ntime Kirby had sent his list of the guests who had given up their
rooms on August seventh:

George M. Weaver, Jr., Utica, N. Y., well known to hotel people and
vouched for by them.

Walker Parker, New Orleans, ditto.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hull; quiet elderly people; first visit to hotel.

Henry M. Gillespie, Locke, N. Y. Middle-aged man; new guest.

C. F. Willard, Chicago; been going to hotel for ten years; vouched for
by hotel people.

Armed with the list, Average Jones went to the Hotel Denton and spent a
busy morning.

"I've had a little talk with the hotel servants," said he to Kirby, when
the latter called to make inquiries. "Mr. Henry M. Gillespie, of Locke,
New York, had room 168. It's on the same floor with Mrs. Hale's suite,
at the farther end of the hall. He had only one piece of luggage, a
suitcase marked H. M. G. That information I got from the porter. He left
his room in perfect order except for one thing: one of the knobs on
the headboard of the old fashioned bed was broken off short. He didn't
mention the matter to the hotel people."

"What do you make of that?"

"It was a stout knob. Only a considerable effort of strength exerted
in a peculiar way would have broken it as it was broken. There was
something unusual going on in room 168, all right."

"Then you think Henry M. Gillespie, of Locke, New York, is our man."

"No," said Average Jones.

The Westerner's square jaw fell. "Why not?"

"Because there's no such person as Henry M. Gillespie, of Locke, New
York. I've just sent there and found out."

Three stones of the fire-blue necklace returned on the current of
advertised appeal. One was brought in by the night bartender of a
"sporting" club. He had bought it from a man who had picked it up in a
gutter; just where, the finder couldn't remember. For the second a South
Brooklyn pawnbroker demanded (and received) an exorbitant reward. A
florist in Greenwich, Connecticut, contributed the last. With that
patient attention to detail which is the A. B. C. of detective work,
Average Jones traced down these apparently incongruous wanderings of the
stones and then followed them all, back to Mrs. Hale's fire-escape.

The bartender's stone offered no difficulties. The setting which the
pawnbroker brought in had been found on the city refuse heap by a
scavenger. It had fallen through a grating into the hotel cellar, and
had been swept out with the rubbish to go to the municipal "dump." The
appare