“General’s getting ready for the revolution,” said Harkness with a lazy laugh. “We live in parlous times.”
“You sportsmen,” snapped the General, “have no respect whatever for tradition. You know very well this is a sunset gun — you don’t sneer at the one on the Point, do you? That’s the only way Old Glory,” he concluded in a parade-ground voice, “will ever come down on my property, Harkness — to the boom of a cannon salute!”
“I suppose,” smiled the big-game hunter, “my elephant-gun wouldn’t serve the same purpose? On safari I—”
“Ignore the fellow, Mr. Queen,” said the General testily. “We just tolerate him on these week-ends because he’s a friend of Lieutenant Fiske... Too bad you arrived too late last night to see the ceremony. Quite stirring! You’ll see it again at sunset today. Must keep up the old traditions. Part of my life, Mr. Queen... I guess I’m an old fool.”
“Oh, indeed not,” said Ellery hastily. “Traditions are the backbone of the nation; anybody knows that.” Harkness chuckled, and the General looked pleased. Ellery knew the type — retired army man, too old for service, pining for the military life. From what Dick Fiske, the General’s prospective son-in-law, had told him on the way down the night before, Barrett had been a passionate and single-tracked soldier; and he had taken over with him into civilian life as many mementoes of the good old martial days as he could carry. Even his servants were old soldiers; and the house, which bristled with relics of three wars, was run like a regimental barracks.
A groom led their horses away, and they strolled back across the rolling lawns toward the house. Major-General Barrett, Ellery was thinking, must be crawling with money; he had already seen enough to convince him of that. There was a tiled swimming-pool outdoors; a magnificent solarium; a target-range; a gun-room with a variety of weapons that...
“General,” said an agitated voice; and he looked up to see Lieutenant Fiske, his uniform unusually disordered, running toward them. “May I see you a moment alone, sir?”
“Of course, Richard. Excuse me, gentlemen?”
Harkness and Ellery hung back. The Lieutenant said something, his arms jerking nervously; and the old gentleman paled. Then, without another word, both men broke into a run, the General waddling like a startled grandfather gander toward the house.
“I wonder what’s eating Dick,” said Harkness, as he and Ellery followed more decorously.
“Leonie,” ventured Ellery. “I’ve known Fiske for a long time. That ravishing daughter of the regiment is the only unsettling influence the boy’s ever encountered. I hope there’s nothing wrong.”
“Pity if there is,” shrugged the big man. “It promised to be a restful week-end. I had my fill of excitement on my last expedition.”
“Ran into trouble?”
“My boys deserted, and a flood on the Niger did the rest. Lost everything. Lucky to have escaped with my life... Ah, there, Mrs. Nixon. Is anything wrong with Miss Barrett?”
A tall pale woman with red hair and amber eyes looked up from the magazine she was reading. “Leonie? I haven’t seen her this morning. Why?” She seemed not too interested. “Oh, Mr. Queen! That dreadful game we played last night kept me awake half the night. How cm you sleep with all those murdered people haunting you?”
“My difficulty,” grinned Ellery, “is not in sleeping too little, Mrs. Nixon, but in sleeping too much. The original sluggard. No more imagination than an amoeba. Nightmare? You must have something on your conscience.”
“But was it necessary to take our fingerprints, Mr. Queen? I mean, a game’s a game... ”
Ellery chuckled. “I promise to destroy my impromptu little Bureau of Identification at the very first opportunity. No thanks, Harkness; don’t care for any this early in the day.”
“Queen,” said Lieutenant Fiske from the doorway. His brown cheeks were muddy and mottled, and he held himself very stiffly. “Would you mind—?”
“What’s wrong, Lieutenant?” demanded Harkness.
“Has something happened to Leonie?” asked Mrs. Nixon.
“Wrong? Why, nothing at all.” The young officer smiled, took Ellery’s arm, and steered him to the stairs. He was smiling no longer. “Something rotten’s happened, Queen. We’re — we don’t quite know what to do. Lucky you’re here. You might know... ”
“Now, now,” said Ellery gently. “What’s happened?”
“You remember that rope of pearls Leonie wore last night?”
“Oh,” said Ellery.
“It was my engagement gift to her. Belonged to my mother.” The Lieutenant bit his lip. “I’m not — well, a lieutenant in the United States Army can’t buy pearls on his salary. I wanted to give Leonie something — expensive. Foolish of me, I suppose. Anyway, I treasured mother’s pearls for sentimental reasons, too, and—”
“You’re trying to tell me,” said Ellery as they reached the head of the stairs, “that the pearls are gone.”
“Damn it, yes!”
“How much are they worth?”
“Twenty-five thousand dollars. My father was wealthy — once.”
Ellery sighed. In the workshop of the cosmos it had been decreed that he should stalk with open eyes among the lame, the halt, and the blind. He lit a cigaret and followed the officer into Leonie Barrett’s bedroom.
There was nothing martial in Major-General Barrett’s bearing now; he was simply a fat old man with sagging shoulders. As for Leonie, she had been crying; and Ellery thought irrelevantly that she had used the hem of her peignoir to stanch her tears. But there was also a set to her chin and a gleam in her eye; and she pounced upon Ellery so quickly that he almost threw his arm up to defend himself.
“Someone’s stolen my necklace,” she said fiercely. “Mr. Queen, you must get it back. You must, do you hear?”
“Leonie, my dear,” began the General in a feeble voice.
“No, father! I don’t care who’s going to be hurt. That... that rope of pearls meant a lot to Dick, and it means a lot to me, and I don’t propose to sit by and let some thief snatch it right from under my nose!”
“But darling,” said the Lieutenant miserably. “After all, your guests... ”
“Hang my guests, and yours, too,” said the young woman with a toss of her head. “I don’t think there’s anything in Mrs. Post’s book which says a thief gathers immunity simply because he’s present on an invitation.”
“But it’s certainly more reasonable to suspect that one of the servants—”
The General’s head came up like a shot. “My dear Richard,” he snorted, “put that notion out of your head. There isn’t a man in my employ who hasn’t been with me for at least twenty years. I’d trust any one of ’em with anything I have. I’ve had proof of their honesty and loyalty a hundred times.”
“Since I’m one of the guests,” said Ellery cheerfully, “I think I’m qualified to pass an opinion. Murder will out, but it was never hindered by a bit of judicious investigation, Lieutenant. Your fiancée’s quite right. When did you discover the theft, Miss Barrett?”
“A half-hour ago, when I awoke.” Leonie pointed to the dressing-table beside her four-posted bed. “Even before I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes I saw that the pearls were gone. Because the lid of my jewel-box was up, as you see.”
“And the box was closed when you retired last night?”
“Better than that. I awoke at six this morning feeling thirsty. I got out of bed for a glass of water, and I distinctly remember that the box was closed at that time. Then I went back to sleep.”