SAPPHIRE
 
 C 2
 
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 ^tn
 
 OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS

 
 EDWARD SALISBURY FIELD 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 WILL GREFE' 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 GROSSETODUNLAP 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY 
 W. J. WATT & COMPANY.
 
 
 <Qie5APPHIKE BRACELET 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A PRETTY girl, looking very cool 
 and attractive in a white muslin 
 gown, descended from the veranda 
 of the little Lake View Hotel, and directed 
 her steps toward two distant maples, under 
 which her hammock was slung, her way lead- 
 ing across a lawn yellow with dandelions. 
 Only once she paused to scan the lake, and 
 to gaze wistfully at its one island, colored 
 blue by the haze of a June afternoon. 
 
 She carried a white parasol, and a book 
 bound in green buckram; she wore no hat. 
 In the sun, her hair would have rivaled the 
 dandelions, it was so deliciously and naturally 
 yellow ; and her eyes were as blue as the dis- 
 
 21 9617
 
 <QieSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 tant island, where, at that very moment, a 
 picnic party from the hotel was doing its best 
 to divide itself into fractions, each fraction 
 containing an interested and interesting mem- 
 ber of an opposite sex. 
 
 On the island, alas, save in one or two 
 cases, the problem remained a problem, for 
 the picnic party was sadly lacking in men. 
 So, if the girl had gone to the picnic, instead 
 of remaining at the hotel with her Aunt Har- 
 riet, perhaps by this time she would have 
 been looking wistfully across the lake to the 
 deserted hotel. Still, one always fancies one 
 will have a pleasant time at a picnic, and 
 grows surer of it as the day advances that 
 is, when one stays away. So, the girl felt 
 just the least bit lonely and unhappy, even 
 though she cared not a cent for any indi- 
 vidual member of the picnic party. 
 
 " I couldn't have gone, anyway," she said 
 to herself. " That train being so early made 
 it quite impossible." Which might lead one 
 to infer that she expected a friend, or some 
 one, at least, by a certain train. 
 
 She was not really disconsolate, however, 
 for she carried in her hand an exciting story.
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 <^ ^1/ 
 
 She was sure it was exciting, for she had 
 already read the last chapter, and it had 
 ended most dramatically. Then, too, her 
 hammock was most comfortable. Indeed, it 
 was her own particular hammock, which she 
 had brought with her from New York. 
 
 Therefore, when she approached the two 
 maples, with every prospect of a peaceful 
 afternoon, she was, naturally, surprised, and 
 a little indignant, to find her hammock occu- 
 pied by a young man; rather a handsome 
 young man, to be sure, but also an inter- 
 loping, vexatious young man, who must be 
 shown his place, must be taught that he could 
 not, with impunity, fall asleep in hammocks 
 that belonged exclusively to pretty, attractive 
 young ladies. For there could be no doubt- 
 ing it : the young man was fast asleep. 
 
 Perhaps if the girl had known him, she 
 would have liked him, for Morton Prince 
 was most likable. But she did not know 
 him; she was ignorant that his name was 
 Morton Prince. Indeed, she was aware of 
 but three things: a young man was asleep in 
 her hammock, she wanted her hammock, she 
 meant to have it. 
 
 V
 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 To accomplish her design, it was obviously 
 necessary to awaken the young man. It 
 might be that a cough would awaken him? 
 
 She coughed. 
 
 But Morton Prince slept through a whole 
 series of coughs, whereat she eyed him re- 
 proachfully, then blushed a little as it oc- 
 curred to her that, in a story book, he would 
 be the only man in the world. And the only 
 man in the world was always awakened, 
 in story books, with But she wanted her 
 hammock. 
 
 Dropping both parasol and book, she 
 grasped the rope supporting the hammock, 
 and gave it a violent shake, causing Mr. 
 Prince to stir uneasily. But he did not open 
 his eyes. 
 
 Again the hammock was shaken, this time 
 with better success. 
 
 " Where the deuce am I ? " murmured 
 Mr. Prince, rubbing his eyes. 
 
 " You're in my hammock." 
 
 " Good old hammock," said Mr. Prince, 
 preparing to take another nap. 
 
 " You mustn't go to sleep again ! I say 
 you mustn't I "
 
 r-N ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ; 'Why not?" demanded Mr. Prince, sit- 
 ting up suddenly. 
 
 " Because it's my hammock, and I want 
 it." 
 
 "Ohl" said Mr. Prince. "Your ham- 
 mock, is it? By Jove, your hammock, of 
 course!" he added, rising hastily. "I'm 
 sure I beg your pardon. I'm only half- 
 awake, you see." 
 
 " Yes, I see," the girl replied coldly. 
 
 Mr. Morton Prince smiled disarmingly. 
 " I was dead tired, and I didn't know it was 
 a private hammock. I only arrived an hour 
 ago," he explained. " It seems to be pleas- 
 ant here," he continued, by way of making 
 conversation. 
 
 " No doubt some people find it pleasant," 
 said the girl in a tone of finality. u Good- 
 afternoon." 
 
 " I say ! " exclaimed Mr. Prince, 
 hope you're not offended with me." 
 
 "Why should I be?" 
 
 " I don't know. But, somehow, I 
 that you are." 
 
 " Really, I'm not." 
 
 "Are you sure?" 
 
 "I 
 
 feel
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 
 " I'm not so sure as I was when I said I 
 wasn't." 
 
 " Perhaps I'd better go. But I hate to 
 go with this misunderstanding between us." 
 
 The girl eyed him disapprovingly, then 
 stooped to pick up her book. 
 
 " Let me," said Mr. Prince, making a 
 hasty dive. 
 
 As he placed the book in her hands, the 
 girl's face brightened. " You say you ar- 
 rived an hour ago? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Prince, greatly relieved 
 to find his dismissal temporarily postponed. 
 " Yes, an hour ago." 
 
 " But there is no train at that time." 
 
 " I came in a motor car." 
 
 "Ohl" 
 
 " Started from New York at five 
 morning. Not a bad record." 
 
 " You must have been ii 
 
 this 
 
 hurry. 
 
 m
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 quite so. The four o'clock 
 
 s\ troubled, 
 train." 
 
 " But, of course, time is money in your 
 profession." 
 
 " Oh, rather! " agreed Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I think it was clever of me to know 
 you." 
 
 " You didn't, at first." 
 
 " Well, you see you are rather young-look- 
 ing. I presume of course that you're a sub- 
 ordinate." 
 
 " I'm not a subordinate," declared Mr. 
 Prince, with conviction. " That is, I may 
 be this minute. But just you wait." 
 
 " Then you are the head of the agency? " 
 
 Mr. Prince looked puzzled, then squared 
 his shoulders, impressively. " You've guessed 
 it," he said. 
 
 " That simplifies matters. I feel, now, I 
 can tell you everything." 
 
 " Yes, everything," said Mr. Prince. 
 " That's what I want to know every- 
 thing." 
 
 " I hardly know where to begin," said the 
 girl, seating herself in the hammock, and re- 
 garding the tips of her fingers. 

 
 r 
 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " You might begin at the beginning," sug- 
 gested Mr. Prince. 
 * " That wouldn't be logical," said the girl. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Is it logical for a woman to be logx 
 
 ical?" 
 
 " But you're a mere child," he objected. 
 
 " I'm not. I'm twenty." 
 
 " And I'm twenty-eight." 
 
 " A girl is older at twenty than a boy at 
 twenty-eight." 
 
 " Than a man at twenty-eight," corrected 
 
 Mr. Prince. 
 
 " You are awfully boyish to hold such a re- 
 sponsible position," said the girl. 
 
 " If I were not successful, would I be 
 here?" he demanded. 
 
 " Since you are here, wouldn't it be more 
 business-like to to be business-like? " 
 
 41 1 am waiting to hear why you sent for 
 me," said Mr. Prince, adopting what he 
 deemed to be a professional manner. 
 
 "But I thought you knew. Surely the 
 
 telegram " 
 
 " Your telegram was most vague," said 
 
 Mr. Prince.
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ^X7i 
 
 " Didn't it tell you I needed your serv- 
 ices?" 
 
 11 That's why I'm here." 
 
 " Come to think of it, I don't believe it 
 did tell you why I needed your services." 
 
 " That's just it," said Mr. Prince. " I 
 came, hoping to be of service to you, but en- 
 tirely ignorant as to the reason why my serv- 
 ices were needed." 
 
 44 Can't you guess? " 
 
 " Of course I can guess." 
 
 " Then guess." 
 
 " That would be hardly professional." 
 
 " No, I suppose not. Still, when one 
 sends for a detective " 
 
 "A detective?" exclaimed Mr. Prince, 
 taken quite off his guard by the unexpected- 
 ness of it all. 
 
 " Yes, a detective. You are a detective, 
 aren't you ? " 
 
 " She asks me if I'm a detective," he said, 
 appealing to the universe at large with a voice 
 of amazement. 
 
 " Well, are you, or aren't you? " 
 
 " Did you never hear of Morton Prince? " 
 
 44 1 never did."
 
 <0ie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Or of Red Fennessy, or of Anarchist 
 Joe, or of of " 
 
 " Go on," said the girl. 
 
 " Red Fennessy is now serving fifteen 
 years in jail for the Winchester bank rob- 
 bery; Anarchist Joe is doing a life sentence 
 for the Baltimore bomb outrage. And who 
 put them there? " 
 
 " I give it up," said the girl. 
 
 " I put them there." 
 
 " And is Morton Prince in jail, too? " 
 
 " No. Morton Prince is not in jail. It 
 is Morton Prince you see before you. I am 
 Morton Prince." 
 
 "Not really?" 
 
 " Just as sure as I'm standing here." 
 
 " I never dreamed the agency would send 
 such a famous detective." 
 
 " It would naturally send you the best it 
 had," Mr. Prince explained modestly. "If 
 you will be so good as to tell me why my 
 services are needed." 
 
 " It is on a very delicate matter," said the 
 girl. 
 
 "Ah, I see; a case in which caution and 
 diplomacy are required.' 
 10
 
 "THANK YOU, SO MUCH," SAID MR. PRINCE, SEATING HIMSELF AT 
 HER FEET
 
 " Oh, lots of caution, and no end of di- 
 plomacy! Do you think you can manage it, 
 Mr. Prince?" 
 
 " I'm sure of it." 
 
 "If you are tired of standing, you may 
 sit down." 
 
 " Thank you so much," said Mr. Prince* 
 seating himself at her feet, a position which, 
 figuratively, of course, he was to occupy for 
 some time to come.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE girl, evidently at a loss where to 
 begin her narrative, bestowed a ten- 
 tative glance on Detective Prince, 
 who sat silent, regarding her with trustful 
 and appreciative eyes; she gazed, for a mo- 
 ment, at the sky. Naturally, one would hesi- 
 tate to declare that she found in the color of 
 the sky an answer to some vexing question. 
 But it is said we are strangely influenced by 
 colors, and the sky was wonderfully blue 
 that afternoon. At all events, when her 
 gaze left the sky, to rest once more on the 
 approving Mr. Prince, she seemed to have 
 acquired the information, confidence, or 
 whatever it was she had been seeking. 
 
 " I am ready now," she said. 
 
 " Do you mind if I smoke? " asked Mr. 
 Prince. " I can think better when I smoke."
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 jr*^ _____ 
 
 *' I hope you don't use morphine," said the 
 girl. 
 
 " I'm a bit too modern for that. Why, I 
 don't even use a magnifying glass 1 " 
 
 " I suppose modern methods are more 
 more modern." 
 
 " Oh, rather! " said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Still, I presume you disguise yourself oc- 
 casionally." 
 
 " That isn't necessary. Of course we oc- 
 casionally disguise our true feelings," he ex- 
 plained. 
 
 As this statement was accompanied by 
 a look of undisguised admiration, the girl 
 had little reason for supposing this to be one 
 of the occasions to which Detective Prince 
 referred. 
 
 " I doubt if you ever have any feelings to 
 disguise," she said. 
 
 " Oh, I say ! " protested Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Of course, to me, you are a mere ma- 
 chine, possessing a coldly analytical mind, 
 and no heart." 
 
 " Detectives often have hearts." 
 
 " Before they become detectives, perhaps." 
 
 " There is something in that."
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ' Then you'll admit that all detectives are 
 heartless." 
 
 " I'll admit I lost my heart when I became 
 a detective," Mr. Prince replied evasively. 
 
 " Perhaps it would be better if you were 
 to smoke," said the girl. 
 
 Detective Prince drew a gold case from 
 his pocket, and selected a cigarette. 
 
 " This is great! " he said. 
 
 " Does it really affect your mind? " asked 
 the girl. 
 
 " Oh, rather! " said Mr. Prince. " I see 
 things much more clearly through smoke." 
 
 " I suppose I'd better tell you all about 
 the robbery," said the girl. 
 
 " A robbery ? Good ! Go on." 
 
 " It promises to be a very difficult case." 
 
 *' It might be for some," said Mr. Prince, 
 " but I'm no end of a dab at finding things; 
 been doing it ever since I was a youngster. 1 * 
 
 " How very curious I " 
 
 " Not at all. Did you ever play Button, 
 button, who's got the button?" 
 
 "Yes, but" 
 
 " That's the way it began. I always 
 knew where the button was. And then
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ^*- -^^ i* i jf 
 
 there's that silly game with a dollar, where 
 you hold hands under a table." 
 
 " I have never played it," said the girl. 
 
 " What, never played Up Jenkins? " 
 
 "Never!" 
 
 " Of course I've only played it with men," 
 said Mr. Prince, " but I could generally tell 
 where the dollar was without half-trying. It 
 has always been so," he added vaguely. 
 
 "Aren't we losing time? " asked the girl. 
 
 " I'm not," replied Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Supposing you had been robbed of a sap- 
 phire bracelet? " 
 
 "That's different," he admitted. "Did 
 the robbery take place here? " 
 
 "Where else?" 
 
 " Ah," said Mr. Prince, producing a gold 
 pencil and a check book, " a sapphire brace- 
 let, you say. Sapphires are blue, aren't 
 they?" 
 
 " Generally." 
 
 " I think blue would be awfully becoming 
 to you. Go on." 
 
 ;< Wouldn't it be more professional of you 
 to ask me questions? " 
 
 " It would be," said Mr. Prince, " but I
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BR/VCEIET 
 
 thought best to adopt a different method in 
 your case." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "One has to ask rather er intimate 
 questions." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 " Still, perhaps it would be better." 
 
 " What a horrid profession ! " 
 
 " I'll admit it has a disagreeable side. 
 But there are certain pleasant features; one 
 meets so many charming people." 
 
 " Criminals may be interesting, but I 
 should hardly call them charming," said the 
 girl. 
 
 " I was thinking of my clients." 
 
 " I suppose charming people are robbed 
 occasionally." 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! If that weren't so, I 
 wouldn't be " 
 
 "Wouldn't be what?" 
 
 " Wouldn't be a detective," said Mr. 
 Prince. 
 
 " I can't afford to pay you a large sum if 
 you are successful in finding the bracelet," 
 said the girl. 
 
 " We never receive large fees, except from 
 16
 
 ~\ 
 
 banks and corporations. Of course, you pay 
 me nothing if I fail." 
 
 " And if you succeed? " 
 
 " Six dollars." 
 
 " But that's a ridiculous price ! " 
 
 " Four dollars, then." 
 
 " I mean it's absurdly cheap." 
 
 ' We detectives look on private cases, such 
 as yours, as a diversion," said Mr. Prince. 
 " It's restful, after tracking people through 
 subways, and chasing them in hansoms, and 
 all that sort of thing. I say, are you fond 
 of sailing? " 
 
 " I'm mad about it." 
 
 " I've a sloop yacht that's a regular hum- 
 mer; raced it to the Bermudas last year." 
 
 " I didn't know detectives were yachts- 
 men," said the girl. 
 
 " I was chasing a criminal," said Mr. 
 Prince. " But he arrived first, and took 
 refuge under the British flag." 
 
 "Goodness!" 
 
 " I got him, though ; I kidnapped him, you 
 know. He was an awful rascal." 
 
 " I should think a little case like mine 
 would seem stupid, after that." 
 
 17
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 
 " Not at all. Let's see, where were we, 
 anyway? " 
 
 " We hadn't got very far." 
 
 " But I feel that we're progressing," said 
 Mr. Prince, looking at her with an expression 
 of great hopefulness. 
 
 " Of course you see much that is hidden 
 from me," said the girl. 
 
 Detective Prince now wrote two words on 
 the back of a blank check. 
 
 " I'm making a note of something," he 
 explained. " I say, are there two * p's ' in 
 sapphire ? " 
 
 "I Why, I'm not sure." 
 
 " It looks awfully queer with only one." 
 
 "If it looks queer, it's probably right," 
 said the girl. 
 
 " I'm glad you can't spell," said Mr. 
 Prince. " I hate people who know every- 
 thing." 
 
 " I admire ther 
 
 " Detectives know a great deal about 
 said Mr. Prince
 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 I became a detective, you know, and I've 
 never lost my fondness for horses." 
 
 " But isn't polo an expensive game? " 
 
 We detectives make a thundering lot of 
 money. I'm thinking of retiring soon." 
 
 " I suppose it is a strain." 
 
 " It's beginning to be an awful strain," 
 said Mr. Prince. " I shouldn't wonder if 
 this were to be my last case." 
 
 " You will probably marry some nice, re- 
 formed criminal, and settle down," said the 
 girl. 
 
 " I shall do nothing of the sort." 
 
 " Perhaps bachelors are happier." 
 
 " They're not," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I hope you're not thinking of marrying 
 above your station," said the girl. 
 
 " A detective is as good as anybody," de- 
 clared Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Aren't we becoming a bit personal." 
 
 " By Jove! We are % aren't we? " 
 
 " It's always a mistake to become per- 
 sonal." 
 
 " One has to in my profession. It's the 
 personal note always that leads to clues, you 
 know." 
 
 19
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " But you haven't done a thing toward 
 finding the sapphire bracelet." 
 
 " I've been leading up to it. A detect- 
 ive's first duty it to become acquainted with 
 his client, and to inspire her with confidence, 
 and all that sort of thing." 
 
 " I can't say you've been altogether suc- 
 cessful." 
 
 " That," said Mr. Prince, " is because you 
 haven't yet become acquainted with me." 
 
 " I doubt if any one could ever really 
 become acquainted with a detective," said the 
 girl ; " they're so suspicious, and relentless, 
 and cynical." 
 
 " Oh, I say," exclaimed Mr. Prince, " I'm 
 not cynical! " 
 
 " Then you still retain a little faith in 
 mankind? " 
 
 " A little." 
 
 " And you are not entirely cynical? " 
 
 "Er not entirely." 
 
 " I don't understand it," said the girl. 
 
 " Well, you see, I've always dealt with 
 the better class of criminals bank presi- 
 dents and railroad officials, you know." 
 
 "Was Red Fennessy a bank president?" 
 20
 
 
 " That was before I reached the top of 
 the ladder," Mr. Prince replied uneasily. 
 What about that sapphire bracelet, any- 
 way? You couldn't have mislaid it, could 
 you?" 
 
 " That would have been impossible." 
 
 " It's easy to mislay things." 
 
 " I couldn't have mislaid that bracelet. 
 I'm sure of it." 
 
 " Then some one must have stolen it," 
 said Mr. Prince. " When did you see it 
 last?" 
 
 11 Yesterday evening." 
 
 " Before or after dinner? " 
 
 " Before dinner." 
 
 " It might have been a bellboy." 
 
 " There aren't any." 
 
 " Or a chambermaid." 
 
 " I'm sure it wasn't." 
 
 " Rather a difficult problem," said Mr. 
 Prince, wrinkling his forehead. 
 
 " It wasn't in my room when I went up- 
 stairs, after dinner," the girl volunteered. 
 
 " By Jove ! Then it must have been a 
 guest who took it." 
 
 11 I'd hate to think so." 
 
 21 
 
 \
 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 "I I really ought to see the room," 
 said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " You can see it to-morrow," said the girl. 
 " It's the one in the corner, on the second 
 floor. Yes, the one with open shutters." 
 
 Mr. Prince favored the window indicated 
 with a glance, then turned once more to the 
 girl. 
 
 " I have a theory," he said. 
 
 "What, so soon?" 
 
