Will shook his head.
"I just came down from Boston," he said. "I was told you were all out—the boys fishing and the girls on a picnic. I could hardly wait until you came back to tell you the news. But you've knocked my feet from under me."
"Oh, it's just terrible!" said Grace. "What will Mrs. Nelson say?"
"Now look here!" exclaimed Allen, taking charge of matters in the masterful way he had. "We've got to do something in a hurry. Of course Mrs. Nelson will have to be told, but it may be all right after all. Betty and Amy may have gone in to the village, to send a telegram, or something like that."
"What about?" asked Grace.
"The diamonds, of course. They may have struck a clue. Now look here," Allen went on quickly. "Will, as I understand it, you have found out to whom those stones belong?"
"Well, yes; that is, almost. There's been a big smuggling job, and those diamonds are part of the loot, or swag——"
"Such slang!" protested Grace.
"Don't worry about slang at a time like this," said Mollie. "Go on, Will."
"No, we haven't time for all his story now," said Allen. "It is enough for us to know that he has solved the mystery."