whether
she'd bring 'em herself, or this girl you've seen about in the
newspapers; the one who called on him Sunday afternoon. I've told you
about the women's voices in the hall, and someone sittin' plump on the
trunk when I was inside. Well, if I could o' peeped, I bet I'd seen
Olga. She was one of the women dressed for the automobile they're tryin'
to trace an' can't."

"Would you knowed Olga if you 'ad seen her?"

"Would I? Say, did you never hear of Roger Sands?"

"He was de guy who worked for Heron las' year, and got de gang goin'
after him."

"Well, it was Olga he married, but not with her own name. She'd took
another so as to get away with the papers. She's had the papers from
then till now. The thing that interests me, and maybe will you, is
something else. It popped into my nut to-day that the pearls are hers! I
bet something went wrong with the papers, and she gave Pete the pearls
instead. I bet he was studyin' how to double-cross Chuff, and square
himself when--when my act comes on."

"What 'old would Chuff 'ave on a woman married mit a big fellah like
Sands?" Churn wanted to know. "Vy she let herself be skinned like dat,
for Stephen's dead an' stiff dese tree weeks or more?"

"Yes," Kit repeated. "Stephen's been dead 'most a month. That's one
reason they couldn't let things slide, so the minute Pete was free they
put him on the job. He was keen, because of Heron. And John Heron blew
into New York just the right time, for the plan. Pete was to get the
papers first, and then--you know what."

"Yes, I know dat. But Stephen--Stephen gone, what 'old 'ad Chuff on
Olga?"

"Booby, dear, Olga doesn't know Stephen's dead."

Clo's blood rushed to her brain. She felt faint. Had she been on her
feet she would have fallen. This was the one thing of all for Beverley.
Clo felt that she hated this cruel Cheffinsky with an almost murderous
hatred. How could she let Beverley know, and make her understand that
"Stephen" was dead. Ought she to go back with her news to Park Avenue,
and abandon the pearls? The police could never be asked to take a hand
in this business, and before she could even ask help from O'Reilly and
Denham, Churn might have disappeared. With herself as sentinel off duty,
nothing was sure, for a dangerous restlessness possessed the pair.
Still, Beverley would sacrifice the pearls for the knowledge that her
enemies had no longer any hold upon her.

"If I dared telegraph!" the girl thought. For she