loth.

Do you suppose that woman was grateful? She snatched it from me.

"I knew it was there. I told you it was there. If you'd had any sense
you'd have looked there first. The boys in this hotel are so stupid."

"That's all, ma'am?"

She nodded. She was fitting the key into the black box she'd taken
from the top drawer. Nat had got to the outside door when he heard her
come shrieking after him.

"Nat--Nat--come back! My diamonds--they're not here. I know I put
them back last night--I'm positive. I could swear to it. I can see
myself putting them in the chamois bag, and--O my God, where can they
be! This time they're gone!"

Nat could have told her--but what's the use? He felt she'd only lose
'em again if she had 'em. So he let them lie snug in his trousers
pocket--where he had put the chamois bag, when his eyes lit on it,
under the corner of the carpet. He might have passed it over to her
then, but you see, Tom, she hadn't told him to look for a bag; it was a
key she wanted. Bell-boys are so stupid.

This time she followed his every step. He could not put his hand on
the smallest thing without rousing her suspicion. If he hesitated, she
scolded. If he hurried, she fumed. Most unjust, I call it, because he
had no thought of stealing--just then.

"Come," she said at last, "we'll go down and report it at the desk."

"Hadn't I better wait here, ma'am, and look again?"

She looked sharply at him.

"No; you'd better do just as I tell you."

So down we went. And we met Mr. Moriway there. She'd telephoned him.
The chambermaid was called, the housekeeper, the electrical engineer
who'd been fixing bells that morning, and, as I said, a bell-boy named
Nat, who told how he'd just come on duty when Mrs. Kingdon's bell rang,
found her key and returned it to her, and was out of the room when she
unlocked the box. That was all he knew.

"Is he telling the truth?" Moriway asked Mrs Kingdon.

"Ye--es, I guess he is; but where are the diamonds? We must have
them--you know--to-day, George," she whispered. And then she turned
and went upstairs, leaving Moriway to do the rest.

"There's only one thing to do, Major," he said to the proprietor.
"Search 'em all and then--"

"Search me? It's an outrage!" cried the housekeeper.

"Search me if ye loike," growled McCarthy, resentfully. "Oi wasn't
there but a minute; the lady herself can tell ye that."

Katie, the chambermaid, flushed painfully, and th