ince and Princess spent since they were married? I find that the
repairs on the Schloss Steinheimer, situated in the Tyrol, cost
something like forty thousand pounds. It is a huge place, and the
Steinheimers have not had an heiress in the family for many centuries.
The Prince owed a good deal of money when he was married, and it took
something like sixty thousand pounds to settle those debts; rather
expensive as Continental princes go, but if one must have luxuries, one
cannot save money. Not to weary you with details, I found that the two
hundred thousand pounds were exhausted somewhat more than two months
ago; in fact, just before the alleged robbery. The Prince is, of course,
without money, otherwise he would not have married a Chicago heiress,
and the Princess being without money, what does she naturally do?"

"Pawns her own diamonds!" cried Smith enthusiastically.

The detective smiled.

"I thought it much more probable she would apply to her father for
money. I asked him if this was the case, giving him the date, roughly
speaking, when such a letter had been sent. The old man opened his eyes
at this, and told me he had received such a letter. 'But you did not
send the money?' I ventured, 'No,' he said, 'I did not. The fact is,
money is very tight in Chicago just now, and so I cabled her to run on
her debts for a while.' This exactly bore out the conclusion at which I
had already arrived. So now, having failed to get money from her father,
the lady turns to her diamonds, the only security she possesses. The
chances are that she did so before her father's cable message came, and
that was the reason she so confidently wished information to be given to
the police. She expected to have money to redeem her jewels, and being a
bright woman, she knew the traditional stupidity of the official police,
and so thought there was no danger of her little ruse being discovered.
But when the cable message came saying no money would be sent her, a
different complexion was put upon the whole affair, for she did not know
but if the police were given plenty of time they might stumble on the
diamonds."

"But, my dear Cadbury, why should she not have taken the diamonds openly
and raised money on them?"

"My dear fellow, there are a dozen reasons, any one of which will
suffice where a woman is in the case. In the first place, she might fear
to offend the family pride of the von Steinheimers; in the second place,
we cannot tell what