She held out her hand and, as he took it, remarked: 

“They must have had a clergyman and witnesses.”

“Undoubtedly.”

“I wish I had been one of the witnesses,” she sighed sentimentally.

“They were two old men.”

“Oh, no!  Don’t tell me that.”

“Fogies; nothing less.”

“But the clergyman?  He must have been young.  Surely there was some one there capable of appreciating the situation?”

“I can’t say about that; I did not see the clergyman.”

“Oh, well! it doesn’t matter.”  Miss Strange’s manner was as nonchalant as it was charming.  “We will think of him as being very young.”

And with a merry toss of her head she flitted away.

But she sobered very rapidly upon entering her limousine.

“Hello!”

“Ah, is that you?”

“Yes, I want a Marconi sent.”

“A Marconi?”

“Yes, to the Cretic, which left dock the very night in which we are so deeply interested.”

“Good.  Whom to?  The Captain?”

“No, to a Mrs. Constantin Amidon.  But first be sure there is such a passenger.”

“Mrs.!  What idea have you there?”

“Excuse my not stating over the telephone.  The message is to be to this effect.  Did she at any time immediately before or after her marriage to Mr. Amidon get a glimpse of any one in the adjoining house?  No remarks, please.  I use the telephone because I am not ready to explain myself.  If she did, let her send a written description to you of that person as soon as she reaches the Azores.”

“You surprise me.  May I not call or hope for a line from you early to-morrow?”

“I shall be busy till you get your answer.”

He hung up the receiver.  He recognized the resolute tone.

But the time came when the pending explanation was fully given to him.  An answer had been returned from the steamer, favourable to Violet’s hopes.  Mrs. Amidon had seen such a person and would send a full description of the same at the first opportunity.  It was news to fill Violet’s heart with pride; the filament of a clue which had led to this great result had been so nearly invisible and had felt so like nothing in her grasp.

To her employer she described it as follows: 

“When I hear or read of a case which contains any baffling features, I am apt to feel some hidden chord in my nature thrill to one fact in it and not to any of the others.  In this case the single fact which appealed to my imagination was the dropping of the stolen wallet in that upstairs room.  Why did the guilty man drop it? and why, having dropped it, did he not pick it up again? but one answer seemed possible.  He had heard or seen something at the spot where it fell which not only alarmed him but sent him in flight from the house.”

“Very good; and did you settle to your own mind the nature of that sound or that sight?”