“I would like to ask a few questions,” rejoined Nick. “Were you alone when you put those jewels into the box?”
“I was.”
“Has it been in your possession ever since?”
“It has not been out of my care.”
“Did you tell anybody about the finding of the jewels?”
“Nobody.”
“Please describe everything that happened after you found them.”
“I was, of course, greatly agitated. I did not know what to do. For some time I sat staring at the jewels and trying to think what was my proper course.
“At last I took this box from a drawer of my dressing-table and put the jewels into it.
“Then I called to the servant who was in the dining-room, and asked her to see that the carriage was got ready, for though it is a long drive, I had resolved to make it, because I felt safer in that way.”
“Did you go out of your room to call the girl?”
“Only into the hall.”
“Who could have got into your room while you were out?”
“Nobody.”
“Where was your daughter?”
“In her own room.”
“How do you know?”
“I called to her after I had dressed, and she answered me. I told her that I was going to drive over here, and she was very much surprised. I did not tell her why.”
“Did you meet anybody on the way over who spoke to you or came to the side of the carriage?”
“Nobody.”
“That is all I wish to ask.”
In fact, Nick had no more questions. He was really at a loss for an explanation of this strange occurrence.
If the pin had been taken from the room, by a person concealed in the house, it might have been possible that that person had escaped from the grounds unseen, and had given it to Mrs. Stevens.
There was hardly time for such a trick to have been done, but in so strange a case every possibility was to be considered.
If such a thing had been done, it must have been very near to the house.
The thief must have known when Mrs. Stevens was coming, or she must have waited for him just outside the colonel's grounds.
There was a place where the road was heavily fringed with trees, not more than a hundred yards from the colonel's gate.
The trick must have been done there, if at all.
Nick resolved to settle this small point, if possible, immediately.
It was of no use to ask the man who had driven Mrs. Stevens' horse. Of course, he would lie, if there was any need of it.
So Nick excused himself from the group on the pretext that he was going to search Mrs. Pond's rooms again.
He remembered that just after Mrs. Stevens had arrived, a wagon belonging to the colonel had driven into the grounds. He quietly looked up the two servants who had been in this wagon. They told him that they remembered seeing Mrs. Stevens drive up.
She had passed them on the road. They had had her carriage in sight for a mile before it turned into Colonel Richmond's grounds.
Her horse had been driven at a good pace. It had not stopped. Nobody had approached the carriage.
Nick was convinced that the men were telling the truth.
Then how had Mrs. Stevens obtained that pin?
Her possession of the other articles might be explained, but the pin was a “stickler.”
CHAPTER IV. MILLIE STEVENS.
After questioning the two men whom he had found in the stable, Nick walked toward the house.
On the way he met Horace Richmond.
“Mrs. Stevens has gone home,” said Horace. “She would not remain for dinner, although she has such a long ride before her. She seems terribly distressed by this strange affair.”
“What did your uncle say to her?”
“Not much,” was the reply; “and I was a good deal surprised. He begged her not to be nervous about it, and talked very pleasantly to her, but he steered clear of the matter of the jewels.
“I don't understand it. I thought he would insist upon what he calls a restitution of the property.”
“Perhaps, after all,” said Nick, “he isn't so far off his base on the ghost question as you think he is.”
“Don't you deceive yourself about that. He is just as sure that his aunt's spirit removed those jewels as you are that that house is resting on its foundations.
“And I wouldn't try to shake his belief just now,” continued Horace, seriously. “Simply say nothing about the affair this evening. Talk about something else to him. Stay with us as long as you can, and quietly look the ground over. Then tell me privately what you think.”
This advice seemed good to Nick. He passed a quiet evening in the house, and nobody but Mrs. Pond referred to the robberies. Horace managed to quiet her quickly.
But the next morning after breakfast she came to Nick with a very long face.
“My father has been talking to me,” she said, “and I'm going to lose those jewels surely, unless you do something and do it very quickly. I don't care for their value, but they're mine by right, and I mean to keep them if I can. But, of course, I can't bear to make my father's life miserable. It will probably end by my compelling my husband to let me give them up.”
Nick had his doubts about the possibility of such a thing, and they were made certainties very soon afterward.
Mr. Pond arrived unexpectedly. When the story was told him, he “danced the war-dance,” as our young friend Patsy might have expressed it.
“You don't seem to realize the importance of this matter,” he exclaimed. “Why, it's a million-dollar robbery, that's what it is! If we give up the jewels, the colonel will give us their value. By jingo, he'll have to.
“Well, what's that but the theft of a million from him?”
Nick was compelled to confess that it was just that, and nothing else.
“And who'll reap the proceeds?” continued Pond. “Why, the Stevenses, of course. Nobody else gets anything out of it. They're playing on the colonel's superstitions for a million dollar stake.
“Now, Mr. Carter, you go ahead and work this thing out. Catch the thief. Don't let the colonel get you out of the way. If there's a question of money, I'm good for the best fee you can name.”