why I couldn't take the position?" he went on.
+
+"That's your affair."
+
+"But I want to tell you.  I--I wouldn't be allowed to take it.  I am
+not a free agent."
+
+"Perhaps we could help you to be one," I suggested.
+
+"I don't know.  Maybe you wouldn't want to have anything more to do
+with me.  Oh, there's a lot I want to tell you!" he cried imploringly.
+"But I don't know how you'll take it."
+
+"Try me."
+
+"Would you--would you kick me out," he said, agitated and breathless,
+"if you knew that my dad had committed a forgery, if you knew that he
+had died in prison?"
+
+"Why, no," I said calmly, "I suspect you were not responsible for that."
+
+A sigh of relief escaped him.  "You are kind!--But that's only the
+beginning," he went on.  "But I feel I can tell you now.  I'm in an
+awful hole.  I suppose you will think I'm a weak character for not
+trying to get out of it more, and I am weak, but I didn't know what to
+do!"
+
+"Tell me all about it," I said.
+
+And he did; all about Lorina and Foxy and Jumbo as he knew them.  They
+didn't trust him far.  He knew nothing of their actual operations, but
+his honest young heart told him they were crooks.  Lorina held him
+under a spell of terror.  He had not up to this time been able to
+conceive of the idea of escaping her.  There are those who would blame
+the boy, I have no doubt, but I am not one of them.  I have seen too
+often that a mind which may afterwards become strong and self-reliant
+is at Ralph's age fatally subservient to older minds.  Those who would
+blame him should remember that until he met the doctor and me he had
+not a disinterested friend in the world.  They must grant that he
+instantly reacted to kindness and decent feelings.
+
+"How did you first get into this mess?" I asked, strongly curious.
+
+"I'd have to tell you my whole life to explain that."
+
+"Fire away."
+
+I will give you Ralph's story somewhat abridged.
+
+"My mother died when I was a baby," he said.  "I do not remember her.
+My father and I lived alone with servants who were always changing.  We
+did not seem to catch on with people.  I mean, we didn't seem to have
+friends like everybody had.  I thought this was strange when I was
+little.  My father was quite an old man, but we got along pretty well.
+He was what they called a handwriting expert.  He wrote books about
+handwriting.  Lawyers consulted him, and he gave evidence at trials."
+
+"What was his name?" I asked.
+
+"David Andrus."
+
+Now I remembered the trial of David Andrus, so I was in a position to
+check up that part of Ralph's story.
+
+"I was twelve years old," he went on, "when Mrs. Mansfield first began
+coming to our apartment.  I don't know where or how my father met her,
+of course.  He knew her pretty well already when I first saw her.  At
+first she was kind to me, and brought me things, and I was fond of her.
+I told myself we had a friend like anybody else now.  I used to brag
+about her in school.
+
+"Bye and bye I found out, I don't know how, that she was a sham, that
+her kindness meant nothing.  Little by little I began to hate her,
+though I was careful not to let her see it, for I was afraid of her
+cold blue eye.  Besides my father became more and more crazy about her.
+He seemed to lose his good sense as far as she was concerned.  She
+could make him do anything she wanted.  Children see more than they are
+supposed to.
+
+"It is three years now since the crash came.  I was fourteen then.  One
+day my father was arrested and taken to the Tombs.  Mrs. Mansfield took
+me to her house, not the same one she has now.  She treated me all
+right, but I hated her.  Young as I was I held her responsible.  I
+didn't see much of her.  I don't know if you remember the trial----?"
+
+"Something of it," said I.
+
+"The papers were full of it.  I was not allowed to attend, but, of
+course, I got hold of all the papers.  They said that my father had got
+hold of blank stock certificates by corrupting young clerks, and had
+then forged signatures to them and sold them on the stock market.  He
+was sentenced to Sing Sing for seven years.  They took me to see him
+before he was sent away.  He had aged twenty years.  He wasn't able to
+say much to me."
+
+"Mrs. Mansfield told me I must change my name, and sent me to a good
+school in Connecticut.  She paid the bills.  I was pretty happy there,
+though this thing was always hanging over my head.  In the summers I
+was sent away to a boy's camp in the mountains.  Mrs. Mansfield told me
+nobody was allowed to see my father or to write to him and I believed
+her.  So it was the same to me as if he had died.
+
+"One day last winter in school I received a letter signed
+"Well-Wisher," asking me to meet the writer at a certain spot in the
+school woods that afternoon.  Naturally I was excited by the mystery
+and all that.  I was scared, too.  But I went.  I didn't tell anybody."
+
+"I found a queer customer waiting for me.  A man about fifty with
+close-cropped hair.  He told me right off that he was just out of Sing
+Sing.  Why hadn't I ever come to see my dad, he asked.  He said it was
+pitiful the way he pined for me."
+
+"I stammered out that I didn't know anybody could see him.  He told me
+about the visiting days.  'Anyhow you could have written,' he said."
+
+"'He never wrote to me,' I said.
+
+"'Sure, doesn't he write to you every writing day!  He has read me the
+letters.  Elegant letters."
+
+"'I never got them!' I said."
+
+"'That's why I came,' he said.  'Dave said he thought that woman had
+come between you.'"
+
+"The old fellow told me how to address a letter to my father, and he
+gave me money to go to Sing Sing when I could.  I had an allowance from
+Mrs. Mansfield, but not enough for that.  I wrote to my father that
+night."
+
+"It was Easter before I had the chance to see my father.  I made out to
+Mrs. Mansfield that the school closed a day later than it did, and I
+used that day to go to Sing Sing.  My father was in the infirmary.  I
+scarcely recognised him.  They let me stay all day.  Even I could see
+that he was dying."
+
+"For the first time I heard the truth of the case.  It was Mrs.
+Mansfield who had got the certificates out of the young clerks, and had
+brought them to my father to be filled in.  When they were found out
+she carried on so, that he took the whole thing on himself.  He thought
+he might as well, since he had to go to jail anyway, and he knew he
+would die there.  Besides she promised him to have me educated and
+looked after.  He had no one else to leave me with.  At that time he
+still believed in her.
+
+"But in the prison he met men who knew about her of old.  My father was
+not the first she had been the means of landing in jail.  It was then
+my father began to be afraid for me, and managed to send me word.
+
+"He died in April.  Mrs. Mansfield immediately took me out of school.
+She told me my father was dead, and that it was time I went to work.  I
+think she must have learned by her spies that I had been to see my
+father, for she no longer took the trouble to put on a good face.  Now
+it was, do this or that or it will be the worse for you.  When I saw
+how all the other men gave in to her, I was afraid to resist.  I hated
+her, but what could I do?  I had no one to go to.  I had no experience.
+I wasn't sure of myself.  The understanding up there is that Lorina
+could reach you wherever you went.  And if you did anything to cross
+her, look out!  She has spies everywhere!"
+
+"I wonder why she didn't turn you adrift altogether?" I said.
+
+"I think I am useful to them because I look honest," the boy said
+wretchedly.  "I run errands for them, but I never know what it's all
+about."
+
+"Have you ever heard talk up there of a boss greater than Mrs.
+Mansfield?" I asked.
+
+He nodded.  "But only vague talk.  I've never seen him."
+
+"Does she have you watched?" I asked.
+
+"No.  She thinks she has me where she wants me.  But if she suspected
+anything----"
+
+"You mustn't come here again," I said.
+
+His face fell absurdly.
+
+"Oh, I'm not kicking you out," I said smiling.  "I shall keep in touch
+with you.  Would you like to see this woman go to jail?"
+
+"Would I?" he cried, jumping up.  Words failed him.  "Oh--!  Oh, just
+try me, that's all!"
+
+"Well, I'm going to put her there," I said.  "And you shall help me.
+But we must be careful."
+
+
+
+
+25
+
+In the meantime Lorina Mansfield, weary of the inaction I had forced on
+her, or persuaded perhaps that I had dropped the pursuit, boldly
+resumed her designs on Mrs. ----'s diamond necklace.  For convenience'
+sake I shall call this lady Mrs. Levering.  Her real name is one to
+conjure with in America.
+
+Mr. Dunsany or "English" reported that he had been detailed to go to
+Newport on Saturday to spy on the lady, and what should he do about it?
+The plucky gentleman who never hesitated to put himself in danger,
+became uneasy when it was a question of actually committing a crime.
+
+We arranged a chat over the telephone, and I gave him the best reasons
+for going ahead with the scheme.  We had so much to talk over that I
+told him I would go up to New England by a different route, and if he
+was not spied upon he could come to me at Providence early on Sunday
+and we could go over everything.  All the time we had been working
+together we had never exchanged a word face to face in our natural
+characters.
+
+We succeeded in pulling off the meeting.  Mr. Dunsany assured me he had
+not been followed.  We laid out our plan of campaign.  I convinced him
+that the quickest and surest way to land the whole gang would be to
+allow them, even to assist them, to carry out a robbery from start to
+finish.  Let them steal Mrs. Levering's jewels, I said, let them get
+clean away with them.  We'll return them later."
+
+"Suppose some one gets hurt," he said nervously.
+
+"Not likely," I said.  "They play too safe a game.  We will be on our
+guard."
+
+He agreed with me, but said if we fell down on the case he would feel
+obliged to give her another necklace of equal value.  This was a matter
+of $90,000.
+
+"We are not going to fall down on it," I said.
+
+What followed can best be told by Mr. Dunsany's reports.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF J. M. #15
+
+_Newport, Sunday, July 4th._
+
+My patience was rewarded shortly before noon to-day by the sight of
+Mrs. Levering walking to the Casino accompanied by a gallant gentleman
+unknown to me.  She did not notice me, of course.  If I had been in my
+own person I warrant she would not have passed me so indifferently.
+What marvellous faculty is it that enables a lady to know without
+looking at a man whether he is worth looking at?
+
+I soon satisfied myself that she was wearing her veritable diamonds.
+Foolish woman!  When I sold them to her I warned her not to exhibit
+them in public.  At the time there was a lot of gossip about what
+Levering paid me for the necklace, and I suppose every thief in the
+country has it on his list.  But Cora Levering was always
+feather-headed.
+
+I telegraphed to Lorina in the code we had agreed on, and had my dinner
+while I waited for her answer.  It came presently, instructing me to
+meet her in a certain hotel in Providence to-morrow, two-thirty.
+To-morrow being a holiday, I am not expected at Dunsany's.  This means
+that I have to put in a long, empty twenty-four hours here.  The place
+is full of my friends eating and drinking themselves black in the face,
+while I have to stay at a fourth-rate hotel.
+
+To-morrow night there is going to be a great entertainment at
+Fernhurst, one of the palaces on the cliffs.
+
+J.M.
+
+
+
+#16
+
+_Newport, July 5th, 9 P.M._
+
+All is set for the drama to-night, and I am nervously awaiting my cue.
+Heaven knows what the next few hours may bring forth!  When you read
+this it may be up to you to get me out of jail.  If we pull it off all
+right I have no doubt the newspapers will say, as they always do, that
+the robbery gave evidence of long and careful planning, whereas it was
+all fixed up in a few minutes.
+
+I went over to Providence to-day shortly before the hour set by Lorina,
+and found Foxy waiting at the hotel she named.  Lorina herself, he
+said, was in Newport looking over the ground, and would be back
+directly.  It seems that hearing of the affair at Fernhurst they had
+determined to turn the trick the same night.
+
+Lorina came bringing a good-looking, well-dressed young fellow whom she
+introduced to the crowd as Frank.  He was evidently a youngster of the
+fashionable world, one cannot mistake the little earmarks.  He has a
+look of the ---- family; one of the younger sons, maybe, whom drink and
+the devil have done for.  At any rate, he is completely under Lorina's
+thumb like the rest.
+
+Lorina was playing the part of a traveller in books--religious books if
+you please!  She dressed the business woman plain and handsome, and had
+engaged a private sitting-room for the day to show her samples.  There
+was actually a whole trunk full of sample books.  I suppose she passed
+us off as her agents or customers.
+
+She had us all in the sitting-room together.  Besides Frank, Foxy and
+myself, there was a fourth man whom I recognised as her chauffeur.  His
+name is Jim.  She proceeded to lay out her campaign in the most
+matter-of-fact way without wasting a word.  It might have been the
+sales-manager instructing the drummers in the Fall line.  Nobody seemed
+nervous except Frank, who was apparently new at the game.
+
+The entertainment at Fernhurst provided our opportunity.  It appeared
+that Frank was well acquainted with Mrs. Levering, and that by Lorina's
+instructions he had been particularly cultivating her society of late.
+He was to be the decoy.  Furthermore, he drew for us with rather a
+shaky hand, a plan of the house and grounds at Fernhurst, showing the
+location of roads, paths, benches, shrubbery, etc.  Lorina used this
+plan in issuing her instructions.
+
+"Dancing is to begin at nine-thirty," she said, "but all the guests
+will not have arrived until nearly midnight.  So we will fix on
+midnight to turn the trick, or as soon after as possible.  We have
+decided on this bench that I have marked with a cross for the spot.
+Get its position well fixed in your mind, all of you.  It is quite a
+way from the house you see, few, if any, of the dancers will go so far.
+It is off the main paths.  It is near the street fence, but is hidden
+from the street by this dense shrubbery behind it.
+
+"Mrs. Levering has promised Frank the first dance after she arrives.
+He will then make an engagement with her for another dance to fall just
+before midnight as near as he can figure it, and after dancing with her
+the second time will take her out to this bench.
+
+Foxy and English will already be in hiding in the shrubbery behind the
+bench.  Foxy has an invitation to the affair, and he will go in evening
+dress and mix with the guests until he sees Frank dancing with Mrs.
+Levering the second time.  He will then go out of the house and conceal
+himself in the shrubbery.
