the lad
approached. "They will be annexing you to the staff here if you don't
look out."

"I had to do it, you know," Christopher answered, half apologizing for
the double-faced role he had played. "I'm not usually a
squealer--honest, I'm not. But the diamonds belonged to my father, and I
saw you take them."

"Of course, sonny, of course. I'm not kicking--it was a fair game," the
big fellow returned without a shadow of anger. "So you saw me take them,
did you? Why didn't you sing out at the time?"

"It all happened so quickly that I could hardly trust my eyes," was the
response. "Besides, you looked so much like a gentleman that I couldn't
believe you were just a--a--"

"Thief," cut in Stuart sharply, supplying the word at which the boy had
halted. Nevertheless despite the glibness with which he uttered it, he
cringed and a flood of telltale color rose to his hair. It was the first
time he had exhibited the slightest feeling.

Uncomfortably Christopher nodded.

"Well, that's what I am, you see," continued the man who had now
regained his former debonnaire manner, "so the next time look out and
don't be taken in. There are gentlemen who are thieves, sonny, and then
again there are thieves who are gentlemen--at least I hope so."

So unruffled was his temper, so brave the front he put on the
inevitable, that as Christopher saw him led away between two guards a
momentary pang of regret passed over him. If Stuart had only happened to
have turned his talents to some profession besides diamond stealing,
what a delightful acquaintance he might have proved.

But the next instant Corrigan, the head inspector, broke in on this
reverie, and his words banished further repining:

"The scoundrel won't open his lips," declared he to Mr. Burton. "What
he's done with those diamonds we can't find out. He's mum as an oyster.
I hoped we might tempt him into making a clean breast of the matter--but
not he! He's too hardened a chap for repentance, I reckon."

"His pal, Tony, may have them."

"No doubt," acquiesced the chief. "The two probably have a cache where
they stow their loot."

"I wish we could find it."

"So do I, with all my heart. We may, too, if we succeed in running down
the other chap," Corrigan returned. "I shan't give up hope with Mr.
Christopher on the job."

"I fancy my son isn't going into the business of tracking down criminals
permanently," Burton, Senior, retorted a bit stiffly.

"Like enough not," ca