ike shadows, as dark as the night itself, they silently reached a point
from which they could view the north side of the house. Here they
discovered that one of the lower rooms was lighted, with the curtain at
the single window nearly drawn.

"Somebody is up," murmured Chick.

"We'll learn who, if possible."

"Going to have a look?"

"Yes. Come, if you like, but don't get into the glare from the curtain.
Kilgore has a very wicked air gun, and if he and his gang are about
here, we might invite a bullet."

"I'll have a care."

Stealing closer over the damp greensward, they approached the house and
peered beneath the curtain mentioned. There was but one occupant of the
room, which was a small library.

In an easy-chair near the table, with a newspaper fallen across his
knees, sat Rufus Venner, apparently sound asleep.

This was only a part of the game, however, for Venner was wide awake.
By means of their secret wire, he had been informed of Cervera's arrival
at the diamond plant, and of Kilgore's designs upon Nick, and Venner at
that moment suspected that he might be under the eye of the detective.

For nearly half an hour Nick waited for some sign of this artifice, but
Venner in no way betrayed it.

Presently a clock on the mantel struck the half after one, and the sound
appeared to awake him. He yawned, glanced at the clock, then took the
lamp from the table and went up to bed. But never so much as a glance
toward the window.

Nick led Chick away, and they returned across the lawn to a point beyond
the stable.

"It rather looks as if Cervera had been here, doesn't it?" inquired
Chick, with a grin.

"Yes," admitted Nick. "Two facts are very significant of it. First, that
Venner is at home on this particular night; and, second, that he should
be asleep in his chair after midnight. It has a fishy look."

"That's my idea, Nick, exactly."

"Yet the way to prove it doesn't appear quite easy."

"Not just yet. But who occupies that house over yonder, where the roof
shows above the trees?"

And Chick pointed to the distant dwelling, little dreaming that the
diamond plant and the gang they sought were established under its
many-gabled roof.

This was not the first night Nick had watched Venner's house since the
diamond robbery, the doubtful character of which he had suspected at the
outset, and incidentally he had informed himself concerning Venner's
neighbors.

"One Dr. Magruder, I am told, a retired ph