"Then, I have been luckier than you, for I lighted on the case."
"So we were wrong, eh?"
"No; we were right."
Maillard opened the case and showed the old setting from which had been prized all the stones.
"Why, what does this mean?" Pitou wanted to know.
"That the scamp guessed what might happen, picked out the diamonds, and as he thought the setting would be in his way, he threw it with the case into the closet where I found it."
"That's clear enough. But what has become of the stones?"
"He found some means of juggling them away."
"The trickster!"
"Has he been long gone?" inquired Maillard.