ball of yarn attached to her knitting-work.

Whether his pleasure lay chiefly in the talent shown by Miss Oliver in
her choice of a hiding-place for these jewels, or in the acumen
displayed by myself in discovering it, I do not know; but he evinced an
unbounded satisfaction in my words, crying aloud:

"Beautiful! I don't know of anything more interesting! We have not seen
the like in years! I can almost congratulate myself upon my mistakes,
the features of the case they have brought out are so fine!"

But his satisfaction, great as it was, soon gave way to his anxiety to
see this girl who, if not the criminal herself, was so important a
factor in this great crime.

I was anxious myself to have him see her, though I feared her condition
was not such as to promise him any immediate enlightenment on the
doubtful portions of this far from thoroughly mastered problem. And I
bade him interview the Chinaman also, and Mrs. Desberger, and even Mrs.
Boppert, for I did not wish him to take for granted anything I had said,
though I saw he had lost his attitude of disdain and was inclined to
accept my opinions quite seriously.

He answered in quite an off-hand manner while the Inspector stood by,
but when that gentleman had withdrawn towards the door, Mr. Gryce
remarked with more earnestness than he had yet used:

"You have saved me from committing a folly, Miss Butterworth. If I had
arrested Franklin Van Burnam to-day, and to-morrow all these facts had
come to light, I should never have held up my head again. As it is,
there will be numerous insinuations uttered by men on the force, and
many a whisper will go about that Gryce is getting old, that Gryce has
seen his best days."

"Nonsense!" was my vigorous rejoinder. "You didn't have the clue, that
is all. Nor did I get it through any keenness on my part, but from the
force of circumstances. Mrs. Boppert thought herself indebted to me, and
so gave me her confidence. Your laurels are very safe yet. Besides,
there is enough work left on this case to keep more than one great
detective like you busy. While the Van Burnams have not been proved
guilty, they are not so freed from suspicion that you can regard your
task as completed. If Ruth Oliver committed this crime, which of these
two brothers was involved in it with her? The facts seem to point
towards Franklin, but not so unerringly that no doubt is possible on the
subject."

"True, true. The mystery has deepened rather than