"For the prosecution. It is, in fact, rather a remarkable case. It seems Miss Kathleen Weir is a lady who owns a great number of diamonds, or rather, supposed she did. Well, a month or so ago she was either hard up, or she had a mind to change some of her diamonds for something else. At all events, she took what she supposed to be a valuable diamond brooch and earrings to the jeweler, of whom they had been purchased, for the purpose of disposing of them. The jeweler and his assistants examined the stones, and told her they were everyone paste--not diamonds at all in fact. The cases were theirs, and the settings, but the diamonds had been removed and replaced by false ones. They at first supposed Miss Weir had wished to impose on them, but the rage she flew into soon satisfied them that this was not the case. She entreated one of the jewelers to return with her to her flat to examine the rest of her diamonds. A nice discovery awaited her; half, nay more than half, were gone, and paste diamonds had been substituted in place of the real ones." "What a dreadful thing!" exclaimed May. "Dreadful for Miss Weir at least. These diamonds were worth thousands of pounds, and someone must have stolen them. The question was who did it, and the affair had been in the hands of the detectives ever since. Now they have got hold of someone, and Miss Weir's confidential maid, a certain Miss Margaret Johnstone, has to be put on her trial to-morrow for robbing her mistress. I am told there is a strong defense, but I think we hold the trump card." "We shall be interested in the result," said May. "Half the women in London will be interested. There is, I believe, an extraordinary fascination in jewels to your sex, and in diamonds in particular. However, by this time to-morrow Miss Margaret Johnstone will probably know this to her cost. But now I must go; I have my notes to look up on the case. Good-night, Mrs. John; good-night, Aunt Margaret and Aunt Eliza." He left the house a few moments later, after his aunts had pressed him to return the following evening to tell the news about the trial. And he did this, entering the drawing-room at Pembridge Terrace the next night about nine o'clock with a slight flush on his somewhat haggard face. "Well," he said, quietly, but still with the air of a man who has gained something he had fought for, "we have won our case." "Do tell us all about it, dear!" cried his aunts in chorus. "Will it bore you?" asked Ralph Webster, looking at May. "No, indeed, it will not," she answered.