"A million dollars!" he repeated.

He turned fiercely upon Mr.Wynne.
"What about that ?" he demanded.
"I'm sure I don't know what Mr.Birnes _understood_," replied the young man, with marked emphasis.

"But it's preposterous on the face of it, isn't it?
Would a man with a million dollars' worth of diamonds live in a hovel like this ?" The chief considered the matter reflectively for a minute or more, the while his keen eyes alternately searched the faces of Mr.Wynne and Mr.Czenki.
"It would depend on the man, of course," he said at last.

And then some new idea was born within him.

"Your direct connection with the crime seems to be disproved, Mr.Wynne," he remarked slowly; "and if we admit _his_ innocence," he jerked a thumb at the expert, "there remains yet another view-point.