en able to
apply himself to business all day, but wandered in and out of the store,
looking wan and anxious, and almost ill.

This led his father to imagine that he was unhappy over his contemplated
marriage--a conclusion which did not serve to make the groom-elect feel
very comfortable.

On the next morning, however, Ray received the following cablegram:

"Young lady all right; sailed for New York yesterday, May 1st."

The relief which these few words afforded Ray's anxious heart can better
be imagined than described.

Mona was true to herself and him, and he knew well enough that she never
would have returned to New York if she had been guilty of any wrong. She
would soon be with him, and then he would know all.

He ascertained what steamer left Havana on the first, and when it would
be likely to arrive in New York, and as the hour drew near, he haunted
the pier, that he might welcome his darling, and give her his care and
protection the moment she arrived.

Meantime Mona, her mind relieved of all anxiety, was having a very
pleasant passage home with Justin Cutler and his sister.

The weather was delightful, the sea was calm, and none of them was sick,
so they spent most of their time together upon deck, and Mona was so
attracted toward her new friends that she confided to them much more of
her history than she had at first done that evening in the Havana hotel.
In so doing she had mentioned the Palmer robbery and what she had
discovered in connection with it while she was in St. Louis.

This led Mr. Cutler to relate his own experience with the crescents, and
also the similar deception practiced upon Mrs. Vanderheck, and he
mentioned that it was the opinion of the detective whom he had employed
to work up the case, and whom Mona had met in St. Louis, that the same
parties were concerned in all three operations.

"They are a very dexterous set of thieves, whoever they are," he
remarked, while they were discussing the affair, "but though I never
expect to see those crescents again, for I imagine that the stones have
been unset and sold, it would afford me a great deal of satisfaction
to see that woman brought to justice."

"I have the bogus crescents in my possession," Miss Cutler smilingly
remarked to Mona. "Justin has given them to me to keep for him. Would you
like to see them, dear?"

"Yes, indeed," Mona replied, "and I, too, hope that woman may yet be
found. The affair is so like a romance, I am deepl