“It is the pleasure and excitement of stealing, not the desire for the object stolen, which distinguishes the kleptomaniac from the ordinary thief.  Usually the kleptomaniac is a woman, with an insane desire to steal for the mere sake of stealing.  The morbid craving for excitement which is at the bottom of so many motiveless and useless crimes, again and again has driven apparently sensible men and women to ruin and even to suicide.  It is a form of emotional insanity, not loss of control of the will, but perversion of the will.  Some are models in their lucid intervals, but when the mania is on them they cannot resist.  The very act of taking constitutes the pleasure, not possession.  One must take into consideration many things, for such diseases as kleptomania belong exclusively to civilisation; they are the product of an age of sensationalism.  Naturally enough, woman, with her delicately balanced nervous organisation, is the first and chief offender.”

Kennedy had seated himself at the table and was writing hastily.  When he had finished, he held the papers in his hand to dry.

He handed one sheet each to Bentley and Donnelly.  We crowded about.  Kennedy had simply written out two bills for the necklace and the collar of pearls.

“Send them in to Mr. Willoughby,” he added.  “I think he will be glad to pay them to hush up the scandal.”

We looked at each other in amazement at the revelation.

“But what about Annie Grayson?” persisted Donnelly.

“I have taken care of her,” responded Kennedy laconically.  “She is already under arrest.  Would you like to see why?”

A moment later we had all piled into Dr. Guthrie’s car, standing at the door.

At the cosy little Grayson villa we found two large eyed detectives and a very angry woman waiting impatiently.  Heaped up on a table in the living room was a store of loot that readily accounted for the ocular peculiarity of the detectives.

The jumble on the table contained a most magnificent collection of diamonds, sapphires, ropes of pearls, emeralds, statuettes, and bronze and ivory antiques, books in rare bindings, and other baubles which wealth alone can command.  It dazzled our eyes as we made a mental inventory of the heap.  Yet it was a most miscellaneous collection.  Beside a pearl collar with a diamond clasp were a pair of plain leather slippers and a pair of silk stockings.  Things of value and things of no value were mixed as if by a lunatic.  A beautiful neck ornament of carved coral lay near a half-dozen common linen handkerchiefs.  A strip of silk hid a valuable collection of antique jewellery.  Besides diamonds and precious stones by the score were gold and silver ornaments, silks, satins, laces, draperies, articles of virtu, plumes, even cutlery and bric-a-brac.  All this must have been the result of countless excursions to the stores of New York and innumerable clever thefts.

We could only look at each other in amazement and wonder at the defiance written on the face of Annie Grayson.