"There is one thing I could do," she said. "My aunt had a very old friend living in Yorkshire. She would be likely to know, and under the circumstances might tell. If you think it would be any use I will write to her." "I wish you would." "If a romance in my aunt's life had something to do with the robbery, it seems strange that the jewels have been safe so long. They were always kept in the house. I should have thought it would have been easier to steal them from here than from the church." "I do not think we can be sure of that," I said. "Besides, the jewels have been quite safe at St. Ethelburga's for eighteen months," she added. "That is a point I admit. I understand that you work in Mr. Harding's parish, so you know Mr. Hayes, of course." "I have not been brought much in contact with him. I have sung once or twice at his hooligan club entertainments. He has made a great success of the club." "Regenerating ruffians and drafting them into church work, eh?" "I believe he has had great influence with them." "I am going to visit that club to-night." "You will find he is doing a great work. You will--surely you are not thinking--" "That reformation may be only skin deep? I am, Miss Belford. The daily environment of these fellows makes it easy for them to slip back into their old ways." From Walham Green I went to Chelsea. I wanted to see Zena Quarles, and there was nothing more to be done in the chalice case until I had visited the hooligan club. Not for a moment would I appear to sneer at the regenerating work which may be accomplished by such institutions, but experience has taught me that it is often the cakes and ale, so to speak, which attract, while character remains unchanged, or at the best very thinly veneered. There are always exceptions, of course. It is difficult for the uninitiated to realize that men go in for crime as a means of livelihood, and are trained to become expert even as others are trained to succeed in respectable professions. Many grades go to make up a successful gang, and I had great hope of recognizing some youngster's face at the club which would give me a clue to the gang which had worked this robbery. "You're the very man I was thinking about," said Quarles when I was shown into the dining-room. "You have come to tell me that you are on these hotel robberies. Sit down, Wigan. How goes the inquiry?" "You are wrong, professor. I was on the job for a day and a half, but I'm off it again. I am investigating the theft of a jeweled chalice." "Left in a cheap safe in an insecure vestry, I suppose," he said in a tone of disgust. "Serves them right. Such things should be kept in a bank." I explained that it was only kept in the vestry safe until it could be returned to the bank, but the fact did not seem to impress him.