t would return in
time to dress for dinner. When his traps arrived they were to be taken
to his room. No luggage ever came, nor was either of the pair seen
again; but we will lay hands on them, never fear."

Brett took a hasty stride or two up and down the room.

"So you think," he burst forth at last, "that Mr. Talbot has not only
taken part in some vulgar intrigue with a woman, but that he has also
bolted with the Sultan's diamonds, sacrificing his whole career to a
momentary impulse and imperilling his neck for the sake of a few gems,
which he cannot even convert into money?"

"Why not? It is not the first time in the history of the world that a
man has made a fool of himself over a woman, or even committed a murder
in order to steal diamonds."

"My dear Winter, do be reasonable. Where is the market for diamonds such
as these are supposed to be? You know, even better than I do, that the
slightest attempt to dispose of them at any figure remotely approaching
their value will lead to the immediate detection and arrest of the
person rash enough to make the experiment. Don't you see, man, that the
Foreign Office and its messenger, its Under-Secretary, your
Commissioner, and the Embassy officials in Paris have been completely
and abjectly fooled--fooled, too, in a particularly silly fashion by the
needless registration of names at the hotel?"

"No, I do not see it. One cannot go against facts, but this time the
evidence looks so strong that I shall be mightily mistaken if Mr. Talbot
does not swing for his share in the matter. Anyhow, I have done my duty
in letting you know what has happened, so I must be off."

"To arrest somebody, of course?" cried Brett, with an irritating laugh;
but Mr. Winter was already hurrying down the stairs.

The momentary feeling of annoyance soon passed, to be succeeded by
profound pity for the household at 118, Ulster Gardens. He well knew
that once the police became convinced that a particular individual was
responsible for the commission of a crime it required the eloquence of
several counsel and the combined intelligence of a judge and jury at the
Old Bailey to force them to change their opinion. Brett had never, to
his knowledge, seen Talbot, yet he felt that this bright, alert and
trustworthy young official was innocent of the slightest voluntary
complicity in a crime which must shock London when its extent became
known.

The testimony of the Foreign Office messenger was, of cour