 " It came to me all of a sudden. That's 
 the way things usually come to me." 
 
 " After a series of deductions, no doubt." 
 
 "Rather! I've been, deducing right 
 along, ever since I met you." 
 
 "And your theory? " 
 
 " That," said Mr. Prince, " is a secret." 
 
 " I presume it would be hardly profes- 
 sional to tell me, but I'm dying to know." 
 
 " You'd be surprised if I were to tell you 
 uncommonly surprised." 
 
 " I like surprises." 
 
 " No," said Mr. Prince firmly, " it would 
 never do. Can you describe the bracelet so 
 that I'd know it if I saw it? " 
 
 " Let me see," said the girl. 
 22
 
 " Not too fast," cautioned Mr. Prince, 
 preparing to make notes. 
 
 " I should say it contained nine or ten 
 sapphires." 
 
 "Big ones?" 
 
 " Beauties ! And it wasn't a clasp brace- 
 let; it was one of the kind you slip over your 
 hand." 
 
 " Yes, I know," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " And there was a little ribbon of dia- 
 monds running in and out between the sap- 
 phires." 
 
 " I don't think I understand." 
 
 " You'd understand in a moment if you 
 saw it," said the girl. " And it was chased." 
 
 " I think pearls are more chaste," said 
 Mr. Prince. " Do you care for pearls? " 
 
 " Do you really believe you'll be able to 
 find the bracelet? " asked the girl. 
 
 " I'm sure I'll find it." 
 
 11 If you'll excuse me, I think I'll go in 
 now," said the girl. 
 
 " There are lots of questions I haven't 
 asked you," objected Mr. Prince. " Be- 
 sides, the hotel is deserted everybody's 
 gone to a picnic." 
 
 23 
 

 
 c 
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 There 
 
 " My aunt didn't go to the picnic, 
 she is, on the veranda." 
 
 The girl rose from the hammock; 
 Prince sprang to his feet. 
 
 " I must see you again, soon," he said. 
 
 " Is it necessary? " 
 
 "Absolutely!" 
 
 " Perhaps if you were to be at the boat- 
 house, at five " 
 
 " I'll be there," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " You mustn't count on seeing me." 
 
 " But you'll come if you can? " 
 
 " Yes, if I can. Good-afternoon." 
 
 Mr. Prince watched the girl as she re- 
 treated across the lawn; she was wonder- 
 fully graceful, he thought, and By 
 Jove, she had gone off without her book! 
 He picked it up, almost tenderly, then settled 
 himself in the hammock. 
 
 " I forgot to ask her if I might, but I'm 
 sure she wouldn't mind," he said to him- 
 self. " I'll stay here till half-past four, and 
 then I'll look about for that boathouse. I've
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WHEN Mr. Prince had left New 
 York in his motor car at five 
 o'clock that morning, it had been 
 with the intention of dining at the Ken- 
 wood Country Club, which lay some twenty 
 odd miles beyond the little Lake View Hotel 
 where he now was. Of course, it was still 
 possible for him to dine there, even if he 
 kept his appointment at the boathouse, an 
 appointment he had not the slightest inten- 
 tion of missing. That he should play in 
 the golf tournament, to be held on the Ken- 
 wood links next day, was, however, just the 
 least bit doubtful. He could manage it by 
 making an early start in the morning. But 
 so much depended on his interview with the 
 girl! 
 
 He wondered if she had suspected he was 
 
 25
 
 c. 
 
 not a detective. He had been rather 
 clever in his deceit, he thought. Still, he 
 mustn't underestimate her intelligence; that 
 would be a grave mistake. He was sure 
 he hadn't underestimated her charm. She 
 was the most charming creature it had ever 
 been his good fortune to meet. It was, 
 moreover, quite too bad that their meeting 
 should have been the result of a misunder- 
 standing on her part. 
 
 Great Scott! Suppose a man should ar- 
 rive on the four o'clock train! And sup- 
 pose he were a detective! Mr. Prince 
 knew vaguely that there were laws un- 
 pleasant laws applying to citizens who 
 passed themselves off as police officers. 
 And what were detectives but glorified po- 
 licemen ? 
 
 " I may have got myself into no end of a 
 scrape," he thought, a trifle ruefully. 
 
 Still, it was very probable that no detec- 
 tive would arrive by the four o'clock train. 
 Besides, he wouldn't have missed meeting 
 the girl for anything not for a year in. 
 state's prison; not for two years, by 
 George ! 
 
 26
 
 ^SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 This sincere, if misguided, declaration 
 tended to restore his confidence amazingly. 
 Looking at his watch, he saw it was now, 
 but half-past three; a half-hour yet to 
 dream of the girl before the fateful four 
 o'clock train should arrive. She was so 
 pretty, and her smile so adorable; the hint 
 of mischief in her eyes was truly enchanting ; 
 he was her slave, her willing slave, and he 
 would follow her not openly, of course, 
 for that would give offense. But he'd fol- 
 low her, and be near her always till till 
 Just what Mr. Prince resolved, only the sand- 
 man knew, for Mr. Prince was once more 
 fast asleep. 
 
 Let it be said in his defense, if sleep need 
 a defense, that Mr. Prince had gone to bed 
 late the night before; also, he had risen at 
 five, and acting as his own chaff eur, had 
 driven a long distance. Then, too, the ham- 
 mock was most comfortable; its enticement 
 was not to be denied. 
 
 The shadows lengthened, creeping east- 
 ward; a faint whistle announced the ap- 
 proach of the four o'clock train; ten min- 
 utes later, a shabby omnibus, drawn by two 
 27
 
 1 
 
 dejected-looking horses, drew up before the 
 hotel. And still Mr. Prince slept. 
 
 That he should be awakened twice in one 
 afternoon, and each time by a girl, seems 
 strange, indeed. But the arm of coincidence 
 is long, and its powers elastic, to be stretched 
 as easily as one stretches the truth. Which 
 accounts, perhaps, for the fact that it was a 
 firm young hand on his shoulder that now 
 summoned Mr. Prince from slumberland. 
 
 He obeyed the summons slowly and 
 sleepily so slowly that the girl grew a 
 little impatient. 
 
 " You've got to wake up," she said. 
 
 "Why?" demanded Mr. Prince, opening 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Because I want the hammock." 
 
 Mr. Prince looked hurt. 
 
 " I'm in a hurry," said the girl, who was 
 evidently a servant. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Mr. Prince, rising to his 
 feet. " Here, I'll help you." 
 
 Slipping the hooks from their support- 
 ing ropes, he rolled the hammock into a neat 
 bundle. " Is the four o'clock train in yet? " 
 he asked. 
 
 28
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " The 'bus arrived five minutes ago." 
 
 " Any passengers? " 
 
 " Only one a man " 
 
 "Ah I" said Mr. Prince. 
 
 The girl now picked up the hammock 
 and started toward the hotel, Mr. Prince 
 gazing after her with troubled eyes. 
 
 " That explains it," he said to himself, 
 " the man who came in the 'bus must have 
 been a detective. Or else, why the deuce 
 did she send a chambermaid for her ham- 
 mock?" 
 
 Perhaps it was her method of dismissing 
 him from the case. He must remember, 
 however, that she may not have known he 
 was occupying her hammock. Perhaps he 
 had but witnessed a daily occurrence? Per- 
 haps the hammock was removed to the hotel 
 every afternoon at four? Perhaps he had 
 been awakened by the chambermaid simply 
 because his presence in the hammock had 
 prevented her from following an established 
 custom ? Here was a whole series of plausi- 
 ble conjectures. Besides, it was silly to 
 take other than a hopeful view of things. 
 
 Yet it wasn't so easy to be optimistic
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE 
 
 where one's affections were engaged. And 
 certainly his affections were engaged. Oh, 
 rather! His meeting with the girl meant 
 far more to him than a pleasant incident of 
 an idle afternoon. It was an event a big, 
 breathless, bewildering event. It was 
 dashed romantic, too. Mr. Prince was 
 agreeably surprised to find there was so much 
 romance left in the world. 
 
 And to think he had quitted New York 
 that morning with no other idea than to 
 reach the Kenwood Club by dinner time, 
 and to drive a piffling golf ball a little far- 
 ther, to approach a little better, and to putt 
 a little truer than the next man, on the mor- 
 row. And here he was, acting quite like a 
 hero in a story book. True, he had told 
 more lies than lovers usually tell in story 
 books. Which proved, by George, that 
 truth was stranger than fiction! 
 
 But they would be difficult to explain, 
 those lies. That is, they might be. It 
 would make a great difference if his theory 
 concerning the disappearance of the bracelet 
 proved correct. It wasn't exactly a theory, 
 either; it was little more than an impression.
 
 Yet Mr. Prince couldn't help suspecting that 
 the girl had not been robbed of a sapphire 
 bracelet. 
 
 Still, she might have been robbed. And 
 she might have been expecting a detective 
 by the four-o'clock train. If this were true, 
 it would mean, of course, that the single 
 passenger in the hotel 'bus had been a detec- 
 tive. By Jovel She might be consulting 
 him this very minute 1 
 
 Mr. Prince's eye now encountered the 
 book bound in green buckram, which lay on 
 the grass, not far away, the encounter re- 
 sulting in the book being transferred to his 
 pocket. Although not particularly impor- 
 tant in itself, the fact of having it in his 
 pocket comforted him. 
 
 " It will, at least, give me an opportunity 
 to speak to her again," he said to himself, 
 " even if she doesn't keep her appointment at 
 the boathouse." 
 
 The clerk of the Lake View Hotel, a 
 brisk, business-like young man, possessing a 
 mop of curly brown hair, and wearing a won- 
 derful green tie, was making out bills. He 
 
 31 
 
 

 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 had just decided that six days, at three dollars 
 and a half a day, plus extra charges for 
 trunks, and 'bus fare, came to twenty-two 
 dollars and twenty-five cents, when Mr. 
 Prince approached the counter behind which 
 he sat, and reached for the hotel register. 
 
 " Pleasant day," observed the clerk, nod- 
 ding affably. " Will you stop with us to- 
 night?" 
 
 " I shouldn't wonder," said Mr. Prince, 
 studying the last entry on the register. 
 
 " Can give you a good room, with a 
 bath," volunteered the clerk. 
 
 11 I'll take it." 
 
 " Can't show it to you yet." 
 
 "Any time before dinner will do." 
 
 " Six o'clock, then." 
 
 " That will do nicely." 
 
 " If you want your automobile washed " 
 
 " I think not, thanks. Where is the boat- 
 house from here? " 
 
 u You go past the barn, then turn to your 
 right," said the clerk. " If you want to go 
 for a row, just help yourself to anything you 
 see.' 
 
 "Any sailboats?"
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 both over 
 have one 
 
 to the 
 to-mor- 
 
 ' Two. But they're 
 island to-day. You cai 
 row." 
 
 " Perhaps I'll want one to-morrow," said 
 Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Gee, but it must be great to travel 
 around like that in an automobile 1 " thought 
 the clerk. 
 
 " By Jove, it would be great if I could take 
 her for a sail to-morrow ! " thought Mr. 
 Prince. " Of course I'd have to ask her 
 aunt, too. I wonder what she's like I That 
 chap who registered last night may be a de- 
 tective, though." 
 
 "Dave Warner, N. Y." The name 
 wasn't at all reassuring; nor was the city 
 he had given as his place of residence. 
 Still, one needn't borrow trouble. Besides, 
 the boathouse was the real test; if she came 
 to the boathouse, all was well. Having 
 reached this decision, Mr. Prince left the 
 hotel, and, following the directions given 
 him by the clerk, soon came to a fringe of 
 willows. Beyond this, he discovered a little 
 pavilion, and a primitive landing, to which 
 several rowboats were moored.
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 Mr. Prince inspected the boats carefully. 
 He tried to think of some plausible excuse 
 that would permit of his taking the girl for 
 a row. He could think of none. But there 
 was no harm in holding the boats in mind. 
 Chance, or fate -Mr. Prince was strongly 
 inclined to believe it was fate had been, 
 most generous to him that afternoon. Very 
 well, he would leave it to fate then. Only 
 he would keep his eyes open, and be ready 
 to act promptly if opportunity offered. In 
 the meantime, he would sit on a bench in the 
 little pavilion, and take a peep into the book 
 he carried in his pocket. 
 
 From where he stood, Mr. Prince could 
 see but part of the interior of the pavilion 
 he now approached; he was, therefore, quite 
 unprepared to find it occupied occupied 
 by a man. The man in question, tall, dark, 
 and powerfully built, wore checked clothes 
 and a black mustache; a resplendent dia- 
 mond flashed from the littl
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 "7 
 
 I think," he said, " you are the man 
 I want to talk to." 
 
 Mr. Prince started guiltily. " I don't be- 
 lieve I er quite understand," he fal- 
 tered. 
 
 u My name is Dave Warner," said the 
 man. 
 
 Mr. Prince managed a sickly smile. 
 " I'm sorry, Mr. Warner, but I have no 
 time to spare. I I was just going back 
 to the hotel." 
 
 " In that case, I'll go with you," said Mr. 
 Warner. 
 
 " Trapped ! " muttered Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I didn't catch that," said Mr. Warner. 
 
 " It was nothing," said Mr. Prince. " I 
 was just er wondering what you er 
 wanted." 
 
 " A little matter of business," Mr. War- 
 ner explained. " You hail from New York 
 City, don't you ? " 
 
 " Y es," admitted Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Thought so. There's something about 
 New Yorkers I'm one, myself. Be- 
 sides, your chug-wagon wears a New York 
 number.'* 
 
 35 

 
 Prince. 
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ' There's no use lying to a real detective," 
 thought Mr. Prince. " I'm glad I didn't at- 
 tempt to deceive him." 
 
 " Do you know how far it is from little . 
 old New York to this place? " 
 
 " Only approximately." 
 
 " He doesn't know how far it is," said 
 Mr. Warner, addressing the lake. " Now, 
 what d'ye think of that? " 
 
 "I say!" exclaimed Mr. 
 " What has that got to do with it? " 
 
 " I guess it's about time to talk business," 
 said Mr. Warner. 
 
 " I wonder," thought Mr. Prince, " if I 
 dare offer him money. It isn't exactly 
 honest to try and buy people off. But, dash 
 it all, what else can I do? " 
 
 " You don't look to me like you would 
 let a little money stand in the way of your 
 comfort and happiness," Mr. Warner con- 
 tinued. 
 
 " I'm willing to pay a fair price, but not 
 a cent more. I'm inclined to be liberal, 
 but I won't be imposed upon." 
 
 " That," said Mr. Warner, " is the proper 
 spirit." 
 
 16
 
 e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 Lt 
 
 Mr. Prince drew from his pocket, a neat 
 leather case containing bank notes. " How 
 much do you want? " he asked with a brisk 
 air of business. 
 
 " Sixty-five dollars." 
 
 " Cheap enough," thought Mr. Prince, 
 counting out the sum mentioned, and pass- 
 ing it to his companion. 
 
 " Hold on a minute," said Mr. Warner, 
 " while I write a receipt." 
 
 " Wouldn't a receipt be the least bit er 
 inconvenient? " 
 
 " Just as you like. It's customary, but it 
 ain't necessary. Anyway, I'm prepared to 
 deliver the goods. What's more, you got 
 a ten-year guarantee." 
 
 " I fancy it will be all right without the 
 guarantee," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " You can bet your sweet life it will ! It's 
 the best in the market, and it works like a 
 charm." 
 
 "Er what?" 
 
 " I say the Sparrow Speedometer is the 
 grandest speedometer made; it registers 
 miles, and fractions of miles, up to ten 
 thousand, and the sixty-five dollar one has a 
 37
 
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 clock attached to it, besides. Hullo! 
 What's the matter with you ? " 
 
 "Nothing nothing at all," said the 
 dazed Mr. Prince. " Only I thought 
 That is, I had been led to believe That 
 is" 
 
 " Didn't the clerk at the hotel put you 
 wise to me? " demanded Mr. Warner. 
 
 " Yes, yes. What I meant was, I had no 
 idea it was so late." 
 
 " It's only five minutes to five," said Mr. 
 Warner, glancing at his watch. " Restful 
 little place, this. Dropped off here to spend 
 the night. Can't ever tell when you're going 
 to strike business, though." 
 
 Five minutes to five! The girl had 
 promised to be at the boathouse at five, if 
 she came at all. And Mr. Dave Warner 
 had just lighted a long, black cigar. He 
 mustn't be allowed to remain in the pavilion r 
 he must be got rid of at all hazards.
 
 "O 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 F course I know the Sparrow 
 Speedometer, and have always 
 meant to have one on my car," 
 Mr. Prince began tentatively. " But you 
 know how one puts things off ? " 
 
 "Oh, Lord, yes!" 
 
 " So, when the clerk told me about you, 
 I was quite prepared to buy one." 
 
 " Guess you've proved that," said Mr. 
 Warner. "Got your money, ain't I?" 
 
 "That's it; you've got my money, but I 
 haven't yet received the speedometer." 
 
 " It's at the hotel." 
 
 " But you'll put it on the car for me? " 
 
 " Sure, I will. Any time you say." 
 
 " As a matter of fact, I'm leaving at half- 
 past five." 
 
 Mr. Warner rose reluctantly. " I sup- 

 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 pose I'd better get busy, then," he said. 
 " It's a kinda mean job to put 'em on. Sell- 
 ing 'em's a cinch, though. Don't expect it'll 
 be ready for you for half an hour yet. See 
 you before you go. So-long! " 
 
 Mr. Prince waited till Mr. Warner had 
 disappeared through the fringe of willows; 
 then sat down, and breathed a great sigh of 
 relief. 
 
 " It's the very deuce what a guilty con- 
 science will do to a man," he thought. " By 
 George, I feel ten years older! It's cross- 
 ing bridges before they come to them, and 
 looking for trouble where there isn't any, 
 that makes men old before their time," he 
 concluded philosophically. 
 
 It was now five o'clock, the hour when the 
 girl had said she would be at the boathouse 
 if she could come at all; a light wind 
 rippled the lake, and stirred the fringe 
 of willows; to the left of the island, a sail 
 shone like silver in the sun. But sails, and 
 winds, and willows interested Mr. Prince not 
 at all; he kicked his heels impatiently, glanc- 
 ing every half-minute at his watch. 
 
 Would she come? Or wouldn't she?
 
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 Women were, of course, proverbially late in 
 keeping appointments, and, for aught he 
 knew, the proverb applied to girls, as well. 
 Indeed, it was logical to suppose that all the 
 cornerstones of this womanly failing had 
 been laid during the tender years of girl- 
 hood. Still, it wasn't fair to look on it as 
 entirely a feminine trait; he knew men, doz- 
 ens of them, who were utterly unreliable 
 when it came to keeping appointments. He 
 wasn't altogether reliable, himself. But 
 such an important appointment! Mr. 
 Prince left the pavilion, to pace nervously up 
 and down before the boat landing. 
 
 Ah ! Some one was coming through the 
 willows some one dressed in white. Mr. 
 Prince threw his cigarette into the water, ad- 
 justed his tie with uncertain fingers, then 
 gazed resolutely at the island. It wouldn't 
 do to appear too eager; he would wait till she 
 was almost beside him before turning. His 
 attitude, moreover, would be that of one 
 keeping an important business appointment, 
 rather than that of a lover keeping a tryst. 
 So much depended on this meeting, that Mr. 
 Prince determined to be impersonal, and de- 

 
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 tective-like, at any cost. He might even hint 
 to her that time was money to detectives, 
 and that, as a class, members of his profes- 
 sion did not like to be kept waiting since time 
 was often of supreme importance to success. 
 
 That extra instinct which lovers seem, at 
 times, to possess, told him she was now quite 
 near. Perhaps he might venture to turn? 
 
 He turned. 
 
 This manoeuvre, however, proved fatal to 
 Mr. Prince's impersonal, detective-like man- 
 ner; it fell from him as leaves fall from the 
 maples in autumn. For the glimpse of white 
 Mr. Prince had caught through the willows 
 had been a glimpse of white apron, and the 
 girl who wore it was the chambermaid who 
 had taken the hammock away from him ear- 
 lier in the afternoon. 
 
 Still, perhaps she carried a message from 
 her? If she could send the chambermaid 
 for her hammock, she could also send her to 
 the boathouse. It might be that, finding it 
 impossible to come herself she had seemed 
 a bit doubtful about being able to come 
 she had dispatched this girl to arrange for a 
 new appointment.
 
