So she asked the dealer from whom she had bought her goods to direct her to a watchmaker.

The dealer gave her the address of a jeweller not far off.

She took her watch to “Messrs. North and Simms, Watchmakers and Jewellers,” and asked an elderly man behind the counter, who happened to be one of the firm, if he could make her watch “gae” while she waited for it in the shop.  And she detached it from its chain and handed it to him.

Mr. North received the rich, diamond-studded, gold repeater, and looked at the tawdry, ignorant, vain creature that presented it, with astonishment.

Then he examined the initials set in diamonds, and a change came over his face.  He went to his desk, taking the watch with him.  He drew out a small drawer, took from it a photograph, and compared it with the watch in his hand.  Then he placed both together in the drawer and locked it and beckoned a young man from the opposite counter, scribbled a few words on a card and sent him out with it.

Rose, who had watched all these movements without the least suspicion of their meaning, now moved toward the jeweller and said: 

“Aweel then, hae ye lookit at my watch and can ye na mak it ga?”

“The spring is broken, Miss, and it will take a little time to repair it.  You can leave it with me, if you please,” replied Mr. North.

“Indeed, then, and I’m nae sic a fule!  I’ll na leave it with you at a’.  If you canna mak it gae just gie it till me,” she said.

Now Mr. North did not wish his customer to leave his shop yet a while.  The truth was that photographs of the late Sir Lemuel Levison’s watch and snuff-box, in the possession of his legal steward, had been copied and the copies distributed by London directory to every jeweller in the city, as a means of discovering the stolen property, and finally detecting the criminals.

Messrs. North and Simms had received a copy of each.

And when Rose presented the rich watch to be repaired, Mr. North had at first suspected and then identified the article as the missing watch of the late Sir Lemuel Levison.  And he had locked it in the drawer with the photographs, and dispatched a messenger to the nearest police station for an officer.

His object now was to detain Rose Cameron until the arrival of that officer.

“Will you look at something in my line this morning, Miss?” he inquired.

“Na.  Gi’e me my watch, and I will gae my ways home,” she answered.

“I have a set of diamonds here that once belonged to the Empress Josephine.  They are very magnificent.  Would you not like to see them?”

“Ou, ay! an empress’s diamonds? ay, indeed I wad!” cried the poor fool, vivaciously.

Mr. North drew from his glass case a casket containing a fine set of brilliants, which probably the Empress Josephine had never even heard of, and displayed it before the wondering eyes of the Highland lass.