Mr. Forbes spoke persuasively, and kindly.
Alicia burst into a storm of tears and sobbed wildly. Bernice, her face hidden in her handkerchief, was crying too.
Dotty sat stiffly erect in her chair, her little hands clenched, her big, black eyes staring at Mr. Forbes in a very concentration of wrath.
Dolly was limp and exhausted from weeping.
With quivering lips and in a shaking voice, she said:
"Maybe one of us is a kleptomaniac, then, after all."
"Ah, a confession!" said Mr. Fenn, with his cynical little smile. "Go on, Miss Fayre. Which one has the acc.u.mulating tendency?"
"You do make me so mad!" exclaimed Dotty, glaring at him. "Uncle Forbes, can"t we talk with you alone?"
"Oh, no, little miss," said Fenn, "Mr. Forbes is far too easy-going to look after this affair by himself! He"d swallow all the stories you girls would tell him! I"ll remain, if you please. Unless you have something to conceal, you can"t object to my presence at this interesting confab."
Dolly came to Dotty"s aid. She looked at the secretary with a glance of supreme contempt.
"It is of no consequence, Mr. Fenn," she said, haughtily, "whether you are present or not. Uncle Forbes, I agree with Dotty. You said yourself, you have an acquaintance who can"t help taking treasures that are not his own. It may be that one of us has done this. But, even so, the jewel must be in the house. None of us has been out of the house since we were in this room yesterday afternoon. So, if it is in the house, it must be found."
"Ha! You HAVE hidden it securely, to be willing to have a thorough search of the house made!" and Fenn looked unpleasantly at her. "Own up, Miss Fayre; it will save a lot of trouble for the rest of us."
Dolly tried to look at the man with scorn, but her nerves gave way, and again she broke down and cried softly, but with great, convulsive sobs.
Dotty was furious but she said nothing to Fenn for she knew she would only get the worst of it.
"Come now, Dolly," said Mr. Forbes, in a gentle way, "stop crying, my dear, and let"s talk this over. Where did you lay the earring when you took it from your dress?"
"On--on--the t-table," stammered Dolly, trying to stop crying. But, as every one knows, it is not an easy thing to stem a flood of tears, and Dolly couldn"t speak clearly.
"Yes; what table?"
"This one," and Dotty spoke for her, and indicated the table by the south window.
"Where,--on the table?" persisted Uncle Jeff.
Dolly got up and walked over to the light stand in question.
"About here, I think," and she indicated a spot on the surface of the dull finished wood.
"Why didn"t you hand it back to me?" queried Mr. Forbes, in a kind tone.
"I d-don"t know, sir," Dolly sobbed again. "I"m sure I don"t know why I didn"t."
"I know," put in Dotty. "Because just then, Mr. Forbes showed us a bracelet that had belonged to Cleopatra, and we all crowded round to look at that, and Doll laid down the earring to take up the bracelet.
We didn"t suppose we were going to be accused of stealing!"
"Tut, tut," said Mr. Forbes. "n.o.body has used that word! I don"t accuse you of anything,--except carelessness."
"But when it comes to valuable antiques," interrupted Fenn, "it is what is called criminal carelessness."
"It WAS careless of Dolly to lay the earring down," said Mr. Forbes, "but that is not the real point. After she laid it down, just where she showed us, on that small table, somebody must have picked it up. Her carelessness in laying it there might have resulted in its being brushed off on the floor, but not in its utter disappearance."
"Maybe it fell out of the window," suggested Bernice, suddenly, "that window was open then, you know."
Mr. Forbes waited over to the table. "No," he said, "this stand is fully a foot from the window sill. It couldn"t have been unknowingly brushed as far as that."
"Of course, it couldn"t," said Fenn, impatiently. "You"re making no progress at all, Mr. Forbes."
"Propose some plan, yourself, then," said Dotty, shortly; "you"re so smart, suppose you point your finger to the thief!"
"I hope to do so, Miss Rose," and Fenn smirked in a most aggravating way. "But I hesitate to accuse anyone before I am quite sure."
"A wise hesitation!" retorted Dotty. "Stick to that, Mr. Fenn!"
She turned her back on him, and putting her arm round Dolly, sat in silent sympathy.
Suddenly Bernice spoke. She was not crying now, on the contrary, she was composed and quiet.
"Uncle Jeff," she said, "this is a horrid thing that has happened. I feel awfully sorry about it all, but especially because it is making so much trouble for Dolly and Dotty, the two friends that I brought here.
Alicia and I belong here, in a way, but the others are our guests, as well as your guests. It is up to us, to free them from all suspicion in this thing and that can only be done by finding the earring. I don"t believe for one minute that any one of us four girls had a hand, knowingly, in its disappearance, but if one of us did, she must be shown up. I believe in fairness all round, and while I"m sure the jewel slipped into some place, or under or behind something, yet if it DIDN"T,--if somebody did,--well,--steal it! we must find out who. I wouldn"t be willing, even if you were, Uncle, to let the matter drop. I want to know the solution of the mystery, and I"m going to find it!"
"Bravo! Bernie, girl," cried her uncle, "that"s the talk! As I told you I must know the truth of this thing,--never mind why, I MUST find it out. But how?"
"First," said Bernice, speaking very decidedly, but not looking toward the other girls, "I think all our things ought to be searched."
"Oh, pshaw, Bernie," said Alicia, "that would be silly! You know if any of us wanted to hide that earring we wouldn"t put it in among our clothes."
"Why not?" demanded Bernice. "I can"t imagine any of us having it, but if we have, it"s by accident. Why, it might have caught in any of our dresses or sashes, and be tucked away there yet."
"That"s so," and Dotty looked hopeful. "It could be, that as one of us pa.s.sed by the table, it got caught in our clothing. Anyway, we"ll all look."
"But don"t look in your own boxes," objected Fenn. "Every girl must search another"s belongings."
"I wonder you"d trust us to do THAT!" snapped Dotty, and Fenn immediately replied:
"You"re right! It wouldn"t be safe! I propose that Mrs. Berry search all your rooms."
"Look here, Fenn, you are unduly suspicious," Mr. Forbes remonstrated, mildly.
"But, sir, do you want to get back your gem, or not? You asked for my advice and help in this matter, now I must beg to be allowed to carry out my plans of procedure."
It was plain to be seen that Mr. Forbes was under the thumb of his secretary. And this was true. Lewis Fenn had held his position for a long time, and his services were invaluable to Jefferson Forbes. It was necessary that the collector should have a reliable, responsible and capable man to attend to the duties he required of a secretary, and these attributes Fenn fully possessed. But he was of a small, suspicious nature, and having decided on what course to pursue regarding the lost curio, he was not to be swerved from his path.
"Well, well, we will see," Mr. Forbes said, an anxious look wrinkling his forehead as he looked at the girls. "Run away now, it"s nearly luncheon time. Don"t worry over the thing. Each one of you knows her own heart. If you are innocent, you"ve no call to worry. If you are implicated, even in a small degree in the loss of my property, come to me and tell me so. See me alone, if you like. I will hear your confession, and if it seems wise, I will keep it confidential. I can"t promise this, for as I hinted, I have a very strong reason for probing this affair to the very core. It is a mystery that MUST be cleared up!"