"That's
good."

Then the detective detailed the information he had received from the
maid, adding thereto divers and sundry conclusions of his own.

Mr. Latham marveled exceedingly.

"He tried to shake us all right when he went out," Mr. Birnes went on
to explain, "but the trap was set and there was no escape."

With certain minor omissions he told of the cab ride to Sixty-seventh
Street, the trip across to a downtown car, and, as a matter of
convincing circumstantial detail, added the incident of the empty
gripsack.

"Empty?" repeated Mr. Latham, startled. "Empty, did you say?"

"Empty as a bass drum," the detective assured him complacently. "He
turned it upside down and shook it."

"Then what became of them?" demanded Mr. Latham.

"Became of what?"

"The diamonds, man--what became of the diamonds?"

"You didn't mention any diamonds to me except those five the other
day," the detective reminded him coldly. "Your instructions were to
find out all about this man--who he is, what he does, where he goes,
and the rest. This is my preliminary report. You didn't mention
diamonds."

"I didn't know he would have them," Mr. Latham exploded irascibly.
"That empty gripsack, man--when he left here he carried millions--I
mean a great quantity of diamonds in it."

"A great quantity of --," the detective began; and then he sat up
straight in his chair and stared at Mr. Latham in bewilderment.

"If the gripsack was empty when he was on the car," Mr. Latham rushed
on excitedly, "then don't you see that he got rid of the diamonds
somehow from the time he left here until you saw that the gripsack
_was_ empty? How did he get rid of them? Where does he keep them?
And where does he get them?"

Mr. Birnes closed his teeth grimly and his eyes snapped. _Now_ he
knew why Mr. Wynne had taken that useless cab ride up Fifth Avenue.
It was to enable him to get rid of the diamonds! There was an
accomplice--in detective parlance the second person is always an
accomplice--in that closed cab! It had all been prearranged; Mr.
Wynne had deliberately made a monkey of him--Steven Birnes!
Reluctantly the detective permitted himself to remember that he
didn't know whether there was anybody in that cab or not when Mr.
Wynne entered it, and--and--! Then he remembered that he did know
one thing--_the number of the cab!_

He arose abruptly, with the light of a great determination in his
face.

"Whose diamonds were they?" he deman