Dotty was so astonished at his dictum that she stood still and stared at him. Dolly ran off to her room on the second floor and carefully examined the dress she had worn the day before.
"No," she said, on her return, "it isn"t on my dress. I knew it couldn"t be,--I should have seen it when I undressed. Besides, I know I took it off here, only a moment after I tried it on. I merely looked at it an instant, and then I unhooked it and laid it on this table."
"But at first, you weren"t sure that you did place it on that table, Miss Fayre," came the insinuating voice of Fenn once more.
"Yes, I did, I"m sure of it now," and Dolly"s white face was drawn with anxiety.
"Think again." counselled the secretary.
"Maybe you took it off, and absent-mindedly slipped it in your pocket."
CHAPTER XIII
SUSPICIONS
Dotty turned on Fenn like a little fury. "What do you mean?" she cried.
"Are you accusing Dolly of stealing that thing?"
"There, there," said Mr. Forbes, placatingly, "Of course, Fenn didn"t mean that. Not intentionally, that is. But without thinking, couldn"t--"
"No, she couldn"t!" stormed Dotty. "Dolly Fayre doesn"t go around pocketing people"s jewels unconsciously! She isn"t a kleptomaniac, or whatever you call it! She did exactly as she says she did. She laid that earring on that table."
"Then why isn"t it there now?" asked Fenn.
"Because somebody else moved it. Oh, don"t ask me who. I don"t KNOW who! And I don"t CARE who! But Dolly put it there, and whoever took it away from there can find it! Perhaps YOU, can, Mr. Fenn!"
The secretary looked at the angry girl with an irritating smile.
"I wish I might, Miss Rose. But I"ve searched the room thoroughly, as you all have, too. It can"t be HERE, you know."
"I"ll tell you," said Alicia, eagerly, and then she described how in her home a photograph had slipped down behind the mantel and had been lost for years.
"Let us see," and Mr. Forbes went to the mantel in the room. But there was not the least mite of a crack between the shelf and the wall.
Alicia"s suggestion was useless.
"But," she said, "there might be that sort of a hiding-place somewhere else. Let"s look all over."
The girls tried hard to find some crack or crevice in any piece of furniture, into which the trinket might have slipped, but there was none. They felt down between backs and seats of chairs, looked behind cases of treasures, moved every book and paper that lay on the tables, even turned up the edges of rugs, and peeped under.
"It doesn"t make any difference how much we look," Dotty declared, "we"ve just got to look more,--that"s all. Why, that earring is in this room, and that"s all there is about that! Now, it"s up to us to find it. You know, after you search all the possible places, you have to search the impossible ones."
"I admire your perseverance," said Mr. Forbes, "but I can"t hope it will be rewarded. It isn"t as if we were hunting for a thing that somebody had purposely concealed, that would mean an exhaustive search.
But we"re looking for something merely mislaid or tossed aside, and if we find it, it will be in some exposed place, not cleverly hidden."
"Oh, I don"t know, Uncle Jeff," said Bernice, "you know when Alicia"s photograph slipped behind the mantel, that was deeply hidden, although not purposely."
"Yes, that"s so," and Uncle Jeff looked questioningly from one girl to another.
It was impossible to ignore the fact that he deemed one of them responsible for the disappearance of the jewel, and until the matter was cleared up, all felt under suspicion. Fenn, too, was studying the four young faces, as if to detect signs of guilt in one of them.
At last he said, "Let us get at this systematically. Who took the earring first, when Mr. Forbes handed it out from the case?"
"I did," said Dotty, promptly. "I stood nearest to Mr. Forbes and he handed it to me. After I looked at it, I pa.s.sed it to Alicia."
"No, you didn"t," contradicted Alicia. "I didn"t touch it."
"Why, yes, "Licia," Dotty persisted, "you took it and said--"
"I tell you I didn"t! I never handled the things at all! It was Bernice."
"I did have it in my hands," said Bernice, reflectively, "but I can"t remember whether I took it from Dot or Alicia."
"I didn"t touch it, I tell you!" and Alicia frowned angrily.
"Oh, yes, you did," said Dolly, "it was you, Alicia, who pa.s.sed it on to me. And I took it--"
"You didn"t take it from me, Dolly," and Alicia grew red with pa.s.sion.
"I vow I never touched it! You took it from Bernice."
"No," said Dolly, trying to think. "I took it from you, and I held it up and asked you how it looked."
"No, Doll, you asked me that," said Bernice, "and I said it was very becoming."
"You girls seem decidedly mixed as to what you did," said Mr. Fenn, with a slight laugh. "I think you"re not trying to remember very clearly."
"Hold on, Fenn," said Mr. Forbes, reprovingly. "It"s in the girls"
favour that they don"t remember clearly. If they tossed the thing aside carelessly, they naturally wouldn"t remember."
"But, Mr. Forbes," and the secretary spoke earnestly, "would these young ladies toss a valuable gem away carelessly? They are not ignorant children. They all knew that the earring is a choice possession. I"m sure not one of them would toss it aside, unheeding where it might fall!"
This was perfectly true. None of the four girls could have been so heedless as that! They had carefully handled every gem or curio shown them, and then returned it to Mr. Forbes as a matter of course.
Fenn"s speech was rather a facer. All had to admit its truth, and the four girls looked from one to another and then at Mr. Forbes. He was studying them intently.
Bernice and Dolly were crying. Alicia and Dotty were dry-eyed and angry-faced. If one of the four had a secret sense of guilt, it was difficult to guess which one it might be, for all were in a state of excitement and were well-nigh hysterical.
"Much as I regret it," Mr. Forbes began, "I am forced to the conclusion that one or more of you girls knows something of the present whereabouts of my lost jewel. I do not say I suspect any of you of wilful wrong-doing, it might be you had accidentally carried it off, and now feel embarra.s.sed about returning it. I can"t--I won"t believe, that any of you deliberately took it with intent to keep it."
"We thank you for that, Mr. Forbes," and Dotty"s tone and the expression of her face denoted deepest sarcasm. "It is a comfort to know that you do not call us thieves! But, for my part, I think it is about as bad to accuse us of concealing knowledge of the matter. I think you"d better search our trunks and suitcases! And then, if you please, I should like to go home--"
"No doubt you would, Miss Rose!" broke in Fenn"s cold voice. "A search of your belongings would be useless. If one of you is concealing the jewel, it would not be found in any available place of search. You would have put it some place in the house, not easy of discovery. That would not be difficult."
"Be quiet, Fenn," said Mr. Forbes. "Girls, I"m not prepared to say I think one of you has hidden the jewel, but I do think that some of you must know something about it. How can I think otherwise? Now, tell me if it is so. I will not scold,--I will not even blame you, if you have been tempted, or if having accidentally carried it off, you are ashamed to own up. I"m not a harsh man. I only want the truth. You can"t be surprised at my conviction that you DO know something of it. Why, here"s the case in a nutsh.e.l.l. I handed that earring to you, and I never received it back. What can I think but that you have it yet? It is valuable, to be sure, but the money worth of it is as nothing to the awfulness of the feeling that we have an untrustworthy person among us.
Can it be either of my two nieces who has done this wrong? Can it be either of their two young friends? I don"t want to think so, but what alternative have I? And I MUST know! For reasons which I do not care to tell you, it is imperative that I shall discover who is at fault. I could let the whole matter drop, but there is a very strong cause why I should not do so. I beg of you, my dear nieces,--my dear young friends,--I beseech you, tell me the truth, won"t you?"