ected to scrutiny; my telephone
calls were traced; telegrams opened and read. I had anticipated all
this, of course, and was in communication with Mr. Kellner here only
by carrier-pigeons." He glanced meaningly at Mr. Birnes, who was
utterly absorbed in the recital. "Those carrier-pigeons were not
exchanged by express, because the records would have furnished a
clew to Mr. Birnes' men; I personally took them back and forth in a
suitcase before I approached Mr. Latham with the original
proposition."

He was giving categorical answers to a few of the multitude of
questions to which Mr. Birnes had been seeking answers. The tense
expression about Mr. Czenki's eyes was dissipated, and he sighed
a little.

"I saw the Red Haney affair in the newspapers this morning, as you
will know," he continued after a moment. "It was desirable that I
should come here with Miss Kellner, but it was not desirable, even
under those circumstances, that I should permit myself to be
followed. That's how it happens that Mr. Claflin and Mr. Sutton are
now locked up in my house." Again there was a pause. "Mr. Birnes, I
know, will be glad to confirm my statement of the case in so far as
his instructions from Mr. Latham and the other gentlemen interested
bear on it?"

Chief Arkwright glanced at the detective inquiringly.

"That's right," Mr. Birnes admitted with an uncertain nod--"that is,
so far as my instructions go. I understood, though, that the
diamonds were worth more than sixty thousand dollars; in fact, that
there might have been a million dollars' worth of them."

"A million dollars!" repeated Chief Arkwright in amazement. "A
million dollars!" he repeated. He turned fiercely upon Mr. Wynne.
"What about that?" he demanded.

"I'm sure I don't know what Mr. Birnes _understood_," replied the
young man, with marked emphasis. "But it's preposterous on the face
of it, isn't it? Would a man with a million dollars' worth of
diamonds live in a hovel like this?"

The chief considered the matter reflectively for a minute or more,
the while his keen eyes alternately searched the faces of Mr. Wynne
and Mr. Czenki.

"It would depend on the man, of course," he said at last. And then
some new idea was born within him. "Your direct connection with the
crime seems to be disproved, Mr. Wynne," he remarked slowly; "and if
we admit _his_ innocence," he jerked a thumb at the expert, "there
remains yet another view-point. Do you see it?"