tending, it would
seem, to put the valuable ornament in there and lock it up, when Larch
struck at her. As he did so, he knocked down the heavy statue of the
hunter. It struck her on the head, inflicting what would have proved a
mortal blow, even without the knife thrust.

As the statue fell Larch leaned forward to grasp it, he said, but he
slipped and the knife in his hand entered her side, and she fell on it,
driving it deeper in. Larch declared he never meant to kill, or even
seriously hurt, Mrs. Darcy. But he did kill her.

Seeing her lying, as he then thought, only perhaps seriously wounded,
Larch, taking the diamond cross, staggered around the jewelry shop, and
then fled panic-stricken, went to the Homestead, and drank himself into
a stupor.

Incidentally Larch's confession cleared up other matters, and shifted
certain responsibilities from various persons. The Indian watch,
though impregnated with poison, had nothing to do with the death of
Mrs. Darcy, though she might have been slightly scratched by the hidden
needle. And the money Harry King went out and got the night of the
murder was given him, as he boasted at the time, by a woman. He
refused to name her, but she was named later, when King's wife filed a
petition for a divorce--not her first by the way.

"Well, Colonel," remarked Mr. Mason, as together they strolled toward a
trout stream, several days after the clearing up of the diamond cross
mystery, "I'm glad to know you had the same faith in young Darcy that I
had."

"Oh, yes, there couldn't be any other way out. Jimmie boy, as your Amy
calls him--bless her heart--was a bit careless, but that was all. Some
of his wires that he rigged up for his electric lathe, secretly, did
get tangled with the heavily-charged conductors of the lighting system,
though he didn't know that. It may be they were responsible for the
shocks given. I didn't go into that deeply. And Darcy didn't repair
Singa Phut's watch when he said he would. It was in getting up early
to do this and have the timepiece ready when promised, that he
discovered his relative's dead body."

"Where did Harry King get that odd coin which made it look bad in his
case for a while?" asked Mr. Mason.

"Larch gave it to him, unsuspectingly enough, it seems. When Larch
went into Mrs. Darcy's store she had the tray of rare coins out of the
safe. She may have been going to put them away with the Indian watch
and the diamond cross, but