f, or thieves, managed to pass in unobserved and throw
the bag out upon the line to some confederate awaiting it. The bag
contained a magnificent diamond necklet--a historic heirloom of the
Imperial family of the Hapsburgs--and is valued at fifty thousand
pounds!"

"And those people who met here were the thieves!" gasped the
manageress, turning instantly pale.

"Without a doubt. You see, the Great Northern main line runs close by
us--at Essendine. It may be that the thieves were waiting for it near
there--waiting for it to be dropped out in the darkness. All the
platelayers along the line are now searching for the bag, but we here
are certain that the thieves spent the night in Stamford."

"Not the thieves," I said. "The receivers."

"Exactly."

"But the young foreigner has it!" cried the boots. "He and his friend
set off for London with it."

"Yes. They would reach London in time to catch one of the boat-trains
from Victoria or Charing Cross this morning, and by this time they're
safely out of the country--carrying the necklet with them. Ah!
Scotland Yard is terribly slow. But the delay seems to have been
caused by the uncertainty of Her Highness as to whether she had
actually brought the dressing-case with her, and she had to telegraph
to Balmoral before she could really state that it had been stolen."

"The two men, Douglas Winton and his friend, came here in a
motor-car," I remarked. "They had evidently been waiting somewhere
near the line, in order to pick up the stolen bag."

"Without a doubt, sir," exclaimed the inspector. "Their actions here,
according to what Miss Hammond told me this morning, were most
suspicious. It's a pity that the boots did not communicate with us."

"Yes, Mr. Deane," said the man referred to, "I'm very sorry now that I
didn't. But I felt loath to disturb people at that hour of the
morning."

"You took no note of the number of either of the three cars which
came, I suppose?"

"No. We have so many cars here that I hardly noticed even what colour
they were."

"Ah! That's unfortunate. Still, we shall probably pick up some clue to
them along the road. Somebody is certain to have seen them, or know
something about them."

"This gentleman here knows something about them," remarked the
manageress, indicating myself.

The inspector turned to me in quick surprise, and no doubt saw the
surprise in my face.

"I--I know nothing," I managed to exclaim blankly, at once realizing
th