"Yes. The woman you knew as Madame Cimmino. She served her time in the West, for pulling off an insurance swindle some years back. She is known, and wanted, pretty much all over Europe. Wolvert is the black sheep of a good family, half-English, half-Spanish; Welch is a former heavy-weight pug, gone to the bad, but Mrs. Atterbury herself is the real wonder of the lot. She is the widow of old Jonas Atterbury, one of the shrewdest financiers that ever bucked the market. She went through the money he left her and then, as luxury was as necessary to her as the air she breathed, she went after it in the one way that her brilliant, unscrupulous mind suggested. We'll never know how she fell in with the gang or became their leader, for she's not the sort to confess, if she was put on the rack, but it's a safe bet that she planned every successful coup they've made in the last five years, and she was foxy enough to realize what an asset her social reputation was in averting suspicion. Her aristocratic neighbors on the North Drive must have had a sensation when they read the papers after the raid!"
"And Professor Stolz?" the girl asked.
"A thorough-going scoundrel, of brilliant attainments but with a crooked twist in his brain. He was expelled from the faculty of the University of Leipzig for trying to sponsor fake antiquarian discoveries and raise money for research work that was never attempted. Doctor Bayard is another scientist gone wrong, and the rest are all more or less well known for their criminal operations. You certainly showed your pluck, Miss Westcote, when you tackled single-handed the most dangerous bunch of crooks on record! It was enough of a miracle that you escaped with your life, but to have succeeded in what you set out to do, and annihilated their organization besides is an achievement almost beyond belief! I take off my hat to you!" The Chief beamed upon her. "I thought I knew something about the detective game, but you can give me cards and spades and then beat me to it! Don't forget my offer; if ever you want to go into the business, there's a partnership here for you."
"Thank you," Ruth Westcote responded demurely. "I have already agreed to become a partner in a different concern and I think it is going to be a success!"
Her eyes, soft and glowing with a new, tender light turned to those of Herbert Ross, and he smiled back at her.
"It ought to be," he said, "for it is founded on the greatest thing in the world!"
"Young man!" Madame Dumois fixed her gold pince-nez more firmly on her high arched nose and glared at the guileless individual who stood before her. "It is a good three weeks since I sent for you, to find out if you had made any headway with my case, and your McCormick person informed me you were out of town. What have you got to say for yourself?"
"Quite a good deal, if you will listen, Madame Dumois." Herbert Ross smiled ingratiatingly. "I only learned of your message yesterday, when I returned. Very important business called me away; I wonder if you can guess what it was?"
"The missing young woman?" she demanded eagerly.