Page:Knaves of Diamonds.pdf/251

232 As she came into the room, Mrs. Herman went to meet her, holding out her hands, and said to her, with real emotion:

"Oh, Mrs. Engstroem, how can we ever thank you enough for being so quick and clever! They found nothing, and now my husband will have a good action for damages against the Department. You may depend upon it he won't forget you when he makes them pay up."

Mrs. Engstroem didn't take her hands. She only stopped and stared at her with her eyes wide open and her mouth almost so.

"I don't quite know vat you mean, Mrs. Herman," she said, in her slow, stolid voice. "How have I saved you? Vat have I done for you?"

"Done? Why the diamonds, of course!" gasped Miss Schamyl, stricken by the same sudden fear which had already deprived her sister of speech. "The diamonds that you took away in the table-cloth!"