 " Were you looking for me? " asked Mr. 
 Prince. 
 
 "Oh, no, sir! Mr. Smith sent me down 
 to see if the boats had left the island yet." 
 
 "Ah!" said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I only see one," said the girl. " I guess 
 dinner will be late to-night." 
 
 Mr. Prince remained silent. The girl as- 
 sured herself that she had not overlooked 
 the second sail, then turned, and disappeared 
 through the fringe of willows. Left alone, 
 Mr. Prince lighted a cigarette, and, entering 
 the pavilion, stared moodily across the lake. 
 She hadn't come! She probably wouldn't 
 come! He had left it all to fate, and fate 
 had dealt shabbily with him. Not that he 
 could have done much for himself that after- 
 noon. But there would be other afternoons 
 oh, rather! Of course, he wasn't worthy 
 of her. He could be more worthy of her 
 than he was though. He would be, by 
 George! Besides, if to feel unworthy were 
 a real bar, only blackguards would go a-woo- 
 ing, and such a state of affairs would be quite 
 too dreadful. Mr. Prince drew her book 
 from his pocket, to gaze at it long and ear- 
 
 43
 
 'QieSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 7 
 
 nestly. He noticed now, what he had not 
 noticed before: It was plainly a detective 
 story. 
 
 "Hm!" thought Mr. Prince. " That 
 explains several things everything, in fact. 
 What an ass I was not to have guessed it! 
 She had this book in her hand when she 
 asked me if I were a detective. Power of 
 suggestion, and all that sort of thing. Why, 
 it's as plain as can be ! " 
 
 It was, of course, a bit humiliating to have 
 made this discovery so late in the day. It 
 was discouraging, too uncommonly dis- 
 couraging. A chap didn't start building a 
 house of hope every afternoon, nor as often 
 as once in a blue moon. And when he did 
 start building, it made him deuced sad to 
 learn he'd been building on sand. Yet there 
 must be a firmer foundation somewhere. 
 Mr. Prince resolved not only to find this 
 firmer foundation, but to rear an edifice on it 
 that should reach the stars. In the mean- 
 time, there was much to be grateful for. 
 
 He was glad she liked detective stories, 
 for he rather liked them, himself. Reading 
 wasn't at all in his line. But, once in a while, 

 
 when there was nothing better to do 
 the time he'd broken three ribs playing 
 polo, for instance; he'd read a thundering 
 lot, then. Anyway, it was a good sign. 
 That Miss Chalmers at Bar Harbor, last 
 year how she did run on about books! 
 And he'd never read a single one she'd men- 
 tioned. Queer books by people with queer 
 names. It made a chap feel dashed igno- 
 rant. Yet she couldn't swim a stroke, and 
 was afraid of horses. 
 
 But the girl he'd met this afternoon was 
 different. She was crazy about sailing, for 
 one thing; she'd said so, herself. And he'd 
 wager she wasn't afraid of anything. Well, 
 a mouse, perhaps, or a cow. But there was 
 something appealing arid adorable in being 
 afraid of a cow; it was so feminine. And 
 he'd teach her to ride, if she didn't already 
 know how; and he'd get up a party for a 
 short cruise on his yacht ; and and 
 
 Discovering where his dreams were lead- 
 ing him, Mr. Prince smiled ruefully.r 
 Dreams were all very well, but there was 
 much to be done before they could come true. 
 He didn't know where she lived; he didn't 1 
 
 45
 
 SAPPHIRE mCW 
 
 even know her name. By Jove! Why 
 hadn't he thought of it before? Opening 
 the book, he scanned the fly leaf eagerly. 
 Yes, there it was, written rather scrawlingly 
 in pencil. 
 
 It wasn't loyal, it was even absurd, yet Mr. 
 Prince was greatly disappointed; for the 
 name written on the fly leaf was " Gladys 
 Schwartz." Mr. Prince felt instinctively 
 that he could never be happy with a girl 
 named Gladys Schwartz. She might be ev- 
 erything that was charming; she might have 
 eyes like like stars, by George, and lips 
 like cherries ! But Gladys Schwartz ! Re- 
 turning the book to his pocket, Mr. Prince 
 rose, and walked wearily toward the hotel. 
 
 When an ideal is shattered, sharp splinters 
 are sent flying, to pierce the heart. Mr. 
 Prince's heart was pierced in at least a dozen 
 places, or so it seemed to him. He asked 
 himself plaintively that time-worn question: 
 "What's in a name?" He answered it by 
 declaring there was nothing in a name. 
 
 Gladys Schwartz ! 
 
 Once more Mr. Prince reasoned with him- 
 self, but as he reasoned in a circle, he natu- 
 
 46
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET/ 
 
 rally arrived, before long, at the point from 
 which he had started. 
 
 " It's quite useless," he finally decided, " I 
 could never love a girl named Gladys 
 Schwartz. And if I could, she probably 
 could never love me." 
 
 So his meeting with the girl had been but 
 an incident, after all. And he had consid- 
 ered it, not so long ago, a big, breathless, 
 bewildering event. Still, he had been mis- 
 taken before. And he probably would be 
 again oh, rather I He'd drive to the Ken- 
 wood Club after dinner, and, on the morrow, 
 drown his sorrows in golf. He'd show them 
 how to play the game, by George! And, 
 after he'd won the tournament, he'd chal- 
 lenge the club's professional, and beat him. 
 And he'd enter his name for the Kinghaven 
 Cup, to be played for next week near Pitts- 
 burg. And then he'd go somewhere to 
 Bar Harbor, perhaps. And after that 
 Mr. Prince sighed dismally. 
 
 As he neared the hotel, however, his 
 thoughts took a more practical turn; he 
 would get his bag from his car, and tidy up 
 a bit before dinner. No, he would send a
 
 
 SAPPHIRE BMCELET 
 
 boy for it. A stop at the car would mean 
 an interview with Mr. Dave Warner, and 
 Mr. Prince didn't feel in the humor for talk- 
 ing to Mr. Warner. Hadn't Mr. Warner 
 sold him a speedometer? How the deuce 
 could a chap plead not guilty to a charge of 
 speeding, when he had a speedometer star- 
 ing him in the face? It was neither safe, nor 
 sensible, to know how fast one went. Be- 
 sides, there were far better speedometers in 
 the market than the Sparrow. 
 
 " Your room's ready for you," said the 
 clerk, ringing a bell. 
 
 " Will you send some one for my bag? 
 It's in my motor." 
 
 " I'll send for it at once," said the clerk, 
 pushing the register toward Mr. Prince. 
 
 While he was writing his name, the cham- 
 bermaid, whom he had seen last at the boat 
 landing, appeared. 
 
 " Show this gentleman to Room Sixteen," 
 said the clerk. 
 
 Mr. Prince followed the chambermaid up- 
 stairs, paused while she unlocked the door, 
 then entered his room. It seemed to be a
 
 corner room. It seemed By Jove ! 
 Hastening to the window, he looked out on 
 the lawn. Yes, there were the two maples 
 under which her hammock had been swung; 
 and this was the room she had pointed out 
 to him as hers. For a man who had re- 
 nounced all thought of love, Mr. Prince was 
 extravagantly excited. 
 
 " I say," he exclaimed, " wasn't this room 
 occupied er this afternoon ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. It was Miss Randolph's room. 
 Her aunt had the next one, Number Seven- 
 teen. They left on the five o'clock train." 
 
 " Miss Randolph! Are you sure? " 
 
 " Yes, sir; Miss Dorothy Randolph." 
 
 "I er found a book this afternoon. 
 It appears to belong to a er Miss 
 Gladys Schwartz. Here it is." 
 
 " Oh, that belongs to the hotel ! " said the 
 maid. " Or at least I guess it does. Miss 
 Schwartz left it behind when she went away 
 last month. You can read it if you want to." 
 
 " Thank you," said Mr. Prince, " but I'd 
 rather not keep it, if you don't mind." 
 
 As soon as the maid had gone from the 
 room, Mr. Prince sank into a chair and gazed 
 49
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ecstatically at the ceiling. Dorothy Ran- 
 dolph! What a beautiful name! By 
 George, he'd never doubt his instinct again! 
 Something had told him he could never love 
 a girl named Gladys Schwartz. And now 
 he knew why. 
 
 Dorothy Randolph 1
 
 -j / 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 SO it was Miss Dorothy Randolph, and 
 not Miss Gladys Schwartz, who had 
 sought his services as a detective. 
 Mr. Prince felt ten years younger, and at 
 least a hundred years happier. It was 
 thoughtless of him not to have tipped the 
 chambermaid who had made this clear to 
 him, but he would attend to that later. In 
 the meantime And Miss Randolph 
 Miss Dorothy had left, with her aunt, on 
 the five o'clock train. This, of course, was 
 not so satisfactory. Yet it explained a great 
 deal everything, in fact. 
 
 In the first place, it was quite as he had 
 supposed; Miss Dorothy had not been robbed 
 of a sapphire bracelet. Indeed, now he 
 came to think of it, she had never stated posi- 
 tively that she had been robbed; and she had 
 
 51 
 
 n
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 been most careful not to refer to the bracelet 
 as " my bracelet." He had been too taken 
 up with his own deceit to remember it at the 
 time, but he remembered it perfectly now. 
 And he remembered the hint of mischief in 
 her eyes, the adroitness with which she had 
 evaded his questions. Finally, if one needed 
 further proof, there was the appointment at 
 the boathouse for five o'clock. " I will come 
 if I can," she had said, knowing well she 
 couldn't come, as she was leaving on the five 
 o'clock train. In short, he had been most 
 grievously deceived. 
 
 But the point was this: She probably 
 considered the incident closed, and therein lay 
 his advantage ; for it wasn't closed, not by a 
 great deal. Mr. Prince resolved, then and 
 there, not only to pay her out, but to He 
 smiled tenderly, which would lead one to be- 
 lieve that his second resolve was, in some 
 way, connected with sentiment a sentiment 
 that touched the heart gently to happiness. 
 
 Having allowed himself the luxury of a 
 bath and fresh linen, Mr. Prince went down- 
 stairs. He was very hungry; he felt, too, 
 that a cocktail would taste uncommonly good. 
 52
 
 ^eSAPPHEE BRACELET 
 
 And, aside from that, he was most anxious to 
 consult the hotel register. 
 
 It did not take long to learn all the regis- 
 ter could teach him; Miss Dorothy Randolph 
 and her aunt had arrived six days ago; they 
 had registered from New York; the aunt's 
 name was Mrs. Robert Alexander. From 
 the clerk he learned that the five o'clock train 
 was the best-equipped train on the line, and 
 that it should reach New York at ten-twenty- 
 three that evening. So they had evidently 
 gone to New York. And now for that cock- 
 tail. 
 
 " I'm sorry," said the clerk, " but we're 
 strictly temperance in this hotel. The old 
 lady who owns it had a son go to the bad 
 through drink, and " 
 
 "I see," said Mr. Prince. "And, by 
 George, I don't blame her! " 
 
 " Of course I keep a flask for emergen- 
 cies." 
 
 "Not for me; thanks. Is the dining 
 room open yet? " 
 
 " It will be open in about fifteen minutes. 
 I'm afraid I can't give you a table to your- 
 self; we're a little crowded just now." 
 
 A 

 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Oh, that's all right," Mr. Prince replie< 
 carelessly, little dreaming what an important 
 part his place at a certain table in the dining 
 room was to play. 
 
 From his chair on the veranda, Mr. Prince 
 surveyed the picnic party as it filed past him ; 
 he saw a score of sun-burned, tired faces; he 
 heard the young miss of seventeen implore 
 the waggish young man of thirty-seven not 
 to make her laugh any more. It was the 
 waggish young man, no doubt, to whom the 
 lady with the henna-colored hair referred as 
 being " such an acquisition." She herself 
 was such a dressy lady that Mr. Prince 
 couldn't help noticing her, or recognizing her, 
 later, when he found himself sitting next to 
 her at dinner. 
 
 Mr. Dave Warner, who also sat at this 
 table, greeted Mr. Prince most cordially. 
 
 " Well, I got it on," he announced. 
 
 " Yes, I see you have," Mr. Prince re- 
 plied absently. 
 
 " I mean the speedometer.' 
 
 The speedometer, of course," said Mr. 
 Prince. " How stupid of me ! " 
 
 " I expect you thought I meant this," said
 
 ^SAPPHIRE BMCEtET 
 
 Mr. Warner, indicating the large diamond 
 he wore on his little finger. " Won it in a 
 raffle last week. Worth three hundred if 
 it's worth a cent, and all it cost me was a dol- 
 lar ticket. No luck at all. What? " 
 
 As Mr. Prince did not heed his explana- 
 tion, Mr. Warner concluded that his late 
 patron was " stuck up," and turned his atten- 
 tion to the soup before him, thereby doing 
 Mr. Prince a grave injustice; for, as a mat- 
 ter of truth, Mr. Prince was not in the least 
 " stuck up "; it was simply that he was pre- 
 occupied. And his preoccupation took the 
 form of. staring at the lady on his left, the 
 lady with the henna-colored hair. 
 
 It sounds rude, but really it wasn't, for 
 his stare did not include her face. Indeed, 
 it was the hand that held her soup spoon 
 that interested him. Circling the wrist, 
 above this hand, he had discovered a brace- 
 let. And the bracelet was set with sap- 
 phires one, two, three, four. He 
 couldn't count them, of course, but there 
 seemed to be nine or ten. And there was 
 no mistaking the little ribbon of diamonds 
 that ran in and out, between the sapphires. 
 55
 
 " You'd understand in a moment if you 
 saw it," the girl had said, when he had 
 failed, from her description, to make a pic- 
 ture of the bracelet in his mind. And now 
 he had seen, and he understood perfectly; 
 the bracelet the woman on his left wore was 
 the bracelet Miss Dorothy Randolph had 
 described there could be no doubt of it. 
 
 Miss Randolph had said it was chased, 
 too. And he had been silly enough to think 
 she meant chaste. To make proof more con- 
 clusive, the gold part of the bracelet was 
 chased in delicate pattern. And, by Jove, 
 the woman wearing the bracelet was agi- 
 tated! Wasn't her hand trembling? 
 
 Perhaps the lady with the henna-colored 
 hair had read somewhere that one should fill 
 a soup spoon by pushing it away, and not 
 toward one? Perhaps she thought, since 
 the young man on her right continued to 
 stare at her hand, that it might be well to 
 abandon the latter method as being well, 
 a trifle archaic? At all events, she now 
 began to spoon her soup differently. And 
 still the young man stared. 
 
 This, of course, is merely a theory. Yet 
 
 56
 
 ^eSAPPHIREBMCElET 
 
 there's no denying the lady's hand now 
 trembled. Indeed, detectives even more ex- 
 perienced than Mr. Prince would have agreed 
 that she was agitated. And a visible agita- 
 tion is, as every one knows, an evidence of 
 mental distress. 
 
 Why, then, was the lady distressed ? Was 
 it possible she wore a stolen bracelet? Was 
 it consciousness of guilt that made her hand 
 tremble? Or was it embarrassment? 
 
 A swift glance at her face told Mr. Prince 
 that it was quite red. Here was another 
 suspicious sign. The flush of shame, and 
 the blush of innocence are, unfortunately, 
 very much alike. Still, ladies with henna- 
 colored hair did not, as a rule Or did 
 they? Mr. Prince wasn't quite sure 
 whether they did or didn't; he was positive, 
 however, that the bracelet the lady wore 
 was the bracelet Miss Randolph had de- 
 scribed to him that afternoon ; the matter did 
 not admit of doubt. 
 
 Assured of this, Mr. Prince turned his 
 attention to his dinner. But occasionally 
 his eyes would stray to the left; the bracelet 
 fascinated him. 

 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 A tender twilight had' marked the close 
 of this perfect June day. But now stars 
 were being scattered over the sky, while the 
 world waited for the miracle of night. 
 
 Mr. Prince also waited for a miracle, but 
 of another sort. The miracle he had in 
 mind was one that should permit of his ad- 
 dressing the lady with the henna-colored 
 hair. She had left the dining room some 
 time ago, and was now sitting on the hotel 
 veranda. She was alone, too. Moreover, 
 save for himself and the lady, the veranda 
 was deserted. This surely was in his favor. 
 But now could he turn it to account ? 
 
 Mr. Prince hovered near the precipice of 
 a decision, but could not find the courage to 
 step off into space. He might land on the 
 jagged rocks of her displeasure, and that 
 would hurt. Besides, it was dashed un- 
 gentlemanly for a strange man to address a 
 strange woman, even when the woman did 
 wear a bracelet that was 
 
 " It's a deuced queer situation, any way 
 you look at it," Mr. Prince confided to him- 
 self. " Hang it all, I'm blessed if I know 
 what to do! If she'd only drop her fan! " 
 58
 
 BUT OCCASIONALLY HIS EYES WOULD STRAY TO THE LEFT; 
 THE BRACELET FASCINATED HIM
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 Having reduced the miracle he desired 
 performed from a vague, indefinite some- 
 thing, to the practical proportions of a lady's 
 fan, Mr. Prince lighted a cigarette, and 
 waited. 
 
 It is, of course, quite impossible that 
 the lady with the fan could have read his 
 thoughts, for Mr. Prince's chair was sepa- 
 rated from hers by at least five feet, and he 
 had not glanced at her more than twenty 
 times since he had appeared on the veranda. 
 Nor could she have dreamed that, in drop- 
 ping her fan, she would be performing a 
 miracle. It is, therefore, idle to suppose 
 she would drop it on purpose, particularly 
 as it was one of those delicate affairs, of silk 
 and ivory, which contact with the veranda 
 could in no wise improve. 
 
 As a matter of truth, when the time came, 
 it was her handkerchief, and not her fan, she 
 dropped. 
 
 Mr. Prince, discerning its first flutter as 
 it left her hand, shot out of his chair like a 
 rocket. 
 
 " Allow me," he said. 
 
 " Thank you so much," said the lady, ac-
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 cepting her property with apparent grati- 
 tude. " It's a beautiful night, isn't it? " 
 
 "Ripping! Simply ripping!" Mr. 
 Prince agreed, drawing up his chair. 
 
 " You've thrown away your cigarette. 
 I'm sorry you did that." 
 
 " I would like to smoke, if you don't 
 mind," said Mr. Prince, producing his gold 
 case. 
 
 " Oh, you men how I envy you ! " 
 
 "Do you really?" 
 
 11 1 do, indeed." 
 
 " Oh, I don't know I There are certain 
 advantages. But we can't wear pretty 
 gowns and jewelry." 
 
 " You have so much freedom." 
 
 " It doesn't do us much good," Mr. 
 Prince declared gloomily; "some one is 
 always getting the best of us." 
 
 " Are you unhappy, too? " asked the lady. 
 
 " Er well er not exactly." 
 A hidden sorrow, perhaps." 
 
 " Yes, that's it," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I, too, have known sorrow," said the 
 lady. 
 
 " A deuced sorrowful thing, sorrow," Mr. 
 60
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 Prince replied uneasily. " I'm fond of 
 jewelry, though," he added tactfully. 
 
 " I'd trade all my jewels all for hap- 
 piness." 
 
 "By George! Would you?" 
 
 "Yes, I would," said the lady, a little 
 impatiently. 
 
 " Would you trade them for anything 
 else? " asked Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I might," said the lady, somewhat 
 doubtfully. 
 
 " I wouldn't want them all, of course." 
 
 "Well, I should hope not! If you knew 
 what trouble I had getting this sapphire 
 bracelet of mine." 
 
 " I can guess," Mr. Prince hinted darkly. 
 
 " No you can't, not in a thousand years." 
 
 " Anyway, it's the bracelet I want." 
 
 " I must say I like your nerve," said the 
 lady. 
 
 " I'm sorry if I've offended you," said Mr. 
 Prince. " I didn't mean to ; I didn't, hon- 
 estly." 
 
 " We'll let it pass this once," said the lady. 
 
 " I'm really in earnest about the bracelet." 
 
 " You seem to be," the lady replied suspi-
 
 * *- 
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ciously. " I don't know what your game is, 
 young man, but I give it to you straight; 
 there's nothing doing." 
 
