had suffered. It was plainly to be detected
in his voice. "It might have been a harmless love affair, a flirtation,
with letters involved, letters which she thought would distress me if I
ever saw them."

"Nothing more than that?"

"I never thought she had been guilty of anything--well, immoral,
heinous."

"You say," Bristow changed the course of questioning, "she pawned her
jewels twice. How did she do that? Where did she get the money to redeem
them after the first pawning?"

"I don't know. I never could find out."

"You had no six or seven thousand dollars to give her for that purpose,
as I understand it?"

"No."

"Where did she get it, then?" Bristow's questions, despite their
directness, were free from offense.

"I--I thought," Withers began again and paused. "I thought that, perhaps,
her father helped her out, got the jewels out of pawn both times for
her."

"Did you ever ask him?"

"Yes; and he denied having done so. But, you see, my theory is borne out.
Before, when she pawned them, her father was wealthy; and she was his
favourite child. She knew he would help her. But now his money is gone.
He's failed. Consequently, she has not pawned them this time. She knew
there would be no chance to redeem them."

Bristow leaned forward in his chair.

"Mr. Withers," he asked, "as a matter of fact, did you ever know that
your wife had pawned her jewels?"

"Well," he said, as if making an admission, "she would never confess it
to me. I assumed it from the fact that on both occasions the jewels were
missing for a good while. They were certainly not in her possession. She
couldn't produce them when called upon to do so."

"I see. Now, Mr. Withers, what did you do yesterday, all day yesterday,
after reaching here?"

"I went to the Brevord and registered under the name of Waring. After I
had had breakfast, I went straight to Abrahamson's pawnshop. It's the
only pawnshop in town. I told him I was looking for some stolen jewelry
and I expected that an attempt might be made to pawn it with him. He
agreed to let me wait there, well concealed by the heavy hangings at the
back of his shop. I spent the day there except for a few minutes in the
afternoon when I went out for a quick lunch."

"Yes? Did you find out anything?"

Once more Withers found it hard to speak.

"Yes"; he said finally. "A man came in and pawned one of my wife's rings.
It had a setting of three diamonds. It was worth about seven hundred an