sing now and then to draw at his cigar, he related all that
had occurred both on that night and the night before. Ashton-Kirk
listened with careful attention, and when Bat had finished, he said:

"You appear to have had quite a time of it. I am obliged to you for some
of the points you have made; they throw light upon corners which up to
now have been rather obscure."

"What worries me," said Bat, "is that----"

But the investigator stopped him.

"To worry in a matter like this is to admit that you are jumping at
conclusions," said Ashton-Kirk. "And that only, so to speak, clouds the
water; it makes it almost impossible to see any distance ahead, and
spoils one's judgment of what is already in one's hand."

There was a short pause, and then the speaker went on:

"I grew somewhat interested in Gaffney's place at once upon hearing
Dennison speak of it that afternoon at the Polo Club. After assuming the
disguise you saw me in, I went there and engaged in a game at one of the
tables. Inside of an hour I had the information that the Bounder had
occasionally visited the place, and always to meet a man of the name of
Fenton. Fenton was in the rooms at the time, and when he went home I
trailed him. I rented the room almost across the hall from his, with the
same idea in my mind as that of your friend the burglar's."

"I got that at the time," spoke Bat Scanlon. "But what _was_ the idea?"

"There were diamonds in question," said Ashton-Kirk. "The diamonds Tom
Burton took from Nora Cavanaugh. It occurred to me, after considering
the matter carefully, that Fenton might have them in his possession. But
my search of his room, just finished as Bohlmier and Big Slim arrived,
showed me that they were not kept there, at least."

"This whole business about those diamonds sounds kind of funny to me,"
said Bat. "Nora told her maid she put them away in a bank vault; how do
you know she didn't recover them in some way and do just that very
thing?"

Ashton-Kirk pressed one of the series of call bells.

"That brings us to a point upon which I think we can expect definite
intelligence," said he.

In a few moments Fuller appeared, dapper and alert.

"How soon will you be ready to make a report upon the matter you have
been working up?" asked the investigator.

"Right away," replied Fuller, as he spread some typewritten papers upon
the table. "I put it on the machine while I was waiting to speak to
you."

Ashton-Kirk took up the