+
+English will already be waiting there.  English must be there by eleven
+to make sure.  English wears his ordinary clothes, and slips in by the
+service entrance to the grounds, marked on the plan here.  Once inside
+the gates he must make his way under cover to the shrubbery behind the
+bench.  English will carry an old overcoat for Foxy which will be
+provided.  There will be a mask in one side pocket, a cap in the other.
+As soon as you two meet, Foxy will put on the things.
+
+"Now as to the actual trick.  It is perfectly simple.  Frank is keeping
+Mrs. Levering in conversation on the bench.  Foxy sneaks up behind with
+the nippers, cuts the necklace, and tosses it back to English, who
+remains in the bushes.
+
+"The woman will scream, of course.  Foxy will stand up and show
+himself, and run in this direction, that is, towards the house.  Frank
+will take after him for a way, and then go back to the woman.  Foxy
+will double around this shrubbery that conceals the stable entrance.
+As soon as he is out of sight of the woman he will throw off the cap,
+mask and coat, and go back to Mrs. Levering as one of the first
+attracted by her cries.  If she does not cry out, he can mix with the
+crowd in the house until he has a chance to make a getaway.
+
+Meanwhile, English lies quiet in the shrubbery until the excitement has
+passed out of the vicinity.  Then he slips out by the service gate, the
+same way he went in.  Jim will be waiting with the car about five
+hundred feet beyond the service entrance, towards town.  We have been
+over this ground.  There is a big clump of rhododendrons inside the
+sidewalk at this point.
+
+English, without stopping, will toss the necklace inside the car.  But
+if he is pursued he had better drop it among the rhododendrons.  Mind
+you, English, if there's anybody after you, don't make any throwing
+motion with your arm.  If there is a chase Jim can join in it, and help
+English make his getaway.  Later he can return and get the diamonds.
+
+English takes the trolley to Providence, and the owl train back to New
+York.  Jim secretes the diamonds in the secret pocket in the car, and
+waits for Foxy.  If Foxy is pursued, however, he must not lead them to
+the car.  Jim waits until one-thirty.  If Foxy has not arrived, he
+takes the car to the Atlantic garage.  You, Jim, ask them to let you
+sleep in it, see? as you're expecting a call from your master.  Foxy
+can get the car from the garage any time after that."
+
+Lorina went over all this twice.  At the end she consulted her watch.
+"If any of you want to have anything explained, speak up.  I've got to
+catch the four o'clock back to town."
+
+Frank was the only one who had any objection to raise to the
+arrangements.  "Look here," said he, "this will queer me for good with
+that lot, even if they can't fasten anything on me."
+
+Lorina fixed him with her hard blue eye.  "How?" she demanded.
+
+"I used to be known as a runner.  They'll think it funny I wasn't able
+to catch Foxy."
+
+"Catch him then," said Lorina coolly.  "Struggle with him.  He will
+throw you off.  That will let you out, won't it?  Rehearse it now."
+
+It was a grim kind of play.  Everybody took it quite seriously.  A sofa
+was placed to represent the fateful bench.  Lorina and Frank took seats
+on it.  Lorina tied a piece of string around her neck to represent the
+necklace.  Foxy and I crouched in the rear.  Foxy crept forward,
+snipped the string and tossed it back to me.  His implement was a pair
+of heavy nail clippers such as manicures use.  Then as Foxy made off,
+Frank flung himself upon him, they struggled and Frank was thrown to
+the ground.
+
+All this was gone over again and again.  Some buttons were tied on the
+piece of string, so that it would carry when it was thrown back to me.
+Foxy's stage experience proved serviceable.  He acted as director,
+showing Frank how to tackle him, and how to fall without hurting
+himself.  Lorina's depiction of the startled woman was admirable.  The
+whole scene would have been funny if it hadn't been so grim.  None of
+them seemed to be aware of any humour in the proceedings but me.  Jim,
+who did not take part in the scene, acted as critic.  He stood off
+making suggestions.
+
+Finally, Lorina announced that it was only ten minutes to train time,
+and hustled us out.  She said Frank and Foxy might go off by themselves
+and practice if they felt it necessary.  We scattered.  I returned to
+the little hotel in Newport where I had taken a room.  I have not seen
+any of them since.
+
+It is now nine-thirty and I am waiting in my hotel until it is time for
+me to go out to Fernhurst.  I will post this to you on the way, so that
+in case anything happens you will at least be in full possession of our
+plans.  I believe I was not cut out for a life of crime.  It is too
+madly exciting.  As the hour draws close my knees show an inclination
+to knock together, and my teeth to chatter.
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+
+26
+
+REPORT OF J. M. No. 17
+
+_Providence, 1:30 A.M._
+
+When I got to the service gate of Fernhurst I found it guarded by two
+men, detectives unmistakably.  This was disconcerting.  I passed on.
+They bored me through with their gimlet eyes and I broke out in a
+gentle sweat all over.  Presently, however, I realised it was but their
+professional manner of looking at anybody who was not well dressed, and
+I calmed down.
+
+It filled me with a kind of terror to think that I might be prevented
+from carrying out my part of the evening's entertainment, so you will
+see I was well worked up to it by this time.  I went around the block
+and prepared to try again.  On my way towards the service gate I had
+the luck to fall in with a crowd of waiters clearly bound for the show
+and it was no trouble at all to mix in with them.  My make-up was of
+the same general style as theirs.  We passed through the gate without
+question.
+
+Once inside I began to lag behind the bunch, and presently slipped away
+in the darkness.  I reached my specified hiding-place in the shrubbery
+behind the bench without further adventure.  The place had been so
+carefully mapped, there was no possibility of mistaking it.
+
+I had to wait over an hour for Foxy.  It was not a pleasant time.
+Lorina's plan seemed perfect, but you never can tell.  And my
+inexperience in this line was such that I didn't feel overmuch
+confidence in myself should an emergency arise.  Not far behind me I
+could hear the steady procession of motors bringing guests to the
+party.  In the distance I could hear the music.  They had picked their
+spot well.  In all that time no one passed that way.
+
+In the end Foxy's coming gave me a great start.  Creeping through the
+bushes without the rustle of a leaf, he was beside me before I heard
+him coming.  He was dressed in the height of fashion.  I caught a gleam
+of a monocle dangling against his white waistcoat.  I silently passed
+him over the coat I had brought, and standing in a little open space,
+he put it on together with the cap and mask.  Then we crouched down
+side by side under the leaves, with the back of the bench in plain view
+before us.  Foxy laid the nippers on the ground ready to his hand.  We
+did not speak to each other.
+
+Bye and bye we heard voices approaching, and my poor heart set up a
+tremendous how-de-do.  On the other hand something told me Foxy was
+enjoying it.  Mrs. Levering and the young man called Frank came
+strolling dimly into view.  I was nearly suffocating with excitement.
+
+"This is the place," Frank said.
+
+"How cosy!" she sang.
+
+"Shall we sit down?" he suggested.
+
+"Let's!" said she.  "I'll have a cigarette."
+
+They sat.  Frank presently struck a match.  If she had looked over her
+shoulder she would have seen the glare faintly reflected from our white
+faces.  I stole a look at Foxy's ratlike profile.  He had shoved up the
+mask.  His teeth were bared.  He was amused at the prospect of a little
+scandalous eavesdropping.  Merciful Heavens! what a face!
+
+I need not report the further conversation of the two on the bench.  It
+was merely silly.  Frank's voice was trembling.  I suppose she ascribed
+that to the violence of his feelings for her.  She is a fool.
+
+Foxy gave them a good while to their talk.  Meanwhile I suffered
+agonies of suspense, and Frank no doubt worse.  I at least could see
+when the blow was going to fall, but he could not.  Not until Mrs.
+Levering said she must go back, but not really meaning it yet, did Foxy
+pull down the mask and creep forward.  I held my breath.
+
+It seemed as if it were all accomplished in a single movement.  Foxy
+rose to his knees behind the woman, snipped the shining thing around
+her neck--and there it was lying at my knees.  I mechanically dropped
+it in my pocket.
+
+She did not scream.  In that, at least, she showed blood.  "My
+necklace!" she gasped, jumping up, hand to throat.  "Gone!"
+
+In Frank's little choking cry one heard the snapping of the frightful
+tension he had been under.
+
+Foxy, bent almost double, started up from behind the bench, and headed
+diagonally across the path.  Another gasping cry, not loud, broke from
+the woman.  "There he is!"
+
+Frank flung himself on the back of the runner, and they rolled over on
+the ground, all exactly as I had seen it rehearsed a dozen times in the
+hotel room.  They sprang up, grappled, swayed and finally Frank was
+flung with apparently great violence to the ground.  Foxy disappeared.
+
+Frank struggled to his feet, seemingly hurt.  He attempted to stagger
+in the direction the fugitive had taken, but Mrs. Levering clung to
+him.  One may suppose he was not sorry to be prevented.
+
+At this moment the tragic-farce was interrupted by the entrance of an
+actor not on the bill.  This was a man with an electric flash, a
+detective to all appearances.  I suppose they had them posted about the
+grounds, and this man had heard the disturbance, slight though it was.
+The flash terrified me.  I softly and precipitately retired under the
+leaves into the thickest of the shrubbery.
+
+"I have been robbed!" I heard Mrs. Levering gasp.  "My diamond
+necklace!  He came from there.  He went that way."
+
+The detective threw his light around.  Fortunately for me I had put a
+screen of leaves in front of me.  I was not disposed to linger in the
+neighbourhood.  I ran along close to the fence where there was a narrow
+open space.  As I passed out of hearing, I heard others come running
+up.  Excitement runs like electricity.  I had no doubt that Foxy in
+immaculate evening dress, was among the first to reach the scene.  I
+took care to survey the service gate from a discreet distance before
+presenting myself there.  It was well that I did so.  I saw that it was
+closed, and the two men still on guard.  Not knowing at what instant an
+alarm might be raised behind me, I dared not apply to them with any
+tale however ingenious.  Those diamonds were red hot in my pocket.  On
+the other hand, I would have to retrace my steps nearly a quarter of a
+mile to reach the main entrance, and I was not suitably dressed to be
+seen there.  I could not climb the fence at any point, for it was a
+smooth, high iron affair, moreover, the street outside was brightly
+lighted.  I knew nothing about the cliff side of the grounds.
+
+For a moment or two I felt decidedly panicky.  Before my mind's eye
+headlines in the next day's papers were vividly emblazoned:
+
+  "WELL-KNOWN JEWELLER STEALS THE
+  DIAMONDS HE SOLD"
+
+or something like that.  Finally I recollected that the road to the
+service entrance of Fernhurst ran quite close to the boundary of the
+next estate.  I determined to try that way.
+
+To reach the boundary I was obliged to make a long detour.  Still there
+were no sounds behind me to indicate that an alarm had been raised, at
+any rate a public alarm.  The line between the two estates was marked
+by a thorn hedge and a wire fence.  Choosing a dark spot I managed to
+struggle through without receiving any serious damage.  I finally
+gained the street through the service gate of this place.
+
+This brought me out beyond the point where Jim was to be stationed with
+the motor car, and I had to retrace my steps.  The car was in the
+appointed spot.  Jim was on the front seat with his head craned in the
+other direction whence he expected me.  I gave him a little signal.  He
+was much troubled to see me come from that way thinking the plan had
+fallen through, but was reassured no doubt by the fall of the necklace
+on the floor of his car.  I was thankful to be rid of the cursed thing.
+
+There were several cars standing across the street, with their
+chauffeurs chatting together, and I was afraid of attracting attention
+to myself or to Jim by turning back at that moment.  I kept on.  I was
+startled half out of my wits when a motor patrol wagon full of police
+came flying up the street past me.  It turned in at the service gate of
+Fernhurst ahead.  Since I was travelling in that direction I had to
+keep on.
+
+A man stepped out as I approached.  Seizing my shoulder he swung me
+half around so that the light fell on my face.  "What are you doing
+here?" he demanded.
+
+I thought it was all up with me.  "I just wanted to have a look at the
+swells," I stammered.
+
+Another man joined him.  "Hold this guy," said the first.  While the
+second man kept a hand twisted in my collar, the first one frisked me
+expeditiously.  I had taken care, of course, not to have anything on
+me.  But the side pocket of my coat was still hot from the diamonds.
+
+Finding nothing the man growled an order for my release.  The second
+man spun me around, and propelled me towards town with a shove.  "Get
+the H---- out of here!" said he.
+
+And I did.
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+
+27
+
+REPORT OF J. M. No. 18
+
+_New York, July 6th, Midnight._
+
+I have just returned from a celebration up at Lorina's house.
+Everybody made a clean get-away last night, and the diamonds are safe
+in Lorina's desk, so the gang made merry.  The newspaper stories of the
+affair caused us the greatest amusement.  The police, as you have seen,
+are very wide of the mark.  Of us all, only Frank has fallen under
+suspicion.  It appears that I was right in my guess as to his identity.
+The affair will ruin him socially, though it is not likely to lead to
+his arrest.  I can't say that I feel sorry for the youth.  Of all the
+parts in this sordid drama, Frank, the decoy played the most
+contemptible.
+
+In the general loosening of tongues to-night I have some rather
+interesting matter to report.  When I arrived at the house all the gang
+except Lorina were in the dining-room.  Spencer, the negro, told me she
+was up in the office, so I went up-stairs to make my report.  The
+office door was open a crack, and as I was about to knock I heard
+Lorina's voice within.  She was talking over the telephone.  The first
+sound of her voice froze me where I stood in astonishment.  The tone
+was that of a woman distracted by love and longing.  Think of it,
+Lorina!
+
+I heard her say: "I'll do anything you tell me.  But I want to see you.
+I must see you sometimes, dearie.  What is the use of all this working
+and worrying, what am I doing it for if you never even let me see you?
