ey talked to the
lady a while I seen her hands, with gloves on them, reach out of the
stall toward him, and they had a necklace in them that I'll bet was
diamonds."

"A necklace! Was that all?"

"I didn't see anything else. So they talked about it for a long while; a
couple of times Mr. Quigley give it back to her and shook his head like
as if he didn't want to give that much money for it. But she always got
it back to him, and then he put the necklace in the safe and gave her
some money. The man that was looking in at the door blew away again as
the lady came out. She still had her veil on, and as she went up the
hall I opened the door, making believe I was just going out on an
errand, or something, for my boss. And when I got in the hall I seen the
man come from around a corner and stare after the lady like as if she
was the only one in the world."

"Did you notice anything about this man that would make you know him
again if you saw him?" asked Ashton-Kirk.

"Sure," said Danny. "I'd know him all right. He's got a broken nose--the
flattest one I ever saw."

CHAPTER XXIII

A WOMAN!

When Danny made this declaration, Scanlon leaned back in his chair and
drew a long breath of mingled surprise and satisfaction. So that had
been the subject of Fenton's excited consultation with Hutchinson--a
diamond necklace, pawned, or sold, by a woman. And from Fenton's own
words, it was a thing he had been expecting.

Bat was about to break into a detailed account of all he had seen and
heard since his last conversation with the investigator; but Ashton-Kirk
was closely questioning Danny, so the big man held his peace. Finally
the office boy had told all he knew and departed; then Bat, comfortably
settled back in his chair, spoke.

"A flat-nosed fellow, eh?" said he. "Name of Fenton, I think."

He saw the keen eyes of the other flash him a look; it was the first
surprise Scanlon had noted in Ashton-Kirk since the hunt began, and it
filled him with immense satisfaction. He reached for a cigar and lighted
it carefully.

"Lives in a tenement house, off on the other end of town," said he,
after he had the cigar going well. "The same house where I ran across
you--remember?"

Ashton-Kirk laughed.

"You are coming on," said he.

"Maybe," nodded the big athlete, "a little faster than you think, even
now. I've had a few things happen to me in the last twenty-four hours
that have lots of ginger in them."

And so, pau