 " That," said Mr. Prince, " is for you to 
 decide. I have an offer to make that may 
 interest you; at least, there can be no harm 
 in your listening to it. And I think it will 
 be to your advantage, greatly to your ad- 
 vantage, to hear what I have to say." 
 
 What arguments Mr. Prince now pre- 
 sented, it would be difficult to state. He 
 was, naturally, above threatening a lady. 
 But there are other methods which may be 
 adopted, even against ladies; and the lady, 
 in this case, was plainly an adventuress. 
 Then, too, she loved liberty. Had she not 
 said so, herself? And perhaps the hidden 
 sorrow she had referred to was the uglier 
 sorrow of remorse? She had admitted, also, 
 encountering great difficulty in acquiring the 
 bracelet. Was not this admission more or 
 less incriminating? 
 
 Mr. Prince bent to the task before him. 
 It wasn't an easy task, for the lady, at first, 
 proved quite obdurate. But as constant 
 dripping wears away a stone, so was the 
 62
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 A 
 
 lady's obduracy worn away by the insistent 
 Mr. Prince; from being adamant, she be- 
 came difficult, then merely unreasonable. 
 Having reached this stage, Mr. Prince saw 
 it would be useless to attempt to go farther; 
 she would never be reasonable, he decided. 
 So, letting well enough alone, he now pro- 
 ceeded along more familiar lines. He 
 would do this, if the lady would do that. 
 No? Perhaps she would agree to this, 
 then? She wouldn't? Pray, what would 
 she agree to? It ended in the lady making 
 her own terms. 
 
 Mr. Prince was, however, not at all cast 
 down by her ruling in the case. A definite 
 understanding had been reached, and that 
 was a great deal. Besides, he had succeeded 
 in what he had set out to accomplish. He 
 had been deucedly diplomatic, too, for he 
 had not even suggested to the lady that she 
 might have stolen the bracelet. Indeed, 
 there had been no scene of any description, 
 which was another cause for congratulation, 
 for there might so easily have been a deucedly 
 disagreeable scene. 
 
 Mr. Prince rose, threw away his ciga- 
 
 63 

 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 rette, and bestowed a friendly smile on his 
 late antagonist. 
 
 "Leaving?" asked the lady. 
 
 " Yes, I think I'll go in now. Good- 
 night." 
 
 The lady followed him with her eyes till 
 he disappeared through the door leading 
 into the hotel. 
 
 " I'd give a dollar to know what that 
 kid is up to," she said to herself. " He's 
 certainly a queer one."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 IN the hotel parlor, a piano, sadly out 
 of tune, was being played by a sallow- 
 faced young man with dreamy eyes. 
 He played rather well, Mr. Prince thought. 
 But the young man's audience evidently did 
 not think so, for they were, even now, insist- 
 ing that he give up his place to " Sadie." 
 After a proper display of reluctance, Sadie 
 allowed herself to be led to the piano, 
 where she plunged, with a splendid splash, 
 into a raging torrent of ragtime. 
 
 " Now, that's what I call music," said a 
 stout matron. " I wish my Mary could play 
 like that." 
 
 " Sadie certainly can play," agreed her 
 companion. " I never knew anybody that 
 could get more out of a piano." 
 
 Although Sadie was doing her valiant 
 
 65
 
 - ^ 
 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 best to drown all conversation, the sallow- 
 faced young man couldn't help overhearing 
 these remarks. He had been deprived of his 
 place at the piano for rendering a Chopin 
 prelude. Smiling sardonically, he mur- 
 mured something that had to do with pearls 
 and swine. 
 
 It must be confessed, however, that Mr. 
 Prince saw nothing inimical to America's 
 musical future in the change of programme. 
 Indeed, he rather enjoyed Sadie's spirited 
 performance. Besides, just at present, he 
 was in a quandary as to what he should do 
 next. 
 
 From his place outside the parlor door, 
 Mr. Prince reviewed the past, and tried to 
 imagine the future. Life was singularly like 
 a game of bridge, he decided. Having de- 
 clared trumps, he had already succeeded in 
 taking one trick by playing the knave ; but in 
 order to capture the queen, he must finesse 
 with caution. After studying his cards 
 most carefully, Mr. Prince rose, and sought 
 the hotel clerk, whom he found reading a 
 magazine six months old behind the counter 
 in the office. 
 
 66
 
 eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Sorry to disturb you," he said, " but 
 when is the next train for New York? " 
 
 " To-morrow morning at seven." 
 
 " Isn't there one before that? " 
 
 " I'm afraid not," said the clerk. 
 " There are plenty of trains, you know, but 
 very few of them stop at our station. Were 
 you thinking of leaving to-night? " 
 
 " I find I've got to be in New York early 
 to-morrow morning," Mr. Prince confided. 
 " Surely there's some train somewhere." 
 
 How about your automobile? You 
 could get there in that, couldn't you? " 
 
 " Y-es, I could; but I'd lose my way, like 
 as not. Besides, I shouldn't care to drive all 
 night, after the driving I've done to-day." 
 
 " What kind of a car have you? " asked 
 the clerk. 
 
 " It's a corker! " Mr. Prince declared en- 
 thusiastically. 
 
 " I mean what make is it? " 
 
 "It's a Fiat, this year's model; six cylin- 
 ders, four speeds, two direct drives. By 
 George, but she can go I And does," Mr. 
 Prince added reminiscently. " But, I say, 
 what has that got to do with it? "
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE mam 
 
 " I was thinking you might get some one 
 to drive for you. There's a garage in the 
 village that employs two or three pretty good 
 men." 
 
 " That's not a bad idea ! " exclaimed Mr. 
 Prince. " But he's got to be an experienced 
 driver, and thoroughly familiar with the car, 
 you understand." 
 
 " Sure," said the clerk, " I understand per- 
 fectly. Perhaps you'd better do the tele- 
 phoning yourself." 
 
 When Mr. Prince emerged from the 
 glass-covered box in which the telephone was 
 situated, he was smiling cheerfully. 
 
 " I've got one," he announced. " He's 
 coming right over on a motor cycle." 
 
 " Guess I'd better get busy, and send for 
 your bag," said the clerk. " I'll not charge 
 you anything for the room. Dinner's sev- 
 enty-five cents." 
 
 Mr. Prince eyed the clerk thoughtfully. 
 No, he didn't seem the kind to be offended 
 by a Drawing a leather case from his 
 pocket, he examined it anxiously. By 
 Jove I There was nothing in it but a two- 
 dollar bill ! And he had meant to give the 
 68
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 chambermaid who had shown him to his 
 room a thundering big tip. He'd spent an 
 awful lot of money since sunrise. But there 
 was plenty more where it had come from 
 oh, rather! Besides, he was almost sure to 
 be passing this way again, and, in that event, 
 neither the clerk nor the chambermaid would 
 have any cause for complaint. 
 
 A series of irregular explosions announc- 
 ing the approach of a motor cycle, Mr. 
 Prince paid for his dinner, collected what 
 was left of his two-dollar bill, and, request- 
 ing that his bag be sent out to his car, has- 
 tened to the veranda to meet his new chauf- 
 feur. 
 
 " Are you the man from the garage? " he 
 asked, as the motor cycle, with a final cough, 
 came to a stop. 
 
 " That's me. Was it you that sent for a 
 chauffeur? " 
 
 " Yes. You are sure you can drive a 
 Fiat?" 
 
 14 Can I drive a Fiat? Well, just you 
 watch me." 
 
 " And you know the road to New York? " 
 With my eyes shut," declared the new 
 69 
 
 V
 
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 chauffeur. " I like driving at night no 
 constables to bother you." 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Prince, " it's bully, isn't 
 it?" 
 
 " It's a peach of a night for a run, all 
 right, all right. My name's Bill. What's 
 yours ? " 
 
 " Prince Morton Prince." 
 
 "Are you starting soon, Mr. Prince?" 
 
 " At once. We might as well go over to 
 the car." 
 
 " I'll wheel my motor cycle over to the 
 barn," said Bill. " Be with you in a jiffy." 
 
 There was something very pleasing about 
 Bill, Mr. Prince decided. He was young, 
 and strong, and looked thoroughly com- 
 petent; and he had a frank, honest, boyish 
 face. 
 
 The lady with the henna-colored hair was 
 still sitting on the veranda. And now, as 
 Mr. Prince passed her at some distance, on 
 his way to his car, she called to him. 
 
 * saving without saying 
 she demanded.
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " I should hope not!" 
 
 "Well er good-by." 
 
 "Wait a minute," said the lady. "Are 
 you the Morton Prince?" 
 
 "I'm blessed if I know. Why?" 
 
 " Because if you are, I wish I'd known it 
 sooner." 
 
 " I'm sure I'm not." 
 
 " I'll bet anything you are," said the lady. 
 " I've read about you in the papers lots of 
 times; you play polo, and are a great swell." 
 
 ' You shouldn't believe everything you 
 read in the papers," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " And you're richer than mud." 
 
 " Richer than some mud, perhaps. But 
 what has that got to do with it? " 
 
 " Nothing. Only it would have had if 
 I'd known it half an hour ago," said the 
 lady. " Anyway, I'll keep an eye on you." 
 
 " Please don't bother," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " No bother at all," said the lady. 
 
 "Er good-by," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Well, if that ain't just my luck," sighed 
 the lady, as Mr. Prince disappeared round 
 the corner of the hotel. " I had him be- 
 tween my thumb and finger, and I let him
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 get away. But how was I to know he was 
 Morton Prince? " 
 
 For the first hour of the ride, Mr. Prince 
 kept awake; then, satisfied that Bill was not 
 only competent to run the car, but could 
 drive quite as well as he could himself, Mr. 
 Prince ordered him to stop. 
 
 " I'm uncommonly sleepy," he explained, 
 as Bill, somewhat wonderingly, applied both 
 brakes, " and I'm afraid to go to sleep, for 
 fear I'll fall out." 
 
 " Too bad we haven't a tonneau," said 
 Bill. 
 
 " I was thinking you might tie me in with 
 the tow rope." 
 
 A series of loops and knots, and Mr. 
 Prince was tied securely in his seat. 
 
 " I guess you haven't got any confidence 
 in me," said Bill, with a joyous grin. 
 
 "None at all," replied Mr. Prince. 
 " The fact is, Bill, your reckless driving has 
 frightened me so, I don't dare keep awake."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ARRIVING in New York about half- 
 past two in the morning, Mr. Prince 
 borrowed enough money at his 
 garage to provide supper and a night's 
 lodging for Bill; then, letting himself into 
 his apartment, promptly went to bed. He 
 slept till eleven, so it was not till early after- 
 noon that he could give his attention to the 
 important problem of locating Miss Ran- 
 dolph's place of residence. 
 
 There were, he found, eight Robert Alex- 
 anders in the telephone book; one of these 
 lived on Madison Avenue. Very well, he 
 would try that number first. 
 
 "Is Mrs. Robert Alexander at home?" 
 Mr. Prince asked of a faint, far-away voice. 
 " She's in her heavenly home, if that's 
 what you mean," the voice replied. 
 73
 
 <0ie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Oh, I'm so sorry ! " said Mr. Prince. 
 "I er er Good-by. 
 
 " Now, that was dashed awkward ! I 
 hope I didn't hurt anybody's feelings," 
 thought Mr. Prince. " Here goes for the 
 next number, anyway. I'm bound to hit it 
 right sometime." 
 
 The next Mrs. Robert Alexander was at 
 home. 
 
 " Who is it wants her, please? " 
 
 " It's er What I really want to 
 know is There are so many Mrs. 
 Robert Alexanders in the book, you see, and 
 I'm looking for a friend that is, a friend 
 of a friend who was at a little hotel in New 
 Jersey a day or two ago. Is this the Mrs. 
 Alexander? " 
 
 " No, it ain't," said a cross voice. 
 
 Mr. Prince had no trouble in talking to 
 the next Mrs. Alexander, for she answered 
 the telephone in person. 
 
 " Yes, this is Mrs. Alexander," she said. 
 " Who wants me ? " 
 
 " I do," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 "Oh, hullo! Wait a minute." 
 
 " I wonder who the deuce she imagines I
 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 am," thought Mr. Prince, feeling rather un- 
 comfortable. 
 
 " I closed the door into the hall," ex- 
 plained the voice at the other end of the wire. 
 " Where have you been all this time, you bad 
 boy?" 
 
 " Er er Where have you been?" 
 replied the startled Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I've been in town for a whole week, and 
 I'm leaving to-morrow for Tuxedo. Can't 
 you arrange " 
 
 " I'm awfully sorry, but I can't possibly." 
 
 " Why ! Why 1 You mean you re- 
 fuse?" 
 
 "I er I'm quite sure there must 
 be some mistake." 
 
 "A most natural mistake, on my part; 
 but, believe me, one that will hardly occur 
 again, Mr. " 
 
 " Don't say it," implored Mr. Prince. 
 " I'm somebody else. I I " 
 
 A faint click announcing that the lady to 
 whom he was endeavoring to explain had 
 hung up her receiver, Mr. Prince followed 
 her example. 
 
 "By Jove," he thought, "this is awful I 
 
 75
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 I suppose there's no great harm done, but just 
 the same I'm glad I didn't look at her ad- 
 dress." 
 
 Half closing his eyes, Mr. Prince cov- 
 ered with a card that portion of the Alex- 
 ander list to which he had already tele- 
 phoned; then, taking down his receiver, tried 
 a new number. This time, too, he changed 
 his tactics. 
 
 " Is this Miss Randolph's place of resi- 
 dence?" he asked. "Miss Dorothy Ran- 
 dolph?" 
 
 ' Yes. Do you wish to speak to her? " 
 
 " Y-es. That is, I'd like to speak to her, 
 but" 
 
 " Hold the phone, please." 
 
 "I say! I can't speak to her now 
 I" 
 
 " I find she has gone out," Mr. Prince 
 was informed a moment later. " Who shall 
 I say rang her up." 
 
 " Mr. er er er er " 
 
 "Mr. What?" 
 
 " Yes, that's it. Thank you so much. 
 Good-by." 
 
 It would be hardly wise to do anything
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 that day, Mr. Prince decided. Tomorrow 
 morning, perhaps? At all events, he now 
 knew where she lived, and that was some- 
 thing. 
 
 At four o'clock that afternoon, Mr. Prince 
 drove his long, gray car past a certain house 
 in a certain street; then, turning, he drove 
 past it again. In appearance it wasn't a 
 wonderful house in any way, yet it seemed to 
 interest him. 
 
 " I wonder if I'll ever be allowed inside 
 it," he thought. " And I wonder Sup- 
 pose you take the car now, Bill. We'll go 
 through the Park, and out along the river to 
 a place I know where we'll have tea, and 
 talk things over." 
 
 " Another plate of toast, waiter. Have 
 a cup of tea, Bill?" 
 
 " I've already had two, sir." 
 
 " Two is nothing when one is thirsty." 
 
 " I was thirsty," Bill admitted, whereupon 
 Mr. Prince poured more tea; then, selecting 
 a cigarette from his gold case, lighted it, and 
 gazed dreamily across the Hudson. 
 
 "That's Fort Lee, ain't it?" asked Bill,
 
 <GieSAPPrIIRE BRACELET 
 
 indicating a ferry slip and a huddle of houses 
 on the New Jersey side. 
 
 " Yes, that's Fort Lee." 
 
 " Thought so. I was there once." 
 
 "Do you drink, Bill?" 
 
 " Nothing to speak of." 
 
 " The last chauffeur I had disgraced me 
 by running into a hansom on Fifth Avenue." 
 
 "Was he loaded?" 
 
 " Well, he wasn't exactly sober." 
 
 " I'd cut out booze perpetual if I had a 
 good job," said Bill. 
 
 " I was thinking you might suit me," said 
 Mr. Prince, " though I hadn't considered en- 
 gaging a chauffeur till autumn." 
 
 " If you'll take me, I'll suit you fine," Bill 
 declared earnestly ; " no joy rides, and no 
 knocking down money on the side that's 
 me. I'd like to drive for you, Mr. Prince, 
 and your car's a peach. I wouldn't have to 
 wear a uniform, would I? " 
 
 "No, you wouldn't have to wear livery; 
 just a quiet suit of gray, and black puttees. 
 
 " Them's the leather things you wear on. 
 your legs, ain't they? " 
 
 " Yes."
 
 1 Then it's settled," said Bill. " Only I 
 don't believe there'll be much doing for me 
 in winter with the car you got." 
 
 " Oh, I've another carl Perhaps you no- 
 ticed it in the garage a blue limousine? " 
 
 " Did I notice it ? Say, I was all over 
 that car this morning; it's foreign, and looks 
 like a crackerjack." 
 
 " It is," Mr. Prince admitted, with some 
 pride. " And I'll pay you a hundred a 
 month and board you, or a hundred and fifty 
 a month, and you can board yourself." 
 
 " I guess I'll take the hundred and fifty, if 
 it's all the same to you." 
 
 "Then," said Mr. Prince, "if you're 
 ready, we'll be off to a tailor's, and order you 
 some clothes. You can go home to-morrow, 
 if you like, and get your things ; and, as I ex- 
 pect to be at the Lake View Hotel in a day 
 or two, you might as well take the car, and 
 have it there for me when I arrive. Is that 
 satisfactory? " 
 
 "Mr. Prince," said Bill, with a hint of 
 emotion in his voice, " I would almost die for 
 you, and that's the truth." 
 
 Mr. Prince wondered what his man would 
 
 
 

 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 think of Bill. He would never know, of 
 course; he never knew what Hicks thought 
 about anything. Not that he cared to know. 
 Indeed, it would have annoyed him to look 
 on any one so impersonal and British as other 
 than a convenient piece of furniture. But 
 Bill was different; Bill was a real human be- 
 ing. 
 
 " I'm more of a human being myself than 
 I was day before yesterday," Mr. Prince de- 
 cided. " Why, day before yesterday all I 
 thought of was motor cars, and polo, and 
 golf, and sailing ! And now and now 
 Why, now, all I think of is seeing her 
 again. If I only knew when I would see her 
 again I " 
 
 That evening Mr. Prince dined at his fa- 
 vorite club, where his presence created some 
 surprise among such friends as had been told 
 of his intention to play in the Kenwood golf 
 tournament. That he refused to make a 
 fourth at bridge after dinner was also com- 
 mented upon. It would have occasioned 
 even more surprise, however, if his friends, 
 who believed he had left the club, could have 
 seen him in the library, a dictionary at his 
 80
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 Ibow, a pen in his hand. For, behold, Mr. 
 Prince was writing a letter. 
 
 It must have been a difficult letter to write, 
 for it took at least three hours to complete it. 
 Still, it must not be inferred that it was alto- 
 gether an unpleasant task, for he smiled not 
 infrequently. And the first time he referred 
 to the dictionary, he almost laughed aloud. 
 
 There are, doubtless, many amusing things 
 in a dictionary, if one knows where to look 
 for them. Mr. Prince had evidently found 
 one of these. 
 
 " By George," he murmured, " there are 
 two p's in sapphire, after all! "
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MISS DOROTHY RANDOLPH 
 was thinking of oh, a hundred 
 things. Not all at once, to be 
 sure ; but it was evident that certain thoughts 
 ruled in pleasant majority, for even when she 
 frowned smiles lingered in the corners of her 
 mouth. Here she was, home again, and in 
 the midst of packing for the fortnight to be 
 spent with the Archer Grants at Narragansett 
 Pier; truly a delightful occupation. Then, 
 too, the week at that dreary little Lake View 
 Hotel was, at last, ended. What a week I 
 And what a nuisance that Aunt Harriet in- 
 sisted on spending a week there every sum- 
 mer! Fifteen years ago, it might have been 
 as charming as Aunt Harriet pictured it, but 
 now nobody went there save Aunt Harriet - 
 and Aunt Harriet's niece. 
 82
 
 J ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 r V *^* 1 **"*^ J __^-**' 
 
 \/\S 
 
 14 1 suppose it's a habit," Aunt Harriet's 
 niece decided, " and she has to go to that 
 wretched little hotel every June, just as Mary 
 Patterson has to go North every August to 
 escape hay fever. Just the same, she's a dar- 
 ling! " 
 
 Miss Randolph smiled tenderly, frowned 
 a little, then smiled again, this time half- 
 dreamily, half-reluctantly; she was now 
 thinking of the young man she had found 
 asleep in her hammock one afternoon 
 years ago, it seemed. Could it be possible it 
 was only day before yesterday? He had 
 been such an agreeably stupid young man, 
 and so amusing in his deceit. He had evi- 
 dently been rather pleased with himself, too. 
 Well, he probably wasn't so pleased now. 
 
