“I have heard that she makes a great display of diamonds.”
“That is true, Mr. Carter. She possesses a magnificent collection of jewels, and wears them with an abandon against which I frequently have cautioned her.”
“By way of explanation,” put in Mr. Garside, with an odd smile, “Venner might add that he enjoys quite friendly relations with the Spanish señora.”
“I see no occasion, Garside, for comments upon my interest in Sanetta Cervera,” declared Venner, with a frown at his partner. “My relations with her, Detective Carter, are only those of a friend and a gentleman. She called here several weeks ago to have some diamonds reset, when I met her personally, and was deeply impressed with her extraordinary grace and beauty. I since have shown her some attention.”
“Quite natural, I am sure,” observed Nick, smiling indifferently. “As you remarked, however, none of that appears to be material. I understand, Mr. Venner, that you were absent when Boyden brought the diamonds here this morning.”
“I was,” bowed Venner. “I received a note from Señora Cervera this morning, asking me to call upon her at eleven o’clock at her rooms, and to bring with me a diamond pendant which we have in stock, and which I had the pleasure of showing her a few days ago.”
“Ah, I see.”
“She stated in her note that if I would call upon her at the hour mentioned, she would decide whether to purchase the pendant, or have us make the diamond cross for her.”
“You complied with her request, Mr. Venner, and went to call upon her?”
“Certainly.”
“Where is she quartered?”
“She rents a furnished house uptown.”
“Does she live alone?”
“With her servants only.”
“How many?”
“She keeps a butler, a male cook, and two housemaids. Also a girl to look after her wardrobe and act as her dresser at the theater.”
“Evidently Señora Cervera is wealthy,” said Nick.
“Well, not exactly wealthy,” rejoined Venner. “She is the popular craze just now, and from her professional work she derives a very large income which she scatters as if dollars were dead leaves. In a word, Detective Carter, Señora Cervera is an arrant spendthrift.”
“So I have heard,” nodded Nick.
“You have?”
“Oh, yes!” laughed the detective. “That appears to surprise you. It will not, when I tell you that there are very few public characters in New York of whose general habits I am not tolerably well informed. Of course, Mr. Venner, you have no doubt of this Spanish dancer’s honesty?” Nick added, bluntly.
Venner flushed deeply, and instantly shook his head.
“Most assuredly not,” he cried, with some feeling. “Señora Cervera dishonest? Impossible!”
“Improbable, Mr. Venner, no doubt; but not impossible.”
“It is, sir,” declared Venner, positively. “I know her well. Such an idea is absurd. Drop it at once, Detective Carter. Indeed, sir, if I thought her name was to be dragged into this affair, or her reputation to be in any way imperiled, I would quietly suffer the loss of these diamonds, and cease this investigation at once.”
Nick laughed softly, and suppressed the response that, nearly rose to his lips.
“Don’t do it, Mr. Venner,” said he, complacently. “My observation was not intended to cast any reflection upon Señora Cervera. I have no doubt that she is perfectly honest.”
“I should hope not, sir.”
“By the way, have you the note she sent to you this morning?”
“Yes. Here it is.”
“By mail, or a messenger?”
“A messenger brought it.”
“Ah!” murmured Nick, briefly studying the written page. “Plainly a foreign hand. Very firm and forceful. It indicates a strong and determined character. I should say that Señora Cervera is a woman of rare qualities.”
“That is perfectly correct, sir. She is a woman of rare qualities.”
“What did she decide to do about the diamonds, Mr. Venner?”
“She gave me an order for the cross, Detective Carter, to be made and delivered as soon as possible.”
“This was during your call upon her this morning?”
“Certainly.”
“You had previously sent no order to Hafferman for the stones?”
“Surely not.”
“Yet a written order was received by him, or he would not have delivered the goods.”
“In which case, then, it was a forgery.”
“No doubt of it,” Nick readily admitted. “Chick.”
“Yes, Nick.”
“Take a carriage and go at once and interview Hafferman. See what you can learn from him. Get the written order received by him, and bring it here. Have a look at young Boyden, and see what you make of him. Also get the written signature of Mr. Hafferman, and that of each person employed in his store. Understand?”
“Sure thing!” nodded Chick, already seeing clearly the line Nick’s investigation was taking, though neither Venner nor his partner yet perceived it. “I will return as quickly as possible.”
“You will find me here,” nodded Nick. “Wait a moment!”
“Well?”
“Also get a description of the party who delivered the written order at Hafferman’s store. Inquire what he said at the time, and why he did not attempt securing the diamonds then and there.”
“Probably he was not known there, and knew he could not get them,” observed Venner, by way of explanation.
Nick made no reply to this, however, and Chick hurriedly departed.
Chapter III.
The Kilgore Diamond Gang
“Now, gentlemen, only a few more questions, and I then shall be ready to go at this case in a more energetic fashion,” said Nick Carter, immediately after Chick’s departure. “Were any of your clerks absent from the store, Mr. Venner, at the time of this robbery?”
“As I was absent myself, I cannot say,” replied Venner, rather dryly. “How about it, Garside?—you were here.”
“Only one clerk, a young man named Spaulding, was out of the store.”
“Was he out on business?”
“Yes, under my instructions,” Venner quickly explained. “We have numerous old accounts on our books, and just before I went uptown I sent Spaulding out to try to make a few collections. I think he has returned by this time.”
“It does not matter, since he was out under your instructions,” said Nick, closing his notebook. “Now, Mr. Venner, who among your employees knew you thought of buying this lot of diamonds from Hafferman, or that you had called at his store to examine them?”
“Not a soul,” was the prompt reply.
“Are you