He was at the cable office by the time it was opened the next morning, and dispatched the following message to the American Consul in Havana: 

“Couple, registered as Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hamblin, sailed from New Orleans for Havana, April 28th.  Search for them in Havana hotels.  Succor young lady, who is not Mrs. Hamblin.  Answer.”

Ray felt that this was the very best thing that he could do.

He would gladly have gone himself to Havana, and longed to do so, but he was sure that if she should escape from her abductor—­for so he regarded Louis Hamblin—­Mona would be likely to return immediately to New York and to him.  Thus he concluded it would be best to send the above message and await an answer from the consul, then if he could learn nothing about the couple he would go himself to search for Mona.

The day seemed interminable, and he was nearly distracted when night came, and he received no answer to his dispatch.  He had not been able to apply himself to business all day, but wandered in and out of the store, looking wan and anxious, and almost ill.

This led his father to imagine that he was unhappy over his contemplated marriage—­a conclusion which did not serve to make the groom-elect feel very comfortable.

On the next morning, however, Ray received the following cablegram: 

“Young lady all right; sailed for New York yesterday, May 1st.”

The relief which these few words afforded Ray’s anxious heart can better be imagined than described.

Mona was true to herself and him, and he knew well enough that she never would have returned to New York if she had been guilty of any wrong.  She would soon be with him, and then he would know all.

He ascertained what steamer left Havana on the first, and when it would be likely to arrive in New York, and as the hour drew near, he haunted the pier, that he might welcome his darling, and give her his care and protection the moment she arrived.

Meantime Mona, her mind relieved of all anxiety, was having a very pleasant passage home with Justin Cutler and his sister.

The weather was delightful, the sea was calm, and none of them was sick, so they spent most of their time together upon deck, and Mona was so attracted toward her new friends that she confided to them much more of her history than she had at first done that evening in the Havana hotel.  In so doing she had mentioned the Palmer robbery and what she had discovered in connection with it while she was in St. Louis.

This led Mr. Cutler to relate his own experience with the crescents, and also the similar deception practiced upon Mrs. Vanderheck, and he mentioned that it was the opinion of the detective whom he had employed to work up the case, and whom Mona had met in St. Louis, that the same parties were concerned in all three operations.

“They are a very dexterous set of thieves, whoever they are,” he remarked, while they were discussing the affair, “but though I never expect to see those crescents again, for I imagine that the stones have been unset and sold, it would afford me a great deal of satisfaction to see that woman brought to justice.”