emed as if some one had struck him on the head with
a club, for he actually saw stars and grew so dizzy and confused that he
could scarcely stand; for--_in the woman's ears he caught sight of a
gleaming pair of crescents_!

He soon recovered himself, however, and took a second look. He had, as
we know, been looking for those peculiar ornaments for more than three
years, and now he had found them, as he had always believed he should,
upon a gay woman of fashion in the midst of fashionable admirers.

It did not take him long to decide upon his course of action, and he was
now again the cool and collected detective, although the fierce glitter
in his eyes betrayed some relentless purpose in his mind.

He made his way quietly into a corner, where he stood covertly watching
the brilliant woman, and comparing her appearance with a description that
was written in cipher upon some tablets which he took from his pocket.

"'Very attractive, about twenty-eight or thirty years, rather above
medium height, somewhat inclined toward _embonpoint_, fair complexion,
blue eyes, short, curling red hair,'--Hum!" he softly interposed at this
point, "she answers very well to all except the red hair; but drop a red
wig over her light-colored pate, tint her eyebrows and lashes with the
same color, and I'll wager my badge against a last year's hat we'd
have the Bently widow complete. There can be no doubt about the
crescents, though, and that cross on her bosom looks wonderfully like
the one that Palmer described to me. I suppose she thought no one would
be on the lookout for it here, and she could safely wear it with all the
rest, I always said the same woman put up both jobs," he interposed, with
a satisfied chuckle. "Guess I'll take a nearer look at the stones,
though, before I do anything desperate."

He put up his tablets, and began to move slowly about the rooms; but his
eagle eye never once left the form of the woman in white brocaded velvet.

Three hours later, Mrs. Vanderheck, wrapped in an elegant circular of
crimson satin, bordered with ermine, and attended by her maid and a
dignified policeman as a body-guard, swept down the grand stair-way
leading from the ball-room to the street, on her way to her carriage.

As she stepped out across the pavement and was about to enter the
vehicle, a quiet, gentlemanly looking person approached her and saluted
her respectfully.

"Madame--Mrs. Vander_beck_," with an intentional emphasis on th