Stone turned the two men over to the police on a charge of kidnapping and then, elated, returned to Pellbrook.
"How can I be grateful enough to you," Iris cried at sight of the detective, "for coming to my aid! And Fibsy, too! Oh, what should I have done if you hadn't arrived just as you did? But how did you know where we were?"
"I didn't," said Stone; "it was Fibsy's idea that the man would take to the woods. But your screams and the noise of the revolver led us at the last. I congratulate you, Miss Clyde, on a pretty narrow escape. Those men were desperate."
"Oh, I know it! Pollock began by being fairly courteous, but when I wouldn't give up the pin, he grew rough and rude."
"Miss Clyde, we must look out for that pin. Though, now that the one who wants it is in safe-keeping himself, there's not so much danger. But he may have clever assistants. By the way, there's no doubt that this so-called Pollock is Charlie Young. Hughes is putting him through a third degree, and I think we need not concern ourselves about him just now. He won't escape from his present quarters easily."
"This child must go to bed now," said Lucille Darrel, with an affectionate glance at Iris. "She's had enough to upset any ordinary set of nerves, and she must rest."
"Yes, Miss Clyde, go now, and I think, if you leave the pin with me I'll keep it safely, and moreover, to-morrow morning, I'll tell you its secret."
"Oh, tell me now! Please do, Mr. Stone. What can it be that makes it a key to the jewels' hiding-place?"
"Not to-night. Indeed, I don't yet know its secret myself, but I hope to find it out. If I may, I'll stay alone in Mrs. Pell's sitting-room for a time, until I puzzle it out."
Iris reluctantly went off with Lucille, and the detective locked himself in the room where Mrs. Pell had met her tragic death.