The Jasper news., 1919-12-25
CHAPTER xl.-contlnued.

plausible yarn to save appearances,
and when handed him my letter with
the dime and begged him to mail 1t
for me knew I was saved. But
have never yet attempted to count up
the lies those diamonds cost mel
1t was now little after ten and
there was nothing or me to do but
wait and shiver. began to think CO.
herently-to appreciate what monsieur
himself would be getting into by call
Ing the police or the customs authori-
ties to help him steal Mrs. Delario's
diamonds.
And yet l saw perfectly he could do
It'll Where he had her was that she'd
smuggled the stones. He knew tt
knew it--Claire knew it. And If he
were bold enough to steal them from
her in just that way wasn't sure but
she was timid enough to let him do 1t.
suddenly remembered what George
had told me about his renting the fiat.
"Why, the man was here before we
were" exclaimed. "He took faster
steamer-he was. all ready to carry
through the job. when we landed |"
And with that l suddenly remembered
another thing that had entirely slipped
my mind: whilo our baggage was being
examined-or rather not examined
and Claire was weeplng-and every
body was flying round and asking ev-
erybody II he'd seen her mother--an
elderly man In big fur automobile
coat, the collar up about his face and
hIq hnypO hto hroxu-o n
with flowing white beard and flash.
ing, black, beady eyes-a man on
crutches-had stood opposite US,
watching. AS | looked at him l had
the quick impression that there was
something wrong about hini-that he
WAS there, perhaps, to steal from the
incoming baggage in the confusion.
The next moment my eye fell on a
'urquoise-beaded slipper - hers or
mine, | didn't know which-that had
fallen down between our suitcases.
The old gentleman had his eye on II
also. ! saw his hand come out Of his
big pocket and reach, cautiously, SLOW
ly. My own hand shot out and grabbed
the slipper from under his nose, and
gave him a double-barreled glare. /
hadn't finished the glare when my
cousin came hurrylng to tell me to be
quick, our baggage was through.
/ had, as ! say, forgotten the whole
incident, but-THE MAN IN DIS
GUISE WAS MONSIEUR DE RAVE
MOL.
l knew 1t then-he confessed II
later; he had expected to get those
diamonds into his clutches while they
were actually going through the GUS
toms inspection bounced out of my
chair with one glad whoop-"Eure-
ka III have found I'll" and pranced
TO my bedroom. ] had the key to the
whole puzzle-"one Of those slippers !"
When / asked Mrs. Delario that aft
ernoon over the telephone how she got
the diamonds through the customs
house she replied, zone Of those slip
pers we got in Paris Is lost" Those
were the words she said; what she
really communicated was ". one
Of those slippers we got In Paris
Is lost" The tones of her voIce-the
significant pauses-had been ignored
by me then. But add "in" and drop
''is lost" and she answered my Ques-
ton--she told me as plain as plain
could be that she had smuggled the
diamonds through the customs house
'ln one of the slippers"
Easy enough snatched them from
beside my bed. Easy enough-with
those high insteps. So that was how
she did It'll
Claire had been snooping till she
found out where the diamonds were
that was what her father sent her over
for. But she was not to steal the dla'
monds herself-the risk of her being
caught with the goods was too great
that was her fathers job; she was tc
give the signal-he was to get the
stones. And why hadn't her mother
met her, unless to create the confu
sion for Mrs. Delarlo and me that
would make It possible for him to turn
the trick? Why had he come over by
a faster steamer except to be ready
for it7
It's precisely what he did. learned
It all later. He came over ahead Of
us, passed himself of In disguise. anc
forged credentials as an Italian gov
ernment secret service agent tracing
an old master that had been recently
stolen from one of the italian museum.
and that was known 10 be coming Il
America - smuggled, Of course - II
charge of a certain woman. whom hI
kx, -