"Good!" I said involuntarily.
She looked at me startled. "You heard!" she said defiantly. "Were
they the words of a guilty man?"
"Not if I know anything about human nature," I said promptly.
The sweetest gratitude lighted up her face. "Oh, thank you!" she said.
She was very near tears. "Anything else would be unbelievable!"
"Give me one day more," I suggested.
"No! No!" she cried with surprising energy. "I will not carry this
tragic farce any further. I hate the pearls now. I would not wear
them if I did get them back. They are gone. Let them go!"
"But Miss Hamerton----" I persisted.
"Not another word!" she cried. "My mind is made up!"
"I must speak," I said doggedly. "Because you as much as said you
depended on getting honest advice from me. You can't stop now. If you
marry Mr. Quarles, the fact that you have suspected him though it was
only for a moment will haunt you all your life. No marriage is a bed
of roses. When trouble does come your grim spectre will invariably
rise and mock you. It must be definitely laid in its grave before you
can marry the man."
The bold style of my speech made her pause. I had never spoken to her
in that way before. She eyed me frowning.
"I hope you know it's not the job I'm after," I went on. "I never had
work to do that I enjoyed less. But you put it up to me to give you
honest advice."
"I can't spy on the man I love," she faltered.
"You can't marry the man you suspect," I returned.
"I don't suspect him."
"The suspicious circumstances are not yet explained."
"Very well, then, I'll send for him to come back, and he will explain
them."
I had a flash of insight into the character of my young friend. "No!"
I cried. "If he knew that you had ever suspected him, he would never
forgive you."
"Then what do you want me to do?" she cried.
"Give me twenty-four hours to produce proofs of his innocence."
She gave in with a gesture.
Leaving Miss Hamerton I walked twice around Bryant Square to put my
thoughts in order. I wished to believe in Roland's innocence almost as
ardently as she did, but I had to force myself to keep an open mind. A
fixed idea one way or the other is fatal to any investigator. So I
argued against him for a while to strike a balance. I told myself
there was a type of man who would stop at absolutely nothing to secure
the woman he desired. In the bottom of my heart, like anybody else, I
had a sneaking admiration for the type.
True, I had never heard of a man robbing a woman in order to secure the
means to support her. Still, human psychology is an amazing thing.
You never can tell! I reminded myself of all the other times I had
been brought face to face with the apparently impossible. Particularly
is human nature ingenious in justifying itself.
I finally made up my mind to search Roland's apartment that night. On
my previous visits I had marked a little safe there. Surely it must
contain some conclusive evidence one way or the other. What I hoped to
find was some natural and honest explanation of the sum of money he had
received.
Around the theatre that night Roland and I were as friendly as usual.
The shadow was somewhat lifted from his dark eyes. They burned with an
expectant fire. An extraordinary restlessness possessed him. For all
he said he hated it, that time anyway, he outdid himself in playing his
rôle. As far as I could see, he and Irma held no communications
outside the play.
In pursuance of the plan I had made, I insisted on his supping with me
that night. I was free to leave the theatre after the second act, so I
went on ahead to order the supper I said. He was to meet me at the
Thespis club at half-past eleven. I did order the supper there, then
hurried on to his flat, arriving some time before his customary hour of
coming from the theatre.
His old housekeeper having seen me in his company on several occasions
expressed no surprise at my coming. I said I would wait for him, and
she left me to my own devices in the front room. I satisfied myself
that she had gone to her own room on the other side of the kitchen,
three doors away, then I set to work.
I had brought a bunch of skeleton keys and a set of miniature
housebreaking tools. I didn't require them, for I found that the
little safe had one of the earliest and simplest forms of a lock. Part
of my apprenticeship had been spent in learning how to open such locks
merely by listening to the fall of the tumblers as one turned the knob.
All that was required was patience. It was a little after ten.
Supposing that Roland waited for me at the Thespis club only half an
hour, I had two hours in which to work. It was painfully exciting. I
had my first glimpse of the point of view of a housebreaker.
The safe door swung open at last. I looked inside with a beating
heart. It contained but little; a diary, which I left for the moment;
a wallet containing a sum of money, a bundle of papers enclosed by an
elastic band. I went over the papers hastily; they consisted of
insurance policies, theatrical contracts and business letters of old
dates which had nothing whatever to do with my case.
However, there was still a little locked drawer to investigate. After
a number of tries I fixed a key that would open it. The first thing I
saw was a number of pieces of men's jewelry that Roland doubtless used
for stage properties. The second thing I saw was a beautiful little
antique box made of some sweet-smelling wood which contained several
notes in Irma's handwriting and some withered flowers. The third and
last thing was a seal leather case such as jewellers display. Upon
pressing the spring the cover flew back and I saw lying on a bed of
white velvet a string of wonderful dusky pearls.
For many moments I gazed at them in stupid astonishment. God knows
what I expected to find. Certainly not that. What did it mean? It
looked just the same as the string Miss Hamerton had showed me. I
counted them. There were sixty-seven pearls. Was it another of
Roberts' replicas? Perhaps Roland had bought it and stowed it away for
sentimental reasons. That seemed pretty far-fetched.
I carried it to the electric light. There I could see the blue cast
like the last gleam of light in the twilight sky. The bits of stone
had a wonderful fire, life. An instinct told me they were genuine
pearls. But if they were it must be _the_ string, for Mount had said
there were no others. I remembered that Miss Hamerton had told me she
had made a little scratch on the clasp and I eagerly looked for it.
There was a kind of mark there. At this point I shook my head and gave
up speculating.
I slipped the case in my pocket, locked the drawer and locked the safe
again. I switched off the lights and let myself quietly out of the
flat.
I decided to go to the Thespis club as if nothing had happened. I was
not at all anxious to meet Roland until I knew where I stood, but I
reflected that if I failed him it might rouse his suspicions and
precipitate a catastrophe before I was ready for it. There was not
much danger that he would look in his safe that night if I kept him
late. His housekeeper would tell him I had been there, but I could
explain that. In the morning I would have him watched.
Roland was at the club when I arrived. "I've been at your rooms," I
said instantly. "I had an idea I was to wait for you there. But I got
thinking it over and decided I had made a mistake."
"You've got a memory like a colander," he said good-naturedly. "Better
do something about it."
We sat down to our supper. Roland was in for him, extraordinary
spirits. All the while we ate, drank and joked I was wondering in the
back of my head what kind of a change would come over his grim, dark,
laughing face if he knew what I had in my pocket.
9
Few would envy me my task next morning. I called up Miss Hamerton
merely saying that I would come to the hotel half an hour later. Sadie
came in, but having kept from her what had already happened, I could
not tell her this. I was not obliged to tell her all the developments
of the case, of course, but she had a moral right to my confidence, and
so I felt guilty and wretched every way. Sadie I knew would be
terribly cut up by the way things were tending, and I had not the heart
to face it, with what I had to go through later.
Miss Hamerton received me with great bright eyes that looked out of her
white face like stars at dawn. The instant she caught sight of my face
she said: "You have news?"