"They looked----" and there the young speaker came to a standstill.
"Come, f.a.n.n.y Fairfax!" cried Miss Timmens, sharply. "What d"you stop for? I ask you what the earrings looked like. You must be able to tell if you saw them."
"They were red, please, governess, and had shining things round them like the ice when it glitters."
"She"s right, Master Johnny," nodded Miss Timmens to me: "and she"s a very correct child in general. I think she must have seen both of them."
I ran home with the news. They were at breakfast still.
"What a set of m.u.f.fs the children must be, not to have taken better notice!" cried Tod. "Why, when I saw only the one earring in, it struck my eye at once."
"And for that reason it is almost sure that both of them were in at the school-house," I rejoined. "The children did not particularly observe the two, but they would have remarked it directly had only one been in.
Old Coney said the same."
"Ay: it"s that tramp that has got it," said the Squire. "While your mother was talking to her, it must have slipped out of the ear, and she managed to secure it. Those tramps lay their hands on anything; nothing comes amiss to them; they are as bad as gipsies. I dare say this was a gipsy--dark as she was. I"ll be off to Worcester and see the police: we"ll soon have _her_ found. You had better come with me, Johnny; you"ll be able to describe her."
We went off without delay, caught a pa.s.sing train, and were soon at Worcester and at the police-station. The Squire asked for Sergeant Cripp: who came to him, and prepared to listen to his tale.
He began it in his impulsive way; saying outright that the earring had been stolen by a gipsy-tramp. I tried to say that it might have been only lost, but the pater scoffed at that, and told me to hold my tongue.
"And now, Cripp, what"s to be done?" he demanded, not having given the sergeant an opportunity to put in a word edgeways. "We must get the earring back; it is of value, and much prized, apart from that, by Mrs.
Todhetley. The woman must be found, you know."
"Yes, she must be found," agreed the sergeant. "Can you give me a description of her?"
"Johnny--this young gentleman can," said the Squire, rubbing his brow with his yellow silk handkerchief, for he had put himself into a heat, in spite of the frosty atmosphere that surrounded us. "He was with Mrs.
Todhetley when she talked to the woman."
"A thin woman of middle height, stooped a good deal, face pale and quiet, wrinkles on it, brown eyes," wrote the sergeant, taking down what I said. "Black poke bonnet, clean cap border, old red woollen shawl with the fringe torn off in places. Can"t remember gown: except that it was dark and shabby."
"And, of course, sir, you"ve no clue to her name?" cried the sergeant, looking at me.
"Yes: she said it was Nutten--as I understood it; but Mrs. Todhetley thought she said Nutt." And I went on to relate the tale the woman told.
Sergeant Cripp"s lips extended themselves in a silent smile.
"It was well got up, that tale," said he, when I finished. "Just the thing to win over a warm-hearted lady."
"But she could not have halted at the gate, expecting to steal the earring?"
"Of course not. She was prowling about to see what she could steal, perhaps watching her opportunity to get into the house. The earring fell in her way, a more valuable prize than she expected, and she made off with it."
"You"ll be able to hunt her up if she"s in Worcester, Cripp," put in the pater. "Don"t lose time."
"_If_ she"s in Worcester," returned Mr. Cripp, with emphasis. "She"s about as likely to be in Worcester, Squire Todhetley, as I am to be at this present minute in Brummagem," he familiarly added. "After saying she was coming to Worcester, she"d strike off in the most opposite direction to it."
"Where on earth are we to look for her, then?" asked the pater, in commotion.
"Leave it to us, Squire. We"ll try and track her. And--I hope--get back the earring."
"And about the advertis.e.m.e.nt for the newspapers, Cripp? We ought to put one in."
Sergeant Cripp twirled the pen in his fingers while he reflected. "I think, sir, we will let the advertis.e.m.e.nt alone for a day or two," he presently said. "Sometimes these advertis.e.m.e.nts do more harm than good: they put thieves on their guard."
"Do they? Well, I suppose they do."
"If the earring had been simply lost, then I should send an advertis.e.m.e.nt to the papers at once. But if it has been stolen by this tramp, and you appear to consider that point pretty conclusive----"
"Oh, quite conclusive," interrupted the pater. "She has that earring as sure as this is an umbrella in Johnny Ludlow"s hand. Had it been dropped anywhere on the ground, we must have found it."
"Then we won"t advertise it. At least not in to-morrow"s papers,"
concluded Sergeant Cripp. And telling us to leave the matter entirely in his hands, he showed us out.
The Squire went up the street with his hands in his pockets, looking rather glum.
"I"m not sure that he"s right about the advertis.e.m.e.nt, Johnny," he said at length. "I lay awake last night in bed, making up the wording of it in my own mind. Perhaps he knows best, though."
"I suppose he does, sir."
And he went on again, up one street, and down another, deep in thought.
"Let"s see--we have nothing to do here to-day, have we, Johnny?"
"Except to get the pills made up. The mother said we were to be sure and not forget them."
"Oh, ay. And that"s all the way down in Sidbury! Couldn"t we as well get them made up by a druggist nearer?"
"But it is the Sidbury druggist who holds the prescription."
"What a bother! Well, lad, let us put our best leg foremost, for I want to catch the one-o"clock train, if I can."
Barely had we reached Sidbury, when who should come swinging along the pavement but old Coney, in a rough white great-coat and top-boots. Not being market-day, we were surprised to see him.
"I had to come in about some oats," he explained. And then the Squire told him of our visit to the place, and the sergeant"s opinion about the advertis.e.m.e.nt.
"Cripp"s wrong," said Coney, decisively. "Not advertise the earring!--why, it is the first step that ought to be taken."
"Well, so I thought," said the pater.
"The thing"s not obliged to have been stolen, Squire; it may have been dropped out of the ear in the road, and picked up by some one. The offering of a reward might bring it back again."
"And I"ll be shot if I don"t do it," exclaimed the pater. "I can see as far through a millstone as Cripp can."
Turning into the Hare and Hounds, which was old Coney"s inn, they sat down at a table, called for pen and ink, and began to draw out an advertis.e.m.e.nt between them. "Lost! An earring of great value, pink topaz and diamonds," wrote the Squire on a leaf of his pocket-book; and when he had got as far as that he looked up.
"Johnny, you go over to Eaton"s for a sheet or two of writing-paper.
We"ll have it in all three of the newspapers. And look here, lad--you can run for the pills at the same time. Take care of the street slides.
I nearly came down on one just now, you know."