An hour later the man he had sent West to bring on Spotty Morgan entered his room.  This man, a detective from the colonel’s office, had been instructed by wire to go to a certain city and there, without the formality of requisition papers, which Spotty more or less generously waived, bring on the prisoner.

“Well, what does he say, Basset?” asked the colonel, when he had provided his man with a cigar.  “What does he say?” and the voice was eager.

“Oh, he says he did it all right.  And there’s the cross,” and Basset tossed on the table beside the colonel a battered cross of gold in which sparkled many stones with the limpid fire of hidden rainbows.

“Did he give any particulars?”

“Oh, yes, he come across with the whole story.”

“What made him hold back on me then?  He might have known I’d find out.  Why didn’t he confess to me, Basset?”

“Well, I guess it’s just as he says—­he didn’t want to split on a pal.  But when his pal went back on him—­”

“What do you mean—­his pal went back on him?” asked the colonel, and there was uneasiness in his voice.  “And, while you’re about it, Basset, don’t handle that cross so carelessly.  It’s worth several thousand dollars—­a small fortune maybe—­and some of the stones may be loose.  They might fall out.”

“That wouldn’t hurt, Colonel.  I reckon maybe I did lose one or two on the way back, careless like.”

“You lost some of those diamonds?” The colonel’s voice was sharp.

“Diamonds?  Diamonds nothin’!  Them’s paste, Colonel.  That’s what made Spotty sore.  His pal done him dirt, and that’s why he split.  The whole cross is made of phoney diamonds—­paste!”

“Paste diamonds!  Spotty’s pal fooled him!  What do you mean?” gasped the colonel, his apprehension growing.  “Isn’t this the diamond cross that Mrs. Larch owned?  And yet, if this is here, how could her husband send it to her?  And Spotty!  Basset, what does it all mean?”

“Well, Colonel, I don’t know whose cross this is, but whoever lost it didn’t lose much.  It’s worth about ten dollars, I guess, and say, if ever there was a sore crook it’s Spotty!  He says when he and Blue Ike planned to rob Grafton’s store they thought there was some real jewelry there.”

“Rob Grafton’s store!” cried the colonel.  “Didn’t Spotty confess to stealing this diamond cross from Mrs. Darcy, and killing her because she wouldn’t let him get away with it?”

“Colonel this is the first I’ve come on the case, and all I know is I was sent on to bring Spotty back.  I wasn’t told he was charged with murder.”

“He wasn’t exactly charged with it, but—­ Well, go on, what did he confess to?”

“Just robbery, that’s all, and he didn’t get much.  He and Blue Ike cracked a crib here one night.  From what Spotty says they got in Aaron Grafton’s department store, opened the safe the way Ike always does, by listening to the tumblers in the lock, and took out some jewelry.  There wasn’t much—­they picked the wrong safe I guess, but anyhow they took this cross.  Had a fight over it, too, and it got stepped on, or banged up in some way, Spotty says.  Then they heard a noise and skipped.  Spotty kept the cross, and thought he’d have enough salted down, when he sold it, to live easy for a while.