"I confess I was irritated for a moment because it all seemed so simple." "My dear fellow, every puzzle in this world is simple except one, and that is to find any problem which is difficult." "Then who stole the diamonds?
The lieutenant ?" The detective smiled and gazed upwards for a few tantalizing moments at the roof of the carriage.
"Here we have," he said at last, "an impecunious prince who marries an American heiress, as so many of them do.

The girl begins life in Austria on one million dollars, say two hundred thousand pounds, and a case of diamonds said to be worth another two hundred thousand at least--probably more.

Not much danger of running through that very speedily, is there, Smith ?" "No, I should think not." "So the average man would think," continued the detective.

"However, I have long since got out of the habit of thinking; therefore I make sure.
The first problem I set to myself is this: How much money have the Prince and Princess spent since they were married?
I find that the repairs on the Schloss Steinheimer, situated in the Tyrol, cost something like forty thousand pounds.

It is a huge place, and the Steinheimers have not had an heiress in the family for many centuries.
The Prince owed a good deal of money when he was married, and it took something like sixty thousand pounds to settle those debts; rather expensive as Continental princes go, but if one must have luxuries, one cannot save money.