an accepted member of the gang. You know what happened
during that period. A little while ago I found out that the woman we
wanted--with you, Danglar--was your wife, living in hiding in this
garret as Gypsy Nan. But the jewels themselves were still missing.
To-night they are not. A--a friend of mine, one very much misjudged
publicly, I might say, has them, and has told me they would be handed to
the police.

"And so, Danglar, after coming here to-night, I sent the Sparrow out
to gather together a few of the authorities who are interested in the
case--my friend the assistant district attorney; Cloran, the house
detective; Rough Rorke of headquarters, who on one occasion was very
much interested in Gypsy Nan; and enough men to make the round of
arrests. They should be conveniently hidden across the road now, and
waiting for my signal. My idea, you see, was to allow Mrs. Danglar to
enter here without having her suspicions aroused, and to see that
she did not get away again if she arrived before those who are duly
qualified--which I am not--to arrest her did; also, in view of what
transpired earlier this evening, I must confess I was a little anxious
about those several years' accumulation of stolen funds up there in the
ceiling. As I said at the beginning, I hardly expected the luck to get
you both at the same time; though we should have got you, Danglar, and
every one of the rest of the gang before morning, and--"

"You," Rhoda Gray whispered, "you--are not a thief!" Brain and soul
seemed on fire. It seemed as though she had striven to voice those
words a dozen times since he had been speaking, but that she had been
afraid--afraid that this was not true, this great, wonderful thing, that
it could not be true. "You--you are not a--a thief!"

The Adventurer's face lost its immobility. He half rose from his chair,
staring at her in a startled way--but it was Danglar now who spoke.

"It's a lie!" he screamed out. "It's a lie!" The man's reason appeared
to be almost unhinged; a mad terror seemed to possess him. "It's all a
lie! I never heard of this rajah bunk before in my life! I never heard
of Deemer, or any jewels before. You lie! I tell you, you lie! You can't
prove it; you can't--"

"But I can," said Rhoda Gray in a low voice. The shawl fell from her
shoulders; from her blouse she took the package of jewels and held them
out to the Adventurer. "Here are the stones. I got them from where you
had put them in old Luert