when some fastidious customer did not seem to care for what was shown
from the glittering trays in the showcases, Mrs. Darcy or one of her
clerks would say:

"We will have Mr. Darcy design something different for you."

"That's what I want," the customer would say--"something
different--something you don't see everywhere."

And so the Darcy trade had grown and prospered.

"Well, let's hear what you have to say," said Carroll, after James
Darcy had given what the detectives considered was, for the time, a
sufficient history of himself and his relative, and had hastily gone
over such of the stock as was kept outside the safe. The latter had
not been forced open--it did not take long to ascertain that. "Is
anything gone?"

"I can't say for sure," answered the young man--he was this side of
thirty. His long, artistic fingers were trembling, and he felt weak
and faint. "But if there has been a robbery they didn't get much. The
safe hasn't been opened, and the best of the goods--all the diamonds
and other stones--are in that. Nothing seems to be gone from the
cases, though I'd have to make a better search, and go over the
inventory, to make certain."

"Well, let that go for the time. How'd you find things when you came
downstairs? What happened during the night? Any of the doors or
windows forced?" and the detective fairly shot these questions at Darcy,

"I think not. The front door was locked, just as it is now. I went
out the side one. That was locked with the spring catch from the
inside."

"Wasn't it bolted?" came sharply from Thong.

"I didn't notice about that. You see, I was all excited like--"

"Yes," assented Thong.

"There's a bolt on the door!" Carroll snapped.

"Yes, but Mrs. Darcy may have slipped it back herself. She was down
first, though why, I can't say. She seldom came down ahead of me,
especially of late years. I generally opened the store. The clerks
report at eighty-thirty--there's some of 'em now."

More knockings had sounded on the front door, and the faces of two
young men peered in through the misty glass, the crowd having made a
lane for them on learning that they worked in the place of death.

"Let 'em in, sure!" assented Thong. "We got to talk to all of 'em!
Let 'em in!"

Darcy did so, Mulligan helping him keep back the crowd of curious ones.

"Here comes Miss Brill," said one of the men clerks to Darcy. "What's
the matter? Is Mrs. Darcy--?"

"Dead! Killed, I'm afraid! The store won't open to-day, but the
police want to see every one. Oh, Miss Brill, come in!" and he held
out his hand to the one young woman clerk, who drew back in horrified
fright as she saw the silent figure on the floor.

"Oh--Oh!" she gasped, and then she went into hysterics, adding to the
excitement and giving Mulligan a bad five minutes while he fought to
keep the crowd from surging in.

But when Miss Brill had been carried to a rear room and quieted, and
when the shades had been drawn to keep the curious ones from peering
in, the questioning of Darcy was resumed.

"Did you come directly down to the store from your room?" asked Thong.

"Yes. As soon as I awakened."

"Where is your room?"

"In the rear, on the second floor--the one next above. Mrs. Darcy has
her rooms in front. Then come those of her maid, Jane Metson. Sallie
Page sleeps on the top floor where the janitor's family lives, and he,
of course, sleeps up there also."

"I see," murmured Carroll. "Then you came downstairs and found Mrs.
Darcy lying here--dead?"

"I wasn't sure she was dead--"

"Oh, she was _dead_ all right," broke in Thong. "No question about
that. Did you hear anything?"

"Only the watch ticking in her hand. First I thought it was her heart
beating."

"No, I mean did you hear anything in the night?" went on the detective.
"Any queer noise? It's mighty funny if there was murder done and no
robbery. But of course she might have heard a noise if you didn't, and
she might have come down to find out what it was about. She might have
caught a burglar at work, and he may have killed her to get away. But
if it was a burglar it's funny you didn't hear any noise--like a fall,


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