"I think I do," said Eugénie quickly. "Let us take another word, and instead of guessing it, try my idea, Here is a word, 'teher.' Now, Mr. Naball, take a sheet of paper and write down what I say." Naball got some paper and a pencil. "Now," said Eugénie, "this word 'teher.' The first letter is 't,' now the second letter, which, I think, is the end one of the proper word, is 'e'--place that at the end." Naball wrote "t--e." "The third letter of the cypher, and the second of the proper word, is 'h'--put that next the 't;' and the fourth letter of the cypher, and third of the proper word, is 'e'--place that at the end also." Naball added two letters as instructed, "t,h--e,e." "Now," said Eugénie, "there's only one letter left, which must naturally be in the middle." Naball finished his writing thus: t-h-r-e-e. "That is three," he said, with a cry of triumph. "By Jove! Miss Rainsford, you are clever; let's make certain, by trying another letter." "Take 's-s-t-e-o-n,'" suggested Ezra. Naball wrote the letters as follows:-- s -- s t -- e o -- n Then he wrote them in a line, down the first column and up the second, which made the word "stones." "Glad we've got it right, after all," he said delightedly, and then the whole three of them went to work on the same system, with the result that the letter read thus:-- "Diamonds safe, unset the stones, risky selling, got three thousand, sending it less three hundred, bernstein." "Ah!" said Naball when he read this, "wasn't I right?" "So I think," said Ezra sadly; "my father evidently bought the jewels from her, and sent them to Amsterdam to be sold." "Still," said Eugénie impatiently, "this does not clear up the mystery of the murder." "You don't think Caprice did it?" said Ezra. "No," replied the detective; "but Villiers might have done it in order to recover the jewels. But I tell you what, there's only one thing to be done, we'll go down and see Caprice." This was agreed to, and without losing a moment they started. "I may be wrong, as I was before," said Naball when they were in the train, "but I'll lay any money that Villiers has seen Caprice since the murder." "You don't think she's an accomplice?" cried Eugénie. "I think nothing," retorted Naball, "till I see Caprice." CHAPTER XXIV. WHAT KITTY KNEW. The trio soon arrived at Kitty's house, and Ezra was just about to ring the front-door bell, when suddenly Naball touched his arm to stop him. "Hist!" he said in a quick whisper; "listen." A woman's voice, talking in a high key, and then the deep tones of a man's voice, like the growl of an angry beast. "What did I tell you?" whispered Naball again. "Villiers and Caprice, both in the drawing-room; wait a moment, count twenty, and then ring the bell."