The Washington weekly post., 1899-05-23
CHAPTER III.

besn stolen. One OF them, genial ang
| pleasant man. took Vishnager CAREFUL,
| over the events Of the day when he has
visited Arbrow and brought the diamonds
| back 20 ROckpoTt. Yishnager reached III.
point where the tramp had made snatch
at the watch chain and the parcel haC
been dropped.
Yes" said the detective, that wa.
when they went"
But" said Vlshnager, Il picked up tn,
parcel again"
mo" said the detective, "you did no
| pick Up the parcel; you picked Up "a par
| Gel"
But" said Vishnager. ''the cases were
! In IL, and recognized them; and Mrs
Denison recognized them as the cases
which she handed 20 me. The only thing
is that they were empty"
"NothlGg is easier' said the detective
than for two jewel cases 20 be made ex.
actly Ike two others. / have no doubt
that particularly smart gang has had lis
eye on these diamonds for some time past
and the first thing IL would do would he
10 prepare cases exactly similar to those
in whicf. the diamonds were kept"
1T was in the drawing-room they were
paekeG Ir-'
The drawing-room Is on the grount
floor 1t was lighted and the curtain
were not all drawn. One OF the gang il
the garden could easily have watched an,
seen the original cases being packed VI
in brown paper. What Is simpler thai
for the thief Immediately to pack up hi
cases in brown paper and wait hi!
chance? You leave the house with th'
parcel. and he follows. He pretends L
make a grab at your watch chain, and
you drop your parcel. He picks ii up and
leaves the dummy. You pick up the
dummy and carefully hide it In your
safe And unfortunately some days
elapse, during which the thief has every
chance Of getting clear away with his
spoil. BY this time probably every stone
has been taken out and reset in different
forms so that it would be impossible to
trace them or recognize them OF course
what we've got to 40 now is 10 look for
the supposed tramp. He has got long
start and / am afraid there is very little
chance, But still, we shall do our best. -
And now," said Vishnager 'T will re-
mind you Of one little thing which seems
TO me to knock your theory on the head.
The parcel was sealed with the Harston
arms. The parcel which / handed TO
was. as you have yourself seen, secured
with exactly the same seal"
Yes" the detective said, "that looks
like a difficulty on the face of 1t, but !
am afraid 1t is only on the face Of It.
Lady Harstons house had been carefully
watched for some days in all probability.
Her ladyship herself tells me that men
had been found sneaking about only a
week before, pretending to be in search
Of work and SO on. Mrs. Denison Is one
or the many women who are fond of
using sealing-wax. She sealed. I am told,
most OF her letters, even quite unimpor-
tant letters. and she used the Harston
seal You may be sure that a smart
gang would have noticed that. Simply as
a precaution-a thing which might be
useful-they would have got a facsimile
of that seal on the writing-table. There
are scores of ways by which they could
have done that
The explanation satisfied the detective
very much better than 1t satisfied Wish
nager. At last he took his courage be-
tween his teeth. went to his sister, and
said:
81 am going to ask you a plain ques-
ton. Ellen. Are you, by way of practi-
cal joke, hiding these diamonds until
after the dancer
His sister said that he was brute,
went TO her room and cried for sixteen
consecutive minutes. Then she washed
her face and came back plying. The loss
OF the diamonds, she explained, had prob
ably unhinged his mind. But since ne
supposed she could do a stupid. vulgar
thing like that, perhaps II was better TO
give her assurance that she could not do
II, and had not done 1t. Vishnaser SAID
that he had not supposed; he had only
asked. She replied that he would not
have asked If he had not supposed. Wish
nager went out into the garden, swore a
good deal to himself, and wished there
were no women in the world and 10 dis
mOnds. Then he came back to the police
theory again. He did not see how the
scheme could have been carried our with
out some confederate in the house. On
further reflection he decided that Inc
confederate would not be a servant. He
would be somebody who heard the talk
in the drawng-roOm who had opportuni-
ties that servant would not have. And
then there suddenly dashed across his
mind recollection Of that brilliant gen.
tleman with the sash necktie, who hung
about the house and did not go out shoot
ing with the other men. Nobody knew
much about Richard Wilkins except that
he had written some clever books, and he
had always given Vishnager the impress
sion of being rather an outsider. Also
Richard Wilkins had left Lady Harston's
on November 20.
Vishnager's next step was 10 find out
where wilkins went TO. This was very
easy. He had gone to London. Wish
nager remembered that there IS a place In
London known as Hatton Garden, and his
suspicious deepened.
Vishnager intended to give the police a
day or two more. Then he was going up
to London to see Messrs. StreeJer about
replacing the stolen diamonds And when
he went he made up his mind 10 cali on
Mr.. Richard Wilkins at his fat in South
Kensington.
Mrs. Denison kept up her spirits won
derfully. On the night before Vishnager's
intended departure for London she was
brilliant at dinner. and her
brilliance WAS by no means ill-natured.
On the contrary, during the last few days
she had been very gentle and sympa-
thetic, and Ellen Vishnager's hostility to-
ward her had begun TO waver.
81 am so very much more sorry for
you," said Mrs. Denison, than / am for
myself. And you must persuade your
brother to give up that mad notion about
other diamonds TO replace those
which have been lost II is too absuri;
could not possibly take them. l do lot
dream of taking them"
This impressed Ellen Nishnager.
The host was the last man TO go 20
had that night. As he stood in the hall
IL struck him that there was frost in
the air. and having the country gentle
mans interest in the weather. he thought
he would go out ard have look at Il.
II was a beautiful, clear night. and Wish
nagcr held in mis- hand cigar which had
reached an interesting point. He might
as well wander down the garden and
1nish *. He went back 10 the house and
put on q hat and sauntered forth again.
The frost mad undoubtedly come. The
lawn was hard beneath his feet. As he
stood there by tad clipped yew hedge
he looked up At that moment an upper
.yondow Of the house burst into brilliance.
The light had been switched on the in
side OF the room. He tried to puzzle out
whose room that would be. and had just
concluded that il was his sisters, when
Mrs Denis0n, in . very pretty dress
ug-goWn. walked TO the window She