+I can't stand it.  I can't go on.  I _won't_ stand it!"
+
+Do you wonder that I was amazed?
+
+There was a silence, and she went on in a broken, humbled tone: "No--I
+didn't mean that.  I will obey you.  You always know best.  But don't
+be so hard on me.  Please, dearie, _please_----!"
+
+At this point Foxy came running up-stairs.  I was caught rather
+awkwardly.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
+
+"I came up-stairs to report to Mrs. Mansfield," I said, "but I don't
+like to disturb her.  She seems to be having a private conversation."
+
+He listened at the door for a moment, then pulled me away.
+
+"Beat it!" said he.  "She's talking to the boss.  She'd kill us if she
+found us here."
+
+One other thing that I had heard Lorina say was: "Then I'll keep the
+coal here, until I hear from you again."
+
+"Coal" or "white coal" is their slang for diamonds, so I suppose she
+meant the necklace.
+
+I returned down-stairs full of speculations regarding this wonderful
+and mysterious "boss."  What kind of man must he be, thus to bring the
+imperious Lorina who commands us like slaves, to her knees?
+
+Frank was not present at the party in the dining-room.  He is not a
+regular member of the gang.  Besides Foxy, Jumbo, Jim the chauffeur and
+myself, there were several of the younger fellows, but not Blondy, I am
+glad to say, for I should not like to see that nice boy drinking.
+Lorina appeared only once or twice and then but for a moment.  The
+lady's gaiety was forced.  However, she was liberal in her hospitality.
+Champagne flowed like water.
+
+Jumbo got very drunk and even Foxy drank enough to make him indiscreet.
+It was then that interesting ancient history was retold.  It would
+astonish you to see Foxy at such moments.  There is nothing about him
+of the dull, prosy bore that he ordinarily affects.
+
+Jumbo was toasting him with maudlin praise.  "Drink to Foxy, fellows!"
+he cried.  "There's the lad that brings home the bacon!  The slickest,
+smoothest article of them all!"
+
+Foxy took it as no more than his due.
+
+"Say, Foxy," asked another admirer, "what was the hardest trick you
+ever turned?"
+
+Naturally I have to let others ask these questions.  Curiosity on my
+part would be prejudicial to my health.  I am on the _qui vive_ for the
+replies, though.
+
+"Oh, six months ago, when I lifted an actress' pearls," drawled Foxy.
+
+Fancy how I pricked up my ears.
+
+"Tell us about it," said the same youngster.
+
+All the young ones sit at Foxy's feet, you understand.
+
+Foxy was nothing loath.  "Elegant pearls," he said reminiscently, "blue
+pearls, they called them, though I couldn't see the blue.  But fine and
+choice!  It was a long operation.  I had to take a job acting in her
+company a couple of months beforehand.  You see she kept the real
+pearls in a safety deposit box, and wore a phony string, which added to
+our difficulties.  First I had to persuade her to wear the real pearls
+one night."
+
+"How did you do that?" somebody asked.
+
+"I egged on the leading man to make a bet with her that he could tell
+the real from the phony."
+
+"Was he in with you?"
+
+"No, indeed.  Innocent as a lamb.  He didn't know that I put the idea
+in his mind."
+
+"Foxy is a wonder to manage!" put in Jumbo.
+
+"After the bet was made, we had the actress trailed every day until she
+went to the bank and got out her pearls.  Then we knew she would wear
+them that night.  She wore them in the first act.  In the second she
+had on a nurse's costume, and had to leave them off.  My next job was
+to get her maid out of the dressing-room during the second act.  I
+managed this by having it gossiped around the company that the star was
+going to introduce some new business that night, and so the maid went
+out to look on, see?  So I went in her dressing-room----"
+
+"How did you get in?" asked some one.
+
+"Walked in straight as if I had a good right to.  There was no other
+way.  I frisked the room, but could only find one string of pearls.
+You see, I counted on two, the phony and the real.  I couldn't tell
+which was which.  I had arranged to have a fellow who was in with us, a
+pearl expert call on me between the acts.  I saw him at the stage door,
+and showed him the string I had.  He said they were phony.  So I had to
+do it all over.
+
+"During the third act, however, luck was with me.  The actress' maid
+not having seen anything new in the second act left the dressing-room
+of her own accord to watch the scene.  I went in again.  This time I
+found the real thing in a pocket of the petticoat she had worn in the
+second act.  I left the phony string in its place.
+
+"And they never got on to you!" said his admirer.
+
+"Nah!  That was where Enderby came in.  He fixed the crime on the young
+leading man and broke up the show.  Lord!  I laughed.  It let me out,
+too.  I was sick of the fool business of acting every night.  It wasn't
+till lately that Enderby got it in his head that he'd made a mistake.
+It's too late now.  The pearls have been sold and the swag divided."
+
+Jumbo took a hand in the tale at this point.  "Let me tell you the joke
+about selling the pearls," said he.  "Me and slim Foley set up an
+elegant office on Maiden Lane, with stenographers and office boys and
+all, everything swell.  We were brokers in precious stones, see?  We
+sent out decoy letters to the leading man Foxy mentioned, and I'm blest
+if we didn't sell him the string of pearls back again.  Then he gave
+them to the actress, the fool, and she fired him and bust up the
+company."
+
+"But I don't understand," said the young fellow, "what did you want to
+sell them to him for?  Risky business I should say."
+
+"Don't ask me," said Jumbo with a shrug.  "Orders from higher up."
+
+This suggests a new line of thought, doesn't it?
+
+During one of Lorina's brief visits to the dining-room, she was pleased
+to commend me for my work last night.  She asked me to come to her
+down-town office to-morrow afternoon as soon as I finished work.  I
+enclose the card she gave me with her address.*  Subtle irony, eh?
+
+
+* The card enclosed by Mr. Dunsany read:
+
+  THE EARNEST WORKERS PUBLISHING CO.,
+  No. -- Fifth Avenue, New York.
+  Mrs. Lorina Mansfield, Manager.
+
+
+To-morrow night I'll report on what happens there.
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+J. M. #19
+
+_New York, July 7th._
+
+The number on Fifth avenue given me was not a great distance from
+Dunsany's and I was there by 5:15 this afternoon.  It is one of the
+older office buildings and is filled with the most respectable tenants,
+mostly firms engaged in some form of religious business: publishers,
+mission boards, church supplies, etc.  It is amusing to think of Lorina
+in such company.
+
+Lorina's office, of course, was no whit less respectable in appearance
+than a hundred others in the building.  There was a respectable elderly
+stenographer, a subdued office boy, and Lorina herself playing her part
+of the saleswoman of religious literature in a starched shirt waist.
+She waved me to a seat beside her desk, and started right in to sell me
+a consignment of tracts.  I confess I was a bit dazed by the scene.
+
+At five-thirty the respectable stenographer and the subdued office-boy
+asked her humbly if she desired them any further, and upon receiving a
+negative departed.
+
+When the door closed behind them Lorina yawned, stretched, and swore
+softly--to take the religious taste out of her mouth, I suppose.  I
+laughed, but she didn't like it.  I have discovered that laughter makes
+these people uneasy.
+
+"Cut it out!" she said frowning.
+
+I apologised.
+
+"English," she said, "Jumbo told me that you would be glad to get a
+little extra work as a diamond expert."
+
+I nodded, wondering what was coming next.
+
+"There's a friend of mine a jewel-broker next door," she went on,
+nodding towards the adjoining room.  "His business is so full of risks
+from thieves, you know, that he decided the best way to fool them would
+be to take an humble little office in this building without so much as
+an extra lock on the door to give warning."
+
+Lorina only handed out this line of talk to save her face.  I was not
+expected to believe it.  These people are never frank with each other,
+even when there's nothing to be gained by bluffing.  It is only when
+the men have been drinking that things are called by their right names.
+
+"My friend needs an assistant, a diamond expert," Lorina continued.
+"For a couple of months now, he's been at his wit's end to find a man
+he could trust.  Jumbo said you were just the man for the job so I
+recommended you, and my friend told me to bring you around."
+
+I nodded sagely to all this palaver.  "Am I to give up my job at
+Dunsany's?" I asked, hoping that the answer would be in the affirmative.
+
+"No," she said.  "That's a good thing, too.  This new job will only
+take an hour or two in the evenings and on Saturday afternoons."
+
+She arose and tapped in a peculiar way on the door that led into the
+adjoining office.  Some one got up within, and unlocked and opened it.
+Fortunately as a result of all that has happened during the past few
+weeks I have my nerves under strict control, for I got a shock.  There
+stood Freer, the missing ex-head of my pearl department!
+
+We were introduced.  Freer saw nothing suspicious in my aspect.  There
+was a lot of palaver which I will not tire you with.  The upshot of it
+was that I was engaged to assist my late assistant at a handsome
+salary.  For the present I was to work from 5:15 to 6:30 every evening,
+as well as Saturday afternoons, and Sunday mornings if necessary.
+
+"I do not like to work late at night," said Freer nervously.  "It
+attracts attention."
+
+Freer undertook then and there to explain my duties.  "My work is with
+the pearls," he said, "and the diamond end of the business has been
+neglected since I lost my last assistant two months ago."
+
+"He died," remarked Lorina with a peculiar look at me.
+
+I got her meaning.
+
+Against one wall of Freer's office was a large letter file with drawers
+that pulled out, and a shutter to pull down over the whole at night,
+and lock.  It was built entirely of steel as the modern custom is.
+Freer pulled out one of the drawers but instead of letters inside, my
+amazed eyes beheld a heap of gleaming diamond jewelry.  There were
+necklaces, dog-collars, lavallieres, pins, bracelets, rings.  I
+wondered if the thirty-odd remaining drawers were filled with like
+treasures, and made a breathless mental computation of their
+value--millions!  It was a modern burlesque of the scene in Aladdin's
+cave!
+
+Freer, referring to the drawer he held open said: "These are
+consignments of diamonds lately received, which I have not had the time
+to inventory.  You see each article is tagged with a number.  You are
+to take them in numerical order, enter a careful description and
+valuation in a journal, then demount the stones, weigh them, grade them
+and put them in stock."
+
+He opened several other drawers which contained princely treasures of
+unset diamonds lying on white cotton.  They were carefully graded
+according to size, colour, quality.  Here apparently is the loot of
+years past.  I could not begin to give any estimate of its value.  I
+have not seen the pearls yet.
+
+"The other part of your work," Freer went on, "will be to fill the
+orders for diamonds that are received."  He showed me several order
+slips, evidently from the phraseology, made out by experienced
+jewellers, but bearing no shipping directions.
+
+"Am I to send these orders out?" I asked with a simple air.
+
+He shook his head.  "Enter the orders in the order book, fill them from
+stock, and turn them over to me."
+
+"Mind you do not carry your work to the window," put in Lorina sharply.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"Mind you do not leave anything about at night," added Freer, "no
+tools, no papers.  The women come in here to clean after we are gone."
+
+He showed me where the tools of my trade were kept.  In addition to
+everything else needful, in a locked cabinet there is a beautiful
+little electric crucible for melting down gold and platinum.
+
+I immediately set to work under the eyes of Lorina and Freer.
+
+You can imagine in what excitement I now write this.  Our work is
+done!--or almost done, for we have not yet got a line on that
+mysterious and terrible "boss."  For a moment I thought it might be
+Freer, but he is as subservient to Lorina as the rest.  Man!  Man!
+What a haul we shall make--if there is no slip!  We must do our best of
+course to ensure complete success, but I beg of you not to risk too far
+what we have in our grasp, in the hope of getting more.  I confess I am
+a little scared by the magnitude of the developments to-day.  Do not
+wait too long before delivering your master stroke!
+
+J. M.
+
+
+
+
+28
+
+To resume my own part in these matters, you can conceive what a great
+responsibility devolved upon me in the light of these two last reports.
+I did not have to have Mr. Dunsany remind me of it.  I was like a
+player in a close game who holds the best card.  The question was when
+to play it.  One may easily hold one's trumps too long.  Still I could
+not bear to show my hand without the assurance of taking the king,
+i.e., the "boss."
+
+So I still held off, though the tension was frightful, particularly on
+poor Dunsany.  In every subsequent report he begged me to strike, and
+take our chance of getting our man through the disclosures sure to be
+made in the general crash.  There was more up on this game than cards
+were ever played for.
+
+In the meantime I was straining every nerve to pick up a clue to the
+"boss."  I knew that we must get him in the end if we could hold off
+long enough.  I arranged a meeting with the boy Blondy, and
+cross-examined him for hours.  The poor youngster was only too anxious
+to tell me what he knew, but he could not help me.
+
+He said that Lorina never sent any of the men to the boss.  All
+communications between them were made without the aid of a third party.
+Some of the men, he said, affected to believe that the boss was a myth
+invented by Lorina to keep them in awe.  I had, however, good reason in
+my reports to know that the boss was a real man.
+
+I put the most skilful woman operative I could procure on Lorina's
+trail.  It appeared, however, from her first report that Lorina was
+instantly aware of being watched, and fooled the operative at her
+pleasure.  Thus she became a danger to me instead of a help, since
+Lorina with her infernal cleverness might very easily have found a way
+to intercept our communications.  So I discharged the operative two
+days after I hired her.
+
+In justice to Mr. Dunsany, who hourly ran such a terrible risk, I now
+took the police into my confidence.  The chief of the detective bureau
+at this time was Lanman, a man I had always respected for his contempt
+of spectacular methods and his strong sense.  I went to see him.
+
+He did not know me, of course.  He listened to my story with an
+incredulous grin.  He has an aspect as grim and forbidding as a granite
+cliff.  But as I piled up my evidence, and read from Mr. Dunsany's
+report, I shook the cliff.  I had the satisfaction of seeing the
+granite betray excitement.
