t the hotel by another exit.

A policeman in the street had seen them hire a cab and drive away through
Broadway at a rapid pace.

Unable to learn anything else, the detectives went home. They had very
comfortable apartments and spent the day there piecing out the torn letter
so it could be read.

On the following day they had it translated, and read the following
startling piece of information:

"Paris, France, May 19.

"My dear La Croix: In reply to yours of the 5th inst., I beg to say
that I can easily meet your daughter at Havre, if she comes over on
the Champagne. I shall then take her to Amsterdam, Holland, and
procure the fifty packages of diamonds. She can then assume a
fictitious name and take passage on the steamer Labrador, to
Canada. You can meet her in Montreal, and the stones can be taken
across the border at Niagara Falls, as you suggest. Should you
follow this plan, wire me at once, and I shall so arrange matters
that the American spies for the Customs officials who are on the
lookout here shall know knothing about the transaction. Everything
depends upon keeping this a secret from them, or they will cable
back to the U.S. inspectors to keep a watch for Clara when she
returns to Canada--"

The letter ended abruptly here, for the rest was missing.

But there was enough to expose the whole plan of smuggling a huge amount of
diamonds into the United States.

The Bradys were astonished and Harry said at once:

"This letter proves that La Croix must be the gigantic smuggler whom the
Customs department want run down."

"No question about it," replied Old King Brady. "And as we have the details
of a scheme he intends to operate, we had better make preparations to nip
the plan in the bud, or else to capture the girl smuggler when she makes
her attempt to beat the Custom House."

"Are you aware that the steamer Champagne sails for Havre to-day?"

"Does she?" muttered Old King Brady, glancing at his watch. "Well, we'll
barely have time to reach her if we go at once. Get a cab and we'll see if
we can catch her before she departs."

"Even if we miss her," said Harry, consolingly, "we will be pretty sure to
see La Croix on the pier, seeing his daughter off."

"I don't want to arrest him in that case," said Old King Brady, "for if the
girl gets away, we'll have to keep the man watched in order to let him lead
us to his daughter when