“Ah, ha,” mused the colonel.  “I think I shall have to do a little night fishing.”

So saying, having read a little farther in his Izaak Walton, he went peacefully to his berth and awoke calmer and himself again.

But if the colonel felt refreshed on reaching Colchester, it was not because he felt that he was in a fair way to solve the problem—­or, rather, the many problems connected with the Darcy murder.

“It’s worse tangled than before,” mused the old detective.  “I wonder if Grafton—­ No, it couldn’t be.  But I must have a talk with his friend Cynthia.  Ticklish business when a man goes out walking with a married woman and steps on her cross.  There are complications and complications.  I wonder when I’ll begin to unravel some of them?”

For reasons of his own, the colonel said nothing to the police or county authorities in Colchester about the arrest of Spotty, nor did he mention that, nor the finding of the diamond cross, to Darcy or Grafton.  He wanted to be sure of his ground before he told of this end of the affair.

“I wish I knew what to make of Grafton,” mused the colonel, “His share in it—­if share he had—­is getting more complicated.  Can he and Spotty be up to some trick between them and did the gunman get away with the cross?  It wouldn’t be the first time Spotty had hired out his services to a man who wanted something desperate done!  Now in this case, Grafton may have wanted something from Mrs. Darcy she wasn’t willing to do.  In that case—­”

The colonel shook his head.

“I guess,” he half-whispered, “that Shag was right.  This is going to be a mighty complicated case.  Talk about a diamond cross, there may be a double-cross in it on the part of Grafton.  I must watch you a bit closer, my friend.”

The colonel considered that he was working to clear Darcy, and he wanted to do it in his own way.  He was willing—­perforce—­that, for the time, the young man be considered guilty.  He could not help the young man by making these few disclosures now.  The prisoner would not be released because Spotty or any one else was suspected, nor would he be admitted to bail.  In any case he must remain in jail.

The Grand Jury was setting considering the evidence against the prisoner, and against others accused of various crimes.

“And I suppose they’ll indite Darcy,” mused the colonel.  “It means only another step, however, a step I have already counted on.  It won’t help or hinder the solving of the mystery.  Hang Spotty, anyhow!  Why couldn’t he keep out of this?  He surely has tangled it worse than ever.  I wonder if he’s telling the truth when he says he didn’t go near the place?  It was Spotty, or one of his kind, who got in and out without leaving a trace.  It took Spotty’s skill.  But—­I don’t know.  I must have another look around the jewelry store.”

A day or so after his return from the West, the colonel made a close examination of the shop.  Just what he was looking for he hardly knew, but he was quite surprised when he discovered, connected with the main lighting wires of the store, other wires which ran to various places in the shelves and the show windows, where many of the clocks stood.