“Hello!  More trouble at the place,” mused the colonel, quickening his steps.  “I wonder what’s up this time?”

He inquired casually from those on the outskirts of the throng, and received enough information to justify the getting out of several extra newspapers.

“Burglar tried to blow up the safe and got blowed up himself.”

“Hold-up man shot three of the girls behind the diamond counter and then killed himself.”

“Naw!  Somebody tried to set fire to the place!”

“Aw, only one of the girls fainted; that’s all.”

These opinions came mostly from boys or young men.  No one seemed to know exactly what had happened.  The colonel spied Mulligan, the officer who had been the first official on the scene at the murder of Mrs. Darcy, and nodded in friendly fashion.  The bluecoat escorted the colonel through the crowd into the store.

“I guess you’ll be interested,” said Mulligan.

“Yes, thank you.  What is it?”

“I didn’t hear all the particulars.  But Miss Brill, the young lady clerk, received an electrical shock from some wires hidden under the metal edge of one of the showcases, so Mr. Kettridge says, and she was knocked down.”

“Killed?”

“No, but her head struck on the edge of a case and she’s badly cut.  I sent for the ambulance.  It happened when the store was crowded and made a bit of excitement.”

“I should think it would!  Hidden electric wires!” and the colonel thought of a certain discovery he had made.

CHAPTER XV

A DOG

With the help of the police, and when the stricken, though not dangerously injured, girl had been taken away in the ambulance, the crowd was dispersed.  It was then Colonel Ashley had a chance to speak to Mr. Kettridge.

“What’s all this I hear?” asked the detective.

“I don’t know,” and the manager smiled wearily.  “If you heard all of the rumors I did they would include everything from an I.W.W. plot to a combined attack by New York gunmen.”

“But what was it?”

“Well, one of our clerks, Miss Brill, was waiting on a customer at one of the silver showcases.  They are arranged with electric lights inside that may be switched on when needed.

“She turned on the current to illuminate the inside of the case, so that her customer might make a selection to have spread out on top, when, in some manner, Miss Brill received a severe electrical shock.  She was thrown backward to the floor, and her head struck a projecting corner of one of the rear showcases.  She was badly cut, but the hospital doctor said there was no fracture.”

“Did she get shocked from the wires that run into the interior of the case?” asked the detective.

“No, and that’s the queer part of it,” said the manager.  “She was shocked while leaning against the silvered, metal edge of the glass case, and, on examination, I find some hidden electrical wires there—­wires that must, in some way, have become crossed on the lighting circuit.  I didn’t know the wires were there.”