"You're joking."
"No; I'm serious. There are plenty of detectives who can reason up to the wrong man, but none, I'm sure, who can do it so quickly as you can."
Mrs. Stevens laughed at her daughter's discomfiture, and the girl joined heartily.
"Supposing for a moment that your theory is true," continued Nick. "How do you suppose that Colonel Richmond managed to get the jewels over here?"
The girl became serious in a moment.
"This is a very delicate subject," she said. "I hate to cast suspicion upon any one."
"You refer to the new servant, of course."
"Well, we know nothing about the girl," said Mrs. Stevens, "and, of course, when anything so strange happens in the house we naturally think of her. She brought good references, and she certainly looks honest."
"Did she have an opportunity to put the jewels into this room?"
"As to that, I have talked it over with my daughter, and it seems just possible that the girl could have done it. I thought at first that it was not."