"And if I refuse to let you leave?"
The girl"s eyes were cold and she twisted the cape around her slim body tightly, wearing it like a queen"s robe. Words tumbled from her lips swiftly.
"There is nothing you can do to prevent it."
A worried grin spread over Jim Drake"s face.
"If you insist on going," he said, "there isn"t much else to say."
"Don"t think I"m not grateful to both of you." This time her smile was for Puffy and his chest swelled a good three inches under its influence. "If you"ll promise not to follow me tonight, I"ll return here in the morning. If you insist on getting yourselves in trouble on my account there isn"t a thing I can do about it without appearing ungrateful."
"That"s more like it," Jim said cheerfully. "Now, about your clothes.
You can"t wear that fur without something under it, although the effect is appealing."
"And revealing," Puffy added.
She blushed.
"Could--could you find something for me. Some of your clothing?"
Puffy Adams chuckled. "With those shoulders Cinderella"s got, you"ll look like an ex-prizefighter," he warned.
Drake started a search in the closet. Ten minutes later Sylvia Fanton made an appealing picture in tan slacks, light jersey sweater and a pair of sport shoes Jim had discarded years ago but had forgotten to throw away. She stood at the door holding the fox fur close to her breast. Then smiling brightly, she tossed it into his arms.
"Take good care of it," she said. "If it"s not here in the morning...."
Drake stood close to her. He couldn"t find words for what was in his heart. A dull hurt feeling welled up in his throat. It was so d.a.m.ned futile sending a girl out when he had promised not to follow. If she didn"t come back in the morning....
Sylvia"s eyes grew tender. Standing on tiptoe, she pressed her lips to his stubbled chin.
"You"ve been up for a long time, laddie," she whispered. "Better shave and get some rest."
The door slammed quickly and she was gone. Drake held the fur carefully over his arm and rubbed his chin reflectively.
"I"ll be d.a.m.ned," he said.
"So will I," Puffy spoke from somewhere behind him. "Looks like Cinderella Drake is gonna go huntin" for that other slipper, and after all these years."
Jim looked around the room for a safe place to hide the precious silver cape. He decided on the big cedar chest in the open closet. He locked the fur in safely and dropped the key in his pocket.
"Ready for a little traveling?" he asked.
Puffy had discarded his shoes and was stretched out comfortably, a frosted gla.s.s in his hand. His chin dropped, jumped forward protestingly.
"Just let"s relax," he begged. "I"ve worn the heels off my feet for you today."
Even as he talked the stout one started to tie the laces of his shoes.
They went down the quiet hall and into the private elevator.
"What about George Lardner?" Drake asked as they shot toward the main floor. "Find out his life history?"
"At the police station." Puff admitted. Then in a puzzled voice he added, "all but the last two years of it."
"And those last two years?"
They pa.s.sed quickly through the rear lobby and into the alley. The car was still where Jim had left it. As they drove out of the narrow alley and into the street, Puffy talked.
"George Lardner has been in every racket the law knows about," he said. "The police have a complete record of him since he cut his eye teeth stealing milk. But the last two years get me."
Drake settled down behind the wheel and they headed toward the rush of downtown traffic.
"Don"t kill me with the suspense," he said. "What"s Lardner been up to that"s so startling?"
"Exploring," Puffy said dryly.
"An expedition to the city"s slums?" Drake queried.
"No!" Puffy crossed his legs comfortably and scratching a match on the bottom of his shoe, touched the flame to his cigarette. "I had to go to the Explorer"s Club to get the dope on him. Lardner has been spending a lot of time in the Baker Lake district just east of Hudson Bay in Canada."
Drake"s foot released its pressure on the gas pedal. "Thought that country was pretty well explored years ago," he said mildly. "Nothing much but snow and ice up there, is there?"
"And maybe diamonds," Puffy said. "At least that"s what Lardner and some of the boys at the Explorer"s Club think."
Drake"s interest was increasing.
"Is that where he found that big gem he displayed at the club the other night?"
Puffy"s lips split in a wide, toothy grin.
"Cinderella Drake knows the answers," he admitted. "Yes! That"s where he found the diamond and that"s how he happened to get in with the stuffed shirts at the Explorer"s Club."
Drake was silent.
Adams hesitated, then added,
"Lardner showed up there six months ago claiming he had found the world"s largest diamond. He claimed he got it from a secret valley somewhere in the Baker Lake district."
"Fantastic!" They had reached their destination and Drake pulled the coupe in smoothly to the curb. The lights over the door of the Owl Limb Night Club were darkened.
"The Explorer"s Club doesn"t think so. They are mighty stirred up about his find. The only thing that puzzles them is how come the stone is cut. Lardner refuses to tell them who did the job. As for finding it where he did, it seems they"ve had an idea there were diamonds in that country and were just waiting for someone to prove it."[1]
[Footnote 1: Professor Hobbs of the University of Michigan has found several small diamonds and diamond particles in the strata of the glacial flow throughout certain northern states.
Hobbs, a careful and painstaking research worker, used his knowledge of geology to trace the strata of the glacial flow. He determined several years ago that the diamonds came from the north, somewhere in the Hudson Bay area. Although his co-workers are confident that he is correct, a rush of prospectors failed to find anything that would prove his theory.