 " I wonder," said Miss Randolph to her- 
 self, " I wonder how long he waited for me 
 at the boathouse. And I wonder But, 
 of course, I'll never see him again." 
 
 Dismissing the agreeable stupid Mr. 
 Prince from her mind, she turned to the 
 maid, who had been, all this while, busily en- 
 gaged in packing a large trunk which stood 
 in the center of the room, a bedroom.
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " I think that will do for this morning, 
 Walker." 
 
 " Very well, Miss Dorothy," said the 
 maid, rising from her knees. 
 
 " And, Walker." 
 
 " Yes, Miss Dorothy." 
 
 " Please tell Saunders I'll have my lunch 
 up here." 
 
 Aunt Harriet had left the night before 
 to visit a cousin who possessed a cottage on 
 the shore of Lake George; Uncle Robert, 
 her husband, was, at this moment, playing 
 a morning rubber of bridge on the deck of a 
 friend's yacht, somewhere off the coast of 
 Maine; so, save for the servants, Miss Ran- 
 dolph was quite alone in her uncle's house, 
 which, though pleasantly situated on East 
 Sixty- fourth Street, a few steps from Fifth 
 Avenue, was not now particularly attractive 
 within doors; upstairs, familiar rugs were 
 missing, and downstairs, furniture, huddled 
 in forlorn groups, wore the white swaddling 
 clothes of summer. Still, it was much better 
 to keep the house open through the summer 
 than to go to a hotel when one came to town. 
 Besides, Uncle Robert didn't own a country 
 84
 
 W5APPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 house he didn't want to be bothered with 
 one and the servants had to have some 
 place to stay. 
 
 " We'll finish the packing about four, and 
 then I'll go down to Cousin Julia's for tea," 
 Miss Randolph decided. " And maybe 
 she'll ask me to dinner." 
 
 A messenger boy, small in stature but large 
 in importance, stepped from a Fifth Avenue 
 'bus, tilted his cap a bit more rakishly over 
 his left eye; then, glancing at the address 
 written on the small package he carried, pro- 
 ceeded toward his destination at a pace not 
 likely to disturb the traditions of his profes- 
 sion. Reaching the house he sought, he 
 swaggered up the steps and rang the bell. 
 
 " Say, pet, was you asleep ? " he asked as, 
 after some delay, the door was opened by a 
 man, evidently a butler. 
 
 " When you got packages for this house, 
 you deliver 'em at the kitchen door," said 
 the man. 
 
 " When I got a bunch of spinach, I will. 
 But dis is a package fer a loidy, see? " 
 
 " Well, you give it here, and be off with 
 you."
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Quit yer sneezin', pet. You don't get 
 no package till you signs for it." 
 
 The package having been exchanged for 
 the butler's signature, the boy bestowed a 
 parting word of advice, descended the steps, 
 and sauntered, whistling, toward the Avenue. 
 
 Miss Randolph, seated near an open win- 
 dow overlooking the little garden at the rear 
 of the house, was eating an iced grape-fruit 
 when Walker appeared with a package. 
 
 "Something for me, Walker?" 
 
 " Yes, Miss Dorothy." 
 
 " Give it to me, please." 
 
 The moment Walker withdrew, Miss Ran- 
 dolph inspected the package carefully, weigh- 
 ing it in her hand. 
 
 " I wonder what it contains," she thought. 
 " It's small, and light, and certainly I am not 
 , familiar with the handwriting of the ad- 
 ! dress." 
 
 The salad on the tray before her looked 
 most tempting; Jean's hot biscuits were al- 
 ways good. But she really must open the 
 package. 
 
 Having freed it of its wrapping of white 
 86
 
 WHAT AN EXASPERATING YOUNG MAN TO STEAL THE BRACELET 
 AND SEND IT TO HER 1
 
 SAPPHIRE BMCEIET 
 
 paper, she now held a gray box in her hand; 
 and the box contained an envelope bearing 
 her name, and a great quantity of tissue pa- 
 per. Perhaps there was something beside 
 tissue paper under the envelope? There 
 was; something hard, and round, and 
 Goodness gracious! Was she dreaming? 
 Miss Randolph, now the most surprised 
 young woman in New York, gazed with un- 
 believing eyes at 
 
 Why, this was dreadful ! It was unheard 
 of! It was outrageous ! It was even worse, 
 for it could have happened in but one way. 
 How cowardly of him to have placed her in 
 such a position! She was now yes, of 
 course, she was a receiver of stolen prop- 
 erty, for how else could he have acquired the 
 bracelet? What a little idiot she had been 
 to tell a strange young man she had been 
 robbed of a bracelet, when she hadn't! 
 What a simpleton she had been to describe a 
 real bracelet, worn by a woman such a 
 woman at the hotel ! What an exasper- 
 ating young man to steal the bracelet and 
 send it to her! And now, what would she 
 do? And what would the woman do? 
 
 87
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 And what did the young man have to say 
 for himself? Laying the sapphire bracelet 
 on the tray before her, she tore open the en- 
 velope, and read: 
 
 Miss Dorothy Randolph, 
 
 Care of Robert Alexander, Esq., 
 E. 64th Street, City. 
 
 DEAR Miss RANDOLPH : When you intrusted 
 me with the pleasing, if difficult, task of recover- 
 ing your sapphire bracelet, I did not expect to be 
 able to return it to you so soon. Indeed, when 
 you failed to keep your appointment with me at the 
 boathouse, I was even professionally, of course 
 a little discouraged, for I could not read in your ab- 
 sence anything favorable to the case. 
 
 As it happened, however, your leaving by the 
 five o'clock train that afternoon was little short of an 
 inspiration, for, noting your absence, the culprit was 
 reckless enough to wear your bracelet that evening 
 at dinner. 
 
 Though, naturally, I encountered many difficul- 
 ties, I will not go into details as to how I finally 
 secured the bracelet. One often has to do unpleas- 
 ant things in my profession, and confronting guilty 
 members of the weaker, if more stubborn, sex is al- 
 ways distasteful to a man possessing high ideals and 
 an unswerving loyalty and devotion, which I need 
 hardly add I possess in full measure. 
 
 I will not say I did not threaten the culprit; 
 advantages must ever be pressed before results can 
 be obtained. But I am glad to be able to tell you 
 that the culprit will not, in this instance, at least,
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 K 
 
 serve a term in prison. Therefore, you need not, as 
 it so often happens, feel that the joy of recovering 
 your bracelet is dimmed by the thought of a 
 wretched woman crouching disconsolately behind 
 prison bars. 
 
 In closing, will you permit me to tell you, as a 
 detective of wide experience and some little fame, 
 that I have not only enjoyed solving the mystery 
 with which you so kindly provided me, but feel a 
 real esteem and admiration for yourself? 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 MORTON PRINCE, Detective. 
 
 P. S. Bill for services rendered will be sent to 
 you at end of quarter. 
 
 From having been the most surprised 
 young woman in New York, Miss Randolph 
 now became the most indignant. Such inso- 
 lence ! Such effrontery ! Such such 
 Was ever a girl placed in a more mortifying 
 position? True, she was, in a manner, re- 
 sponsible for being in such a position. But 
 did that make it less mortifying? On the 
 contrary, it made it more mortifying, if any- 
 thing. 
 
 How was she to know that a young man 
 could be so stupid as to recover a bracelet 
 that wasn't stolen and send it to her. 
 How had he learned where to send it, by the 
 way ? And how dared he carry on this mas- 
 
 \
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 querade of being a detective when he must 
 have known he hadn't deceived her? It was 
 insulting for him to suppose he had deceived 
 her, even for a minute. Perhaps this was 
 his method of being revenged? If so, it 
 showed an evil, vindictive spirit; it was 
 neither fair nor credible that an innocent ad- 
 venture should end so seriously. 
 
 She had thought of Mr. Morton Prince as 
 being an agreeably stupid young man; he 
 was, it seemed, disagreeably clever. Or was 
 he merely disagreeable? And how on earth 
 had he managed to coerce the lady with the 
 peculiar hair into giving up her bracelet? 
 Could it be she had actually stolen it from 
 some one else? But that was most unlikely. 
 Yet there it was on the table before her, its 
 sapphires gleaming wickedly. 
 
 And now, what was she to do? The 
 bracelet must be returned to its owner at 
 once. But how? She would send it back 
 to that unspeakable Mr. Prince, only he had 
 been most careful not to add his address to 
 the outrageous letter he had written her. 
 Of course, if he really believed it was her 
 bracelet, and that it had been stolen But 
 >o
 
 r 
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 a man guilty of saying he was a detective 
 when he wasn't, would be capable of 'most 
 anything. Besides, the method he had 
 adopted in sending it to her was highly sus- 
 picious. Miss Randolph now re-read Mr. 
 Prince's suspicious letter, acquiring little from 
 it beyond an added color to her cheeks and 
 an increased look of anger in her eyes. 
 
 " It is a letter such as no gentleman would 
 write," she decided scornfully; "that is, 
 unless he were in But that is too ab- 
 surd!" 
 
 Yet he had had the temerity to describe 
 himself as a man possessing high ideals, and 
 an unswerving loyalty and devotion. And 
 he had ended his letter by declaring he felt 
 a real esteem and admiration for her. 
 
 " I honestly believe he did admire me," 
 she told herself. " Not that that excuses 
 him. Still, when a man admires a girl, he 
 is apt to be How I hate him! I hope 
 I'll never see him again as long as I live! 
 And it's very likely I never shall," she added, 
 with something not unlike a sigh. 
 
 Having settled this interesting question of 
 a future meeting with Mr. Prince, she dis-
 
 <Gie$APPrIIRE BRACELET 
 
 missed him peremptorily from her mind. 
 So, if he refused to remain dismissed, it was 
 certainly not her fault. Besides, a girl is 
 always at liberty to think of a man she hates. 
 And, of course, there could be no doubt that 
 Miss Randolph hated Mr. Prince. Had she 
 not said so herself? 
 
 And now to decide a more vexing ques- 
 tion: how to return the bracelet. She 
 couldn't send it direct to its owner, for the 
 reason that she didn't know her name. In a 
 little hotel, one is apt to learn the names of 
 all the guests in time. But the lady with 
 the queer-colored hair had only arrived the 
 day before she and Aunt Harriet had left 
 for New York. She might send it to the 
 clerk of the hotel, with a note of explanation. 
 But that would be embarrassing, unless it 
 were sent anonymously, and certainly she was 
 not one to write an anonymous letter. 
 
 It was evident, then alas, too evident! 
 that she must return the bracelet in per- 
 son. And, since it is always best to per- 
 form unpleasant duties at once, she would 
 leave yes, she would leave for the Lake 
 View Hotel that very afternoon. The two- 
 92
 
 SAPPHIRE mam 
 
 o'clock train would get her there shortly after 
 seven ; she would take Walker with her 
 no, she wouldn't, either. It would be mak- 
 ing a tiresome trip, on a tiresome errand. 
 But there was one thing in her favor: that 
 impossible Mr. Prince was undoubtedly in. 
 New York, and by going to the Lake View 
 Hotel at once, all chance of encounter with 
 him would be eliminated. Yes, she would go 
 that afternoon. 
 
 Having reached this important decision, 
 the anger and resentment she had felt to- 
 ward Mr. Prince gave place to a grudging 
 admiration; she couldn't help admiring him 
 just a little bit. Not every man, having 
 taken the role of detective at a moment's 
 notice, could have played it so spiritedly, she 
 was sure. True, his deceit had been as 
 highly colored as a magic-lantern slide, and 
 quite as transparent; but, in succeeding in 
 what he had agreed to do, he had, in a man- 
 ner, accomplished a miracle, and one didn't 
 meet young men every day who could work 
 miracles. 
 
 The worst of it was, he would probably 
 never know what he really had done. Im-
 
 agine his surprise on being informed that he 
 had recovered a sapphire bracelet that had 
 never been stolen for a girl who had never 
 owned one. Truly, he was a most original 
 detective. Of course, his success if one 
 could call it that had been due to a series/ 
 of inspired blunders. Still, they were amus- 
 ing blunders. And the bracelet was really 
 beautiful, the kind of bracelet she liked 
 best; and she had always loved sapphires. 
 There could be no harm in seeing how it 
 would look on her wrist. 
 
 It looked uncommonly well there, and was 
 so light, and pretty, and pleasant to wear! 
 If it were hers, she would wear it often. 
 
 But it wasn't hers. Moreover, in its tem- 
 porary possession lay the necessity of making 
 a tiresome trip that afternoon to a tiresome 
 hotel; and there would be a tiresome expla- 
 nation to make to a tiresome woman with 
 extraordinary hair. What on earth could 
 she tell the woman, anyway? But she 
 wouldn't worry about that, now ; there would 
 be five hours on the train in which to think 
 of something plausible to say. Slipping the 
 bracelet over her hand, she laid it in its box t
 
 ^Se SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 then sighed dispiritedly; Mr. Prince's idiocy 
 was troubling her again. 
 
 It would be such a comfort to point out to 
 him what a really appalling thing he had 
 done, and that comfort was forever denied 
 her; for, in the first place, she could never do 
 this without incriminating herself, and, in the 
 second place, she would probably never see 
 him again. Naturally, she never wanted to 
 see him again. Yet it seemed too bad that 
 he should go down to the grave in ignorance 
 of what he had done. Also, there would be 
 a certain pleasure in proving to him that he 
 was very stupid, and putting him in his place 
 generally. If ever a young man needed dis- 
 ciplining, Mr. Prince was that young man; 
 without this discipline, he would go on grow- 
 ing more self-satisfied every day. The 
 thought was infuriating. 
 
 Miss Randolph resolved if she ever did 
 meet Mr. Prince again, she would deal with 
 him according to his deserts. She almost 
 hoped he was well, just the least bit at- 
 tracted toward her, for that would make his 
 subjugation so much the easier. Not that she 
 viewed him as a possible Oh, dear, no I 
 95 
 
 ,
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 But she felt she would sleep better, and the 
 world would be a happier place, if she could 
 pay him out in some way. As matters stood, 
 he was distinctly ahead in the foolish, ex- 
 travagant game they had played, and for him 
 to occupy this leading position indefinitely 
 was something no girl with an ounce of spirit 
 could willingly permit. At whatever pains, 
 she must secure his fitting humiliation. 
 
 " I can't for the life of me see how it can 
 be done, but I simply must get even with 
 him," she decided. 
 
 Having reached this very human decision, 
 she placed the gray box containing the sap- 
 phire bracelet in a small hand bag, rang for 
 Walker, then, telephoning, ordered a taxi- 
 cab to be at the house at a quarter past one. 
 Of course, she would only stop at the Lake 
 View Hotel one night, and, of course, she 
 would see no one there whom she knew. 
 Still, there was no harm in taking an extra 
 gown. Some one had intimated once that 
 blue might be becoming to her, and she had 
 a heavenly blue organdie. 
 
 It was idle to suppose he would be there to 
 see it. But it was always best to go pre-
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 pared for emergencies. Besides, one never 
 could tell what amateur detectives might be 
 doing, or where they might not be. Oh, 
 never!
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 AS a train was leaving the station at 
 Jersey City, a young man, very much 
 out of breath, swung himself aboard, 
 and entered the buffet car. 
 
 " A deuced narrow shave, that," he con- 
 fided to the negro who took his bag. " Bring 
 me a pint of Apollinaris, please. And, 
 boy!" 
 
 " Yeh-sah." 
 
 " Get me a seat in the parlor car, will you ? 
 Here's my ticket, and here's five dollars." 
 
 " Yeh-sah. In a minute, sah." 
 
 Left to himself, the young man looked 
 about him. Satisfied there was no one whom 
 he knew in the car, he now lighted a cigarette. 
 
 " I'm blessed if I know why I'm here," he 
 thought half-impatiently. " There's little 
 to be gained by going to-day; to-morrow
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 would have done quite as well, and would 
 have saved me all this hurry. On the whole, 
 though, perhaps it was wiser to go to-day; 
 she'll send the bracelet to that woman as 
 quick as ever she can, and there's no harm in 
 being on hand when it arrives. I don't want 
 the bracelet, but I'm dashed if I'm going to 
 let that woman have it. She'll probably try 
 and hang on to it, but I'll get it from her, 
 one way or another, just as sure as my name's 
 Morton Prince ! " 
 
 For those who love color, the New Jersey 
 landscape, as seen from a car window, is most 
 satisfying, for, planted at convenient dis- 
 tances on either side of the track, immense 
 signs proclaim in vivid greens, and reds, and 
 blues, and with easy alliteration, the supe- 
 riority of such excellent commercial products 
 as Kornblum's Korrect Klothes, Breedin's 
 Buttercup Brandy, Solomon's Sanitary Shoes 
 in Salutary Shapes. Moreover, a poet 
 possessed of the talent for reading these signs 
 aright would speak of them as feathers from 
 the Great American Eagle, and would tell 
 you, in all sincerity, that their vivid coloring 
 99
 
 was but the echo of that extraordinary bird's 
 scream. 
 
 From his seat in the parlor car, Mr. 
 Prince gazed through a window. Being 
 no poet, however, the huge painted signs he 
 saw did little more for him than make him a 
 trifle dizzy. 
 
 " Confounded nuisance, this going places 
 in trains!" he reflected. "I wish By 
 George ! " 
 
 Though Mr. Prince leaned forward 
 eagerly, he was not done with reflections, for 
 there happened to be a small mirror set, 
 panel-wise, beside the window. And in that 
 mirror he had caught But, no, it 
 couldn't be. 
 
 If she would only turn her head again! 
 No. Yes. No. There! By George, it 
 was! There could be no manner of doubt: 
 it was the girl. 
 
 . She was reading a magazine, and her back 
 was toward the door by which he had en- 
 tered; the chair in which she sat was farther 
 down the aisle on the opposite side of the 
 car, so, of course, he had not passed her. It 
 was very probable, then> that she had not seen 
 100
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 him enter, and was quite unaware of his 
 presence. 
 
 " I wonder," thought Mr. Prince, " if 
 she'd be angry of I were to speak to her. 
 Why shouldn't I speak to her? Am I not 
 a detective, and haven't I just rendered her 
 great service? " 
 
 While this sounded plausible, it was, alas, 
 as Mr. Prince realized only too well, strictly 
 untrue; he was not a detective, and instead 
 of rendering Miss Randolph a service, he had 
 probably caused her great annoyance. And 
 she might imagine he was following her. 
 Yet it would be worse than stupid; it would 
 be criminal not to press the advantage fate 
 so kindly offered. Besides, he had rather 
 the best of her in that it was almost certain 
 she still believed him to have acted in good 
 faith in returning the bracelet; she simply 
 couldn't have guessed he had known it 
 wasn't hers. This being the case, she 
 wouldn't dare appear other than grateful. 
 
 " If I do speak to her, she will probably 
 begin by thanking the detective, and end by 
 snubbing me," Mr. Prince prophesied 
 gloomily. " And I'm hanged if I wouldn't 
 
 101
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 deserve it! Just the same, I'm going to 
 speak to her; I've simply got to, that's all 
 there is to it." 
 
 It is, perhaps, to his credit that it took 
 Mr. Prince at least ten minutes to find the 
 courage necessary to the fulfilment of his 
 resolve; he counted the people in the car 
 six, including himself. Very good. He ad- 
 justed his tie, smoothed his hair with his fin- 
 gers, glanced at his watch; he glanced at his 
 watch, smoothed his hair, adjusted his tie. 
 By George, he would speak to her! Draw- 
 ing a handkerchief from his pocket, he now 
 flicked some imaginary dust from his shoes; 
 he fingered his tie again. His confounded 
 hair must need trimming; his confounded 
 watch was ticking all-precious moments, 
 and By Jove, she had turned ! She was 
 looking at him! She was yes, she was 
 actually smiling at him ! 
 
 " Dear me," said the mendacious Mr. 
 Prince, " what a pleasant surprise 1 And to 
 think we should have discovered each other 
 at the same moment! Why, it's it's ex- 
 traordinary! May I sit down? " 
 
 102 

 
 "BUT FIRST, I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR RETURNING THE 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET"
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Please do." 
 
