“Take the matter into the courts, then,” was the passionate retort.  “I will defy you all to the bitter end.  And you,” turning with blazing eyes and crimson cheeks to Ray, “I suppose you imagined that you were to win a princely inheritance with your promised wife; that when you found this piece of parchment you would thus enable Mona Forester’s child to triumph over the woman who hated her with a deadly hatred.  Not so, I assure you, for my vengeance is even more complete than I ever dared to hope, and your ‘promised wife,’ my fine young man, will never flaunt her colors in triumph over me here in New York, for her reputation has been irretrievably ruined, and the city shall ring with the vile story ere another twenty-four hours shall pass.”

“Don’t be too sure, madame; don’t be too sure that you’re going to down that clever little lady just yet,” were the words which suddenly startled every one in the room, and the next instant the door swung wide open to admit a new actor in the drama.

A brisk, energetic little man entered the room, and going directly to Mrs. Montague’s side, he laid his hand upon her shoulder.

“Madame, you are my prisoner,” he added, in a more quiet but intensely satisfied tone.

“What do you mean, sir?” haughtily demanded the woman, as she shook herself free from his touch.  “Who are you, and how came you here?”

“Well, we’ll take one question at a time, if you please, madame,” the new-comer returned.  “First, what do I mean?  Just what I say—­you are my prisoner.  I arrest you for obtaining money under false pretenses—­for theft, for abduction.  The proof of the first charge is right here in my hand.  Look!”

He opened his palm and disclosed to the horrified woman’s gaze and to the amazement of the other occupants of the room two beautiful crescents of blazing diamonds.

“Heavens! where did you get them?  Oh, I know—­I know!” shrieked the unhappy creature, cowering and shrinking from the sight as if blinded by it, and sinking upon the nearest chair.

“Yes, I reckon you do,” grimly remarked Detective Rider, for it was he, “and this clears up the Bently affair of Chicago, for here, on the back of the settings, is the very mark which Mr. Arnold of that city put upon them more than three years ago.  Well, so much for that charge.  Now, if Mr. Palmer will just step this way, maybe he’ll recognize some of his property, and we’ll explain the second and third charges.”

Ray looked astonished as he went forward, but he was even more so when Mr. Rider held up before him an elegant diamond cross, which he instantly identified as one of the ornaments which the beautiful Mrs. Vanderbeck had selected on that never-to-be-forgotten day when he was decoyed into Doctor Wesselhoff’s establishment and left there a prisoner, while the woman made off with her booty.

“Where did you get it?” he exclaimed, while Mrs. Montague fell back among the cushions of her chair and covered her face with her trembling hands, utterly unnerved.