a white dog sent our hopes soaring, only to
prove a stranger and dash them lower than before. Round and about and in
and out among the booths and swings and merry-go-rounds we hastened,
whistling, calling and inquiring in vain. Nobby was lost.

* * * * *

We had intended to be home in time for tea.

As it was, we got back to White Ladies, pale and dejected, at a quarter
to eight.

As she rose to get out of the car, Adele gave a cry and felt frantically
about her neck and throat.

"What's the matter?" I cried.

"My pearls," she said simply. "They're not here."

For what it was worth, I called for lights, and we took the cushions out
and looked in the car.

But there was no sign of the necklace. It was clean gone.

* * * * *

The lamentations with which the news of our misfortunes was received
were loud and exceeding bitter.

Jill burst into tears; Daphne tried vainly to comfort her, and then
followed her example; Berry and Jonah vied with each other in gloomy
cross-examination of Adele and myself concerning our movements since we
had left White Ladies, and in cheerless speculation with regard to the
probable whereabouts of our respective treasures.

After a hurried meal the Rolls was again requisitioned, and all six of
us proceeded to Fallow Hill. Not until eleven o'clock would the fun of
the fair be suspended, and it was better to be on the spot, even if for
the second time we had to come empty away, than to spend the evening in
the torment of inactivity.

Of the loss of the Sealyham we could speak more definitely than of that
of the necklace. Nobby had been by my side when the gipsy hailed us, so
that there was no doubt but that he was lost at the fair. Regarding her
pearls, Adele could speak less positively. In fact, to say that she had
had the necklace before breakfast that morning was really as far as she
could go. "I know I had it then," she affirmed, "because I always take
it off before taking my bath, and I remember putting it on afterwards.
As luck will have it, I was rather late this morning, and I couldn't
fasten the safety-chain, so after two or three shots I gave up trying,
intending to do it later on. And this is the result." She had not bathed
again.

It was a sweet pretty gaud. So perfectly matched were its hundred and
two pearls that many would have believed it unreal. It had belonged to
her great-grandmother, and was not in