 " I can't be glad enough I happened to 
 take this train." 
 
 " Did you say happened? " 
 
 "I believe I did; I I " 
 
 " I thought perhaps you might be trailing 
 a criminal," said Miss Randolph. " In- 
 deed, I had already made up my mind it 
 was the man with the gray hair in chair num- 
 ber seven. Don't tell me I'm wrong." 
 
 " I won't," Mr. Prince replied cheerfully. 
 
 " We women rather pride ourselves on our 
 intuition, you know." 
 
 " I don't blame you," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Then you are following the man with 
 the gray hair? " 
 
 " Why bother about business? " 
 
 " Oh, if you do not wish to tell me ! " 
 
 " I'd tell you anything," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Anything except what I wish to know, 
 perhaps." 
 
 " Are you fond of motoring, Miss Ran- 
 dolph?" 
 
 " Are you trying to change the subject, 
 : Mr. Prince?" 
 
 " Er no. And I jolly well couldn't if 
 
 /T
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE 
 
 I wanted to," Mr. Prince answered some- 
 what sulkily. 
 
 " Then it is the man with the gray hair 
 whom you are following? " 
 
 " You've guessed it," said Mr. Prince. 
 " And guessed wrong," he added under his 
 breath. 
 
 " I'm glad you have confided in me, for I 
 think I can help you. But first I want to 
 thank you for returning the sapphire brace- 
 let." 
 
 " Oh, that was nothing," Mr. Prince re- 
 plied uneasily. 
 
 " And to pay you for your trouble." 
 
 Mr. Prince sat fascinated while Miss 
 Randolph opened her hand bag, drew there- 
 from a gold purse, and proceeded to count 
 out four one dollar bills. 
 
 "There!" she said, holding the bills 
 toward him. " Please count them and see if 
 they're right." 
 
 " But you weren't to pay me till the end 
 of the quarter; I can't accept them now I 
 can't honestly ! " 
 
 " I must insist on your taking them now." 
 
 " Please don't insist."
 
 TSeSAPPHIKE BRACELET 
 
 "Ah, I see; you are not content with so 
 small a sum." 
 
 " It's the sum agreed upon, and I'm more 
 than content with it. But I I " 
 
 " Then take it." 
 
 Realizing there was no way out of it, Mr. 
 Prince accepted the four green bills, and, 
 folding them carefully, placed them in the 
 only pocket of his waistcoat that seemed to 
 be anywhere near his heart. 
 
 " I never knew detectives were so reluc- 
 tant to take money," said Miss Randolph. 
 
 " It's the inconvenience of the thing," Mr. 
 Prince explained. " It upsets the er 
 my bookkeeper to have money come in be- 
 fore it's due." 
 
 " I'm afraid I haven't fully expressed my 
 thanks for the return of the bracelet." 
 
 "Were you really glad to get it? " asked 
 Mr. Prince, intent on paying his late client 
 out for having made him accept the four 
 dollars. 
 
 " Doesn't that go without saying? " 
 
 " I'll wager you were surprised, though." 
 
 " I was surprised," Miss Randolph ad- 
 mitted. " I'm sure you'll forgive me for 
 
 A
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 saying it now that you have proved how capa- 
 ble you are ; but, do you know, you impressed 
 me at first as being a man utterly unqualified 
 for your profession." 
 
 "How's that?" Mr. Prince demanded. 
 ' You seemed to lack tact." 
 
 " I fancy I have as much as most." 
 
 " As most detectives, perhaps. But, after 
 all, why should you need more? " 
 
 "I er I feel I need a lot more," Mr. 
 Prince replied humbly. " What would you 
 say, Miss Randolph er what would you 
 say if I were to tell you I am not a detect- 
 ive?" 
 
 14 1 should agree with you." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 ' That you needed more tact," Miss Ran- 
 dolph concluded evenly. 
 
 ' There's only one thing I really need," 
 Mr. Prince declared. " Can you guess 
 what it is?" 
 
 " No, I can't," said Miss Randolph, " un- 
 less it's assurance." 
 
 " Oh, I say, that's unkind ! " 
 
 " But isn't it true that you sometimes feel 
 uncomfortable and not quite sure of yourself 
 106
 
 when addressing people who are well, a 
 bit above you in station? " 
 
 " Er perhaps I do. I hadn't noticed 
 it." 
 
 " I've noticed it from the very start," said 
 Miss Randolph. " Speaking of stations, has 
 it occurred to you your quarry may try to 
 give you the slip ? " 
 
 "My quarry?" 
 
 " Yes, the man with the gray hair whom 
 you are following. Do tell what he has 
 done." 
 
 " Why, he he's robbed a bank." 
 
 " Dear me ! And he looks so gentle." 
 
 " It's the gentle criminals that are the most 
 dangerous," said Mr. Prince, nodding his 
 head wisely. " If I were to tell you " 
 
 " I don't believe you'll have time," said 
 the girl. " I heard him tell the porter he 
 was getting off at the next station, and we're 
 almost there." 
 
 Mr. Prince regarded the gray-haired 
 criminal anxiously. He was undoubtedly 
 preparing to leave the train at the next sta- 
 
 OJ^QT 
 
 ViN-^..* *" ^^--.^.^j*^
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE mam 
 
 the platform when he gets off," warned the 
 girl. " Otherwise, you might lose him." 
 
 " I've a good notion to let him escape," 
 said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " You mustn't think of it." 
 
 " He has a wife, and ten children." 
 
 " All the more reason he shouldn't es- 
 cape. Think of the hundreds of wives and 
 children and orphans he's robbed." 
 
 "I don't care; I'm going to let him es- 
 cape." 
 
 " That," said the girl gravely, " would be 
 very dishonorable, since you know him to be 
 a dangerous criminal. And, of course, you 
 wouldn't do anything dishonorable." 
 
 " No," said Mr. Prince, " of course not. 
 That is Oh, bother!" 
 
 " The train is stopping," said the girl. 
 " You must make up your mind at once. 
 I shall never speak to you again if you don't 
 go," she added demurely. 
 
 " I hope you didn't think I seriously in- 
 tended not going? " Mr. Prince replied, with 
 some dignity. 
 
 " Oh, no ! I was sure you would go from 
 the very first." 
 
 1 08.
 
 <Gie$APPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ]r^^ , _^> 
 
 11 By George, I believe you ! Good-after* 
 noon, Miss Randolph." 
 
 " Good-afternoon, Mr. Prince, and good 
 luck with your criminal. Before you go, 
 would you mind opening my window ? " 
 
 From the open window, it was possible to 
 see Mr. Prince descend from the car. Miss 
 Randolph watched him till he disappeared 
 round the corner of a building; then, shutting 
 the window, sank back in her chair, and 
 opened a magazine wherein she read what 
 must have been, judging from her frequent 
 smiles, a most amusing story.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WHEN Mr. Prince stepped off the 
 train behind the gray-haired man 
 whom he had so slanderously de- 
 scribed as a criminal, he was frankly out of 
 humor with himself. Yet he could not help 
 admiring the method by which Miss Ran- 
 dolph had got rid of him; she had been so 
 adroit, and he had stepped into the trap she 
 had laid so unsuspectingly! 
 
 " Serves me jolly well right for being so 
 dashed stupid!" he told himself. "But 
 how the deuce was I to know where she was 
 leading me? " 
 
 And he had rather fancied himself at the 
 time, had been even pleased by the picture 
 he had drawn of the gray-haired criminal. 
 Come to think of it, it was the girl who had 
 drawn the picture; all he had done was to 
 no
 
 ^SAPPHIRE BMCEIET 
 
 sign his name to it. And in appending his 
 signature, he had signed a warrant for his 
 dismissal from from heaven. It was 
 plain, then, that there was but one thing to 
 do ; to return to heaven as quickly as possible ; 
 which meant, of course, that he must catch 
 the next train for the Lake View Hotel. Or 
 perhaps By Jove, why hadn't he thought 
 of it before! 
 
 When Mr. Prince had disappeared from 
 Miss Randolph's sight, it had been round a 
 corner of the station building; when he again 
 appeared where she could have seen him had 
 she been leaning out of an open window, it 
 was at the other end of the station. Even 
 then she might have missed him, for there 
 were convenient trucks, laden with boxes, to 
 obstruct her view. Using these trucks as a 
 shield, Mr. Prince made, as rapidly as 
 caution would permit, toward a certain plat- 
 form very near the engine, arriving there 
 just as the conductor gave the signal for the 
 train to start. Then, by opening several 
 doors, and journeying the length of several 
 aisles, he found himself once more in the 
 buffet car. 
 
 Ill
 
 ^SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 It was maddening that, with Miss Ran- 
 dolph so near, he could not go to her ; but it 
 was a jolly lot better to be where he was, 
 than to be kicking his heels in a sleepy little 
 village, waiting for the next train. Of 
 course, he'd either have to ride past the Lake 
 View Hotel station, or get off somewhere this 
 side. He'd have the porter bring him a 
 time-table. 
 
 " Do you know anything about this 
 place?" Mr. Prince asked, pointing to the 
 time-table. 
 
 " Yeh-sah." 
 
 "How large a place is it." 
 
 " It's quite a town, sah." 
 
 " Does it boast a garage? " 
 
 " It don't boast none, but it's got 'em. 
 Oh, Lawd, yeh-sah ! " 
 
 " How many miles this side of the Lake 
 View Hotel is it?" 
 
 " 'Bout eight miles, boss." 
 
 " And can you tell me the name of one of 
 the garages ? " 
 
 " 'Deed I can, sah. It am the Pioneah." 
 
 "The Pioneer Garage? Good! Now 
 get me a telegraph form, please." 
 
 112
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ]f"^s^ ^O/ 
 
 A dollar bill having been pressed into his 
 hand as a preface to the foregoing conversa- 
 tion, the porter was only too happy to oblige 
 Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Heah's them fohms," he announced a 
 moment later. 
 
 11 And what direction is that?" asked Mr. 
 Prince, pointing toward the window by 
 which he sat. 
 
 11 That's east, sah." 
 
 "Thank you." 
 
 Mr. Prince now turned his attention to 
 composing a telegram which, when com- 
 pleted, read: 
 
 Pioneer Garage, Cloverdale, N. J. 
 
 Please have your fastest car at station to meet 
 train due six thirty-five. Important. Will pay lib- 
 erally. Look for me on east side of track. 
 
 MORTON PRINCE. 
 
 After handing this to the porter with in- 
 structions that it be wired from the next stop- 
 ping place, Mr. Prince proceeded to congrat- 
 ulate himself; if all went well, he would 
 arrive at the Lake View Hotel almost as 
 soon as Miss Randolph. And, since her 
 chair was on the west side of the train, he
 
 <GieSAPPrIIRE BRACELET 
 
 could feel reasonably safe in alighting from 
 the east side. He only hoped the Pioneer 
 Garage would supply him with a fast car, 
 and a good driver. 
 
 Mr. Prince now decided it might be well 
 to think of dinner not a real dinner, of 
 course, for he dared not enter the dining-car. 
 But his friend the porter would see that he 
 got a plate of sandwiches from somewhere, 
 and there were far worse dinners than a plate 
 of sandwiches, and a pint of ale. Oh 
 rather ! 
 
 As the train neared Cloverdale, Mr. 
 Prince grew more and more nervous. Sup- 
 posing no motor car met him? Supposing 
 Miss Randolph should be sitting by an east 
 window in the dining-car, and should see him. 
 alight? But here was a far better suppos- 
 ing : supposing, since it took the 'bus ten min- 
 utes to make the trip from the station to the 
 Lake View Hotel supposing he should 
 get there first, should be on the veranda when 
 Miss Randolph arrived? That would be 
 simply splendid ! Followed by the obliging 
 porter, Mr. Prince moved forward as far as 
 114 
 
 V
 
 \ 
 
 <Qie$APPHIREmCELET 
 
 the baggage-car, where he took up his posi- 
 tion on the lowest step leading from the east 
 side of the platform. 
 
 The train was now entering the station. 
 And there was a motor car near the track 
 that looked like a perfect hummer. 
 
 " By George, this is luck! " thought Mr. 
 Prince. " Now to make a run for it. I'm 
 dashed if I don't believe I'll get there be- 
 fore she does, after all ! " 
 
 Mr. Prince covered the few feet that sep- 
 arated him from the big blue touring car in 
 no time. Flinging his bag into the tonneau, 
 he followed it rapidly, and, spying a rug on 
 the floor, proceeded to muffle his face in it. 
 
 " No use taking any chances," he told him- 
 self. "Here! What are you doing?" 
 
 Although this last question was addressed 
 to the chauffeur in charge of the car, it was 
 very evident what he was doing. 
 
 " I say," exclaimed Mr. Prince, " leave 
 the rug alone, will you? " 
 
 " And I say you get out of there," re- 
 torted the chauffeur, pulling at the rug. 
 " What in blazes are you doing in there, any- 
 way? " 
 
 r \
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " I'm hiding from some one, you idiot ! " 
 
 " Oh, you are, are you? " 
 
 " Yes, I am," snapped Mr. Prince. 
 " And I advise you to start your engine, and 
 take me where I want to go." 
 
 " You wasn't wanting to go to the police 
 station, was you? " 
 
 " Certainly not." 
 
 " I thought as much," said the chauffeur. 
 
 " Look here," said Mr. Prince, " who the 
 deuce are you ? " 
 
 " It's none of your business who I am." 
 
 " I'll jolly soon make it my business ! " 
 declared the now thoroughly angry Mr. 
 Prince. " I'll report you to your employer." 
 
 " Go to it," said the chauffeur. 
 
 " What's the row, Carter? " asked a deep 
 bass voice. 
 
 " This young smart Aleck slid off the 
 train, dived into the tonneau, sir, and cov- 
 ered himself with a rug. Guess he's trying 
 to escape from the police." 
 
 " I'm not, either," said Mr. Prince, re- 
 garding with a speculative eye the important- 
 looking man who had addressed the chauffeur 
 as Carter. " I wired the Pioneer Garage to 
 1x6
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 have a car meet me here, and I supposed this 
 was it. Is it? Or isn't it?" 
 
 " The car is mine," said the important- 
 looking man. " It could hardly be mistaken 
 for a livery car," he added pompously. 
 
 " It could, because it was," said Mr. 
 Prince. 
 
 " Are you going to get out of there, or 
 ain't you ? " demanded the chauffeur. 
 
 " I wouldn't advise you to create a dis- 
 turbance," said the important-looking man. 
 
 " I have no intention of creating a dis- 
 turbance," Mr. Prince declared. " And, of 
 course, I'll get out at once." 
 
 " If you was really looking for an auto- 
 mobile from the Pioneer Garage," said the 
 chauffeur, " there it is, over there." 
 
 Mr. Prince turned, and walked hurriedly 
 in the direction toward which the chauffeur 
 had pointed. Yes, there was an automo- 
 bile. But what an automobile! He had 
 wired for the fastest car in the shop, and 
 they had sent him Occasionally, in a 
 moment of surprise, or disappointment, one 
 conceives a simile so false as to seem almost 
 inspired. Mr. Prince smiled bitterly.
 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " I'm dashed if they haven't sent me a bird- 
 cage," he said. 
 
 Having delivered himself of this observa- 
 tion, Mr. Prince flew to his perch beside the 
 driver. Then, with captive coil singing 
 hoarsely to the uneven accompaniment of its 
 single cylinder, the shabby, battered little 
 bird-cage proceeded slowly on its way to the 
 Lake View Hotel.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 IT is doubtful if the cat of song and story 
 who ate the fabled and unfortunate 
 canary felt or looked more com- 
 placent than Miss Randolph, after her adroit 
 dismissal of Mr. Prince. True, he had 
 got the best of her when he had sent her the 
 sapphire bracelet. But now she had got the 
 best of him. Oh, dear, yes! He had 
 wanted most awfully to stay, and she had 
 made him go; he had attempted to deceive 
 her, and she had tripped him with the web 
 of his own deceit; falsehood had come in at 
 the door, and Mr. Prince had flown out of 
 the window. Exit Mr. Prince. 
 
 Not that she held the white lies he had 
 told against him : they had been far too use- 
 ful to her. Still, it was just the least bit 
 scandalous that such a good-looking young
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 man should stray so constantly from the 
 highroad of truth. Perhaps this would be a 
 lesson to him. In any event, it was refresh- 
 ing to taste of the fruits of victory. And 
 it was wonderfully pleasant to remember the 
 wry face with which Mr. Prince had ac- 
 cepted the apples of discord she had thrust 
 into his hand, if one could so refer to the four 
 one-dollar bills she had given him. How 
 he had hated to take them! And what an 
 inspired moment it had been when she had 
 realized the possibilities of the gray-haired 
 passenger in chair number seven ! 
 
 It now occurred to Miss Randolph that 
 she might need another inspiration to assist 
 her in returning the sapphire bracelet to its 
 rightful owner. Supposing that extraordi- 
 nary person should prove difficult, and de- 
 mand an explanation. But why worry about 
 it? Besides, since misfortunes never came 
 singly, there could be no earthly reason why 
 inspirations shouldn't travel in pairs. 
 
 " If I can have one inspiration, I can have 
 another," she decided serenely. " And, 
 moreover, I'll make it a point to have one." 
 
 Satisfied that the problem of approach- 
 
 I2O
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ing the lady with the henna-colored hair 
 would furnish its own solution, Miss Ran- 
 dolph settled herself more comfortably in* 
 her chair, and read a story in a magazine. 
 It was one of those cheerful, pink-and-white 
 stories containing a stalwart, handsome hero, 
 and a heroine with a perfect nose who wore 
 Paquin gowns a story with a romantic 
 first meeting, a Newport back-ground, and 
 a wedding-bell finish. And the hero was 
 yes, he was very like Mr. Prince. 
 
 It was pleasant, of course, to realize that 
 fiction was, to some extent, patterned after 
 life. Yet Miss Randolph couldn't help see- 
 ing that her own story was far more inter- 
 esting. Not that she ever expected to see 
 Mr. Prince again. It was scarcely credible, 
 but she hoped she would see him again. 
 Without meaning to be, he was such an amus- 
 ing young man, and even in his stupid mo- 
 ments he had never been offensive; on the 
 contrary, his stupidity was, perhaps, his 
 most engaging quality, for beneath it lay a 
 strata of fine sincerity which one couldn't 
 help liking. And then, he was so obviously 
 prepossessed of her. 
 
 121 

 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET f 
 
 ^ _ -ft-"* -. 
 
 Supposing she were a man who had met, 
 in an unconventional way Miss Randolph 
 smiled to think how unconventional a girl 
 whom she fancied she might learn to met 
 a girl whom she wanted most awfully to meet 
 again. Wouldn't she plan, and scheme, and 
 contrive? Miss Randolph admitted she 
 would do all three, only she would plan 
 more cleverly. Or would she? Hadn't 
 Mr. Prince done the cleverest thing pos- 
 sible in sending her the bracelet? How 
 in the world had he managed to acquire it? 
 From whom had he learned her address? 
 And where had he been going when she had 
 made him alight from the train? 
 
 Heretofore, in looking upon life, Miss 
 Randolph's eyes had reflected little more 
 than a mild enjoyment; but till this after- 
 noon she had never made a young man 
 an exceedingly attractive and reluctant young 
 man alight from a train at a station miles 
 from the place he had intended to alight. It 
 was too delicious ! Life held its golden mo- 
 ments, after all. 
 
 Experience having taught her that she was 
 likely to get a far better dinner on the train 
 
 122
 
 than at the Lake View Hotel, Miss Ran- 
 dolph entered the dining-car a little after six. 
 It was too unearthly an hour really to dine, 
 so she ordered a light supper, regarding it 
 when it arrived with the indifference of one 
 who eats from habit rather than from 
 hunger. Half a grape fruit, and some 
 slices of cold chicken. She had had chicken 
 and grape fruit for lunch. How long ago 
 it seemed! She remembered a fragment of 
 poetry : 
 
 We live in deeds, not years, 
 
 In thoughts, not breaths, 
 
 In feelings, not in figures on a dial; 
 
 We should count time by heart throbs. 
 
 Yes, that was it; the afternoon, counted 
 in heart throbs, was But what non- 
 sense ! 
 
