“Yes; diamonds wrapped in those little squares of white paper that jewelers use.  Looks like they’d been robbing a gem store.”

“You don’t know of any diamonds missing from Mrs. Darcy’s stock, do you?” asked the colonel of Mr. Kettridge.  “Mr. Young and I talked of this before but didn’t settle it.”

“No.  But then she may have had a private stock of which Darcy nor I knew nothing.  It is a point worth looking into.”

“I agree with you.  So stick to Harry, Jack, my boy.”

“He won’t require much sticking to at present.  He and Larch are both so well pickled that they’ll easily keep until morning.”

“Well, watch them after that.  Maybe you’d better put up at the Homestead.”

“I will, though I guess it won’t be the Homestead long.”

“Why not?”

“Well, Larch is going to lose it, I hear.  It’s mortgaged up to the roof and he can’t meet his payments.  The old place has gone to the bow-wows since he started drinking, gambling, speculating and since his wife left him.  All the decent crowd stopped coming.”

“Yes, I suppose so,” agreed the colonel.  “Well, keep watch of Harry King.  He may provide us with a clew that will make it possible to prove Darcy innocent more directly than by the inference of Singa Phut.”

“And do you think Singa Phut killed his partner with the watch also, Colonel?” asked Jack.

“No.  I imagine they quarreled over the possession of the watch, and Shere Ali, perhaps forgetting the deadly nature of it, or knowing the time mechanism was set not to go off for some hours, grabbed it away from Singa.  Then came a quarrel and the killing with the candlestick.  However I don’t want to speculate too far afield.  We have certain matters settled at any rate.”

“Yes, and I’ll get back to the Homestead and watch King,” observed Jack Young with a laugh.

“And I must get back to the shop,” said Mr. Kettridge.  “I have some work to do.  Shall I leave the watch apart this way, Colonel?”

“Yes, I may need it to show to the jury.  Leave it as it is, but put it under glass, and the needle away carefully.  We may have to kill a rat in court as we did in Singa Phut’s cell.”

“I think we are coming on,” mused Colonel Ashley, when his two visitors had gone.  “I am entitled to a bit of recreation,” and, opening his book, he read: 

“Thus you having found and fitted for the place and depth thereof, then go home and prepare your ground-bait, which is, next to the fruit of your labors, to be regarded.”

“I wonder,” mused the colonel, “If my ground bait is all prepared?  Am I right or wrong?  If I could see the diamond cross that Grafton says Larch sent back to his wife—­if I knew where he got it—­”

The telephone rang.

“Yes, what is it?”

“A telegram for you, Colonel.”

“Send it up!”

Tearing open the envelope Colonel Ashley read: