“Larch had taken out the valuable diamonds from the ornament, and had disposed of them, in spite of what he said to his wife just before his death, to get some much-needed money.  He really did send her the crushed gold setting, promising, in the letter he dispatched to her by the boy I intercepted, to restore the diamonds to her if she would meet him.

“This she consented to do.  As it happened, Aaron Grafton was calling on her at the time, trying to find some means of helping her, for there is the old-time love between them.  And it was at her suggestion that he followed her when I was shadowing Larch.  Evidently Grafton didn’t, at that time, know it was only the crushed and diamondless cross that Larch had sent back.  And after he died and confessed, we found a paper of imitation diamonds in his pocket that Larch had ready to use in deceiving his wife if she had agreed to sign the papers he wanted her to, so he could bolster up his failing business.”

“Well, he’s out of the way now, and I hear the hotel has been sold.”

“Yes, Mr. Mason.  And it will be, so I hear, once more the oldtime and respectable resort it once was.  As for Miss Ratchford, she has gone to friends in California, and there, I understand, Mr. Grafton will shortly follow.  They are to be married in about a year.  Mr. Grafton is going to sell out his business.  He told me he would not press the charge against Spotty for stealing the imitation diamond cross.  So Spotty will soon be at liberty again.”

“I’m glad of that.  He’s a sport—­in his own way.”

“Yes,” agreed the colonel,

“One point puzzles me,” went on Mr. Mason, “and that is, why Cynthia—­I call her that for I’ve known her for years—­why she didn’t make Larch support her after the separation.  She could have had a regular divorce and big alimony—­that is if he could have paid.”

“Maybe that’s it—­he couldn’t.  Anyhow, she seems not to have wanted to accept any of his money after he had spoiled her life.  It was a foolish marriage, though at the time it may have seemed advantageous to her—­or her mother.  After the murder, or let us call it killing, for Larch with his last breath protested he never meant it—­after that, which Cynthia seems to have guessed—­she was even more strong in her determination not to take any of his money.  She was prepared, too, in case Jimmie had been found guilty, to make a statement implicating her husband, though, under the law she could not be compelled to testify against him in a murder trial.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s all over, Colonel,” said Mr. Mason, with a sigh of relief.  “There are two happy ones, if ever there were any,” and he motioned to Amy and Darcy, walking slowly across the meadow in the golden glow of the setting sun.

“Yes, I’m glad I had a hand in helping them.”

The young people, turning, saw the two men, and Amy waved her hand.  Slowly she and her lover approached.