From the rear of the crowd in the hangar, Pilot Larsen came forward.

“Who was in that boat?” he asked. “Could you recognize him?”

“The flares died just too soon,” Dick informed him. “Maybe Mr. Everdail saw more than we did.”

The millionaire shook his head.

“There’s one way to check up,” Jeff suggested. “Who’s not here who was in the house before the life preserver was missed?”

“You can learn nothing from that,” Miss Serena spoke up. “Too many are away.”

“We can get somewhere, anyhow,” Larry insisted. “Captain Parks, can you account for your men?”

“Yes, sir. Those who are not here are in the tender.”

“I saw them start to get back Mr. Everdail’s hydroplane,” Sandy nodded.
169

“The fellow who flew with you in the seaplane isn’t here,” remarked Larry, quietly, and, after a glance around, he said: “Neither is the yacht stewardess.”

“I sent her to her cabin,” Miss Serena stated. “She was greatly disturbed about this affair.”

“Oh!” said Larry, slowly, “she was?”

“Yes, but she is a high-strung girl,” argued the lady; and during the silence that followed, she turned to her relative.

“Atley,” she told the millionaire, “we are getting nowhere. For my part I believe that the emeralds have already been destroyed!”

“Destroyed!”

“Certainly. That seemed to be the purpose, in the London hotel. A person as clever as that must have planned this entire affair and has undoubtedly accomplished his wish and vanished long ago—or else he can never be caught because we have no way to discover him.”

“He ought to be caught and punished,” Jeff argued. “That-there set of emeralds was too precious for us to let somebody do a thing like this-here.”

“We know who was on the yacht,” Larry agreed with Jeff. “At least we can try to find out who threw the emeralds off.”
170

“We know,” Dick broke in. “Don’t you remember that Miss Serena recognized the maid—Mimi—by her uniform?”

“Then why don’t we go and question her?” Larry suggested. “Make her tell what she knows!” A murmur of assent broke out among the seamen who were naturally anxious to be cleared of any possible suspicion.

“Did you get an answer from Mrs. Everdail when you telegraphed her about Mimi?” asked Dick.

Mr. Everdail shook his head.

“Not yet,” he admitted. “I don’t believe Mimi is the one. She was with my wife during the last seven years and you get to know a person’s character in that time.”

“Just the same,” Larry insisted, “many respected bank tellers have been discovered for what they were after bank money disappeared.”

“As I live and breathe!” Mr. Everdail spoke gruffly, “I begin to wonder if you shouldn’t be the one to have ‘suspicious’ for a nickname. You have suspected Jeff, and me, and my friend who was with me, and Larsen, here, and his passenger—Captain Parks and now Mimi! It will be Miss Serena next!”

“My gracious!” that lady exclaimed, “I hope not!”

“I never will,” Dick declared.
171

“I guess I caught the disease from Sandy,” Larry was red-faced, “I admit I deserve the nickname now.”

“If Sandy doesn’t object to losing the nickname, then—” Mr. Everdail smiled a little teasingly.

“Oh, he’s welcome to it,” Sandy cried. “I’ve turned over a new leaf!”

“How’s that?” Jeff wanted to know.

“I used to take one little thing for a start, and make up my mind that whoever did it was the one I must suspect,” Sandy explained. “But that’s like trying to prove a man guilty because I think he may be.”

“That’s so,” Dick began to chuckle. “Pinning clues onto folks is like the clothing salesman who tried to sell a white linen suit to a man who wanted a dark grey one. ‘I’ll give you what you want,’ the salesman said—and he went over and pulled down all the shades!”

“And that-there suit looked dark!” chuckled Jeff.

“Now I mean to listen, and watch, and not suspect anybody, as if I had a dark suit and a light one to sell and I’d wait to see who the different suits fitted!”

Breaking into a hearty laugh, Jeff slapped Sandy on the shoulder.
172

“That-there’s the ticket,” he said.

&ldqu............