"Count ten!"
"You--what you propose to gain by this buffoonery, I am at a loss--"
"How can you say such savage things!" protested Jimmy. "Not buffoonery! Wit! Esprit! Flow of soul such as circulates daily in the best society."
Sir Thomas almost leaped toward the bell. With his finger on it, he turned to deliver a final speech.
"I believe you"re insane," he cried, "but I"ll have no more of it. I have endured this foolery long enough. I"ll-"
"Just one moment," said Jimmy. "I said just now that there were reasons besides the revol--well, pipe--why you should not ring that bell. One of them is that all the servants will be in their places in the audience, so that there won"t be anyone to answer it. But that"s not the most convincing reason. Will you listen to one more before getting busy?"
"I see your game. Don"t imagine for a moment that you can trick me."
"Nothing could be further--"
"You fancy you can gain time by talking, and find some way to escape--"
"But I don"t want to escape. Don"t you realize that in about ten minutes I am due to play an important part in a great drama on the stage?"
"I"ll keep you here, I tell you. You"ll leave this room," said Sir Thomas, grandly, "over my body."
"Steeple-chasing in the home," murmured Jimmy. "No more dull evenings. But listen. Do listen! I won"t keep you a minute, and, if you want to--push that bell after I"m through, you may push it six inches into the wall if you like."
"Well," said Sir Thomas, shortly.
"Would you like me to lead gently up to what I want to say, gradually preparing you for the reception of the news, or shall I--?"
The knight took out his watch.
"I shall give you one minute," he said.
"Heavens, I must hustle! How many seconds have I got now?"
"If you have anything to say, say it."
"Very well, then," said Jimmy. "It"s only this: That necklace is a fraud. The diamonds aren"t diamonds at all. They"re paste!"
CHAPTER XXVII
A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
If Jimmy had entertained any doubts concerning the effectiveness of this disclosure, they would have vanished at the sight of the other"s face. Just as the rich hues of a sunset pale slowly into an almost imperceptible green, so did the purple of Sir Thomas"s cheeks become, in stages, first a dull red, then pink, and finally take on a uniform pallor. His mouth hung open. His att.i.tude of righteous defiance had crumpled. Unsuspected creases appeared in his clothes.
He had the appearance of one who has been caught in the machinery.
Jimmy was a little puzzled. He had expected to check the enemy, to bring him to reason, but not to demolish him in this way. There was something in this which he did not understand. When Spike had handed him the stones, and his trained eye, after a moment"s searching examination, had made him suspicious, and when, finally, a simple test had proved his suspicions correct, he was comfortably aware that, though found with the necklace on his person, he had knowledge, which, communicated to Sir Thomas, would serve him well.
He knew that Lady Julia was not the sort of lady who would bear calmly the announcement that her treasured rope of diamonds was a fraud. He knew enough of her to know that she would demand another necklace, and see that she got it; and that Sir Thomas was not one of those generous and expansive natures which think nothing of an expenditure of twenty thousand pounds.
This was the line of thought that had kept him cheerful during what might otherwise have been a trying interview. He was aware from the first that Sir Thomas would not believe in the purity of his motives; but he was convinced that the knight would be satisfied to secure his silence on the subject of the paste necklace at any price. He had looked forward to baffled rage, furious denunciation, and a dozen other expressions of emotion, but certainly not to collapse of this kind.
The other had begun to make strange, gurgling noises.
"Mind you," said Jimmy, "it"s a very good imitation. I"ll say that for it. I didn"t suspect it till I had the thing in my hands.
Looking at it--even quite close--I was taken in for a moment."
Sir Thomas swallowed nervously.
"How did you know?" he muttered.
Again, Jimmy was surprised. He had expected indignant denials and demands for proof, excited reiteration of the statement that the stones had cost twenty thousand pounds.
"How did I know?" he repeated. "If you mean what first made me suspect, I couldn"t tell you. It might have been one of a score of things. A jeweler can"t say exactly how he gets on the track of fake stones. He can feel them. He can almost smell them. I worked with a jeweler once. That"s how I got my knowledge of jewels. But, if you mean, can I prove what I say about this necklace, that"s easy.
There"s no deception. It"s simple. See here. These stones are supposed to be diamonds. Well, the diamond is the hardest stone in existence. Nothing will scratch it. Now, I"ve got a little ruby, out of a college pin, which I know is genuine. By rights, then, that ruby ought not to have scratched these stones. You follow that? But it did. It scratched two of them, the only two I tried. If you like, I can continue the experiment. But there"s no need. I can tell you right now what these stones are, I said they were paste, but that wasn"t quite accurate. They"re a stuff called white jargoon. It"s a stuff that"s very easily faked. You work it with the flame of a blow-pipe. You don"t want a full description, I suppose? Anyway, what happens is that the blow-pipe sets it up like a tonic. Gives it increased specific gravity and a healthy complexion and all sorts of great things of that kind. Two minutes in the flame of a blow-pipe is like a week at the seash.o.r.e to a bit of white jargoon. Are you satisfied? If it comes to that, I guess you can hardly be expected to be. Convinced is a better word. Are you convinced, or do you hanker after tests like polarized light and refracting liquids?"
Sir Thomas had staggered to a chair.
"So, that was how you knew!" he said.
"That was--" began Jimmy, when a sudden suspicion flashed across his mind. He scrutinized Sir Thomas" pallid face keenly.
"Did you know?" he asked.
He wondered that the possibility had not occurred to him earlier.
This would account for much that had puzzled him in the other"s reception of the news. He had supposed, vaguely, without troubling to go far into the probabilities of such a thing, that the necklace which Spike had brought to him had been subst.i.tuted for the genuine diamonds by a thief. Such things happened frequently, he knew. But, remembering what Molly had told him of the care which Sir Thomas took of this particular necklace, and the frequency with which Lady Julia wore it, he did not see how such a subst.i.tution could have been effected. There had been no chance of anybody"s obtaining access to these stones for the necessary length of time.
"By George, I believe you did!" he cried. "You must have! So, that"s how it happened, is it? I don"t wonder it was a shock when I said I knew about the necklace."
"Mr. Pitt!"
"Well?"
"I have something to say to you."
"I"m listening."
Sir Thomas tried to rally. There was a touch of the old pomposity in his manner when he spoke.
"Mr. Pitt, I find you in an unpleasant position--"
Jimmy interrupted.
"Don"t you worry about my unpleasant position," he said. "Fix your attention exclusively upon your own. Let us be frank with one another. You"re in the cart. What do you propose to do about it?"
Sir Thomas rallied again, with the desperation of one fighting a lost cause.
"I do not understand you--" he began.