BESS HAS SUSPICIONS
They did leave it up to Adair MacKenzie, and for several days nothing
happened. The house was like a morgue, for everyone suspected everyone
else and the servants were all under suspicion.
Finally, Nan couldn't stand it any longer, and decided to do a little
investigating on her own. It was Bess who put her on the track.
"I don't trust Chinamen," Bess had confided and then felt foolish
immediately afterward, for if there was one thing that Nan resented
above all others, it was race prejudice in any form.
"Oh, Bess, don't be silly," Nan dismissed the statement shortly.
"But I don't," Bess persisted.
"Elizabeth Harley," Nan exclaimed, "if you make that remark again, I'll
never speak to you as long as I live." Nan was cross and irritable these
days, because nothing seemed to be going right and she felt that if she
hadn't said anything about the ring in the first place, everyone would
be enjoying themselves.
"But Nan," Bess put her arm around her friend. "I don't mean it all the
way you think. I haven't liked the cook ever since that first day when
he had a fight with Mrs. O'Malley and she's such a dear too."
"Oh, but Bess, you know how that happened," Nan protested. "Mrs.
O'Malley went into the kitchen that he had run for some twenty years and
tried to tell him what to do. He just wouldn't stand for it."
"Even then, I don't like him." Bess persisted. "He's been horrid and
mean to all of us ever since we've been here. I think he stole your
ring, and if you don't do something about it, I'm going to tell Mr.
MacKenzie myself."
"See here, Bess," Nan was very serious now. "If you don't keep quiet
about what you have just been saying to me, I'm going to be very angry.
I don't want suspicions being cast on people who haven't done anything,
and I don't think he has, honestly."
Bess paused and thought before she said anything further.
"And Bess," Nan said more softly now, "don't resent the way I've talked
to you these days. I feel very troubled."
Bess felt badly too now. It wasn't very often that Nan let her temper
get away with her, and since she had, Bess thought, she must be more
troubled than any of us realize. So the subject was dropped between the
two friends.
But Bess's remarks had done their work. When Nan was alone, the thought
of what Bess had said, came back to her again and again. She dismissed
it impatiently at first, but then little things about the cook began to
come to her attention constantly.
Finally she determined to do something about it all and so, one day when
she was alone, she went back to the kitchen.
She was just about to open the door and go through when she heard loud
voices.
"I tell you it's not enough," one, an American voice was saying.
"Alle samee, it's all I can get." The voice of the cook came to her in
reply.
Nan stopped, startled. This, why, this verified Bess's suspicions. Nan
stood back and listened further, but heard nothing. She had come in on
the end of the argument. Shortly, she heard a door slam on the other
side of the kitchen, and then there were no more sounds at all.
She waited for some time, and then cautiously opened the door and went
in.
Over in one corner, the cook, alone, was busy preparing the evening
meal. He looked up as the girl entered, and was on the point of
reprimanding her for invading his quarters when he stopped, recognizing
her. He waited then, resentfully, for her to speak.
Nan was equally wary however, so there was a moment of embarrassed
silence, before either said anything. Then, as they stood waiting, a
call outside distracted their attention.
The cook answered it, and when he returned, they both felt more at ease.
He brought her a stool to sit on and offered her some of his choice
cookies, so before long they were talking to one another. They talked
about little things, and Nan went away without mentioning the ring or
the conversation she had heard at all.
But she went back the next day. Following this procedure it wasn't long
before the cook poured out his whole sorry tale.
Nan later, when she got Walker Jamieson alone, told it and swore him to
secrecy.
"Then he took the ring," Walker concluded, when the story had all been
told.
"He hasn't said so," Nan was being very careful that the facts were all
understood as they were, not as other people might imagine them to be.
"No, not in so many words," Walker agreed, "but then, he did. You and I
know that, and it's not necessary to tell anyone at all anything about
this yet. It's a bigger story than you realize," he ended, "and it has
many, many more angles than this particular one. Let me work on it
awhile without any interference."
Nan agreed to this, and so the two conspirators parted.