was a good
attempt.

"Good! That's better, though there's room for improvement," said the
detective. "Now, I'll leave you. I have lots to do."

"I'm sorry. Colonel, to put you to all this trouble--"

"Pooh! Now I'm in it there's no trouble that's too much. I'll get
about the same fun out of this as I would if I fished--and I'll fish
with greater enjoyment later on--when I've cleared you."

"I hope you do, Colonel. And if there's anything I can do--"

"Thanks, but Miss Mason has already arranged to have me whip her
father's trout stream when this case is over, and that's reward enough
for me. Now, sir, one last word to you!" and the colonel assumed the
military appearance that so well befitted him. "Stop worrying!"

"I'll try, Colonel!"

"Don't try--do it."

"One question."

"Well, one only. What is it?

"Do you think Mr. Grafton--"

The detective smiled and shook his finger at Darcy.

"You just let _me_ do the thinking!" he advised as he turned to go out.

Colonel Ashley spent two busy days, most of his time being given over
to investigating Aaron Grafton. And the more he saw of that gentleman
the more the detective became convinced that the merchant knew
something of the crime.

"I wouldn't admit, even to myself," mused the colonel, "that he had a
hand in it, or that he was an accessory before or after. But he
certainly knows something about it, and enough to make him worry.
That's what Aaron Grafton is doing--worrying. And he's worrying about
something that ought to be in the jewelry shop and isn't. Now, what is
it?"

This, very evidently, was something for Colonel Ashley to discover, and
with all his skill he set himself to this task. For the time being he
dropped several other ends--tangled ends of the skein he hoped to
unravel--and devoted his time to Grafton. And, at the end of two days
the detective learned that the merchant was going to make a hurried
trip to New York--a trip not directly connected with his store, for
those trips were made at other times of the year.

"Well, if he goes to New York I go too!" said the colonel grimly.

And he went, on the same train with Aaron Grafton, though unknown to
the latter.

It was a skilful bit of shadowing the detective did on the journey to
the metropolis, so skilful that, though the merchant plainly showed by
his nervousness that he thought he might have been followed, he did
not, seemingly, suspect the quiet man seated not far