 On arriving at the hotel, Miss Randolph 
 ascended at once to the room assigned her by 
 the clerk. 
 
 " I didn't expect to see you back so soon," 
 said the chambermaid. " Is Mrs. Alexan- 
 der well?" 
 
 "Q
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 "Is there anything you want?" 
 
 " I think not, thank you." 
 
 " It's a pleasure to do things for you, Miss 
 Randolph." 
 
 " It is very nice of you to say that, and I 
 shall tell you if " 
 
 Miss Randolph paused, then smiled joy- 
 ously. Why shouldn't Katie return the sap- 
 phire bracelet? To return it herself would 
 not only involve a certain amount of embar- 
 rassing explanation, but the explanation, no 
 matter how artfully conceived, could hardly 
 fail to arouse suspicion. Then, too, for her 
 to return a bracelet that Mr. Prince had 
 acquired in a questionable manner would 
 connect her most unpleasantly with the af- 
 fair, while if she gave the bracelet to Katie, 
 with instructions to return it with no expla- 
 nations whatsoever, its rightful owner would 
 naturally believe it had come direct from 
 Mr. Prince. Yes, there could be no doubt 
 of it, the inspiration for which she hoped had 
 arrived at last. 
 
 Miss Randolph now opened her hand bag, 
 and drew therefrom the gray box containing 
 the bracelet.
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 1 You can do me a great favor, if you 
 will," she said. 
 
 " I'm real glad, honest I am, Miss Ran- 
 dolph." 
 
 " There's a lady stopping here, a lady 
 with rather peculiar-looking reddish hair." 
 
 " That must be Mrs. Hardcastle. She 
 ain't a lady, though; she's a " 
 
 " To-day, about lunch-time," Miss Ran- 
 dolph interrupted hurriedly, " I discovered 
 I had something that belonged to her." 
 
 " Something you took away from here by 
 mistake? " 
 
 " My having it is the result of a mistake, 
 Katie, so, of course, it must be returned to 
 her. Still, I can't see why I should meet 
 her, and enter into a long and tiresome ex- 
 planation, especially since she doesn't know 
 I have it." 
 
 " No need at all, Miss Randolph. She'll 
 talk your arm off if you give her a chance." 
 
 " And, since when you give it to her she 
 will have her property, I can think of no 
 reason why my name should be mentioned at 
 all." 
 
 " You can better believe I won't mention
 
 ^SAPPHIRE BMCEIET 
 
 it. I'll just hand her what you give me, 
 and say, ' Here's something that belongs to 
 you,' then fade away. And if she gets curi- 
 ous, and tries to pump me afterward, I'll 
 tell her a story that'll make her hair curl. 
 It gives me a pain the way she puts on airs. 
 A girl in a hotel learns pretty quick to tell 
 the difference between imitations and the real 
 thing, Miss Randolph, and Mrs. Hardcastle 
 ain't the real thing by a good deal. Why, 
 the way she talks to us maids is something 
 fierce ! Just you give me what you got of 
 hers, and I'll see that she gets it, all right." 
 
 A few moments later, the gray box con- 
 taining the sapphire bracelet concealed in her 
 blouse, Katie sailed blithely down the back 
 stairs and disappeared in the servants' din- 
 ing room. She would have her dinner first; 
 plenty of time to give the box to that offen- 
 sive Mrs. Hardcastle, afterward. Besides, 
 she had been told there was no great hurry. 
 
 Feeling that a great weight had been lifted 
 from her mind, or heart, or conscience, she 
 didn't know which, Miss Randolph sighed 
 contentedly, and walked to an open window. 
 It was far too warm and beautiful t
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 indoors. Drawing a lace scarf across her 
 shoulders, she made her way downstairs and 
 out into the night. The path she chose led 
 to the lake, and the moon, walking far over- 
 head in her garden of stars, noticed this, and 
 smiled. 
 
 127 
 
 -\
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ACCORDING to the porter in the 
 buffet car, the Lake View Hotel lay 
 eight miles beyond the station at 
 which Mr. Prince had elected to alight. 
 This distance may have been correct, as the 
 crow flies, but it must be remembered that 
 the only resemblance Mr. Prince held to a 
 crow in this instance was that he traveled in 
 a bird-cage. Then, too, the man who drove 
 the bird-cage insisted it was fourteen miles 
 to the Lake View Hotel, and drivers of bird- 
 cages are very apt to know what they are 
 talking about. 
 
 The journey proved painful to Mr. Prince, 
 who, grown used to flying through the coun- 
 try in his own fast car, had come to look 
 on a speed of fifteen miles an hour on a level 
 road as being practically the same thing as 
 128. 

 
 <0ie SAPPHIRE 
 
 standing still; nor could he see any merit in 
 a bird-cage that took every hill on the first 
 speed, and overheated in the process if the 
 hill were long. So the wings of love beat 
 against cruel bars, and the air was filled with 
 feathers and with muttered words of dis- 
 content. And when, at last, the lights of 
 the hotel were sighted, Mr. Prince felt he 
 had aged greatly. 
 
 " By Jove," he said to himself, " that chap 
 Rip Van Winkle was uncommonly lucky; he 
 slept his twenty years, while I've spent mine 
 traveling fourteen miles ! " Which would 
 lead one to believe that Mr. Prince, like Miss 
 Randolph, had begun to count time by heart 
 throbs. 
 
 As the little car chugged up to the hotel, 
 a tall young man rose from his chair on the 
 veranda and strolled over to inspect the new 
 arrival, for he was interested in everything 
 in the automobile world from a bird-cage 
 to a Fiat. 
 
 " Looks like a single-cylinder Starbuck," 
 he mused. " And Lordy, it's missing like 
 it was kidnaped! Weak battery, I guess;
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 
 or maybe it's a Well, I'll be jiggered! 
 If it ain't Mr. Prince! And in a Starbuck, 
 of all things! " 
 
 " Glad to see you, Bill," said Mr. Prince. 
 " Take my bag, please, while I pay off this 
 driver." 
 
 " I kind of looked for you on that seven 
 o'clock train," said Bill a moment later. 
 " Some class to them Starbucks - 1 don't 
 think. Will you be wanting me this even- 
 ing?" 
 
 " Not so far as I know. Is my car here, 
 or at the garage? " 
 
 " It's out under the shed by the stable. I 
 engaged a room for you, and your other 
 gripsack is in it. Guess I'll hang around 
 in case you do want me, if it's all the same 
 to you." 
 
 " Just as you like, Bill." 
 
 After carrying Mr. Prince's bag into the 
 hotel, Bill went back to his chair in a dark 
 corner of the veranda, and, lighting his pipe, 
 puffed away contentedly; his new employer 
 was certainly a grand man to work for, the 
 Fiat was a grand car, and one hundred and 
 fifty dollars a month was a grand sum of 
 130
 
 <Qie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 money. Aside from all this, Mr. Prince was 
 a good comrade, as well. 
 
 " He ain't a bit stuck up, like some of 
 them rich guys," Bill told himself approv- 
 ingly. " Not on your tintype ! He's the 
 real goods, all right, all right ! " 
 
 In the hotel, the " real goods " was 
 greeted by the clerk like a long lost brother. 
 It was curious, but men in a humbler station 
 of life were usually delighted to see Mr. 
 Prince; even his friends noticed this. 
 " Morton always makes a hit with hoi 
 polloi," Jack Leighton had said one night at 
 the club. 
 
 Mr. Prince, quite unaware that the clerk's 
 greeting was more cordial than was gener- 
 ally extended to guests arriving at this par- 
 ticular hotel, responded to it with great sin- 
 cerity. 
 
 " Dashed glad to see you again," he said. 
 " My chauffeur told me he'd engaged a room 
 for me. Did he register?" 
 
 " Yes, he registered," said the clerk. 
 " He arrived yesterday afternoon with the 
 car. I gave him a room in the attic." 
 
 Mr. Prince now studied the book in which
 
 <GieSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 guests wrote their names. He was ex- 
 tremely pleased to see Miss Randolph's sig- 
 nature; he was almost as pleased to place 
 his own directly under it. There was some- 
 thing intimate and satisfying in their names 
 appearing so close together. Some day, if 
 the fates were kind, her signature would be 
 done away with to the delicious extent that 
 hotel registers would bear this record : Mr. 
 and Mrs. Morton Prince. Or would it be 
 more proper to write, Morton Prince and 
 wife? There were certain things a chap had 
 to look into; next time he stopped at a big 
 hotel he'd inspect the register, and learn 
 which was right. In the meantime, he'd 
 take a look about him and see if, by any 
 happy chance, he could discover Miss Ran- 
 dolph. Leaving his bag to be sent to his 
 room, Mr. Prince lighted a cigarette, and, 
 with a friendly nod to the clerk, made for 
 the veranda. 
 
 The veranda of the Lake View Hotel was 
 really charming; holding no lights to blind 
 the eyes, it was spacious to a degree, and cer- 
 tain portions of its long reach were screened 
 with honeysuckle and wistaria. Avoiding a 
 132
 
 group of men and girls, Mr. Prince walked 
 almost the length of the veranda. No, she 
 wasn't there. Perhaps she had retired for 
 the night? Some one sat in shadow over 
 yonder; but, alas, it was a man. Maybe 
 he'd be fortunate enough to see her in the 
 morning? Since he couldn't see her now, 
 he'd sit down and think about her. As if 
 he could help thinking about her! But it 
 was sad that a night so fragrant with honey- 
 suckle should be 
 
 " Good-evening," said a voice. 
 
 " Er good-evening," said Mr. Prince, 
 rising hastily, " good-evening." Then, that 
 being extended which he could not well ig- 
 nore, he shook hands gravely with the lady 
 with the henna-colored hair. This accom- 
 plished, the lady drew a chair very near his 
 own, and, seating herself, commanded Mr. 
 Prince to do likewise. 
 
 " Now this is what I call cozy," she said. 
 
 " It is, rather," agreed Mr. Prince, 
 vaguely alarmed, yet undecided as to 
 whether he could edge his chair away with- 
 out seeming rude. With a sigh, he realized 
 that he was fairly trapped. 
 
 133
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " And I want to tell you I think you're a 
 perfect duck." 
 
 "A what?" 
 
 " A perfect duck." 
 
 " There's there's some mistake." 
 
 "Don't be a goose! " 
 
 "Is it is it about the bracelet?" 
 
 " Of course it is, you stupid boy ! Why 
 didn't you return it yourself, dear Mr. 
 Prince?" 
 
 "I I don't know. That is Did 
 she give it to you herself?" 
 
 " How else could I be wearing it now ? " 
 asked the lady, waving her left hand before 
 Mr. Prince's troubled eyes. 
 
 "Er what did she tell you?" 
 
 " She didn't tell me anything," answered 
 the lady. " All she said was : * Here's 
 something that belongs to you.' ' 
 
 " Thank the Lord ! " thought Mr. Prince. 
 " I could never have forgiven myself if she 
 had become involved in this dashed affair 
 with this dashed woman." 
 
 " And when I asked her what was in the 
 box, she as plain as told me it was none of 
 my business." 
 
 134
 
 tJieSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Bully for her! " said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " It wasn't bully at all," declared the lady, 
 41 it was just plain sass. And I'm thinking 
 of having her discharged." 
 
 "Discharged?" 
 
 " Yes, discharged. This ain't the first 
 time she's been cheeky. And the way she 
 makes my bed is something fierce sheets 
 all wrinkles, and " 
 
 " Makes your bed ? " exclaimed Mr. 
 Prince. " Who in the deuce are you talk- 
 ing about? " 
 
 " And who should I be talking about but 
 the chambermaid you gave the bracelet to? " 
 
 Mr. Prince was silent; first from sheer 
 relief, then from admiration of Miss Ran- 
 dolph's cleverness. " By Jove," he thought, 
 " she has kept clear of this whole affair, and 
 I'm no end grateful ! " 
 
 " I never knew a gentleman to give a lady 
 a present more graceful," continued his com- 
 panion. 
 
 "Er didn't you?" 
 
 " Do I look like a lady that would accept 
 seven hundred dollars from a perfect stran- 
 ger?" 
 
 135
 
 'Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 "I Of course not. You see, it's all a 
 mistake." 
 
 " What's a mistake? " demanded the lady. 
 " Didn't you tell that sassy chambermaid to 
 give me the bracelet? " 
 
 " No, I didn't," said Mr. Prince. " And 
 I'll be much obliged to you if you'll re- 
 turn it." 
 
 "Well, I guess not!" 
 
 " Look here," said Mr. Prince, " why do 
 you suppose I gave you seven hundred dol- 
 lars for a three hundred dollar bracelet if it 
 wasn't that I wished to keep it? " 
 
 " I suppose you was kind of gone on me, 
 if you want the truth," the lady replied braz- 
 enly. 
 
 " I'm not," said Mr. Prince. 
 
 Anyway, I've got it, and, what's more, 
 I intend to keep it." 
 
 " And I say you shall not," Mr. Prince 
 declared, raising his voice in his excitement. 
 " The bracelet is mine, and I mean to 
 
 seven hundred dollars
 
 ' Yes. But you can't prove it." 
 
 " I can come jolly near proving it." 
 
 " Bah ! " said the lady, snapping her fin- 
 gers. ' You can't prove anything, and I ad- 
 vise you not to try. Besides, what's seven 
 hundred dollars to you ? " 
 
 " It's the confounded principle of the 
 thing; a chap doesn't like to be rooked of 
 seven hundred dollars, or of seventy cents, 
 for that matter." 
 
 " And a lady doesn't like to have a gen- 
 tleman talk to her like you're talking to me." 
 
 " I'm sure I beg your pardon if I've been 
 rude," said Mr. Prince. " Just the same, I 
 want the bracelet." 
 
 " You can't have it." 
 
 " Then I'll take the seven hundred dol- 
 lars." 
 
 " You'll take yourself off," said the lady. 
 *' If you don't, I'll tell the hotel clerk you 
 insulted me." 
 
 " And I'll tell him you have my bracelet." 
 
 " Go tell him. There's plenty of people 
 in the hotel that have seen me wearing it." 
 
 " Then I'll tell him you've seven hundred 
 dollars of mine."
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 1 You do it, and I'll sue you for breach of 
 promise." 
 
 "What?" gasped Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I've a notion to do it, anyway." 
 
 " Why, this is It's preposterous ! " 
 
 " You go around telling people you gave 
 me seven hundred dollars, and see if it's pre- 
 posterous or not. Why should you be giv- 
 ing me money? " 
 
 " For the bracelet." 
 
 " A likely story," said the lady, " What 
 would you be wanting with a bracelet? It's 
 more likely you gave me the money to buy 
 a trousseau." 
 
 Quite overwhelmed by this alarming and 
 unlooked-for statement, Mr. Prince rose, 
 stood speechless for a moment; then, turning 
 on his heel, walked swiftly away, neither see- 
 ing nor caring where he went, for his eyes 
 smarted from the dust of defeat, and his 
 heart burned with anger. Round the corner 
 of the hotel, across an open space, down a 
 path it was all one to him so long as each 
 step carried him farther from that dreadful 
 woman. 
 
 Sad to relate, that dreadful woman was 
 
 138
 
 distinctly pleased with herself; three hundred 
 dollar bracelets did not grow on every tree, 
 and a clear profit of seven hundred dollars 
 was never to be despised. 
 
 " I scared him pink, so I guess he won't 
 bother me any more," she said to herself. 
 " Fancy a kid like that thinking he could do 
 Emma Hardcastle out of anything she's once 
 got her fingers on. He must have bought 
 that bracelet of me to give to some girl he's 
 sweet on, and the maid who was to deliver 
 it must have made a mistake. Yet he didn't 
 seem surprised that I had it. I guess he 
 really started to give it back to me, and then 
 got cold feet. Anyway, I got it, and it'll 
 take somebody with more nerve than Morton 
 Prince to get it back." 
 
 In a shadowy corner of the veranda, not 
 so far from where the lady with the henna- 
 colored hair sat, a young man was engaged 
 in unlacing his shoes. It was an unconven- 
 tional thing to do, even under the cover of 
 darkness, but perhaps the shoes were too 
 tightly laced? No, there must have been a 
 pebble in one of them in both of them 
 
 139
 
 for now he held his shoes in his hand; he was 
 tying their laces together; he had slipped the 
 laces over his head, and the shoes hung from 
 his neck. Was the young man quite insane? 
 
 He was on his feet, stealing softly toward 
 a certain spot. He was directly behind the 
 lady with the henna-colored hair. He had 
 her by the wrist. 
 
 A short struggle, a scream of anger and 
 alarm, and this highly unconventional young 
 man leaped lightly over the veranda rail, 
 and disappeared into the night, leaving the 
 lady to announce hysterically to the audience 
 attracted by her scream that she had been 
 robbed of a valuable bracelet. 
 
 " Did you see the thief's face? " asked the 
 hotel clerk anxiously. 
 
 " You can better believe I saw his face I 
 He stole up on me in his stocking feet, and 
 grabbed my wrist, and slipped off my brace- 
 let just like that. And I don't know what 
 kind of a hotel you call this where a lady 
 can't even sit on the front porch without be- 
 ing robbed." 
 
 " Nothing like this ever happened here 
 before," said the clerk. 
 140
 
 <Gie SAPPHIRE BRACELET] 
 
 " I should hope not 1 You send for the 
 constable right away; do you hear? " 
 
 " I've already sent for him," said the 
 clerk. " He only lives just beyond our 
 gate." 
 
 " Well, when he comes you bring him 
 straight to me. And clear these people 
 away, will you? " 
 
 Left alone, the lady tossed her head an- 
 grily, and vowed vengeance. 
 
 " I didn't see his face, either," she con- 
 fessed to herself, " but I'm blamed sure it 
 was that low-down sneak of a Morton 
 Prince. He must have climbed over the rail- 
 ing at the end of the porch. I'll teach him to 
 steal bracelets. I'll have him arrested, and 
 then make him pungle up something hand- 
 some before I'll agree not to appear against 
 him. 'And I guess it ought to be worth a 
 couple of thousand not to appear against 
 him," she concluded more amiably. 

 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 WHEN Mr. Prince had left the lady 
 with the henna-colored hair, he 
 had been far too indignant to no- 
 tice where his steps were taking him, and 
 therein the hand of fate is clearly indicated, 
 for the path he followed led to the little pa- 
 vilion at the edge of the lake, and in the 
 pavilion he discovered the one of all the 
 world' in whom the night found its most 
 pleasing expression. Mr. Prince was en- 
 chanted. 
 
 " Fancy finding you here," he said. 
 " I'm even more surprised than you," re- 
 plied Miss Randolph, whose greatest sur- 
 prise lay in realizing she wasn't at all sur- 
 prised at seeing Mr. Prince. " I imagined 
 your professional duties would detain you 
 142
 
 <GieSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 longer. I hope your criminal didn't es- 
 cape." 
 
 " Did you think I would let him escape 
 after what you told me? " Mr. Prince asked 
 reproachfully. 
 
 " After what I told you? " 
 
 " You said you'd never speak to me again 
 if I let him get away." 
 
 " So I did. But don't you think you are 
 a a bit rash to come here ? " 
 
 " I didn't dream you were here ; I didn't, 
 honestly." 
 
 " I mean, wasn't it rash of you to come to 
 the hotel?" 
 
 Mr. Prince groaned. " I knew you'd 
 think that," he said, " but I I just couldn't 
 help it. I was almost sure you were bound 
 for this place when I saw you on the train. 
 I suppose if I'd been if I hadn't been 
 I haven't meant to intrude, or annoy you, 
 really and truly I haven't." 
 
 " But you haven't intruded; you have been 
 most considerate. I'm sure some detect- 
 ives" 
 
 " Miss Randolph," Mr. Prince said, with 
 great solemnity, " I am not a detective."
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Not now, perhaps." 
 
 " I never was." 
 
 " Why do you tell me this? " 
 
 " I'm blessed if I know," Mr. Prince re- 
 plied, " unless it is because I can't bear to de- 
 ceive you any longer." 
 
 "Supposing you had never deceived me? 
 Supposing I had guessed it from the very 
 start?" 
 