+
+When I was done he was convinced.  He was frankly envious of my luck in
+obtaining such a case, and of my success with it, but he showed a
+disposition to play absolutely fair.  I had been afraid that he might
+try to rob me of the fruits of my success with the public.
+
+Lanman agreed that it was best to hold off for a day or two longer in
+the hope of getting the "boss."  In the meantime he secured a room at #
+-- Fifth avenue on the same floor where Lorina had her offices, and
+there every day during the hours while Mr. Dunsany was at work, waited
+six men within call.  We next secured quarters in the little hotel
+three doors from Lorina's house, and every night ten of Lanman's men
+were domiciled there.  Signals were agreed on in case of need.
+
+Matters stood thus at the end of the week whose beginning had witnessed
+the Newport robbery.  On Friday morning Irma Hamerton came to town
+again.  I witnessed her arrival in the lobby of the Rotterdam, which
+you will remember was her hotel before it had been mine.  Every one sat
+up and stared.  She was as lovely as only herself, but I thought,
+looked harassed.  Mount was attending her like a shadow, smoother, more
+elegant and more complacent than ever.
+
+With a fanciful, sentimental feeling I had engaged rooms on the same
+floor of the hotel as Irma's.  Her suite was rented by the year.
+During the morning as I went to and fro in the corridor of the eleventh
+floor, I could not help but notice an unusual stir in the neighbourhood
+of Irma's rooms.  Messengers were flying, packages arriving, and the
+switchboard busy.
+
+There is a telephone switchboard on each floor of the Rotterdam,
+opposite the elevators.  In addition to answering the calls, the
+operator is supposed to keep an eye on things generally.  While I was
+waiting for the elevator I asked the girl on our floor what was the
+cause of the excitement.  She said she didn't know, but said it with a
+simper and a toss of the head that added to my uneasiness.  Downstairs
+I asked the clerk with whom I was on friendly terms, but with no better
+success.
+
+While I was hanging around the lobby, Irma and Mount came down.  They
+took a taxi at the door.  Following a sudden impulse I engaged the next
+in line, and ordered the driver to follow them.  They led me through
+the maze of down-town traffic direct to the Municipal Building.  They
+disappeared in the bureau of Marriage Licenses, and my worst fears were
+confirmed.
+
+This time I determined to act without consulting my passionate,
+headstrong friend.  I hastened back to the hotel.  I had evidence that
+the ceremony was to be performed there, most likely the same afternoon.
+I wrote Irma a note begging her to see me privately on a matter of the
+greatest importance.  I signed it with my assumed name Boardman, but I
+had worded it in such a way that she would know it was from me.
+Moreover she knew my handwriting.  I sent it to her room in advance of
+her return.  There was a chance of course that some one else might open
+it, but I knew she made a general practice of opening her own letters.
+
+A little before two o'clock, I got a summons and hastened to her suite.
+She started back dubiously at the sight of me, but I soon identified
+myself.  She was alone.  The room was filled with orange blossoms.  The
+scent sickened me.
+
+"Where is Mr. Mount?" I asked.
+
+"I sent him away for an hour," she answered, blushing.
+
+"Are we quite alone?"
+
+"Bella and Marie are in my bedroom.  That is two rooms away."
+
+Bella was Mrs. Bleecker; Marie her maid.
+
+"Laying out your wedding-dress, I suppose," said I.
+
+She started and blushed deeply.  "You know?" she murmured.
+
+"Is it a secret?"
+
+"Not from you.  I didn't know where to reach you by phone."
+
+There was a somewhat painful silence.  I did not feel inclined to make
+things easy for her.
+
+"Aren't you--aren't you going to congratulate me?" she murmured at last.
+
+"No," I said bluntly.
+
+She looked at me full of surprise and pain, like a hurt child, but I
+was hurt, too, and impenitent.
+
+"Oh, Irma, how could you?" I cried at last.  It was the first time I
+had ever addressed her so.  At the moment neither of us noticed it.
+
+My question confused her.  "I--I don't know," was her strange answer.
+
+Presently she recovered herself somewhat.  "Why shouldn't I?" she
+demanded, showing fight.
+
+I shrugged.  "I don't know.  I have no reasons.  You should be guided
+by your instinct."
+
+"He is good to me," she said defiantly.
+
+"Naturally, he sees his interest."
+
+I can't remember all that was said on both sides.  The conversation was
+sufficiently painful.  She was no match for me.  Finally she began to
+tremble.
+
+"Why did you leave me?" she faltered.  "I asked you to help me.  You
+have avoided me all these weeks.  I needed you.  It's cruel and useless
+for you to come now, when it is too late and--and----"
+
+"I have been working for you!" I cried.  "I thought I could trust your
+instinct."
+
+"I had no intention of marrying at first," she said.  "You saw a while
+ago what was coming.  Why didn't you speak then if you had anything to
+say.  It's too late now."
+
+"It's never too late if you have a doubt," I cried.
+
+"But he--Alfred will be here at four," she stammered, "and the
+clergyman--and my friends----"
+
+"Let Alfred go away again," I said coolly.
+
+Her eyes widened like a frightened child's.  "I dare not!" she
+whispered.  "You don't know!  He is a terrible man!"
+
+"I'll back you up," I said.
+
+"No!  No!" she cried.  "I will not!  I cannot!  Please go!"
+
+I took a new tack.
+
+"Why don't you ask me the result of my work the last few weeks?" I
+asked.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+I had brought for the purpose, that report of Mr. Dunsany's in which
+Foxy had told how the theft of Irma's pearls had been accomplished.  I
+explained to Irma how this report had been secured, and then I read it
+to her.  Joy and horror struggled together in her face.
+
+"You knew this long ago!" she cried accusingly.  "Why didn't you tell
+me before?"
+
+"Roland forbade it.  I am breaking my word to him in telling you now."
+
+"He no longer cares then what I think!"
+
+I shrugged.
+
+She walked up and down the room like one distraught.
+
+"Knowing that Roland is innocent would you dare to marry Mount?" I
+asked.
+
+"It is too late!" she cried.
+
+At this moment we were warned by a sound in the next room to pull
+ourselves together.  The door opened and Mrs. Bleecker's fawning
+countenance appeared in the opening.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," she said, cringing.  "I didn't know you were
+still engaged."  She did not withdraw, however, but favoured me with a
+good, long stare.
+
+I never saw the gentle Irma so angry.  "Leave the room!" she commanded.
+"I told you I was not to be disturbed!"
+
+If she had always taken the same tone with that woman it would have
+been better for her.  Mrs. Bleecker precipitately retired.
+
+Irma continued to pace the floor.  "What shall I do?" she murmured,
+twisting her hands together.  "I have not the strength to face him out."
+
+"Don't try," I suggested.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Beat it," I said in homely slang.
+
+A gleam of light, of mischief appeared in her tortured face.  "But
+how?--where?  Will you go with me?" she cried breathlessly.  "What will
+I do about the women here?  What explanation shall I make?"
+
+"One thing at a time!" I protested.  "Make no explanation.  You are
+your own mistress.  If you like you can leave Alfred a note saying you
+have changed your mind.  As to the women----"
+
+"I can trust Marie."
+
+"Very well.  Send Mrs. Bleecker out on an errand.  No trouble to invent
+an errand at this juncture.  You can be gone when she returns."
+
+"Will you come with me?"
+
+I shook my head.  "Matters are rapidly approaching a crisis," I said.
+"I must stay on the job."
+
+"But where will I go?"
+
+"That's up to you.  I can only offer a suggestion----"
+
+"Yes!  Yes!  Don't tease me."
+
+"You have a difficult time ahead of you.  I think you need a man's
+support."
+
+A crimson tide swept up from her neck.
+
+"I would put on my oldest and plainest suit," I went on wickedly, "and
+go register at some quiet little hotel, the last place they would think
+of looking for you.  I will give you the name of such a place.  At
+five-thirty this afternoon I would go to a certain horrible cheap
+little restaurant known as the American café, which is on Third avenue
+near Sixteenth street.  Half-past five remember, and just see what
+happens."
+
+"If you would only come with me--I mean as far as the door," she
+murmured in confusion.
+
+"Too risky," I said.  "Mind I do not guarantee anything in any event.
+It's up to you.  A certain young friend of ours has the pride of
+Lucifer, and you have made a ghastly wound in it.  You will have to
+humble yourself shockingly."
+
+In her present mood I saw she was quite ready to do that.
+
+"This is what I'm counting on," I went on.  "Pride is pretty poor fare.
+Let him act as high and mighty as he likes, he's really starving for
+all that makes life worth living.  The unexpected sight of you ought to
+be like a feast to his eyes.  I'm hoping he'll fall to, before his
+damnable pride has a chance to bring up reserves.  One thing more.  If
+anything prevents him from supping there as usual, he lives at # --
+East Seventeenth street."
+
+"Are you sure he loves me still?" she whispered.
+
+"Not at all sure," I said coolly.  "You'll have to go and find out.  If
+you've lost him, you've lost a lover that was worth a woman's while."
+
+
+
+
+29
+
+After I had seen Irma safely out of the Rotterdam (I thought she looked
+more adorable in her plain black dress and modest hat than in all her
+finery), I went back to my own rooms in the hotel.  I was expecting a
+telephone report from a man whom I had sent to pick up what he could at
+the garage where Lorina stored her car.  Meanwhile I gave myself up to
+the joy of picturing Mrs. Bleecker's dismay when she returned from her
+hypothetical errand, and Mount's black rage when he dropped in at four
+to be married and found himself minus a bride.  I had always suspected
+that Mount concealed tigerish tendencies under his too-smooth exterior.
+
+By and by my telephone did ring, but it was not the man I expected.  An
+agitated young voice hailed me over the wire, which I had some
+difficulty in recognising as Blondy's.  He was so excited I could not
+make head or tail of his message.  When I got him straightened out it
+ran something like this:
+
+"I have just been at Mrs. Mansfield's office, I mean the down-town
+office.  She told me last night to come to-day as she had a package to
+be taken to a man at the Hotel Madagascar.  I was sitting beside her
+desk and she was writing a letter to go with the package, when the
+telephone bell rang.  She knows how to talk over the telephone without
+giving anything away.  All she said was 'yes' and 'no' and 'repeat
+that,' but I saw that it was important because her face changed and her
+eyes glittered.  When she looks like that it means danger.
+
+"She was talking to a woman called Bella.
+
+"She made some notes on a pad.  As soon as she rang off she jumped up.
+She said she was called out and told me I needn't wait because she
+wouldn't send the package until to-morrow.  When she turned to get her
+hat I managed to catch a glimpse of the notes she had put down.  She
+had written:
+
+  "Elegantly-dressed man of fifty.
+  Silvery toupee, waxed moustache, pale face.
+  Brown suit, waistcoat edged with white.
+  White spats, white gloves.
+  Expensive Panama hat, fancy band green and red.
+  Room 1104."
+
+
+"This is your description, and this is the number of your room.  I was
+scared when I saw the expression of her face.  She sent me home.  She
+left at the same time, and took a taxi at the door.  She carries her
+gun in a kind of pocket in her skirt.  Look out for her!"
+
+"I get you, old boy!" I cried.  "You've done me a good turn and I
+shan't forget it.  Don't you worry."
+
+I hung up the receiver, and did a little thinking.  I was struck by the
+name of the woman who had called Lorina up, Bella.  It is not a very
+common name.  It was Mrs. Bleecker's name.  Was this a new thread in my
+extraordinary tangle?
+
+It was decidedly awkward to have my disguise laid bare just at this
+moment.  However, forewarned is forearmed.  I set about putting my
+affairs in order.  I did not know whether Lorina would visit the
+Rotterdam or not, but I was sure she would not do so without making her
+usual careful arrangements, and not probably, without disguising
+herself, all of which would take time.  I gave myself an hour, anyway.
+
+I gathered my papers together, and despatched those of them I valued to
+Dr. ----, who had been so good to me already.  I wrote notes to Mr.
+Dunsany, Blondy and other agents instructing them to send their reports
+in the care of Oscar Nilson until they heard from me again.  All the
+beautiful sartorial effects I had to leave behind me.  Maybe I could
+redeem them later if they were not sold by the hotel to pay my bill.
+
+It was close upon four and I supposed the wedding-guests were
+gathering, when my telephone summoned me again.
+
+"Miss Sadie Farrell is calling," said the voice at the other end.
+
+My heart jumped, but simultaneously Caution held up a warning finger.
+"One moment," I answered.
+
+I did some rapid thinking.  I did not keep the girl waiting an
+appreciable moment, but in that time I thought a whole chapter, as one
+may do in a crisis.  Not Sadie!  Better sense instantly told me she
+would never come to my hotel.  She had a more exalted notion of what
+was due her.  Lorina, of course.  She had used the most obvious
+expedient of reaching my rooms.  I had three alternatives:
+
+(a) To deny myself to her.  But in that case I would virtually be
+besieged in the hotel.
+
+(b) To see her down-stairs.  She would hardly take a shot at me in the
+crowded lobby--but she might very well have some half-crazed youth
+there to do it for her.
+
+(c) To have her up-stairs, where she could not pass any signals
+outside.  I had two rooms----
+
+"Please have Miss Farrell come up-stairs," I said over the phone.
+
+I had one of the best suites at the Rotterdam, a corner room which was
+my parlour, and a bedroom.  I put the key to the parlour door in my
+pocket, retired into the bedroom, and locked the communicating door.
+Presently I heard the bell-boy's knock on the parlour door.
+
+"Come in!" I sang out.
+
+Through the door I heard the sounds of two people entering my parlour.
+
+"Hello, Sadie!" I cried.  "Make yourself at home.  I'll be dressed in a
+jiffy!"
