one out this very instant," said Clo. "A boy has come to the door
to say there was someone to see him downstairs. Maybe it's the right
one. He won't be long anyhow. But I'm just as glad to have a chance for
a word with you while he's out of the way. Seems sort of funny he didn't
put you wise about the excitement, you know where."

"You mean Park Avenue?"

"Yes. I can't talk in the 'phone the way I would if the wall was
thicker. Didn't Pete tell you about the present of pearls the lady got
from her husband?"

"What pearls?"

"I can't give you their whole history, but maybe Pete could, if he
wanted to."

"What makes you think so? Have you got on to some frame up, or are you
kidding?"

"Well. Somebody relieved the lady of them. That's what's made her busy
the rest of the time. Might account for documents being late."

"Say, what are you giving me? Has Pete made a deal on his own?... Pearls
instead of papers?"

"Hold the line again for a jiffy, and I'll go through his togs."

"All right. Look sharp."

Clo let the receiver hang loose, and for the third time went down on her
knees before the chest of drawers. Thrusting her arm underneath, she
passed her hand over the dirty carpet. Lodged against the wall at the
back, and in a corner, was something round and hard, a thing which
seemed to be about the size of a small filbert. The girl brought it out
between thumb and finger, freed it of dust, and saw an immense pearl.

"That settles that!" she said to herself. Peterson was the thief. But
had he stolen the envelope as well as the pearls? Oh, if she could only
galvanize the dead to speak! But the next best thing was to speak to the
telephone. The truth might come from that direction, bit by bit, piecing
the different parts of the story together.

Clo, getting to her feet again, was struck with a sudden luminous idea.

"Kit," the woman she was personating, the woman apparently set to watch
Peterson, had found out about the pearls. Either she had believed him a
traitor to the "gang," or she had wanted the pearls for herself. In
either case she had killed him to get them; and one pearl had escaped to
tell the tale of its fellows.

Yes, "Kit" had the pearls. But where were they, and where was she? The
woman was not in her room, because the telephone bell had been ringing
there and she hadn't answered. What if she hadn't been able to get back
to her room after the murder? Kit might have locked her door when she
came