The two young men smiled guiltily.
"But I say, McKenna, you don't reject deduction entirely," said Gunther.
"Oh, no, I believe in 'deduction forward,'" said McKenna, laughing. "If I know there's a thief in the company, I deduce he'll steal if he gets the chance. Now, before I put a few more questions to you, let me tell you this. My business isn't in deducing how the theft was done (I get my man and sweat him out; he'll tell me that), but who did it; and for that it don't take any deduction, either. Give me time, money, and no strings on me, there isn't any crime can't be worked out."
"But how the deuce are you going to locate a ring," said Beecher, "if you don't know whom to follow?"
"The ring's the easiest part," said the detective. "You may not know it, but every stone of great value is what's called a named stone; every jeweler knows of it. Now, there aren't many rubies worth over fifteen thousand floating around. If you don't believe it, I'll show you how easy it's done. Inside a week I'll give you the history of the stone and just how it came into the hands of Mrs. Kildair."
"You mean no one can dispose of it to a jeweler without its being recognized?"
"Unless he's done it within these twenty-four hours, which is quite probable if a certain suspicion of mine isn't far wrong."
"Deduction," said Gunther, laughing.
"Not entirely; and, besides, that's not quite fair. It just happens that I may be interested in a couple of persons in your party from another tack. No, gentlemen; deduction's all right, if it's honest deduction and if you use it in its place; but the great thing's motive. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, get down to your motives and you get your criminals. Show me the person who needed to steal that ring, or who just simply had to steal it, and you've got your man."
"But suppose that applies to two persons there, or even three," said Gunther, who perceived that the detective did not intend to commit himself.