ey. "Have you
opened the envelope?"

"The envelope!" Beverley repeated. "Oh, Clo, I thought nothing on earth
could have put it out of my head for a second. But Miss Blackburne
called me to say the pearls have disappeared. I forgot the envelope. I
must hurry back. Did you do anything with the pearls, on your way out?"

Clo looked aghast. "Good gracious, no!" she cried. "I went through the
kitchen, and down the servants' elevator. Oh, Mrs. Sands--Angel--you
don't think----"

"Nonsense! You're as bad as Miss Blackburne!" Beverley cut her short. "I
thought that, for some reason, you might have hidden them. Now I know
you didn't. Clo, this is the most terrible day--except one--in my life.
I must find the pearls or Roger will never forgive me. And only a few
minutes ago they were nothing, compared with the papers!"

Clo's wits, drowned in horror for an instant, came to the surface again.
"What if O'Reilly took the pearls for revenge!" she blurted out. "Did he
know--was he anywhere near them?"

Beverley, who had been standing by the bed, sank down upon it, and
stared. "He did know," she said slowly. "And--and he was alone in the
room with the pearls for some minutes if I remember rightly. You see,
Sister Lake arrived. She was angry about your being out. I tried to
soothe her. It was no use. She left, bag and baggage, in injured
dignity. O'Reilly was in my boudoir. Oh, Clo, it must be he who took the
pearls!"

The girl herself had said it: yet, when the words were repeated by other
lips than hers, it gave her a shock. O'Reilly's face rose before her
eyes. "I don't believe he did it!" she was surprised to hear her own
voice cry out aloud.

"You suggested it yourself!" exclaimed Beverley.

"I know," the girl confessed. "The idea popped into my head. But it
can't be true. He's not that sort, whatever else he may be!"

"He went off furious with you, with us both," Beverley said. "It must
have been he who stole the pearls. There's a strong motive--something
for him to hold over us, and force us to give the papers back."

"If we've got them!" cut in Clo.

Beverley sprang up. "I'm lost in this!" she faltered. "There are too
many things against me. I can't cope with them all at once. I must go to
the boudoir and get that envelope, whatever happens."

"What shall I do?" asked Clo.

Beverley was already at the door, and had opened it.

"If I don't come back to you in five minutes, it will be a sign I want
you to come to