"I see. Pray go on."

"In fact we were sweethearts," continued Grafton, "and were engaged.

But the match was broken off by her father. I was only a struggling clerk then, and never dreamed I would get on as I have. Nor did she, I fancy, though she was willing to take me as I was. But her folks made trouble. They brought such pressure to bear on her that she gave in and married Larch, who was and is wealthy, but whose social position was beneath hers.

"Don't think I am telling you this out of mere jealousy," Aaron Grafton went on, and his manner was earnest. "I loved her deeply and sincerely. I do yet, but in a way that is perfectly right. I have not told her so--but--" He was silent a moment.

"I went away after she threw me over," he resumed. "I couldn't stand it to be near her and see her going out--with him. But I came back.

Though the old wound still hurt, I tried not to let her see. We became friends again--in fact we had never ceased to be friends.

"Perhaps I have acted foolishly, but, of late, I have seen her quite often. I began to feel that her married life was not happy. I took pains to enquire, and learned that it was not. I tried to make her a little happier by talking to her. Once or twice she met me and we walked together in the woods."

The colonel looked sharply at his caller.

"Oh, for G.o.d's sake don't put any wrong construction on it! I'd give my very life to make her happy, and do you think I'd--"

"I don't doubt you for a moment, sir!"

"Thank you," said Mr. Grafton. "It is good to know that there is still some truth and honor in the world and that a man and woman can be friends though the circ.u.mstances seem peculiar."

He paused a moment to overcome his emotion and resumed:

"Well, Cynthia and I are friends--good friends. It was to talk over what course was best for her to pursue under certain circ.u.mstances that she and I walked out together. We went in secret, for there are gossiping and wagging tongues in Colchester as elsewhere, and if I, the leading merchant in the town, was seen to be alone with pretty Cynthia Larch, whose husband was a friend of judges and politicians who frequent his hotel, there would be talk little short of scandal."

"I quite agree with you. So you walked in secret?"

"Yes. And it was while we were out together that the cross she was wearing became unfastened and fell. I most clumsily, stepped on it, greatly marring the setting.

"She was distressed, of course, but I said I would take it to a jeweler's and have it repaired without any one being the wiser. She agreed that was best. So I took it--"

"To Mrs. Darcy's place, and she was found murdered!" broke in the old detective quickly.

Aaron Grafton started from his chair.

"How in the name of Heaven did you know that?" he cried. "I thought that not a soul but I knew it. I did not even tell Cynthia!"

"The explanation is simple," said the colonel. "I will be almost as frank with you as you have been with me. I know more about you than you think. Wait a moment."

The colonel stepped into a closet. He made a few rapid changes in his clothing and took off a tiny bit of eyebrow, which had been added to his own a short time before. Then he confronted the merchant.

"The man I saw in the jewelry store!" gasped Grafton. "I remember, now, seeing you there the day I went to look for the diamond cross."

"And didn't find it," said the detective. "I wondered what so perturbed you, but now I know. At first I did think you might know something of the murder--"

"G.o.d forbid!" said the merchant earnestly and reverently.

"Amen!" echoed the colonel. "You have told such a straightforward story that I can not doubt you. That is why I revealed myself to you.

But you must keep my secret if I am to help you. I am known in Colchester as Colonel Brentnall, having registered at the hotel under that name. I will keep that name for the present. I followed you here--in fact, I only entered this office a minute or two ahead of you.

So it was to find the diamond cross you visited the store of the murdered woman?"

"Yes. When I had damaged the cross by stepping on it, I thought my old friend, Mrs. Darcy, would be the best one to keep my secret. I took the cross to her the night before she was killed, and she promised to have her cousin fix it without telling him whose it was and get it back to me, secretly, in a day or so.

"I thought Cynthia could then wear it again without her husband knowing it had ever been out of her possession. But the murder changed all my plans. As soon as I could, I went to the shop to look for the cross.

I thought perhaps it might have been put in one of the showcases, or laid on the shelf, perhaps forgotten. Really I was so distressed, I didn't know what to think. I did not want to tell any one what I was looking for, so I went about quietly. But I could not find it. Then I was obliged to ask Darcy about it, secretly, of course, and without hinting as to the ownership.

"But he had never seen it. He said Mrs. Darcy had not given it to him, nor asked him to repair it. Nor was it in the shop, as far as he knew, and he went over all the stock to furnish a list to the police, so they could tell whether or not there had been a robbery."

"And there was none?"

"None, unless you call the taking of the diamond cross a theft. For that alone is missing. And I'd give half my fortune to get it back.

Cynthia's husband may ask about it at any moment, and what excuse can she give?"

"It is rather a ticklish matter," agreed the detective. "Well, I'll see what I can do. First I thought you wanted me to work on the murder case. But as I am already engaged on that, to try to clear Darcy, I can as well include the diamond cross mystery also. I wonder if they have any connection."

"I don't see how they can have. Mrs. Darcy may merely have put the cross away secretly, and it may take a careful search of the place to find it."

"Maybe so. I'll have to nose around a bit."

There came a knock on the office door.

"Come!" called out the colonel.

His clerk handed him a telegram. Tearing it open the detective read a message from one of his agents in a distant western city: It said:

"Spotty Morgan arrested here to-day. Big diamond cross found on him.

Do you want him?"

"Do I want him?" fairly yelled the colonel. "I should say I did!

Here, get me Blake on the long distance. This is no time for a wire.

I've got to telephone!" And he hurried to a private booth in a back office, leaving Grafton to himself.

After he had telephoned. Colonel Ashley sat in silence in the booth, musing.

"Now I wonder," he said to himself, "if Grafton is telling me the truth. Almost any one would believe his story--it sounds straight enough--and yet I can't take any chances. I guess I mustn't lose sight of you, Aaron Grafton.

"And perhaps Larch isn't so bad a chap as you'd have me believe. Trust a disgruntled lover for saying the worst about the other chap. Yes, I can't afford to take any chances. You may know a bit more about this murder than you're telling me, even considering the latest from my friend Spotty. Yes, you may be playing a double game, Mr. Aaron Grafton."

CHAPTER IX

INDICTED

"Well, Spotty, I've got to hand it to you! Certainly you did put one over on me!"

"Not intentional, Colonel. So help me--not intentional!"