"I thought I would be able to catch your ear by and by. There were jewels galore, Riggs, and all were first-class stones. They were new, the box new, and the collection nearly made my head swim. Think of a poor country constable looking at diamonds that would have ransomed the Queen of Sheba! Never saw anything like it in all my life, and for a time I didn't know where I was."
"Belle Demona probably got the stones in London."
"I don't know; but another little thing struck me in that room."
"Well?"
"On the dresser lay a New York newspaper printed within the last month. There was a marked column, and with pardonable curiosity I leaned forward and read the article. It was startling, and sent my memory back to the recent murders in Whitechapel, though it was nothing like them."
"What was it, Waters?"
"It was an account of a murder in New York; some rich man strangled in his own house by an unknown assassin."
"Was that marked paper in Belle Demona's room?"
"There's where I saw it, sir. It went through me like a dagger, for you can imagine what I thought. There may be a reward for the arrest of that red-handed murderer, and if I could only take him I wouldn't have to play guard here."
Young Waters arose and walked the floor with some excitement.