ported, "but we haven't
any such stones in the house. But I believe we expect some in a few
days. If you could--"

"I shall remember it; thank you," interrupted Kennedy brusquely, as I
caught a momentary gleam of satisfaction in his eye. "That's most
fortunate. I'll be in again. Thank you."

We turned toward the door. In an instant it flashed over me that perhaps
they were recutting the big Invincible.

"Just a moment, please, gentlemen," interrupted a voice behind us.

A short, stocky man had come up behind us.

"I thought you did not look like purchasers, nor yet like crooks," he
said defiantly. "Did I hear you refer to the Invincible?"

It was Margot himself, who had been hovering about behind us. Kennedy
said nothing.

"Yes," he went on, "I am cutting a large diamond, but it is not like the
Invincible. It is much handsomer--one that was discovered right here in
this country in the new diamond fields of Arkansas. The diamond itself
is already sold. And you would nevair guess the buyer, oh, nevair!"

"No?" queried Kennedy.

"Nevair!" reiterated Margot.

"It could not be delivered to a woman who was once the maid of
Rawaruska, the Russian dancer?" Craig asked abruptly.

Margot shot a quick and suspicious glance at us.

"Then you are, as I suspected, a detectif?" he cried.

Kennedy eyed him sharply without admitting the heinous charge. Margot
returned his look and I felt that of all sayings that about a dishonest
man not being able to look you in the eye was itself the least credible.
He laughed daringly. "Well, perhaps you are right," he said. "But
whoever it is, he is lucky to have bought a stone like it so cheaply!"

The man was baffling. I could not figure it out. Had Margot been simply
a high-class "fence" for the disposal and convenient reappearance of
stolen goods?

We returned uptown to our apartment to find that in the meantime Wade
had called up again. Kennedy got him on the wire. It seemed that shortly
after we left Margot's Cecilie had called again and had gone off with a
small, carefully wrapped package.

"A strange case," pondered Kennedy, as he hung up the receiver. "First
there is a murder that looks like a suicide, then the sale of a diamond
that looks like a fake." He paused a moment. "They have worked quickly
to cover it up; we must work with equal quickness if we are to uncover
them."

With almost lightning rapidity he had seized the telephone again and had
our old friend First