expression of joy on my face, and
then there came from behind me a deep chuckle and the observation in a
familiar voice:

"You might throw in a couple of those Remsen coolers, too, while you're
about it, Jenkins."

I whirled about as if struck, and there, in place of the gray-bearded
editor, stood--Raffles Holmes.

"Bully disguise, eh!" he said, folding up his beard and putting it in his
pocket.

"Ye-e-es," said I, ruefully, as I thought of the vanished two thousand. "I
think I preferred you in disguise, though, old man," I added.

"You won't when you hear what I've come for," said he. "There's $5000 apiece
in this job for us."

"To what job do you refer?" I asked.

"The Burlingame case," he replied. "I suppose you read in the papers this
morning how Mrs. Burlingame's diamond stomacher has turned up missing."

"Yes," said I, "and I'm glad of it."

"You ought to be," said Holmes, "since it will put $5000 in your pocket. You
haven't heard yet that there is a reward of $10,000 offered for its
recovery. The public announcement has not yet been made, but it will be in
to-night's papers, and we are the chaps that are going to get the reward."

"But how?" I demanded.

"Leave that to me," said he. "By-the-way, I wish you'd let me leave this
suit-case of mine in your room for about ten days. It holds some important
papers, and my shop is turned topsy-turvy just now with the painters."

"Very well," said I. "I'll shove it under my bed."

"I took the suit-case as Holmes had requested, and hid it away in my
bedroom, immediately returning to the library, where he sat smoking one of
my cigars as cool as a cucumber. There was something in his eye, however,
that aroused my suspicion as soon as I entered.

"See here, Holmes," said I. "I can't afford to be mixed up in any shady
business like this, you know. Have you got that stomacher?"

"No, I haven't," said he. "Honor bright--I haven't."

I eyed him narrowly.

"I think I understand the evasion," I went on. "_You_ haven't got it because
I have got it--it's in that suit-case under my bed."

"Open it and see for yourself," said he. "It isn't there."

"But you know where it is?" I demanded.

"How else could I be sure of that $10,000 reward?" he asked.

"Where is it?" I demanded.

"It--er--it isn't located yet--that is, not finally," said he. "And it won't
be for ten days. Ten days from now Mrs. Burlingame will find it herself and
we'll divvy on the reward, my bo