o -- n
Then he wrote them in a line, down the first column and up the second, which made the word "stones."
"Glad we've got it right, after all," he said delightedly, and then the whole three of them went to work on the same system, with the result that the letter read thus:--
"Diamonds safe, unset the stones, risky selling, got three thousand, sending it less three hundred, bernstein."
"Ah!" said Naball when he read this, "wasn't I right?"
"So I think," said Ezra sadly; "my father evidently bought the jewels from her, and sent them to Amsterdam to be sold."
"Still," said Eugénie impatiently, "this does not clear up the mystery of the murder."
"You don't think Caprice did it?" said Ezra.
"No," replied the detective; "but Villiers might have done it in order to recover the jewels. But I tell you what, there's only one thing to be done, we'll go down and see Caprice."
This was agreed to, and without losing a moment they started.