+
+An indistinguishable murmur answered me.  This was certainly not my
+Sadie.
+
+The bell-boy went out, and I heard him retiring down the hall.  I gave
+him time to get out of the way, then I slipped out of the bedroom into
+the hall, key to the other room in hand.  I inserted it ever so softly
+in the parlour door, and turned it.  But she heard!  She rushed to the
+door and shook it.  By that time I was around the corner of the
+corridor.
+
+The telephone girl looked at me somewhat curiously as I pressed the
+elevator button, but did not quite like to question me.  She knew, of
+course, that a caller had just been shown into my room.
+
+"I'll be back in a minute," I said carelessly.
+
+Just then I saw the number of my room 1104 displayed on the
+switchboard.  Lorina had rushed to the phone.
+
+"Is there a drugstore in the hotel?" I asked the girl at random, to
+distract her attention.
+
+"No, sir.  There is one opposite the Thirty-fourth street entrance."
+
+The elevator was approaching my floor.  I needed one more second to
+make my getaway.  "Is it a reliable place?" I asked.
+
+"Conway's," she said, holding the plug ready in her hand, "one of the
+largest in town."
+
+The elevator door was now open, and I stepped aboard.  The operator
+shoved the plug in, and answered the call.  I was carried down.
+
+I could not tell, of course, what form Lorina's appeal for help would
+take.  In case she might telephone to have me intercepted in the lobby,
+I took the precaution to get off at the mezzanine floor.  I passed
+around the gallery to the other side of the building, and gained the
+street without interference.
+
+So there I was safe, but once more homeless.
+
+A gaily-dressed couple left the hotel immediately in front of me.  The
+woman was talking rather excitedly.  Reaching the pavement I saw that
+the talker was Miss Beulah Maddox, late of Irma's company.  Of course!
+No difficulty in guessing what she was excited about.  They turned West
+on Thirty-fourth street.  I was bound in the same direction.  I heard
+her say:
+
+"Of course nobody believes she's sick.  What can be the matter?"
+
+"They've had a row I suppose," replied her companion.
+
+Half a dozen steps farther along, they met another couple likewise
+gloriously arrayed.  I did not know these two, but it required little
+perspicacity to guess that they too belonged to the profession.  Miss
+Maddox greeted them with a squeal of excitement.
+
+"Oh, my _dears_!"
+
+It was risky, but I could not forbear stopping a moment to listen.  I
+made out to be looking for a taxi.
+
+"What do you _think_?" cried Miss Maddox.  "There's no use your going
+any farther!  There isn't going to be any wedding!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Nobody knows.  Another extraordinary caprice of Irma's!  Everybody is
+told at the desk that she is ill, and the ceremony postponed, but of
+course that's only an _excuse_.  I had a glimpse of Mr. Mount and he
+looked simply _furious_, my dear!"
+
+And so on!  And so on!  A taxi drew up and I jumped in.
+
+I had myself taken to Oscar's shop, and in one of the little cubicles,
+the distinguishing marks of the elegant Mr. Boardman, late of the
+Rotterdam, were removed.  It would have been fun to adopt another swell
+makeup and go back to the Rotterdam to see what was happening, but it
+was too risky.  It was safer for me to play an humble character now.
+
+Oscar provided me with a longish mop of black hair, and a pair of heavy
+black eye-brows.  He went out himself to get me the rough clothes I
+needed.  An hour after I had gone into his shop I came out again, a
+typical representative of tough young New York.  The Hudson Dusters
+would not have rejected me.
+
+It was now nearly half-past five.  The hands of the clock reminded me
+of the meeting that I had arranged to bring about at that hour.  My
+heart was very keen for the success of this meeting, yet I was full of
+uncomfortable doubts.  Now that I had changed my character I felt that
+I might safely go and see how things turned out, so I turned my steps
+in the direction of the American café on Third avenue.
+
+When I got there Roland was already eating his supper.  No sign of Irma
+yet.  The American is one of those older lunchrooms where they have
+long mahogany tables each decorated with a row of sugar bowls and sauce
+bottles with squirt tops.  In such places one of the squirt tops still
+gives "pepper sauce" though I never saw anybody use it.  There was a
+double row of long tables with a lane between.  Roland had the wall
+seat of the first table on the right.  His shorthand book was propped
+against a vinegar bottle, and he studied it while he fed himself.
+
+I took a seat two removes from him on the same side of the table.  He
+paid no attention to me.  I took this distance, because if Irma came I
+didn't want to hear too much.  No one was likely to sit between us, so
+long as there were whole tables vacant.  It was a little early for the
+supper hour, and there were few in the place.
+
+I ordered the _pièce de resistance_ of such places, viz.: a plate of
+beef stew.  Roland was almost through his supper, and I wondered
+apprehensively if Irma meant to exercise her woman's prerogative of
+being late.  Perhaps her nerve had failed her, and she would not come.
+She had burned her bridges though.  What else could she do but come?
+From time to time I glanced in my young friend's face.  It was pale and
+drawn.  Verily, I thought, his infernal pride was sapping his youth.
+
+Then I saw Irma and my heart set up a great beating.  It's a risky
+thing to presume to play Providence to a pair of young souls, one of
+whom is as explosive as guncotton.  What was going to happen?  Irma was
+hovering about outside.  She glanced in the place nervously.
+Unfortunately there was no other woman eating there at the moment,
+though women did come to the place.  Irma walked on.  Had she given up?
+My heart sunk.  No, presently she came strolling back.  She meant to
+wait for him outside.  I approved her good sense.  Plainly dressed
+though she was, her entrance into that place would have created a
+sensation.
+
+Roland, all unconscious of what was in store, got up, slipped the book
+in his pocket, paid his score with an abstracted air, and went out.  He
+never looked at me.  His brain was full of shorthand symbols.
+
+I followed him at once, though I had but started my supper.  Nobody
+cared so long as I paid.
+
+I was just in time to see them come face to face on the pavement
+outside.
+
+"Roland!" she whispered with the loveliest smile surely that ever
+bedecked the human countenance; wistful, supplicating and tender.
+
+He started back as if he had been shot, and gazed at her with a kind of
+horror.  He did not speak.  I expect he could not.  Passers-by stared
+at them curiously.  Irma lowered her head, and slipping her hand inside
+his arm with affecting confidence, drew him forward away from the
+stares.  Still he did not speak.  He was oblivious to the passers-by,
+and to everything else but her.  He gazed at her like a man in a
+trance, his dark eyes full of a passionate hunger.  She only spoke once
+more.  Raising her eyes to his she moved her lips.  I could read them.
+
+"I love you," she whispered.
+
+His lips began to tremble.  Where were all his proud vows then?
+
+She drew him around the corner into the quieter side street.  She was
+weeping now.  When she looked at him I could see the bright drops.
+They were more potent than any words she could have spoken.  Roland
+suddenly came to life.  He stopped short, flung an arm around her,
+turned up her face and kissed her mouth, careless if all New York saw.
+
+So that was all right.
+
+The sight induced me to take the first train out to Amityville where I
+might dine and spend the evening with my dear girl.  We were much
+mystified upon receiving a telegram during the evening signed by my
+name.  To my astonishment I saw English and Freer on the train
+returning from Amityville.  The explanation of all this was forthcoming
+in the morning.
+
+
+
+
+30
+
+Next morning as soon as Oscar opened his shop, I was on hand to get my
+mail.  I found that big things had happened during the night.
+
+
+
+REPORT OF J. M. No. 23
+
+  _Lorina's House
+  Saturday, July 11th, 3 A.M._
+
+It is unfortunate that this should be the first night of our
+association that we are out of touch with each other.  I sent home an
+hour ago to see if there was any word from you.  I got your letter, but
+that only gives me the address of the wig-maker's shop which is, of
+course, closed until morning.  I have to remain on watch here, and I
+cannot make the hours pass better than by writing you an account of all
+that has happened.  It will save time when we meet.
+
+I have done the best I could.  I followed your instructions to the
+letter.  I do not see how I could have acted differently.  I hope you
+will not blame me.
+
+As soon as I was through work at Dunsany's this afternoon, I went down
+to No. -- Fifth avenue as usual, to continue my inventory of the gang's
+diamonds.  Freer is always there when I am, of course.  He's not a bad
+sort of fellow.  There's something sorrowful about him.  I think he
+would prefer on the whole to lead an honest life.  He speaks of having
+an expensive family to keep.
+
+As soon as Lorina's stenographer and office boy went home, she came
+into our room as she usually does.  This evening she was in a state of
+excitement.  She had evidently been holding herself in some time.  The
+air was lurid with the fire and brimstone she used in apostrophising
+you.  If hate could be sent by wireless you'd be dead this minute, my
+friend.
+
+I gathered she had learned during the day that you were at the
+Rotterdam.  But when she went around there with her silencer, you
+turned the tables on her somehow and not only got away again, but left
+her in a very humiliating position.  Bully for you!
+
+"He's slipped through my fingers for the moment!" she went on, "but
+I've got a line on his girl again.  I'll fix her to-night."
+
+My heart went down at this piece of news.
+
+"She's at a sanatorium at Amityville," Lorina went on.  "I got a
+servant into the house, and I know her habits.  I won't take any
+chances this time.  This is a job for you, English."
+
+Fancy my feelings!  I had no time to think.  Yet I had to say
+something, and quickly, too.  I said the natural thing.
+
+"I won't do it!" I cried.  "I am working for you night and day as it
+is, good work, too!  I didn't engage for murder--a woman too.  I won't
+do it!  I'm done with you all!"
+
+And I flung down my tools.
+
+Lorina took this outburst calmly.  She is accustomed to it no doubt.
+She merely looked at Freer, and he got between me and the door.
+
+"Don't be simple-minded, English," she said contemptuously.  "This is
+no child's game, that you can refuse to play if you don't like the
+rules.  You're in it for bad or for worse like the rest of us.  And I
+have the means of enforcing my orders!"
+
+"Not that!" I begged.
+
+"It was agreed long ago that this woman and this man have got to be put
+out of the way.  You're the only one of the crowd that hasn't been
+tested out, and the other boys are complaining.  Here's your chance to
+make good.  You understand there's no alternative.  You're a valuable
+man to us, but----!"
+
+I can give you no idea of the effect with which she said this.  She is
+a terrible woman.  Her eyes were like points of ice.  Meanwhile I was
+thinking hard.  If I did not go, she would undoubtedly find some one
+else.  I might be prevented from warning you.  I could not warn Sadie
+direct, because you had never given me her address.  In the end I
+agreed.
+
+Lorina smiled on me.
+
+"What are my instructions?" I asked.
+
+"The girl is at Dr. ----'s sanatorium," said Lorina.  "You should not
+get out there before dark, so the seven-thirty train will be the best.
+There is a train back from Amityville a little after ten which will
+land you in town before midnight."
+
+She then told me how to reach the sanatorium, and described the layout
+of the grounds.
+
+"My report says that the Farrell girl keeps close to the house during
+the day," she went on, "and walks out at night.  Her favourite spot is
+a pool at the bottom of the lawn, which is surrounded by juniper trees.
+There is a bench at the southerly side of the pool that she always
+visits.  It is near the public road, and will be no trouble for you to
+reach.  The thick growth of young trees makes plenty of cover."
+
+"What am I to do when she comes?" I asked.
+
+Lorina turned her back on me a moment.  When she faced around she
+handed me an automatic pistol with a curious cylinder affixed to the
+end of the barrel.
+
+"Use this," she said.  "It makes no sound."
+
+I slipped it in my pocket.
+
+"Freer will go with you," said Lorina.
+
+This seemed fatal to my hopes--I had to keep command of my face though.
+I made believe it was a matter of indifference.  To give Freer credit,
+he did not appear to relish the assignment, but he dared not object
+either.
+
+"As soon as you get back you will both come direct to my house," said
+Lorina.
+
+Such were our instructions.
+
+We went to take the seven-thirty train as ordered.  As Freer never left
+my side I had no opportunity to call you up.  I know now that you
+weren't at the hotel anyway.  In the station Freer went to buy the
+tickets.  I waited on a bench in plain sight of him.  Next to me sat a
+nice, sensible looking girl, and I had an inspiration.
+
+"Will you send a telegram for me?" I asked smiling at her.
+
+Naturally she was somewhat taken aback.  "What do you mean?" she asked.
+
+"Don't look so surprised," I said, smiling still.  "There's a man
+watching me.  He mustn't know.  It's terribly important--a question of
+a life, maybe."
+
+I was lucky in my girl.  She had an adventurous spirit.  She smiled
+back.  "Who to?" she asked.
+
+"Have you got a good memory?"
+
+"First-rate."
+
+"Miss Farrell, care Doctor ----'s Sanatorium, Amityville."
+
+"I have it."
+
+"Just say: 'Do not leave the house to-night.'"
+
+"Right.  Signature?"
+
+"'B. Enderby.'  You'll find the money to pay for it on the seat when I
+get up."
+
+Freer, having secured the tickets, now came towards us.  I met him half
+way.  He look at me hard.
+
+"I made a friend," I said, grinning as men do.
+
+"Humph!" he said sourly.  "I shouldn't think you'd be in the humour
+now."
+
+I went out to the train with him, giving an amourous backward glance
+towards the girl.
+
+An hour and a half later we were crouching among the young juniper
+trees at the edge of Dr. ----'s pond.  I was reminded of that other
+night in Newport.  Certainly I have led a full life this past week.
+Once more I waited with my heart in my throat fancying that I heard her
+approach in all the little sounds of night.  Freer was no happier than
+I, I believe.  While we waited in the dark I quietly unloaded the
+magazine of the pistol to guard against accidents.