 " And supposing I were to guess, now, 
 that you had never been robbed of a sapphire 
 bracelet? " 
 
 " That," said Miss Randolph, " is what 
 worries me. I don't mind telling you, since 
 this seems a time for confessions, that I never 
 was robbed of a sapphire bracelet, or of any 
 other kind. Indeed, I came here to-day to 
 return the bracelet you sent me to the woman 
 from whom you er procured it. But 
 the woman is still stopping at the hotel, and 
 if she sees you, she may make it unpleasant 
 for you." 
 
 " Do you know," said Mr. Prince ear- 
 nestly, " it's the very deuce to think you've de- 
 ceived some one you really care for. I I 
 do care for you, Miss Randolph." 
 144
 
 <Qie5APPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 Perhaps it was the moonlight? Perhaps 
 it was a certain quality in Mr. Prince's voice? 
 Whatever it was, Miss Randolph couldn't 
 help feeling a tenderness toward this big, 
 handsome, faltering young man. Yet he 
 mustn't be allowed to 
 
 " I love you," Mr. Prince continued. 
 " I can't help it. I don't want to help it. I 
 just love you." 
 
 "I I'm sure, I appreciate your caring." 
 
 " And you're not angry? " 
 
 "Oh, yes; I'm very angry!" Miss Ran- 
 dolph replied, forcing a little laugh. 
 
 " It isn't really funny. I I mean it." 
 
 " I only laughed for fear I should to 
 see if I could," she confessed. " And I'm 
 sure you mean it." 
 
 " I couldn't bear it if you didn't believe I 
 meant it," Mr. Prince replied simply. 
 
 " But, really, you must consider what the 
 woman whose bracelet you sent me will do if 
 she sees you." 
 
 " Why, she can't possibly do anything. 
 Not possibly." 
 
 " Are you sure? " 
 
 " Positive just as sure as I am that my 
 
 145
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET (_/V>j 
 
 name's Morton Prince. There are several 
 things about that bracelet I am anxious to tell 
 you, though. As a matter of fact, before I 
 sent it to you, I I say, what the deuce 1 " 
 
 Mr. Prince's exclamation of astonishment 
 was entirely justified, for, as he uttered it, a 
 little man with a gray beard dashed into the 
 pavilion, and, with a dramatic, " Hands 
 up ! " covered him with a huge revolver. 
 
 " I suppose," said the little man, " you'll 
 deny your identity, but it won't do you any 
 good." 
 
 " If you don't stop pointing that revolver 
 at me, I'll jolly well punch your head for 
 you." 
 
 " You can't," said the little man, " I'm the 
 constable." 
 
 " You point that revolver of yours at the 
 floor," commanded Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I warn you I'm all-fired quick," said the 
 constable, lowering his weapon. 
 
 " Don't you think you'd better go? " Mr. 
 Prince whispered to the girl, suddenly appre- 
 hensive in her behalf. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Stop that whispering," ordered the 
 146
 
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 constable. " I suppose you'll deny your 
 identity, but " 
 
 " Why should I deny it, you old idiot? " 
 
 " I heard you myself. I sneaked up on 
 you, and I listened to you talking." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " And just as I got here I heard you call 
 yourself Morton Prince." 
 
 "Oh!" said Mr. Prince. 
 
 "Oh! "said the girl. 
 
 " And I caught the word bracelet." 
 
 " That was clever of you," said Mr. 
 Prince, so relieved concerning the things the 
 constable hadn't heard as to be almost 
 friendly. 
 
 " And I guess I got you dead to rights." 
 
 " I'm afraid you have," agreed Mr. 
 Prince, glancing at the revolver. " Would 
 it be too much to ask you what you intend to 
 do next? " 
 
 " I've already done it," said the constable. 
 " You're under arrest." 
 
 "The deuce I am!" 
 
 " And I advise you 
 bracelet." 
 
 "What bracelet?" 
 
 to hand over that
 
 e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 ' The one you stole from the lady." 
 
 " But he hasn't it," Miss Randolph began. 
 
 " Hah ! " cried the constable. " I see. 
 Hah ! So he's given it to you, has he? " 
 
 " Don't be an ass ! " said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Look here, young feller " 
 
 " What do you think you have against me, 
 anyway? " 
 
 " Robbery, highway robbery," said the 
 constable. 
 
 "But that's absurd!" 
 
 " It's state's prison, that's what it is." 
 
 " Who says I stole a bracelet? " 
 
 " A Mrs. Hardcastle." 
 
 " Well, I didn't. She's a blackmailing ad- 
 venturess. I paid her seven hundred dollars 
 for it." 
 
 " Why ! Why ! " exclaimed the girl. 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Prince, " that is what I 
 started to tell you : I bought the bracelet from 
 her." 
 
 " Then there's nothing to worry about, is 
 there?" 
 
 " Nothing at all." 
 
 " You can just bet there's something to 
 worry about," said the constable. " I sup- 
 148
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 pose you didn't sneak up on Mrs. Hardcastle 
 in the dark, and grab her bracelet, and make 
 off with it." 
 
 " W-hat? " gasped Mr. Prince. 
 
 " I say I suppose you didn't sneak up on 
 the lady, and grab her bracelet." 
 
 " Certainly I didn't." 
 
 " She says you did." 
 
 " She she's mistaken." 
 
 " Well, you're under arrest, anyway. And 
 I advise you not to try and escape, for if you 
 do, I'll shoot the everlasting daylights out of 
 you. I will, so help me Moses ! " 
 
 " What is it you want me to do? " 
 
 " You're to go with me." 
 
 "Go where?" 
 
 " To the hotel." 
 
 " Very well," said Mr. Prince, " lead the 
 way." 
 
 "Lead the way! What do you take me 
 for? You march along in front." 
 
 " Just as you like." 
 
 " And you, too," said the constable, ad- 
 dressing Miss Randolph. 
 
 " She'll do nothing of the sort,'' declared 
 Mr. Prince.
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " But I want to go," said the girl. 
 
 " No," Mr. Prince replied firmly. 
 
 " How do I know she ain't an accom- 
 plice?" demanded the constable. 
 
 " Because I tell you she isn't." 
 
 " And how do I know you ain't lying? " 
 
 " I say she shall not be dragged into this." 
 
 " But I want to go." 
 
 " She's got to go." 
 
 Mr. Prince now advanced threateningly. 
 " Another word about it, and I'll throw you 
 into the lake," he said. 
 
 " I'll shoot you full of holes," yelled the 
 constable. i 
 
 " Please let me go with you," pleaded the 
 girl. 
 
 " No, sweetheart." 
 
 " Please, Morton. It's really all my 
 fault, you know." 
 
 "There!" exclaimed the constable. 
 "It's all her fault; she says so herself. 
 Besides, when young fellers steal jewelry, 
 it's always for a woman." 
 
 " If you'll allow me to explain to you who 
 I am, you will see there is no necessity for my 
 stealing jewelry." 
 
 150
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " You can tell all that to the judge. I'm 
 here to arrest you, and by Godfrey, I've done 
 it!" 
 
 " There can be no harm in my going with 
 you," said the girl. 
 
 " It would be most unpleasant for you," 
 Mr. Prince explained; " you would be stared 
 at by all the people in the hotel, and " 
 
 " Please let me go with you." 
 
 Mr. Prince hesitated. 
 
 " Please." 
 
 " I will if you'll call me Morton again," 
 Mr. Prince whispered. 
 
 " Hey, stop that whispering! " 
 
 "It's all right," said the girl. "I'm 
 going, too." 
 
 " Not till " Mr. Prince began. 
 
 " I'm going with, my friend Morton 
 Prince." 
 
 " Oh, I say, that's not the way! " 
 
 " It's one way," the girl replied, mischief 
 dancing in her eyes. 
 
 " You always do get the best of me," said 
 Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Well, are you going, or ain't you? " de- 
 manded the constable.
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 We are going," said the girl. 
 
 Marching side by side, the constable a few 
 feet in the rear, Mr. Prince and Miss Ran- 
 dolph now made their way toward the hotel. 
 
 " It was sweet of you to stand by me," 
 said Mr. Prince. 
 
 "I I always mean to do that," said the 
 girl. 
 
 " If that confounded constable weren't 
 here, I'd" 
 
 " Constables make excellent chaperons." 
 
 " But to think our first walk together 
 should be " 
 
 The girl laughed merrily. " It's too de- 
 licious," she said. 
 
 "I know, but" 
 
 Mr. Prince did not finish his protest; in- 
 stead, he smiled beatifically, for a little hand 
 had stolen into his own.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE lady with the henna-colored hair 
 was feeling just the least bit uncom- 
 fortable. It was not that she re- 
 gretted her interview with the constable; nor 
 did she wish to withdraw one word of the ex- 
 aggerated account she had given him of the 
 robbery; but perhaps she had gone a little 
 too far in stating positively that Mr. Prince 
 was the thief who had stolen her bracelet. 
 It didn't seem likely that any one else could 
 have stolen it, yet the hand that had grasped 
 hers had been quite rough not at all like 
 the hand of a gentleman. And the glimpse 
 she had caught of the thief's back, as he 
 vaulted over the veranda rail and scurried 
 across the lawn, had been far from reassur- 
 ing. Still, there was no use in worrying; if
 
 ^e SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 there was any worrying to be done, Morton. 
 Prince could do it. 
 
 " And it would serve him right for being 
 so stuck up," the lady decided with a malevo- 
 lent titter. 
 
 Rising from her chair, she now glanced 
 resentfully at the whispering group of guests 
 at the other end of the veranda. It might 
 be wise for her to take a walk in the direction 
 of the lake. It was toward the lake that the 
 constable had gone, and Well, there was 
 little advantage in sitting still. Besides, if 
 the constable had arrested Mr. Prince, he 
 would naturally bring him to the hotel, and 
 then all these whispering busybodies would 
 have even more to whisper about. So it 
 came to pass that the lady with the henna- 
 colored hair met the constable and his two 
 prisoners very near the shed that sheltered 
 Mr. Prince's powerful gray motor car. 
 
 The sight of her standing there in the 
 moonlight came as a rude awakening to Mr. 
 Prince, more particularly as the little hand 
 that had been resting so trustfully on his own 
 was now hurriedly withdrawn. 
 
 " I believe I am indebted to you for the 
 154 

 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 honor of this gentleman's acquaintance," 
 he said, indicating the constable. 
 
 " You'll know him better than you do now 
 if you don't give me back my bracelet," de- 
 clared the lady. 
 
 " He hasn't your bracelet," said Miss Ran- 
 dolph. 
 
 " Who spoke to you, and what are you 
 doing in this, anyway?" 
 
 " She's an accomplice," explained the 
 constable. 
 
 "Hah! "said the lady. 
 
 " Won't you please go back to the pavilion 
 and wait for me there?" Mr. Prince 
 begged in a low voice. 
 
 " But, Morton " 
 
 " I want you to." 
 
 "Hey, none of that!" warned the con- 
 stable. 
 
 " It will make me very unhappy if you in- 
 sist on staying," Mr. Prince continued, 
 ignoring the constable. 
 
 " But will he let me go?" 
 
 "I'll attend to that. Please go, sweet- 
 heart." 
 
 Y/
 
 ^eSAPPHIREBMCELH 
 
 " I do wish it." 
 
 ' You come back here," commanded the 
 constable, but he might as well have com- 
 manded the moon to stand still. With head 
 erect, and without glancing even once over 
 her shoulder, Miss Randolph proceeded 
 calmly on her way to the lake. 
 
 " Jumping Jehosaphat ! " said the con- 
 stable. " She's certainly a cool one." 
 
 ' We didn't want her here, anyway," said 
 the lady. 
 
 " Am I to understand that you accuse me 
 of stealing a bracelet?" demanded Mr. 
 Prince. 
 
 " I did accuse you," said the lady, " but 
 I'm sure I don't want to get you into trouble. 
 If you'll give the bracelet back " 
 
 " Unfortunately, I haven't it." 
 
 " Look here," said the constable, who had 
 been studying Mr. Prince's face, " are you 
 sure this is the man that robbed you ? " 
 
 "Sure? Of course, I'm sure. He can 
 either give me the bracelet, or seven hun- 
 dred dollars; it's all the same to me." 
 
 "Stop it!" said the constable. "That's 
 no way to do business. If he's guilty he 
 156
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 goes to jail. Why, if you was to accept 
 seven hundred dollars from him you'd be 
 compounding a felony." 
 
 " He's guilty, all right," declared the lady. 
 " Just because he's rich he needn't think he 
 can come it over me." 
 
 " Is he rich? " asked the constable. 
 
 " I should say he was! " 
 , " Then I don't believe he done it." 
 
 " I tell you he did." 
 
 " It ain't reasonable to think a rich man 
 would rob people." 
 
 "That," said Mr. Prince, "is the first 
 glimmer of common sense you've shown this 
 evening." 
 
 " I ain't saying you're innocent, young 
 man, and I don't want none of your sass, 
 either," warned the constable. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Prince, " what are you 
 going to do about it? " 
 
 " I'm going to put you in jail if Mrs. 
 Hardcastle will swear to a warrant." 
 
 "I I hardly like to do that," said the 
 lady. "If you'll leave us alone, constable, 
 perhaps Mr. Prince and I can come to some 
 satisfactory agreement."
 
 ^eSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " And I r:fuse to be left alone with this 
 woman, or to enter into any agreement of 
 any kind with her." 
 
 " Oh, you do, do you ? " the lady ex- 
 claimed angrily. " I want to tell you right 
 now, I'm just as good as you are, and better. 
 And I'll swear out that warrant against you 
 if it's the last thing I do on earth." Her 
 voice was quivering with rage. 
 
 " You'd better not," cautioned Mr. Prince. 
 
 " What the lady says, goes," said the con- 
 stable. " You ain't been any too civil to me, 
 young man, and if she's willing to run the risk 
 of swearing to a warrant, I'm the man to jail 
 you." 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me you would dare 
 take this woman's word to that extent? " 
 
 " If she's mistaken, it's her funeral, not 
 mine," said the constable. '* You come with 
 me to the hotel, son, and we'll get a nice little 
 wagon, and tote you off to jail." 
 
 " Yes," said the lady, " he goes to jail. 
 And I leave by the early train to-morrow 
 morning," she added under her breath. 
 
 " You you really mean it? " gasped Mr. 
 Prince.
 
 You can better believe I do," said the 
 constable. 
 
 " Well, I guess not," said a voice at Mr. 
 Prince's elbow. " I'm the guy that took the 
 bracelet." 
 
 Quite overwhelmed by this unexpected and 
 astonishing announcement, the startled trio 
 turned and stared at Bill. 
 
 " If you don't believe me, here it is," Bill 
 continued, holding the bracelet aloft for all 
 to see. 
 
 " But, but how on earth? " Mr. Prince 
 began. 
 
 " Bill Potts, I'm surprised at you," said 
 the constable. 
 
 " You give me my bracelet," demanded 
 the lady. 
 
 " Not on your life," said Bill. 
 
 " And I've known him ever since he was 
 knee-high to a grasshopper," mourned the 
 constable. 
 
 " It's all right, Mr. Hawkins," said Bill, 
 addressing the constable. " This here brace- 
 let belongs to Mr. Prince, and I can prove it." 
 
 " It don't, and you can't," declared the 
 lady. " You give me my bracelet." 
 
 159 
 
 r~ 
 
 
 7 
 
 \ 

 
 " Did you really take it from her by 
 force? " Mr. Prince asked sternly. 
 
 " If he says it's all right, it's sure all 
 right," said the constable. " I've known 
 Bill ever since he was born, and there ain't an 
 honester boy in the state." 
 
 "Honest nothing! He's a thief, you old 
 goat; he stole my bracelet! " 
 
 " It ain't her bracelet, and I can prove it. 
 Mr. Prince he paid her seven hundred dol- 
 lars for it; I heard him say so." 
 
 "Does that make it so?" snapped the 
 lady. 
 
 " It sure does. Besides, didn't you ad- 
 mit it?" 
 
 " No, I didn't." 
 
 " She did, too," said Bill addressing the 
 constable. " I heard her." 
 
 " But you shouldn't have taken it from 
 her, Bill." 
 
 " Do you think I was going to stand by 
 and see you done out of seven hundred dol- 
 lars? " Bill asked reproachfully. 
 
 " If this man's a friend of yours," began 
 the constable. 
 
 " Friend of mine? Well, I should say he 
 1 60
 
 SAPPHIRE mam 
 
 was ! Say, Mr. Hawkins, he's the finest ever. 
 And good to me ! Gosh ! " 
 
 " You get my bracelet for me, or I'll make 
 it hot for you," threatened the lady in a fine 
 fury. 
 
 " I'm liable to, ain't I? " replied the con- 
 stable. 
 
 " Do you mean you'll take that kid's word 
 against mine? " 
 
 " Every time." 
 
 " I'm no end sorry you should have been 
 subjected to such er to such methods," 
 said Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Sorry, my foot ! I believe you put him 
 up to it." 
 
 " You'd ought to be ashamed, setting an 
 officer of the law on an innocent man," said 
 the constable. 
 
 " I don't yet see how it came about," said 
 Mr. Prince. 
 
 " Well, you see," Bill explained. " I was 
 settin' near you on the porch when you and 
 the lady was chinning about the bracelet, so 
 I couldn't help hearing. And, since then, 
 I've been hanging about in the shed there 
 where the car is, waiting for yoa to come 
 161
 
 <0ie SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 back from the lake. I knowed you wasn't 
 alone down there, or else " 
 
 " I see. Give me the bracelet, please. 
 Thank you. And now, if you'll leave me 
 alone with this lady Mr. Hawkins, I 
 hope you'll pardon any incivility on my part. 
 You will understand that I was a little upset, 
 and" 
 
 " Sure," replied the constable. " And I 
 don't blame you. Shake." 
 
 'You ain't sore with me, are you?" 
 asked Bill. 
 
 "No, indeed; I'm most grateful to you." 
 
 " He's a good boy," said the constable. 
 
 " None better," declared Mr. Prince. 
 " Good-night, Mr. Hawkins. Good-night, 
 Bill." 
 
 " Well," said the lady, " I hope you're sat- 
 isfied." 
 
 " I am, and I'm not," Mr. Prince replied. 
 " I am very glad to have the bracelet, but 
 I'm sorry to have acquired it in such an unus- 
 ual and er distressing manner. I apol- 
 ogize most sincerely for the treatment you 
 received in the hands of my chauffeur." 
 162
 
 SAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 " Bah," said the lady, " don't be a hypo- 
 crite! You got the best of me, and that's all 
 there is to it. I wish you joy of your brace- 
 let, Morton Prince." 
 
 " But I'd like to make some amends. I 
 would, truly." 
 
 " I don't suppose you'd care to give me 
 the bracelet?" 
 
 " N-no. But if there's anything else I can 
 do?" 
 
 The lady now regarded Mr. Prince with 
 something very like admiration. " Say, I 
 believe you mean it," she said. 
 
 " Of course, I mean it." 
 
 " And I'm blessed if I don't think I could 
 touch you for a hundred or two foj hurting 
 my feelings." 
 
 " I was about to suggest something of the 
 sort," Mr. Prince admitted. 
 
 "No," said the lady, "it would be too 
 easy. I'm a lot decenter woman than you 
 imagine, Morton Prince." 
 
 " I'm sure you're not," Mr. Prince replied, 
 with unconscious equivocation. 
 
 " I've pulled your leg all I'm going to," 
 the lady continued firmly. " YouVe treated 
 163
 
 jpeSAPPHIRE BRACELET 
 
 me whiter than most would, and I hope you 
 and the girl will be happy. That's straight." 
 Mr. Prince was profoundly touched. 
 " I hope you will be happy, too," he said, ex- 
 tending his hand. " Good-night." 
 
 " IVe been so worried," Miss Randolph 
 confessed when Mr. Prince joined her a few 
 moments later in the pavilion. " Did that 
 dreadful woman " 
 
 " No," replied Mr. Prince, " she was 
 really very nice about it. Look, sweet- 
 heart." 
 
 " Why, you have the bracelet! " 
 
 " Your bracelet," corrected Mr. Prince, 
 pressing it into her hand. " You'll keep it 
 always, won't you? And, Dorothy, girl " 
 
 " Yes, Morton." 
 
 A gentle breeze stirred the willows, over- 
 head the moon smiled tenderly, but the sap- 
 phire bracelet slipped to the floor and lay 
 there, quite forgotten.
 
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