an' the best I could figger it was a
hundred thousan'. Go on an' read the rest of it."

They read on silently, their heads side by side, the untouched coffee
growing cold; and ever and anon one or the other burst forth with some
salient printed fact.

"I'd like to seen Metzner's face when he opened the safe at the store
this mornin'," Jim gloated.

"He hit the high places right away for Bujannoff's house," Matt
explained. "Go on an' read."

"Was to have sailed last night at ten on the Sajoda for the South
Seas--steamship delayed by extra freight--"

"That's why we caught 'm in bed," Matt interrupted. "It was just
luck--like pickin' a fifty-to-one winner."

"Sajoda sailed at six this mornin'--"

"He didn't catch her," Matt said. "I saw his alarm-clock was set at
five. That'd given 'm plenty of time... only I come along an' put the
kibosh on his time. Go on."

"Adolph Metzner in despair--the famous Haythorne pearl
necklace--magnificently assorted pearls--valued by experts at from fifty
to seventy thousan' dollars."

Jim broke off to swear vilely and solemnly, concluding with, "Those damn
oyster-eggs worth all that money!"

He licked his lips and added, "They was beauties an' no mistake."

"Big Brazilian gem," he read on. "Eighty thousan' dollars--many valuable
gems of the first water--several thousan' small diamonds well worth
forty thousan'."

"What you don't know about jools is worth knowin'," Matt smiled
good-humouredly.

"Theory of the sleuths," Jim read. "Thieves must have known--cleverly
kept watch on Bujannoff's actions--must have learned his plan and
trailed him to his house with the fruits of his robbery--"

"Clever--hell!" Matt broke out. "That's the way reputations is made...
in the noospapers. How'd we know he was robbin' his pardner?"

"Anyway, we've got the goods," Jim grinned. "Let's look at 'em again."

He assured himself that the door was locked and bolted, while Matt
brought out the bundle in the bandanna and opened it on the table.

"Ain't they beauties, though!" Jim exclaimed at sight of the pearls; and
for a time he had eyes only for them. "Accordin' to the experts, worth
from fifty to seventy thousan' dollars."

"An' women like them things," Matt commented. "An' they'll do everything
to get 'em--sell themselves, commit murder, anything."

"Just like you an' me."

"Not on your life," Matt retorted. "I'll commit murder for 'em, but not
for their own sakes, but for sake of what