+
+Once we did hear steps approaching along one of the paths, and held our
+breaths.  But they passed in another direction.  If she had come my
+plan was to secure Freer with her assistance, if she were not too
+frightened.  But she did not come.
+
+Freer had a tiny electric flash with which he consulted his watch from
+time to time.  He said at last:
+
+"We can just make the train.  It's the only train to-night."
+
+"Come on," I said.  "It isn't our fault if she didn't come."
+
+"Thank God she didn't!" he said involuntarily.
+
+I shook hands with him.  He was a traitor to me, and a thief, but I
+forgot it at the moment.
+
+The trip home was without incident.  We got up to Lorina's shortly
+after midnight.  The whole gang was there: Foxy, Jumbo, Jim, Blondy,
+several of the young fellows, a dozen in all besides Freer and me.
+They were all gambling in the dining-room.
+
+Lorina jumped up at the sight of us.
+
+"Well?" she demanded.
+
+"No good," I said.  "The girl never came."
+
+"Hm!" said Lorina.  That was all.
+
+It struck me that she must have known already that we had failed.
+
+Lorina asked for her pistol, and I handed it over.
+
+"Boys," said Lorina, "we'll go up to the office and have a council.  I
+was just waiting for these two to come in.  We've got to decide what
+we're going to do about this bull Enderby.  He's active again."
+
+There was something in the tone of this speech, or in the look which
+accompanied it, that caused the scalp behind my ears to draw and
+tingle.  I began to wonder if I had not risked too much in venturing
+back into the lion's den this night.  However, it was too late for
+regrets.  I put the best face on it I could.
+
+We trooped up-stairs.  Some of the boys had been drinking.  There was a
+good bit of noise.  The office as I have already explained is the front
+room on the second floor.  It extends the width of the house, and it
+has three windows.  That on the left is over the portico and stoop.
+
+At the right of the room is a large flat-topped desk.  Lorina sat at it
+with her back to the fireplace.  She motioned me to a seat at her
+right.  The men lounged in chairs about, some of them with their elbows
+on the desk.  Lorina ordered the door closed.  I was wondering if I'd
+ever leave that room alive.
+
+Lorina rapped on the desk for attention.
+
+"Boys," she said bluntly, "we've got a spy among us."
+
+Instantly every pair of eyes turned on me.  I jumped up.  My back was
+in the corner.  I bluffed them as best I could.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" I cried.  "I didn't ask you to take me
+in.  You came after me.  You gave me your work to do.  Haven't I done
+it?  Didn't I deliver the goods at Newport?  Didn't I undertake a nasty
+bit of work to-night?  Ask Freer there.  And now you turn on me!"
+
+"Keep quiet!" commanded Lorina.  "You'll have your hearing."
+
+To the men she said: "For a week I've known there was a leak somewhere,
+and I wanted to test him.  I gave him a job out at Amityville, and I
+sent Freer with him.  I had an agent in the house out there.  Well, he
+didn't pull the job off."
+
+"Was that my fault?" I cried.  "Ask Freer."
+
+She turned to Freer.  "How about it?"
+
+"I--I didn't see anything," he stammered.
+
+"Were you with him all the time?"
+
+"He was never out of my sight."
+
+"Be careful how you answer," she said, "or I'll believe you're in with
+him."
+
+Freer's face was pale and sweaty.  "Well--well--he flirted with a girl
+in the station.  I couldn't hear what he said because I was buying the
+tickets.  It looked all right."
+
+"Looked all right!" snarled Lorina.  "You fool!  One of Enderby's spies
+tracked you!"
+
+"I swear we weren't trailed!" cried Freer.  "I watched particularly."
+
+"What time was that?"
+
+"About quarter past seven."
+
+"At eight o'clock a telegram was delivered at the Sanatorium," said
+Lorina.  "My agent called me up.  It said: 'Do not leave the house
+to-night,' and was signed 'B. Enderby.'"
+
+The gang looked at me with a new hatred.
+
+Lorina laughed harshly.  "Oh, this isn't Enderby," she said.  "Enderby
+was at the Sanatorium to-night seeing his girl.  We had the two of them
+together, and this traitor double-crossed us!"
+
+They began to move threateningly towards my corner.
+
+"Keep back!" cried Lorina.  "Let's hear what he has to say first."
+
+I licked my dry lips and did the best I could for myself.  "You've got
+no proof!" I cried.  "How could I have sent a telegram?  I was never
+out of Freer's sight.  Why should I have signed it Enderby if Enderby
+was out there?  You all know I'm no bull but a workman at Dunsany's.  I
+can account for every minute of my time since Jumbo first picked me up!"
+
+Lorina was nearer me than any of the men.  She took a step forward.  I
+guarded my face.  But that was not her point of attack.  Her hand shot
+out, and the wig was snatched from my head.  There I stood with my bare
+poll.  The jig was up.
+
+A loud laugh broke from the men--jackals' laughter, before tearing
+their prey.  A different kind of sound came from Freer.
+
+"My God! it's Mr. Dunsany!" he gasped.
+
+"Eh?" said Lorina.
+
+"Walter Dunsany," he repeated, staring as if he saw a ghost.
+
+"Is this true?" she demanded of me.
+
+I felt as if the worst were over now.  A sudden calmness descended on
+me.  It was a sort of relief to be able to be myself.  "Quite true," I
+said.
+
+"What's your game?" she demanded scowling.
+
+"Do you need to ask?"
+
+There was a commotion among the men.  I heard different exclamations
+and demands.  Some were for despatching me on the spot; one suggested I
+be held for a million dollars' ransom.
+
+Lorina turned on the last speaker.  "You fool!" she cried.  "Ten
+millions wouldn't save him!  He gets a perpetual lodging in my cellar!"
+
+Cries of approval, more laughter greeted this.
+
+From her dress Lorina drew the gun I had given her a little while
+before.  "Hands up!" she commanded.
+
+Now I knew it was not loaded, and I had a loaded gun in my pocket.  But
+so had every other man there, and all had more practice in drawing
+their weapons than I.  So I thought it best to obey.  Up went my hands.
+
+"Foxy, Jim, frisk him!" said Lorina.
+
+They found the gun, and flung it on the desk.  Lorina dropped it in the
+middle drawer.  There was nothing else incriminating upon me.
+
+"Down on the floor with him!" cried somebody.
+
+"Wait!" said Lorina.  "We'll see what we can find out first."
+
+I caught at the little straw of hope that showed.  "Send them out and
+I'll talk freely," I muttered.  "I've no mind to be shot when I'm not
+looking."
+
+Over-confidence betrayed her.  With a gun in her hand she felt herself
+more than a match for any unarmed man.  By a fatal oversight she never
+looked to see if her weapon was loaded.  She didn't trust that mob very
+far, as I knew, and perhaps she thought I might have something to say
+which it was better they shouldn't hear.  They grumbled, but she was
+absolute mistress there.  She ordered them out of the room.
+
+"Shut the door," she said.  "Wait outside.  Do not come in unless I
+call you."
+
+If I could get that door locked, and get my gun back!  I crept along
+the wall opposite the windows a little at a time.  Lorina made no
+serious attempt to stop me, because there was no possible escape on
+that side of the room.
+
+"What have you got to tell me?" she said.
+
+"What do you want to know?" I parried.  Every second I could gain was
+precious.
+
+"Stand still!" she commanded.  "Where is Enderby to-night?"
+
+"At the Sanatorium, you said."
+
+"He returned on the same train you did."
+
+"I didn't know it.  I wish I had."
+
+"Well, where is he now?"
+
+"At the Rotterdam, I suppose."
+
+"He has not come back there.  I have the place watched."
+
+"Then I don't know where he is."
+
+"You lie!  Where do you have your meetings?"
+
+"We have never met but once since I've been on the case."
+
+"Do you expect me to believe that?  Stand still!"
+
+"I don't care whether you believe it or not.  It's the truth."
+
+Meanwhile I was moving a few inches at a time around the wall towards
+the door the men had gone out by.  Since Lorina knew the dozen of them
+were just outside the door, indeed we could hear them, she cared
+little.  My hands were still elevated of course.
+
+"How do you communicate with him?" she asked.
+
+"By letter or telephone."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At the Rotterdam."
+
+Her eyes glittered.  "I've had enough of this fooling," she said.  "If
+you've got anything that's worth my while you'd better say it.  My
+finger's impatient."
+
+I needed a few seconds yet.  I adopted a whining tone.  "Why should I
+split on Enderby?  You're going to croak me anyway.  What'll you do for
+me if I tell?"
+
+"For the last time, tell me what you know, or I'll hand you over to the
+boys!" said Lorina.
+
+I had reached the door now.  The key was in it.  I had calculated every
+move in advance.  Down came my hands, I turned the key, and flung it
+out of the open window.  Lorina began to shoot.  The gun makes so
+little noise at any time that she had pulled the trigger several times
+before she realised it was not loaded.  By that time I was half way
+back to the desk.  I got the drawer open and my hand on my gun, as she
+leaped on my back.  I flung her off.
+
+She was crying for help by this time.  The men outside tried the door,
+then flung themselves against it.  It could not hold long against that
+weight.  But I needed only a few seconds.  I reached the window over
+the portico.  Somehow or other I slid down a pillar to the steps.  As
+soon as my feet touched something solid I fired three shots in the air.
+This was the pre-arranged signal to the men in the hotel.
+
+I vaulted over the balustrade, and crouched in the areaway of the
+adjoining house out of range of any shots from the windows.  Foxy
+undertook to follow me.  As he dropped to the stoop I shot him in the
+legs.  He fell in a heap.  The others looking out, thought better of
+imitating him.
+
+Almost immediately the men came running out of the hotel, and Lorina's
+gang disappeared like magic from the windows.  But as it had been
+arranged that some of the detectives were to approach over the back
+fences, and others by the roof, I had no fear they would escape us.
+
+The rest is soon told.  When we broke in the door we heard Lorina
+commanding the men not to shoot.  As the police crowded into the hall,
+she came towards us head up, and with superb insolence demanded to know
+the meaning of the outrage.  I'm afraid I indulged in rude laughter.
+
+The police were amply provided with handcuffs.  We secured the
+prisoners two by two, searched them, and carted them off in the patrol
+wagon that was summoned by telephone.  The bag was Lorina, Jumbo, Foxy
+(not seriously wounded), Jim, Freer, seven other men and the three
+negroes.  Blondy escaped in safety according to your instructions.
+There was much mystification expressed, since the house was guarded
+front, rear and roof, and every corner of the interior was searched.
+Of course, I made a great fuss about it.
+
+The lieutenant of police reported the haul to Inspector Lanman, who
+arrived bye and bye with other high police officials in an automobile.
+You ought to have been there too.  I was wild at my inability to get
+hold of you.  I used all the eloquence at my command appealing to
+Lanman not to disturb anything in the house, and not to have the
+prisoners questioned until we could get hold of you.  He agreed.
+
+I am remaining here in the house to see that his orders in that
+connection are obeyed, and also on the chance that other members of the
+gang may come in.  We have all of them that matter though--except the
+grand boss.  Unfortunately the noise of this capture will give him
+warning, but I have done the best I could.  Lorina's other
+establishment is well-guarded, but will not be broken into until
+morning.  Come quickly when you get this.
+
+  WALTER DUNSANY.
+      (J. M. no longer.)
+
+
+
+
+31
+
+The tremendous popular excitement that followed on the capture of
+Lorina and her gang does not help on my story, so I will pass over it
+quickly.  The haul we made in the modern cave of Aladdin staggered the
+public imagination.  Much against Mr. Dunsany's advice the jewels were
+publicly exhibited in police headquarters for three days.
+
+Mr. Dunsany and I were elevated into the position of newspaper heroes.
+He at least deserved it, but I doubt if he enjoyed his honours.  I know
+I didn't enjoy what fell to me.  I couldn't help but think if we had
+only been able to hush up this noise for twenty-four hours, maybe the
+grand boss of the outfit might have walked into our welcoming arms.
+
+I will simply say that a thorough combing of Lorina's house, and of her
+offices, revealed not the slightest bit of evidence leading to the man
+we sought.  She was a wonder at covering her tracks.  In the midst of
+all the popular praises I was discouraged.  There was nothing as far as
+I could see to prevent the organiser of the gang from presently
+organising another.  Meanwhile I was in hourly expectation of receiving
+his compliments in the shape of a bullet.
+
+I had one small hope left, and that was in Blondy.  The fact of his
+escape had been duly published, and I was praying that Lorina, deprived
+now of any better instrument might be led to use him.  I carefully
+stayed away from the boy, keeping in touch with him by letter and
+phone.  I would not, of course, put him up to communicating with
+Lorina.  That would instantly have aroused her suspicions.  Any move
+must come from her.  I append some of Blondy's letters.
+
+
+_July 10th._
+
+DEAR MR. ENDERBY:
+
+The house was pinched last night, as you know by this time.  I had gone
+to the back room on the third floor by myself because I thought they
+were going to murder a man in the office, and I was sickened by it.  I
+don't know if he got away or not.  I suppose the whole story will be in
+the evening papers.  Anyhow I heard the three shots outside, which you
+told me would be the signal, so I beat it up the ladder to the scuttle.
+You told me if any one else tried to get out that way, I was to let
+them go on ahead of me and hide in the hall closet, but I was all
+alone.  There was a deuce of a racket down-stairs.  The servants in the
+front room were hollering, but they didn't come out.  I got out on the
+roof and met the detectives coming over from the hotel.  They grabbed
+me and threw a light in my face.  Seeing who it was they let me go.  I
+was glad.  I was afraid maybe you had forgotten to give them
+instructions.  I went down to the street through the hotel, and chased
+home as quick as I could.  According to your instructions I shall go on
+living here as usual until I hear from you.
+
+  Yours respectfully,
+      RALPH ANDRUS.
