'm serious. There are plenty of detectives who can reason up to
the wrong man, but none, I'm sure, who can do it so quickly as you can."

Mrs. Stevens laughed at her daughter's discomfiture, and the girl joined
heartily.

"Supposing for a moment that your theory is true," continued Nick. "How
do you suppose that Colonel Richmond managed to get the jewels over
here?"

The girl became serious in a moment.

"This is a very delicate subject," she said. "I hate to cast suspicion
upon any one."

"You refer to the new servant, of course."

"Well, we know nothing about the girl," said Mrs. Stevens, "and, of
course, when anything so strange happens in the house we naturally think
of her. She brought good references, and she certainly looks honest."

"Did she have an opportunity to put the jewels into this room?"

"As to that, I have talked it over with my daughter, and it seems just
possible that the girl could have done it. I thought at first that it
was not."

"Of course, it was possible," exclaimed Miss Stevens. "She could have
run up the back stairs at any time."

She proceeded to explain this theory, until it seemed quite plausible.

And yet all the time she was filling the detective's mind with the
blackest suspicions against herself.

Here was the case: The plotters were trying to work on Colonel
Richmond's superstitions.

A celebrated detective had been called in. If he succeeded, the
plotters failed, and the Stevenses lost the jewels.

What more natural than that the criminals should wish to throw the
detective on a wrong scent? Was it not to be expected that they should
pitch upon this new servant as the best person with whom to deceive
Nick.

Altogether, Miss Stevens was making out a very strong case against
herself.

CHAPTER V.

COLONEL RICHMOND'S NIGHT ADVENTURE.

Of course, Nick questioned the servant. To have failed to do that would
have been to throw light upon his real suspicions.

She was a tall, slender, and rather pretty Irish girl, named Annie
O'Neil.

Her answers to all questions were plain and simple.

She told what she had been doing on the previous day while Mrs. Stevens
was at lunch. She had not been in the dining-room all the time, but had
come in twice or thrice when summoned.

During the remainder of the time she had been in the kitchen. Nobody had
been with her there.

When Nick left the house, he rode half a mile back along the road, and
then dismounted and s