to the required dimensions.
Clever, very clever!" interposed Mr. Rider, bestowing a glance of
admiration upon the bowed and shivering figure before him. "I think,
during all my experience, I have never had so complicated and interesting
a case. I do not wonder that you look dazed, gentlemen," he went on, with
a satisfied glance at his wide-eyed and wondering listeners, "and I
imagine I could have surprised you still more if I had had time to
examine a certain trunk which stands open up stairs in the lady's
chamber. I think I could find among its contents a gray wig and other
garments belonging to a certain Mrs. Walton, so called, and perhaps a
miner's suit that would fit Mr. Louis Hamblin, alias Jake Walton, who
in St. Louis recently tried to dispose of costly diamonds which he had
brought all the way from Australia, for his rustic sweetheart--eh? Ha,
ha, ha!" and the jubilant man burst into a laugh of infinite amusement.

"Truly, Mr. Rider, your discoveries are somewhat remarkable; but will you
allow me to examine that cross?" a new voice here remarked, and Mr. Amos
Palmer arose from a mammoth chair at the other end of the drawing-room,
where he had been an unseen witness of and listener to all that had
occurred during the last half hour.

It was he who had rung the bell just as Mona was about to enter Mrs.
Montague's boudoir in search of her scissors, and who, upon being told
that the lady was out, had said he would wait for her. He had called to
ask his _fiancee_ to go with him to select the hangings for the private
parlor which he was fitting up for her in his own house.

His face, at this moment, was as colorless as marble; his eyes gleamed
with a relentless purpose, and his manner was frigid from the strong curb
that he had put upon himself.

At the sound of his voice Mrs. Montague lifted a face upon which utter
despair, mingled with abject terror, was written. She bent one brief,
searching glance upon the man, and then shrank back again into the depths
of her chair, shivering as with a chill.

CHAPTER XIX.

HOW IT HAPPENED.

Mr. Rider passed Mr. Palmer the diamond cross, which he took without a
word, and carefully examined, turning it over and over and scrutinizing
both the stones and the setting with the closest attention, though Ray
could see that his hands were trembling with excitement, and knew that
his heart was undergoing the severest torture.

"Yes," he said, after an oppressive silence,