out your pockets in
the sight of every one, don't you think that all the men, and possibly
all the women too"--here I let my voice fall suggestively--"would be
glad to follow suit? It could be done in apparent joke."

He shook his head with a straightforward air, which set him high in my
estimation.

"That would call for little but effrontery on my part," said he. "But
think how it would affect these boys who came here for the sole purpose
of enjoying themselves. I will not so much as mention the ladies."

"Yet one of the latter----"

"I know," he quietly acknowledged, growing restless for the first time.

I withdrew my eyes from his face. I had learned what I wished.
Personally, he did not shrink from search, therefore the jewel was not
in his pockets. This left but two persons for suspicion to halt between.
But I disclosed nothing of my thoughts; I merely asked pardon for a
suggestion that, while pardonable in a man accustomed to handle crime
with ungloved hands, could not fail to prove offensive to a gentleman
like himself.

"We must move by means less open," I concluded. "It adds to our
difficulties, but that cannot be helped. I should now like a glimpse of
Mr. Deane."

"Do you not wish to speak to him?"

"I should prefer a sight of his face first."

He led me across the hall and pointed through an open door. In the
centre of a small room containing a table and some chairs I perceived a
young man sitting, with fallen head and dejected air, staring at
vacancy. By his side, with hand laid on his, knelt a young girl,
striving in this gentle but speechless way to comfort him. It made a
pathetic picture. I drew Ashley away.

"I am disposed to believe in that young man," said I. "If he still has
the jewel, he would not try to carry off the situation just this way. He
really looks broken-hearted."

"Oh, he is dreadfully cut up! If you could have seen how frantically he
searched for the stone, and the depression into which he fell when he
realised that it was not to be found, you would not doubt him for an
instant. What made you think he might still have the ruby?"

"Oh, we police-officers think of everything. Then the fact that he
insists that something or some one touched his breast on the driveway
strikes me as a trifle suspicious. Your mother says that no second
person could have been there, or the snow would have given evidence of
it."

"Yes; I looked expressly. Of course, the drive itself was full of