Page:Burton Stevenson--The marathon mystery.djvu/130

108 should think she’d never want to enter these rooms again. But perhaps Higgins was mistaken,” he added, stopping short.

“That might be,” I admitted, “though he swears he wasn’t.”

“Well, let’s pass over it for a moment. What’s the second point? Is it another staggerer?”

“Not a staggerer—but another twist to the puzzle, I imagine. Did Thompson have any jewelry on him?”

“Jewelry? Not a bit, he was practically in rags.”

“Where was his body lying?”

“Right here,” and he indicated the spot with his foot.

“And right there,” I said, “two days later, I found this, pressed into the carpet,” and I took the little paper packet from my pocket-book.

He opened it carefully and looked at what lay inside. Then he whistled softly.

“A diamond, by all that’s wonderful!”

“Tell me what it came out of,” I said.

“One of a group, I should say; or perhaps a border around a larger central stone.”

“Precisely,” I nodded. “And last night I happened to notice that Mrs. Tremaine wore a pin with just such an arrangement of stones. One of the small diamonds in the border was missing.”

Godfrey wrapped up the tiny bit of crystal and handed it back to me with an exceedingly thoughtful face.

“That’s a mighty pretty bit of evidence,” he said,