“Yes,” he admitted; “but how do you know all this, Birnes?”

“Mr. Birnes and the men of his agency have favored me with the most persistent attentions during the last few days,” Mr. Wynne continued promptly.  “He has had two men constantly on watch at my office, day and night, and two others constantly on watch at my home, day and night.  There are two there now—­one in a rear room of the basement, and another in the pantry, with the doors locked on the outside.  Their names are Claflin and Sutton!”

So, that was it!  It came home to Mr. Birnes suddenly.  Claflin and Sutton had been tricked into the house on some pretext, and locked in!  Confound their stupidity!

“Why are they locked up?” demanded the chief, with kindling interest.  “Why have you been watched?”

“I think, perhaps, Mr. Birnes will agree with me when I say that that has nothing whatever to do with this crime,” replied Mr. Wynne easily.

“That’s for me to decide,” declared the chief bluntly.

There was a long pause.  Mr. Czenki was leaning forward in his chair, gripping the arms fiercely, with his lips pressed into a thin line.  It was only by a supreme effort that he held himself in control; and the lean, scarred face was working strangely.

“Well, if you insist on knowing,” observed Mr. Wynne slowly, “I suppose I’ll have to tell all of it.  In the first place—­”

“Don’t!” It came finally, the one word, from Mr. Czenki’s half-closed lips, a smothered explosion which drew every eye upon him.

Mr. Wynne turned slightly in his chair and regarded the diamond expert with an expression of astonishment on his face.  The beady black eyes were all aglitter with the effort of repression, and some intangible message flashed in them.

“In the first place,” resumed Mr. Wynne, as if there had been no interruption, “Mr. Kellner here—­”

“Don’t!” the expert burst out again desperately.  “Don’t!  It means ruin—­absolute ruin!”

“Mr. Kellner had those diamonds—­about sixty thousand dollars’ worth of them,” Mr. Wynne continued distinctly.  “Mr. Kellner decided to sell some diamonds.  One of the quickest and most satisfactory methods of selling rough gems, such as those you have in your hand, Chief, is to offer them directly to the men who deal in them.  I went to Mr. Henry Latham, and other jewelers of New York, on behalf of Mr. Kellner, and offered them a quantity of diamonds.  It may be that they regarded the quantity I offered as unusual; that I don’t know, but I would venture the conjecture that they did.”

He paused a moment.  Mr. Czenki’s face, again growing expressionless, was turned toward the light of the window; Chief Arkwright was studying it shrewdly.