A few hours served to arrange matters satisfactorily to all parties.  The sum required was deposited in one of the city banks, and the cashier was empowered to pay it over to the city treasurer, if Jake Walton failed to appear at the time named to answer to the charge of complicity in the Palmer diamond robbery.  He was then released, the lawyer was handsomely remunerated for his efficient services, and Mrs. Walton and her son returned to the Southern Hotel.

It was on their way thither that they entered the car in which Mona was also returning to the hotel, and when she made the discovery that the woman had on the very dress which the charming Mrs. Vanderbeck had worn on the day of the Palmer robbery.

We know what followed—­how she immediately sent on to Ray for the scrap of cloth, and how, later, she found that it exactly fitted the rent in the dress.

We know, also, how, immediately following this discovery, she sought the headquarters of the detective force, where she opportunely encountered Mr. Rider, and related to him the discoveries which she had made.

Mrs. Walton had not appeared personally in connection with the formalities regarding the release of her son.

Everything had been conducted by the shrewd lawyer, so Detective Rider had not met her at all; but he felt confident, when Mona described her, together with her dress, that she was not the mother of Jake Walton at all, but one of the “gang” who had so successfully robbed different parties during the last two or three years.

The moment the young girl disappeared from the office, after her interview with him, the detective executed a number of antics which would have done credit to a practiced athlete.

“The girl is a cute little body,” he muttered, with a chuckle, as he sat down to rest a moment, and plan his course of action, “and it is lucky for me that she happened to be in St. Louis just at this time and stopping at that very hotel.  I wonder,” he added, with a frown, “that I didn’t think that the woman who gave bail, might be one of the gang.  By Jove!” with a sudden start, “I believe that money, which she deposited in the bank as security, is only a blind after all, and they both intend to skip!  What a wretched blunder it was to accept bail anyway!  But I’ll cage both birds this time, only what I do must be done quickly.  They must have done a smashing big business in diamonds,” he went on, musingly; “and there are evidently two women and one man associated.  This Mrs. Walton is doubtless the old one who tricked Doctor Wesselhoff, and that red-headed Mrs. Vanderbeck, I am still confident, is none other than the Widow Bently, who did Justin Cutler and Mrs. Vander_heck_ out of their money.  I’d just like to get hold of all three!  Tom Rider, if you only could, it would be a feather in your cap such as doesn’t often wave over the head of an ordinary detective, not to mention the good round sum that would swell your pocket-book!  But half a loaf is better than no bread, and so here goes!  I’ll arrest them both, and shall object to anybody going bail for them.”