and that the thieves had made a 'clean job' of it, the officers said,
'that's the work of the Diamond Coterie.'

"I have been much abroad of late, but every time I came back to New York
the Coterie had gathered fresh jewels into its treasure box, and no man
had found a clue to the sly fellows.

"I began to feel interested in the clique and resolved to take a hand at
them, at the first opportunity. That opportunity came, with the news of
the great Wardour robbery, and I came down to W----.

"I saw enough in this robbery to interest me, for various reasons.

"I believed I could see distinctly the handiwork of the Diamond Coterie,
and I saw another thing; it was the first piece of work I had known them
to bungle. And they had bungled in this.

"I made some of my conclusions known to Miss Wardour and her friends,
but I kept to myself the most important ones.

"The story of the chloroform, so carefully administered, was one of the
things over which I pondered much; I borrowed the chloroform bottle and
the piece of linen that had been used to apply the drug, and that night
I accepted the hospitality proffered me by Sir Clifford. I took a wax
impression of the vial, at his house, and I made an important discovery
while there.

"Sir Clifford found me half famished and ordered his housekeeper to
bring in a lunch. Not wishing my identity known, I pretended to be a
patient; and just as my host was leaving the room, he tossed me a
handkerchief, which he took from a side table, bidding me make myself a
bandage to partially conceal my face.

"Now my eyes are trained to see much at a glance, and the moment they
fell upon that bit of white linen they were riveted there.

"The handkerchief was precisely like the mutilated one used with the
chloroform. This might be a coincidence--plain white handkerchiefs with
wide borders were not uncommon, but this handkerchief was _marked_!

"I could scarcely wait until Sir Clifford should show me to my room, so
anxious was I to compare the two pieces of linen.

"The whole one bore the initials F. L., and on the raw, torn edge of the
half square was a black dot that was undoubtedly the fragment of a
letter, or name, that had been torn hastily off. It corresponded exactly
with the lower end of the letter L. upon the whole handkerchief given me
by Sir Clifford.

"This might be a coincidence, but it is one of my rules to suspect two
coincidences coming close together; and I had already dis