myself together. Presently I saw her ladyship come down
and go to the office. Those diamonds had been deposited in the hotel
safe for obvious reasons. My wife came out of the office presently with
the case in her hand. Then I recognized what had happened. She was
afraid of some move of mine, and she was going to deposit the stones
elsewhere. It did not take me long to make up my mind where she was
going. She was about to take the plunder to Hilton in Bond Street."

"How long ago?" the woman called Cora asked eagerly. "This is
important."

"Well, not more than an hour, anyway," Richford replied. "Why do you
ask?"

"Because Hilton closes at five," the woman said. "I know that, because
the firm has done several little jobs for me lately. You may be pretty
sure that your wife did not deposit those stones at Hilton's to-day;
therefore she still has them in her pocket. That being so, what we have
to do now is to discover where she has gone. If you like I'll go round
to the _Royal Palace Hotel_ at once and see if she has returned. I'll
ask the clerk in the office, and if he says she has returned, you may
safely bet that those stones are back in the hotel safe again. If she
has not returned, they are still on her person."

"It's just as well to make sure," Reggie said reflectively.

The woman flitted away and came back soon with a smile on her face.

"So far, so good," she said. "The lady has not returned to the hotel.
Now, Mr. Richford, if you can only put us on the track of the timid
little hare, then----"

"Done with the greatest possible ease," Richford replied. "She's gone to
Wandsworth. I can't make the thing out at all, and in any case it does
not in the least matter. When I was waiting for my wife just now I saw a
letter to her from Berrington,--Colonel Berrington. As you know, he is a
prisoner in Audley Place, and why he should have written that letter, or
how Sartoris persuaded the warrior to write it, I don't know any more
than Adam. But that's where she has gone. If you can intercept her
before she gets there, or waylay her when she leaves, why there you are.
I don't suppose my wife will tell Sartoris that she has all that stuff
in her pocket."

"Do you think that she took a cab?" Reggie asked.

"I should say not. Cabs cost money, and Beatrice has not much of that.
Wandsworth is not a place you can get to in ten minutes, especially
after the business trains have ceased running for the evening; so that
if