her relations with her husband were. She may not
have wished him to know that she was short of money. But that she has
stolen her own diamonds there is not the slightest question in my mind.
All that is necessary for me to do now is to find out how many persons
there are in Vienna who would lend large sums of money on valuable
jewels. The second is to find with which one of those the Princess
pawned her diamonds."

"But, my dear Cadbury, the lady is in Meran, and Vienna is some hundreds
of miles away. How could a lady in the Tyrol pawn diamonds in Vienna
without her absence being commented on? or do you think she had an agent
to do it for her?" Again the detective smiled indulgently.

"No, she had no agent. The diamonds never left Vienna. You see, the ball
had been announced, and immediate money was urgently needed. She pawned
the diamonds before she left the capital of Austria, and the chances are
she did not intend anyone to know they were missing; but on the eve of
the ball her husband insisted that she should wear her diamonds, and
therefore, being a quick-witted woman, she announced they had been
stolen. After having made such a statement, she, of course, had to
stick to it; and now, failing to get the money from America, she
is exceedingly anxious that no real detective shall be employed in
investigation."

At Dover Miss Baxter, having notes of this interesting conversation in
shorthand, witnessed the detective bid good-bye to his friend Smith, who
returned to London by a later train. After that she saw no more of Mr.
Cadbury Taylor, and reached the Schloss Steinheimer at Meran without
further adventure.

CHAPTER VI. JENNIE SOLVES THE DIAMOND MYSTERY.

Miss Baxter found life at the Schloss much different from what she had
expected. The Princess was a young and charming lady, very handsome, but
in a state of constant depression. Once or twice Miss Baxter came upon
her with apparent traces of weeping on her face. The Prince was not
an old man, as she had imagined, but young and of a manly, stalwart
appearance. He evidently possessed a fiendish temper, and moped about
the castle with a constant frown upon his brow.

The correspondence of the Princess was in the utmost disorder. There
were hundreds upon hundreds of letters, and Miss Baxter set to work
tabulating and arranging them. Meanwhile the young newspaper woman kept
her eyes open. She wandered about the castle unmolested, poked into odd
corners, t