mory of it." And Patsy sank back on the bier and
covered her face.

"What is it, dear?" whispered a distressed tinker.

"Don't ask--now--here. Sometime I'll be telling ye."

"Well"--the sheriff thumbed the armholes of his vest in a
business-like manner--"I cal'ate we've waited about long enough,
young man; supposin' you explain how you come to have those stones in
your possession; and why you lied to me about her and sent me hiking
off to that country club--when you knew durned well where she was."

The tinker laughed in spite of himself. "Certainly; it's very simple.
I found these, in a suit of rags which I saw on a tramp the morning
you lost the diamonds--and Miss O'Connell. I liked the rags so well
that I paid the tramp to change clothes with me; he took mine and
gave me his, along with a knockout blow for good measure."

The manager of the Inn interrupted with an exclamation of surprise:
"So! You were the young fellow they picked up senseless by the
stables that morning. When the grooms saw the other man running, they
made out it was you who had struck him first."

"Wish I had. But I squared it off with him a few days later," the
tinker chuckled. "At the time I couldn't make out why he struck me
except to get the rest of the money I had; but of course he wanted
to get the stones he'd sewed up in these rags and forgotten. I began
to suspect something when I found you trailing Miss O'Connell."

"See here, young man, and wasn't you the feller that put me on the
wrong road twice?" The sheriff laid a hand of the law suggestively
against his chest.

The tinker chuckled again. "I certainly was. It would have been
pretty discouraging for Miss O'Connell if you'd found her before we
had the defense ready; and it would have been awkward for you--to
have to take a lady in custody."

"I cal'ate that's about right." And the sheriff relaxed into a grin.
Suddenly he turned to the manager of the Inn and pounded his palm
with his fist. "By Jupiter! I betcher that there tramp is the feller
that's been cleanin' up these parts for the past two years. Hangs
round as a tramp at back doors and stables, and picks up what
information he needs to break into the house easy. Never hitched him
up in my mind to the thefts afore--but I cal'ate it's the one
man--and he's it."

"Guess you're right," the tinker agreed. "Last Saturday, when I came
upon him again--in an automobile--still in my clothes, we had a final
fight for the possessi