+
+
+For nearly a week nothing of any importance happened.  Then I received
+this:
+
+
+_July 16th._
+
+DEAR MR. ENDERBY:
+
+I called you up this morning to tell you about the lawyer coming to the
+association rooms to see me.  This afternoon I went down to his office
+as you told me I should.  The fellow said he was one of the lawyers
+hired by Mrs. Mansfield to defend her, and she had given him my name to
+see if I would make a witness on her side at the trial.  Then he put me
+through a cross-examination that lasted a couple of hours.  I was kind
+of flustered by it, because I didn't know how you would have wanted me
+to answer his questions.  But you told me if I didn't know what to say
+to tell the truth.  So I did.  The only time I lied was when he asked
+me how I got out of the house that night.  I said when I got out on the
+roof I saw the officers coming, and hid behind a chimney till they
+passed.  It seems I didn't know enough about the gang one way or
+another to make any difference.  The lawyer told me to keep my mouth
+shut if I wanted to stay out of trouble, gave me a couple of dollars
+and sent me home.  I hope I handled this matter right.
+
+  Yours respectfully,
+      R. A.
+
+
+The lawyer Blondy referred to was a junior partner in one of the
+best-known firms engaged in criminal cases.  It had been announced that
+this firm had been retained by Lorina.  Since the lawyer had approached
+the boy openly there could be no doubt but that he himself was acting
+in good faith.  I could not but feel though that there was something
+behind this visit, because, of course, Lorina knew that Blondy could
+tell next to nothing about her affairs, and that little not to her
+credit.
+
+I finally decided that she must have used the young lawyer as a kind of
+cat's-paw to discover Blondy's situation and present disposition
+towards herself.  If I was right there would no doubt be developments
+presently.  I awaited the event in no little anxiety.
+
+Sure enough, three days later Blondy called me up to tell me he had
+just received a long letter from Lorina that I ought to read at once.
+I arranged to meet him in an hour at the office of the doctor who had
+first brought us together.  He was instructed to make sure that he was
+not followed there.
+
+Lorina's letter enclosed a second letter.  The enclosure was not
+sealed.  The friendly tone of the first so different from Lorina's
+attitude towards him out of jail, excited the boy's derision.  It read:
+
+
+DEAR BLONDY:
+
+I am _so_ glad you made your getaway.  The lawyer told me about it.
+You certainly were lucky.  He tells me you are broke.  I have been
+worrying about this.  He will take this letter out to post, but he
+doesn't know what I am going to say to you.  That's between ourselves.
+I know I can count on you not to split on a pal.  Burn this as soon as
+you get the contents fixed in your mind.
+
+I can't send you anything from here, because these devils have stripped
+me.  They have even taken my keys, so I can't send and get into my
+safety deposit box for funds.  But if you will help me, I'll be in a
+position to do something handsome for you.  I have a duplicate set of
+keys that nobody knows about, and I want you to get them for me.
+
+I enclose a letter to Mrs. Bradford who is the janitress of the house
+at No. -- East Fifty-Ninth street.  I kept a room there that I could go
+to when I wanted to be quiet.  Read the enclosed letter then seal it so
+she will think you don't know what's in it.  Do everything just as the
+letter says.  Don't forget that my name is Mrs. Watkins to this woman.
+You will find fifty dollars in my pocketbook there.  Give her thirty
+for the rent and ten for herself.  You keep the other ten.  Get a
+receipt for the rent.
+
+The keys are in the pocketbook.  Be very careful of them.  In a few
+days a man will call you up and ask you if you have them.  You ask him
+his name, and he will say Thomas Wilkinson.  Then he will tell you what
+to do, and you must obey him exactly.  As soon as he gets the keys and
+can open my box he will send you five thousand dollars in bills, which
+will set you up in business or give you a good time, whichever you like.
+
+If this turns out all right there will be a chance for you to make
+other good things out of the crowd.
+
+I enclose the combination to the safe on a separate slip.
+
+Take care of yourself,
+
+  With love,
+      LORINA.
+
+P.S. You mustn't think from my letter to Mrs. B. that I do not trust
+you.  That's just to stall her off.
+
+L.
+
+
+The enclosure was a masterpiece.
+
+
+DEAR MRS. BRADFORD:
+
+I have been taken real sick, threatened with nervous prostration they
+say.  I have had to go to Dr. ----'s sanatorium at Amityville.  Don't
+know how long I'll be here.  Now Mrs. Bradford, I'm in a fix because
+I've lost my keys.  I keep duplicates in my safe, and so I'm sending my
+nephew to you with this to get them.  He has wavy, blond hair and blue
+eyes, and nice white teeth.  He slurs his rs a little when he talks
+like a child.  So he will call you Mrs. B'adfo'd.  These details will
+identify him to you.
+
+Please let him into my room with your pass-key, and remain with him
+while he is there.  Not but what he is a good boy, but boys will be
+boys you know.  Don't let him see this.  I have given him the
+combination of my safe.  Inside is an old handbag with fifty dollars in
+it and a bunch of keys.  He will give you thirty dollars of it for the
+rent, and ten for your trouble.  Nothing else in the safe must be
+touched.  Thanking you for your trouble,
+
+  Yours sincerely,
+      (Mrs.) ELIZABETH WATKINS.
+
+P.S. I hope your rheumatism is better.
+
+
+I made copies of the letters and the safe combination, and told Blondy
+to go ahead and do exactly as he had been told.  I suspected from
+Lorina's care that the little safe would make interesting disclosures.
+However, I could get into it some other time.  I was inclined to
+believe her story about the safety deposit box.  Like all first-class
+liars she wove truth into her lies when she could.  I was hoping, while
+scarcely daring to hope, that in a matter of such vital importance she
+would not dare trust any one short of the "boss" himself.  If he would
+only come after the keys!
+
+Next day I got the following letter from Blondy.
+
+
+DEAR MR. ENDERBY:
+
+I did everything just as the letter said.  Mrs. Bradford was a
+suspicious kind of woman.  She lived in a cellar kind of place below
+the street level.  She asked me about a thousand questions before she
+would let me in.  But I wasn't afraid of her.  Suspicious people are
+generally easy to fool.*
+
+
+* Pretty good observation for eighteen years old!
+    B. E.
+
+
+No. -- East Fifty-Ninth street is an old building that is let out in
+stores and studios.  Mrs. Mansfield's room was second floor rear.  I
+couldn't look around much the old woman watched me so close.  It was
+just an ordinary furnished room, nothing rich like the Lexington avenue
+house.  There was an alcove with a bed in it.  The only thing funny was
+the number of trunks standing around.  I counted seven of them.  They
+had covers and cushions on them.
+
+The safe was a little one.  I opened it all right.  There was nothing
+in the main part but a lot of papers and the little satchel.  There was
+an inside locked compartment.  After I locked the safe again the old
+woman made me destroy the combination before her eyes.  I paid her the
+money, put the keys in my pocket, and she hustled me out.  That's all.
+
+  Yours respectfully,
+      R. A.
+
+
+After this followed a period of strained anxiety for me.  I could not
+stay near Blondy, of course, and I was afraid the man we hoped to get
+might circumvent him in some way.  Maybe instead of telephoning him he
+would call on him in person.  Blondy was instructed of course in that
+event to hang on to him like grim death, but how could I expect a boy
+of his age to get the better of an astute crook?
+
+However, this fear proved groundless.  On Thursday morning about eleven
+Blondy called me up.  I instantly knew by his breathlessness that
+something had happened.
+
+"Guy just called up," said Blondy.  "Said: 'Have you got the keys?'  I
+came back: 'Who are you?'  'Thomas Wilkinson.'  'O.K.,' said I.  Then
+he started in quick to give me my instructions."
+
+"I must take the twelve noon train from the Long Island Terminal for
+Greenwood City.  I get off at Greenwood City and walk one block North
+to Suffolk avenue which is the main street of the village.  I turn to
+the right on Suffolk which is to say turn East or away from New York,
+and keep straight on right out of town to the wide, empty stretch of
+land that they call Ringstead plains.  I have to walk about two miles
+out this road.  Half a mile beyond the last house there's a locust tree
+beside the road.  He said I couldn't miss it because it was the only
+tree standing by itself as far as you could see.  Motor cars pass up
+and down the road frequently.  But I must not accept a ride if it's
+offered to me.  I must sit down under this tree as if I was tired and
+stay there ten minutes or so, until anybody who may have seen me stop
+there will have passed out of sight.  Then I am to leave the keys on
+the ground behind the tree and walk back to Greenwood City, and take
+the first train for New York.  If he gets the keys all right, he said
+he would send the money in a package by mail to-morrow."
+
+I made notes of all this while the boy was speaking.
+
+"Is it all right?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"Fine!" I said.
+
+"But the twelve o'clock train!  It's quarter past eleven now.  I wanted
+to put him off to give you more time, but you said do exactly what he
+said."
+
+"Quite right," I said.  "Run along and get your train.  Follow your
+instructions exactly and leave the rest to me."
+
+
+
+
+32
+
+Time was very precious, but I allowed myself a few minutes for hard,
+concentrated thought.  I believed that Blondy would be under
+surveillance from the time he left the Association rooms until he
+reached the appointed spot.  Evidently my man was aware of the
+advantage to himself of rushing the thing through, and it was likely
+the keys would be picked up within a few minutes of the time they were
+dropped.  At any rate he would surely come after them by daylight, for
+night would make an ambush easy.  Therefore it was up to me to make my
+preparations _before_ the boy got there.  Not very easy when he was
+already about to start.
+
+My man had had several days in which to find the spot near New York
+best suited to his purpose.  From Blondy's description the place he had
+chosen must be bare of cover in miles.  "Thomas Wilkinson" would come
+in an automobile, naturally, and if anything in the vicinity aroused
+his suspicions he would not stop.  I could not hope to pick him out
+among all who passed.  It was a tough problem.
+
+I called up Lanman the chief of the detective bureau.  Nowadays I
+commanded the respect of these people.
+
+"Look here," I said, "we have a chance to take the boss of the thief
+trust this afternoon, if we strike like lightning."
+
+"Shoot!" said he.
+
+"First, send me quick a high-powered automobile with a nervy chauffeur
+and two operatives.  Have them pick me up at the Southwest corner of
+Second avenue and 59th street, Queensboro bridge plaza."
+
+"Right!"
+
+"Next get together five other good cars without any distinctive marks.
+Come yourself in one of them, and bring a dozen good men.  Meet me--let
+me see--What town is there near Greenwood City, Long Island, but not on
+the same road?"
+
+"Ringstead, two miles South."
+
+"Know a hotel there?"
+
+"Mitchell's a road house."
+
+"Good.  Have your five cars proceed to Mitchell's by different roads as
+quickly as possible.  I may not be able to come there to you, but wait
+there for further instructions by telephone."
+
+"O.K.," he said.  "We'll be on the way in ten minutes."
+
+"One thing more.  Bring a good pair of field glasses."
+
+
+I took my own binoculars and a gun.  On the way to the meeting-place I
+bought a road map of Long Island.  The car was already waiting for me
+at the spot named.  Lanman was a man after my own heart.
+
+We made quick time.  I was provided with a police badge in case any of
+the local constables should object to our rate of travel.  On the road
+I studied my map and got the lay of the land in my head.
+
+It was twelve-five when we reached Greenwood City, or fifty minutes
+before the train was due.  As we passed the railway station I saw a car
+already waiting there, and I wondered idly if that would have anything
+to do with my case.  It was a very distinguished-looking car of a
+foreign make with a dark green body of the style the French call _coupé
+de ville_.  It seemed a little odd that any one should choose to ride
+in a closed car in such hot weather.  An irreproachable chauffeur and
+footman waited near.
+
+We turned into Suffolk street, and hastened on out of town out to
+Ringstead plains.  It was all just as Blondy had given it to me over
+the phone.  There was the last house at the edge of the plain, and half
+a mile ahead stood the lonely locust tree beside the road.  The house
+looked as if it might belong to a small farmer or market gardener.
+There was a small barn behind it.  Ahead of us there was no other
+habitation visible as far as we could see.
+
+We kept on.  It is a well-known motor road, and we passed cars from
+time to time.  Earlier and later it would be quite crowded I expect,
+but this was one of the quietest hours.  About three-quarters of a mile
+beyond the locust tree there was a wood that I had my eye on.  It was
+not of very great extent, but showed a dense growth of young trees.
+
+Reaching it, I found to my great satisfaction that there was a rough
+wagon track leading away among the trees, I had the chauffeur turn in
+there.  There was no other car in view at the moment.  Within a few
+yards the wagon track curved a little, and we were lost to view from
+the road.  I got out and made my way to the edge of the trees.  From
+this point I found I could overlook the locust tree with the aid of my
+binoculars.
+
+This was all I wanted.  I gave the order to return to Greenwood City.
+A little further in the wood there was a clearing sufficient to enable
+us to turn.  One gets over the ground quickly in a car, and when we got
+back to Greenwood we still had twenty-five minutes before the train was
+due.  This place, by the way, is not a city at all, but merely a
+village embowered in trees.  The handsome green car was still waiting
+at the station.  I went to a hotel to telephone.
+
+To my joy I got Lanman on the phone without delay.
+
+"I am here at Mitchell's with three of the cars," he said.  "The other
+two were sent by a slightly longer route.  They will be here directly."
+
+"Take three cars and proceed by the shortest route to Greenwood City,"
+I said.  "Make haste because I expect my man on the train from town in
+twenty minutes, and you must get through the village before he arrives."
+
+"We can be there in five," said Lanman.
+
+"Turn to the right on Suffolk street and proceed out on the plains.  A
+mile and a half out of town you come to the last house.  It is a grey
+house without any trees around it; there is a small barn behind it.
