“I am, but—­”

“Well, don’t worry.  If any one knows of your coming to me they will imagine you wish to consult me about something connected with your store.  So don’t let that influence you.  But has anything else happened?”

“Yes,” answered Mr. Grafton, “there has.”

“What?” asked the colonel.

“Well, I’ve come to say that I don’t think I’ll need your services any more.”

“Not need them?”

“No.  And I wish to pay you and thank you.  I’m ever so much obliged to you for what you have done—­”

“But I haven’t done anything yet.  I haven’t—­Oh, I see.  You are not satisfied with my work on your behalf.  Well, I can’t say I blame you, for really I haven’t had time to give it as much consideration as I’d like.  Still that couldn’t be helped and—­”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand me, Colonel Ashley.  I am not at all dissatisfied,” and Mr. Grafton held up a protesting hand.  “The truth is, I’ll not need your services in helping me to recover the diamond cross for Mrs. Larch—­or Miss Ratchford, as she calls herself since the separation.  You can drop that case, Colonel.”

“Drop it?”

“Yes, the diamond cross has been recovered.  I just had a letter from Cyn—­from Miss Ratchford, saying she has the cross.”

“She has the missing diamond cross?” fairly cried the detective.

“Yes.”

“Where did she get it.  Could Spotty—­” The colonel whispered the last name to himself and then stopped short.

“I don’t know.  I just had a telegram from her, and I am going to see her now to learn the particulars,” went on Aaron Grafton.  “She is in Pompey, you know—­where she used to live as a girl, and where I—­ Well, I’m going to see her.  I came to tell you the diamond cross mystery is solved and if you will let me know what I owe you I’ll send you a check.”

“Oh, that part will be all right, Mr. Grafton.  But I don’t understand.”

“Nor do I,” flung back Aaron Grafton over his shoulder, as he left the colonel’s room, rather hastily.  “I’ll tell you as soon as I’ve seen Miss Ratchford.  Good-bye!” and he was gone.

For a moment the colonel remained motionless in the middle of the room.  Then a queer look came over his face as he murmured: 

“Now I wonder whether he’s telling the truth—­or lying!  Is the diamond cross in her possession, or did Grafton say that so I’d drop the case and—­leave him out of it?  I wonder.  And, by the same token of wondering I think I’d better not let you get too far away from me, Mr. Grafton.  You will bear a little closer watching.”

CHAPTER XVII

“A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW”

“Well,” remarked Colonel Ashley briskly to himself, “there are two or three things I’ve got to do, and do them right away.  Which shall I tackle first?  I wonder if it won’t be best to have Kettridge come here and perform the autopsy on that watch,” and he looked toward the closet where he had placed the one that had belonged to Singa Phut.  “If I can look inside that, and see whether or not the mechanism is so obvious that Darcy must have stumbled on it when he started to repair it—­if he did—­then, well, that complicates matters.  Yes, I think I must see Kettridge.”