is revelation
of his duplicity, connect him in my thoughts with absolute crime
without a shock to my intuitions. Happily, my scruples were not
shared by my colleagues. They had listed him. Here I felt my
shoulder touched, and a newspaper was thrust into my hand by the
man who had just addressed me.

"Look down the lost and found column," said he. "The third
advertisement you will see there came from the district attorney's
office; the next one was inserted by Mr. Moore himself."

I followed his pointing finer and read two descriptions of the
filigree ball. The disproportion in the rewards offered was
apparent. That promised by Uncle David was calculated to rouse
any man's cupidity and should have resulted in the bauble's
immediate return.

"He got ahead of the police that time," I laughed. "When did
these advertisements appear?"

"During the days you were absent from Washington."

"And how sure are you that he did not get this jewel back?"

"Oh, we are sure. His continued anxiety and still active interest
prove this, even if our surveillance had been less perfect."

"And the police have been equally unsuccessful?"

"Equally."

"After every effort?"

"Every."

"Who was the man who collected and carried out those things from
the southwest chamber?"

He smiled.

"You see him," said he.

"It was you?"

"Myself."

"And you are sure this small ball was among them?"

"No. I only know that I have seen it somewhere, but that it
wasn't among the articles I delivered to Mr. Jeffrey."

"How did you carry them?"

"In a hand-bag which I locked myself."

"Before leaving the southwest chamber?"

"Yes."

"Then it is still in that room?"

"Find it," was his laconic reply.

Here most men would have stopped, but I have a bulldog's tenacity
when once I lay hold. That night I went back to the Moore house
and, taking every precaution against being surprised by the
sarcastic Durbin or some of his many flatterers, I ransacked the
southwest chamber on my own behalf for what certainly I had
little reason to expect to find there.

It seemed a hopeless cause from the first, but I acted as if no
one had hunted for this object before. Moving every article, I
sought first on the open floor and then in every possible cranny
for the missing trinket. But I failed to find it and was about
to acknowledge myself defeated when my eye fell on the long
brocaded curtains which I had drawn across the several wind