"I am dull of comprehension, Raffles," said I. "Tell me exactly what you
mean."

"Simply this," said Raffles Holmes. "The present four hundred consists of
about 19,250 people, of whom about twenty-five per cent. go to Newport at
one time or another--say, 4812. Of these 4812 about ten per cent. are
eligible for invitations to the Burlingame dinners, or 480. Now whom of the
480 possibilities having access to the Burlingame cottage would we naturally
suspect? Surely only those who were in the vicinity the night of the
robbery. By a process of elimination we narrowed them down to just ten
persons exclusive of Mrs. Burlingame herself and her husband, old Billie
Burlingame. We took the lot and canvassed them. There were Mr. and Mrs.
Willington Bodfish--they left early and the stomacher was known to be safe
at the time of their departure. There were Bishop and Mrs. Pounderby,
neither of whom would be at all likely to come back in the dead of night and
remove property that did not belong to them. There were Senator and Mrs.
Jorrocks. The Senator is after bigger game than diamond stomachers, and Mrs.
Jorrocks is known to be honest. There were Harry Gaddsby and his wife. Harry
doesn't know enough to go in when it rains, and is too timid to call even
his soul his own, so he couldn't have taken it; and Mrs. Gaddsby is long on
stomachers, having at least five, and therefore would not be likely to try
to land a sixth by questionable means. In that way we practically cleared
eight possibilities of suspicion.

"'Now, Mrs. Burlingame,' said I, 'that leaves four persons still in the
ring--yourself, your husband, your daughter, and the Duke of Snarleyow, your
daughter's newly acquired fiance, in whose honor the dinner was given. Of
these four, you are naturally yourself the first to be acquitted. Your
husband comes next, and is not likely to be the guilty party, because if he
wants a diamond stomacher he needn't steal it, having money enough to buy a
dozen of them if he wishes. The third, your daughter, should be regarded as
equally innocent, because if she was really desirous of possessing the jewel
all she had to do was to borrow it from you. That brings us down to the Duke
of--"

"'Hush! I beg of you, Mr. Raffles Holmes!' she cried, in great agitation.
'Not another word, I beseech you! If any one should overhear us--The
subject, after all, is an unprofitable one, and I'd--I'd rather drop it, and
it--it--er--it has just occurred to me