The Ordway new era., 1920-03-26

plausible yarn to save appearances.
and when handed him my letter with
the dime and begged him to mail II
for me l knew l was saved. But j
have never yet attempted to count up
the lies those diamonds cost me!
1t was now little after ten and
there was nothing for me to do but
walt 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 | saw perfectly he could do
It'll Where he had her was that she'd
smuggled the stones. He knew it-I
knew it-Claire knew 1t. And IL 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 It.
I suddenly remembered what George
lind told me about his renting the flat
"Why. the man was here before we
were :" exclaimed. "He took n faster
steamer-he was all ready to carry
through the job when we landed :"
And with that suddenly remembered
another thing that had entirely slipped
my mind: while our baggage was being
examined-or rather not examined
and Claire was weeping-and every
body was flying round and asking ev
erybody If he'd seen her mother-an
elderly man in big fur automobile
coat. the collar up about his face and
his cap down over his brow-n man
with n flowing white beard and flash
Ing. black. beady eyes-a man on
crutches-had stood opposite us,
watching. AS | looked Mt him | had
the quick impression that there was
something wrong about hlm-that he
was there, perhaps, to steal from the
incoming baggage in the confusion
The next moment my eye fell on a
turquoise-bended slipper - hers or
mine. didn't know which-thnt had
fallen down between our suitcases.
The old gentleman had his eye on 1t
also. | saw his hand come out of his
big pocket and reach. cautiously. slow
ty. My own hand shot out and grabbed
the slipper from under his nose. and l
gave him double-barreled glare.
hadn't finished the glare when my
cousin came hurrying to tell me to be
quick, our baggage was through.
l had. as say. forgotten the whole
incident, but-THE MAN IN DIS
GUIsE WAS MONSIEUR DE RAVE
MOL.
knew 1t then-he confessed 1t
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 II have found III" and pranced
TO my bedroom. l had the key to the
whole puZzle-"one of those slippers"
When I 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 sin" and drop
els lost" and she answered my ques-
tion-she told me as plain as plain
could be that she had smuggled the
diamonds through the customs house
'in one of the slippers"
Easy enough snatched them from
beside my bed. Easy enough-with
those high insteps. So that was how
she did i'll
Claire had been shopping till she
found out where the diamonds were
that was what her father sent her over
pt,t 81, Of 60 I,n
monds herself-the risk of her being
caught with the goods was too great
that WIS her fathers job; she was to
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. Delario and me that
would make it possible for him to turn
phe trick? Why had he come over by
q faster steamer except to be ready
FOR II?
It's precisely what he did. I learned
1T all later. He came over ahead of
us, passed himself OF in disguise, and
forged credentials MS an Italian gov
'ernmcnt secret service agent tracing
an old master that had been recently
stolen from one of the Italian museums
and that was known TO be coming to
America - smuggied. of course II III
wharge OF a certain woman, whom he
knew by sight.
To carry ont this pose he had al
ready met several incoming steamers
md nc was prepared to step up to
Mrs. Delario, demand to search her
baggage and then-one turn of his
hand and he could have walked OFF
wIth'her diamonds in his pocket, shed
tiis disguise and let her whistle for
them. Instead Of that he got n glare
from me lone twist of my hand and
I had "ono of those sllppers"-he
didn't know which and he didn't dare