This ornament Larch instantly demanded, but Mrs. Darcy refused to give it up, not only on account of his condition, but because she did not consider that he had any claim to it, knowing that it had been his wife’s before their marriage.

Larch was insistent in his demands, and tried to take the diamond cross from Mrs. Darcy.  She resisted him in the dimly-lighted and deserted store, and he caught up the paper-cutter dagger and threatened her.

She backed away from him, toward the open safe, intending, it would seem, to put the valuable ornament in there and lock it up, when Larch struck at her.  As he did so, he knocked down the heavy statue of the hunter.  It struck her on the head, inflicting what would have proved a mortal blow, even without the knife thrust.

As the statue fell Larch leaned forward to grasp it, he said, but he slipped and the knife in his hand entered her side, and she fell on it, driving it deeper in.  Larch declared he never meant to kill, or even seriously hurt, Mrs. Darcy.  But he did kill her.

Seeing her lying, as he then thought, only perhaps seriously wounded, Larch, taking the diamond cross, staggered around the jewelry shop, and then fled panic-stricken, went to the Homestead, and drank himself into a stupor.

Incidentally Larch’s confession cleared up other matters, and shifted certain responsibilities from various persons.  The Indian watch, though impregnated with poison, had nothing to do with the death of Mrs. Darcy, though she might have been slightly scratched by the hidden needle.  And the money Harry King went out and got the night of the murder was given him, as he boasted at the time, by a woman.  He refused to name her, but she was named later, when King’s wife filed a petition for a divorce—­not her first by the way.

“Well, Colonel,” remarked Mr. Mason, as together they strolled toward a trout stream, several days after the clearing up of the diamond cross mystery, “I’m glad to know you had the same faith in young Darcy that I had.”

“Oh, yes, there couldn’t be any other way out.  Jimmie boy, as your Amy calls him—­bless her heart—­was a bit careless, but that was all.  Some of his wires that he rigged up for his electric lathe, secretly, did get tangled with the heavily-charged conductors of the lighting system, though he didn’t know that.  It may be they were responsible for the shocks given.  I didn’t go into that deeply.  And Darcy didn’t repair Singa Phut’s watch when he said he would.  It was in getting up early to do this and have the timepiece ready when promised, that he discovered his relative’s dead body.”

“Where did Harry King get that odd coin which made it look bad in his case for a while?” asked Mr. Mason.

“Larch gave it to him, unsuspectingly enough, it seems.  When Larch went into Mrs. Darcy’s store she had the tray of rare coins out of the safe.  She may have been going to put them away with the Indian watch and the diamond cross, but she had no chance.  And after Larch had killed her, seeing the money, he picked up a handful, as he needed some change.  In a way the discovery of the odd coin helped in solving the mystery, for I kept my helper, Jack Young, at the Homestead after that, and it was hearing King and Larch talking about the diamond cross that gave me just the clew I wanted.