"Sure you haven't slipped up anywhere and given them a suspicion as to your real work?" "Absolutely certain. I've done my work and done it well. That's what I was employed for and that's what's given me access to the files. But, as for suspicion--there hasn't been a trace of it!" It was in vain that Carr questioned and cross-questioned the girl. She was sure of herself and sure of her information, positive that no crooked work was being handled by the men who received the sugar when it was unloaded from the incoming ships. Puzzled by the girl's insistence and stunned by the failure of the plan upon which he had banked so much, Carr gave the matter up as a bad job--telling Louise that she could stop her work whenever she wished, but finally agreeing to her suggestion that she continue to hold her place on the bare chance of uncovering a lead. "Of course," concluded the girl, "you may be right, after all. They may have covered their tracks so thoroughly that I haven't been able to pick up the scent. I really don't believe that they have--but it's worth the gamble to me if it is to you." More than a month passed before the significance of this speech dawned upon Dick, and then only when he chanced to be walking along Fifth Avenue one Saturday afternoon and saw Louise coming out of Tiffany's with a small cubical package in her hand. "Tiffany's--" he muttered. "I wonder--" Then, entering the store, he sought out the manager and stated that he would like to find out what a lady, whom he described, had just purchased. The flash of his badge which accompanied this request turned the trick. "Of course, it's entirely against our rules," explained the store official, "but we are always glad to do anything in our power to assist the government. Just a moment. I'll call the clerk who waited on her." "The lady," he reported a few minutes later, "gave her name as Miss Louise Wood and her address as--" "I know where she lives," snapped Carr. "What did she buy?" "A diamond and platinum ring." "The price?" "Eight hundred and fifty dollars." "Thanks," said the operative and was out of the office before the manager could frame any additional inquiries. When the Wood girl answered a rather imperative ring at the door of her apartment she was distinctly surprised at the identity of her caller, for she and Carr had agreed that it would not be wise for them to meet except by appointment in some out-of-the-way place. "Dick!" she exclaimed. "What brings you here? Do you think it's safe?" "Safe or not," replied the operative, entering and closing the door behind him. "I'm here and here I'm going to stay until I find out something. Where did you get the money to pay for that ring you bought at Tiffany's to-day?" "Money? Ring?" echoed the girl. "What are you talking about?" "You know well enough! Now don't stall. Come through! Where'd you get it?" "An--an aunt died and left it to me," but the girl's pale face and halting speech belied her words.