+Stop there and put up your cars in the barn in such a way that you can
+run them out quickly.  I don't know the people in the house.  I have no
+reason to believe that they have any connection with the man we want,
+but you'll have to use your judgment."
+
+I went on to explain to him just what Blondy was going to do, and how I
+expected our man to turn up shortly afterwards.
+
+"The East windows of the house overlook the locust tree," I went on.
+"Station yourself at one of them with your glasses, and you will be
+able to see whatever happens at the tree."
+
+"I get you," he said.  "What about the other two cars?  One of them is
+just turning into the yard now."
+
+"Let them leave Ringstead by Merton street," I said, consulting my map,
+"and proceed East to the Joppa Pike; thence North to the Suffolk pike
+and turn back towards Greenwood City.  About two miles and a half
+before reaching the village, more than a mile beyond the house where
+you will be, there is a small wood on the left hand side of the road.
+There is a wagon track leading into it.  They are to turn in there and
+they will find me a little way inside."
+
+"All right," said Lanman.  "The last car is coming now."
+
+"Listen," I said.  "Our man without doubt will come in a car.  After he
+picks up the keys I expect he will keep on in the road.  In which case
+he falls into my hands.  But if he should turn around and go back it's
+up to you."
+
+"I understand," said Lanman grimly.
+
+
+Ten minutes later I was back at my observation post at the edge of the
+wood.  I had not been there long when through my glasses I saw a car
+turn into the farmer's place.  A second and a third car followed at
+short intervals.  In a quarter of an hour the first police car joined
+me, and a few minutes afterward the second.  Each contained two men in
+addition to the chauffeur.
+
+We turned the cars around and stationed them in line where, though they
+were invisible from the highroad, they could run out upon it in a few
+seconds.  The other side of the highway was fenced.  Having completed
+our arrangements, there was nothing to do for a while, and I told the
+men to take it easy.
+
+According to my calculations Blondy would appear in view about
+one-thirty.  It was a long walk from the station and a hot day.
+Exactly on schedule I saw a speck in the distance which presently
+resolved itself through the glasses into the figure of a solitary
+pedestrian.  As he neared the tree I saw that it was Blondy.  So far so
+good.
+
+I was lying on the ground at the edge of the little wood with the
+glasses steadied on a fallen trunk.  The whole flat plain was spread
+before me.  The cars were about thirty yards behind me, each chauffeur
+at his wheel.  Between me and them I had the four men stationed at
+intervals so I could pass a whispered order back.
+
+While Blondy was covering the space between the house and the locust
+tree a green car hove in view behind him, which I presently recognised
+from the irreproachable chauffeur and footman as the _coupé de ville_.
+It overtook the walking figure, and came on up the road, past the wood,
+and past us.  I wondered if our man was now inside.
+
+Blondy reached the tree at last.  I suspected that he welcomed the
+shade.  It seemed perfectly natural for him to sit down under it.  He
+remained there ten minutes.  Several cars passed to and fro and one of
+them stopped.  This puzzled me for a moment, but I supposed that it was
+merely some good Samaritan who offered the perspiring boy a lift.
+While Blondy was sitting there the green car went back.  I was pretty
+sure now that it contained our quarry.
+
+At last Blondy got up and started back.  These periods of waiting try a
+man's nerves.  Mine were pretty well on edge by this time.  It seemed
+to take an age for the boy to retrace his steps over the visible part
+of the road.  About two hundred yards beyond the farmhouse there was a
+bend in it which concealed the rest from my view.
+
+A minute or two after Blondy disappeared from my sight, the big green
+car again hove into view around the bend.  My heart hit up a few extra
+beats.
+
+"Get ready," I sent word along the line.
+
+To my great disappointment it did not stop at the tree.  It came on,
+and passed the wood again with the loud purr of new tires.  However, I
+explained it to myself by the fact that there was another car in view
+at the moment.  I set myself to wait in the expectation of his return.
+
+In five minutes return he did, but this time there was a car close
+behind, and once more he passed out of sight without stopping.  I hoped
+that Lanman had marked the passing and repassing of the fashionable car.
+
+It was now past two o'clock, and the hottest part of the day was coming
+on.  A haze of heat undulated shimmeringly over the plain.  Our tempers
+suffered.  There in the little wood we were in the shade, it is true,
+but there was not a breath of air stirring, and the mosquitoes were
+busily plying their trade.  The men breathed hard, and wiped their
+faces.  At first they had taken their coats off, but finding the
+insects could bite through their shirtsleeves they had put them on
+again.  I had thrown off my hot wig.  A disguise was unnecessary now.
+
+Once more the green car turned into sight beyond the farmhouse.  This
+time the road was empty and my heart beat hopefully.  Sure enough it
+stopped opposite the locust tree.
+
+"Start your engines," I whispered along the line.
+
+A man alighted from the coupé and walked to the tree.  A Panama hat
+shaded his face and I could not get a good look at it.  He walked
+around the tree and seemed to be gazing up in its branches, as well as
+looking down at the roots.  I could not understand this evolution,
+still I was pretty sure that I saw him stoop and pick something up.
+
+He returned to his car, and it started forward.
+
+"Go ahead," I said to my men.
+
+They knew what they had to do.  I lingered a moment to see whether he
+was going to turn around or come on.  He came straight, faster than he
+had been travelling.  I ran after my cars.
+
+According to instructions they moved out in line across the road,
+completely blocking it.  I timed it as closely as I could, but
+unfortunately the road was perfectly straight.  With the appearance of
+the first car out of the wood, the green car took the alarm.  We heard
+the screech of the brakes.  They came to a stop in a cloud of dust.
+Those town cars can turn almost in their own length.  Around they went
+and back with the exhaust opened wide.
+
+We jumped aboard our cars and as soon as we could disentangle ourselves
+took after them.  They were half a mile away when we got straightened
+out.  Now if only Lanman did not fail me!
+
+To my joy, away ahead I saw the police cars slowly move one, two, three
+across the road.  We had him trapped!  Once more the green car stopped
+in a cloud of dust.
+
+Lanman and I approaching from opposite directions, reached it
+simultaneously.  We had our guns out.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" the angry, frightened chauffeur cried.
+
+We paid small attention to him.  I and my gun looked into the coupé
+together.  Lanman ran around to the other door.  In the corner of the
+seat I saw, exquisite, immaculate--Alfred Mount!
+
+"_You!_" he gasped.
+
+"_You!_" I cried.
+
+Of the two I was the more surprised.  For the moment I was incapable of
+moving.
+
+He did not speak again, nor attempt to get up.  Through the front
+window of the coupé he saw the small crowd of detectives gathering.
+The light died out of those bright, black eyes.  He clapped the back of
+his hand to his mouth as you have seen women do in moments of despair.
+The hand dropped nervelessly in his lap.  Before my eyes his face
+turned livid.  His body stiffened out in a horrible brief spasm, and he
+fell over sideways on the seat--dead!
+
+
+My eyes and Lanman's were glued alike in horror to the corpse.  The
+left hand, a hand too elegant for a man's had now dropped to the floor.
+A glance at it explained the tragedy.  An immense flat emerald on the
+ring finger was sprung back revealing a tiny cup beneath.  The chief
+and I looked at each other in understanding.
+
+We were recalled to practical matters by the imperious tooting of a
+horn up the road.  One oncoming chauffeur naturally objected to the
+barricade of automobiles.  Lanman and I alike dreaded the irruption of
+foolish curiosity-seekers.  At a word from me he hustled the detectives
+into their respective cars, and got them straightened out.  They were
+all ordered back to headquarters.  All this happened within a few
+moments.  I don't believe any of the detectives realised that the man
+was dead.
+
+None of the engines had stopped and we quickly had the road clear.
+Lanman and I thought so much alike in this crisis that it was hardly
+necessary to talk.  We got into the coupé with its ghastly burden and
+without touching it, sat down on the two little seats facing it.  A
+glance at the police badge was sufficient for the chauffeur.
+
+"Your master has had a stroke," I said to him.  "Take us to his home as
+soon as possible."
+
+Lanman nodded his approval.
+
+When we got Mount's body to his rooms, we sent for his doctor, one of
+the most famous practitioners in town, also for the commissioner of
+police and for Mr. Walter Dunsany.
+
+When the five of us were gathered together, we consulted, and finally
+put it up to the commissioner to decide what ought to be done in the
+interests of good citizenship.  After listening to me, to Mr. Dunsany
+and to the doctor, all of whom felt the same, though for different
+reasons, he voted with us.  We agreed that Mount had taken the best way
+out under the circumstances.  None of us wanted to drag his dead body
+through the mire.  As much of the loot as could be recovered was
+already recovered.  None of us wanted to see any more scandal aired in
+the newspapers.  Therefore it was given out that Mr. Mount had
+committed suicide while motoring in the country, and no cause for the
+act was assigned.
+
+Of course I told Roland and Irma the truth, so that no shadow might dim
+their future happiness.
+
+
+
+
+33
+
+Little more remains to be told.  For weeks afterwards the case was
+threshed out in the newspapers, but nothing was brought out that you do
+not already know.  No suspicion attached to Mount's chauffeur and
+footman.  They had met him at the Greenwood City station according to
+orders.  He had exclaimed at the beauty of Ringstead plains, and they
+thought that was why he had himself carried back and forth so many
+times.  On the last journey he had remarked the locust tree, speaking
+of the rarity of the species, and had ordered them to stop so that he
+could examine it.  They knew nothing about trees, of course.  They had
+not seen him pick up the keys.
+
+The news of Mount's death took all the fight out of Lorina.  Whatever
+human feeling there was in that woman was all for him.  It appeared
+that her devotion to him was so abject, that she was even willing to
+help him in his plotting to secure Irma for his wife.
+
+The thieves were sent up for terms more or less corresponding to the
+degrees of their guilt.  Lorina and Foxy are still there.  Jumbo is out
+now, and professes to have reformed.  He seems to bear me no malice,
+and occasionally braces me for a small loan.  One of the gang, Bella
+Bleecker, escaped for lack of evidence.  I knew that she was one of
+Lorina's creatures, whom Mount had placed near Irma as a spy, but there
+was nothing to connect her with the thefts.
+
+There was one mysterious feature of the case which the trial did not
+clear up, i.e., the source of Roland's handsome legacy.  I had my
+suspicions but no proof.  Mount's doctor was one of his executors and I
+was permitted to examine the dead man's papers.  I found that on the
+last day of March previous he had drawn $40,000 in cash.
+
+This was pretty conclusive, but there was a link of evidence still
+missing.  Continuing a search of Mount's effects I found a receipted
+bill from an obscure lawyer for legal services rendered about this
+time.  I looked the man up.
+
+He proved to be a seedy, servile little creature, one of the desperate
+hangers-on of the outer fringe of a respectable profession.  Mount
+being dead and no longer a possible employer it was easy to make the
+lawyer talk.
+
+Whether or not he knew what he was doing, I can't say.  He claimed that
+Mount had told him he wished to do something for a worthy young fellow
+who was too proud to accept anything from him direct.  He then laid out
+the scheme of the mysterious, unhappy lady who was supposed to have
+died leaving Roland Quarles her fortune.  Mount, the lawyer said,
+supplied the ingenious letter that was sent to Roland.  The lawyer
+carried the money to the trust company.
+
+This information dissipated the last bit of mystery.  The more I
+thought over it the more I marvelled at Mount.  Certainly there was
+something magnificent in his villainies.  Fancy giving your rival forty
+thousand dollars in order to ruin him!  It was clear now why the order
+had come down from above to Jumbo to sell Irma's pearls to Roland at a
+reduced price.  I wonder if ever a more devilish plot was hatched by
+one man to ruin another.  And how nearly it had succeeded.  Mount had
+shown the devil's own cunning in playing on the weak spots in Irma and
+in Roland.
+
+The period of the trial was a hateful time for all of us.  Our own
+happiness was not to be thought of until that ordeal was over.  A
+blessed peace descended on us when the last verdict was rendered.
+
+The blissful event occurred in October.  Irma and Roland insisted that
+Sadie and I must be married at the same time they were.
+
+The double event took place in the Little Church Around the Corner.
+Only Mr. Dunsany, Blondy, the Doctor and a few others were present.  We
+all felt as if we had had enough publicity to last us the rest of our
+lives.
+
+Roland insisted on returning the balance of his legacy to the Mount
+estate.  I thought he had the best reason in the world for hanging on
+to it, but that was Roland.  He actually wanted Irma to turn over her
+pearls to the executors, less what she had paid for them, but we all
+fought him on that.  She had purchased them fairly, I insisted, and if
+Mount had named too low a price that was his affair.  He gave in when I
+pointed out that was the cause of her giving up a lucrative profession,
+and he had no right to deprive her of her property also.
+
+The famous blue pearls were sold.  Part of the proceeds was devoted to
+the purchase of a fine old manor and a farm on the Eastern shore of
+Maryland.  Roland and Irma have forsaken the footlights forever.
+Farming is their true vocation, they say, and nothing could ever tempt
+them back.
+
+Mr. Dunsany has ever remained my firm friend.  He insisted on rewarding
+me very handsomely for my work on the great case, though I considered
+the reputation it brought me enough.  The honour seems likely to last
+me as long as I am able to work.  With the money Sadie and I decided to
+buy a smaller place adjoining our friends.  Sadie has turned farmer,
+too.
+
+I can't be there as much as I would like.  After the dust and danger of
+my work it is like Heaven to run down home.  At first Sadie objected
+strenuously to this arrangement.  She said she expected to continue to
+help me with my work.  That was what she married me for, she said.  But
+the one fright was enough for me.  I don't hear so much about her
+desire now.  Sadie has other things to occupy her mind.  Yes, three of
+them.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thieves' Wit, by Hulbert Footner
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57236 ***