ear--ruined, disgraced! Jewels! Ah--!"

"Come on--we're going with you," said Fullaway. "Quick now!"

Allerdyke got some vivid impressions during the next few minutes,
impressions various, startling. They began with a swift whirl through the
lighted streets of the smoky old city, of a dash upstairs at a big hotel;
they ended with a picture of a beautiful, highly enraged woman, who was
freely speaking her mind to a dismayed hotel manager and a couple of men
who were obviously members of the detective force.

CHAPTER VIII

THE JEWEL BOX

Mademoiselle Zelie de Longarde, utterly careless of the fact that her
toilette was but half complete, that she wore no gown, and that the
kimono which she had hastily assumed on discovering her loss had slipped
away from her graceful figure to fall in folds about her feet,
interrupted the torrent of her eloquence to stare at the three men whom a
startled waiter ushered into her sitting-room. Her first glance fell on
the concert-director, and she shook her fist at him.

"Go away, Weiss!" she commanded, accompanying the vigorous action of her
hand with an equally emphatic stamp of a shapely foot. "Go away at
once--go and play on the French horn; go and do anything you like to
satisfy your audience! Not one note do I sing until somebody finds me my
jewels! Edinburgh's stole them, and Edinburgh'll have to give them back.
It's no use your waiting here--I won't budge an inch. I--"

She paused abruptly, suddenly catching sight of Fullaway, who at once
moved towards her with a confidential and reassuring smile.

"You!" she exclaimed. "What brings you here? And who's that with
you--surely the gentleman of whom I asked my way in some wild place the
other night! What--"

"Mademoiselle," said Fullaway, with a deep bow, "let me suggest to you
that the finest thing in this mundane state of ours is--reason.
Suppose, now, that you complete your toilet, tell us what it is you
have lost; leave us--your devoted servants--to begin the task of
finding it, and while we are so engaged, hasten with Mr. Weiss to the
hall to fulfil your engagement? A packed audience awaits
you--palpitating with sympathy and--"

"And curiosity," interjected the aggrieved prima donna, as she threw a
hasty glance at her deshabille and snatched up the kimono. "Pretty talk,
Fullaway--very, and all intended to benefit Weiss there. Lost,
indeed!--I've lost all my jewels, and up to now nobody"--here she flashed
a wrath