The fact is, money is very tight in Chicago just now, and so I cabled her to run on her debts for a while.' This exactly bore out the conclusion at which I had already arrived.

So now, having failed to get money from her father, the lady turns to her diamonds, the only security she possesses.

The chances are that she did so before her father's cable message came, and that was the reason she so confidently wished information to be given to the police.

She expected to have money to redeem her jewels, and being a bright woman, she knew the traditional stupidity of the official police, and so thought there was no danger of her little ruse being discovered.
But when the cable message came saying no money would be sent her, a different complexion was put upon the whole affair, for she did not know but if the police were given plenty of time they might stumble on the diamonds." "But, my dear Cadbury, why should she not have taken the diamonds openly and raised money on them ?" "My dear fellow, there are a dozen reasons, any one of which will suffice where a woman is in the case.

In the first place, she might fear to offend the family pride of the von Steinheimers; in the second place, we cannot tell what her relations with her husband were.