“Thank God!” the young man breathed softly.

He stooped and pressed reverent lips to the marble-white brow, then straightened up and, after one long, lingering look at her, turned quickly and left the room.

“I have no statement to make,” Mr. Czenki was saying, in that level, unemotional way of his, when Mr. Wynne reentered the room where lay the dead.

“We are to assume that you are guilty, then?” demanded Chief Arkwright with cold finality.

“I have nothing to say,” replied the expert.  His gaze met that of Mr. Wynne for a moment, then settled on the venerable face of the old man.

“Guilty?” interposed Mr. Wynne quickly.  “Guilty of what?”

Chief Arkwright, without speaking, waved his hand toward the body on the floor.  There was a flash of amazement in the young man’s face, a sudden bewilderment; the diamond expert’s countenance was expressionless.

“You don’t deny that you killed him?” persisted the chief accusingly.

“I have nothing to say,” said the expert again.

“And you don’t deny that you were Red Haney’s accomplice?”

“I have nothing to say,” was the monotonous answer.

The chief shrugged his shoulders impatiently.  Some illuminating thought shone for an instant in Mr. Wynne’s clear eyes and he nodded as if a question in his mind had been answered.

“Perhaps, Chief, there may be some mistake?” he protested half-heartedly.  “Perhaps this gentleman—­what motive would—­”

“There’s motive enough,” interrupted the chief briskly.  “We have this man’s description straight from his accomplice, Red Haney, even to the scar on his face—­” He paused abruptly, and regarded Mr. Wynne through half-closed lids.  “By the way,” he continued deliberately, “who are you? What do you know about it?”

“My name is Wynne—­E. van Cortlandt Wynne” was the ready response.  “I am directly interested in this case through a long-standing friendship for Mr. Kellner here, and through the additional fact that his granddaughter in the adjoining room is soon to become my wife.”  There was a little pause.  “I may add that I live in New York, and that Miss Kellner has been stopping there for several days.  She has been accustomed to hearing from her grandfather at least once a day by telephone, but she was unable to get an answer either yesterday or to-day, so she came to my home, and together we came out here.”

Mr. Birnes looked up quickly.  It had suddenly occurred to him to wonder as to the whereabouts of Claflin and Sutton, who had been on watch at the Thirty-seventh Street house.  The young man interpreted the expression of his face aright, and favored him with a meaning glance.

“We came alone,” he supplemented.

Mr. Birnes silently pondered it.

“All that being true,” Chief Arkwright suggested tentatively, “perhaps you can give us some information as to the diamonds that were stolen?  How much were they worth?  How many were there?” He held up the uncut stones that had been found on the floor.