Jimmy watched him in interested silence.
Sir Thomas ran to the jewels, and would have crushed them beneath his feet, had not Jimmy sprang forward and jerked him away from them.
"Be quiet," he said. "Confound you, sir, will you stop that noise?"
Sir Thomas, unaccustomed to this style of address, checked the flood for a moment.
"Now," said Jimmy, "you see the situation. At present, you and I are the only persons alive, to the best of our knowledge, who know about this. Stay, though, there must be one other. The real necklace must have been stolen. It is impossible to say when. Years ago, perhaps. Well, that doesn't affect us. The thief, whoever he is, is not likely to reveal what he knows. So here you have it in a nutshell. Let me go, and don't say a word about having found me here, and I will do the same for you. No one will know that the necklace is not genuine. I shall not mention the subject, and I imagine that you will not. Very well, then. Now, for the alternative. Give me up, give the alarm, and I get—well, whatever they give me. I don't know what it would be, exactly. Something unpleasant. But what do you get out of it? Lady Blunt, if I may say so, is not precisely the sort of lady, I should think, who would bear a loss like this calmly. If I know her, she will shout loudly for another necklace, and see that she gets it. I should fancy you would find the expense unpleasantly heavy. That is only one disadvantage of the alternative. Others will suggest themselves to you. Which is it to be?"
Sir Thomas suspended his operation of glaring at the paste necklace to glare at Jimmy.
"Well?" said Jimmy. "I should like your decision as soon as it's convenient to you. They will be wanting me on the stage in a few minutes. Which is it to be?"
"Which?" snapped Sir Thomas. "Why, go away, and go to the devil!"
"All in good time," said Jimmy cheerfully. "I think you have chosen wisely. Coming downstairs?"
Sir Thomas made no response. He was regarding the necklace moodily.
"You'd better come. You'll enjoy the show. Charteris says it's the best piece there's been since 'The Magistrate'! And he ought to know. He wrote it. Well, good-by, then. See you downstairs later, I suppose?"
For some time after he had gone Sir Thomas stood, motionless. Then he went across the room and picked up the necklace. It occurred to him that if Lady Blunt found it lying in a corner, there would be questions. And questions from Lady Blunt ranked among the keenest of his trials.
"If I had gone into the army," said Jimmy complacently to himself, as he went downstairs, "I should have been a great general. Instead of which I go about the country, scoring off dyspeptic baronets. Well, well!"
CHAPTER XIX.
The evening's entertainment was over. The last of the nobility and gentry had departed, and Mr. McEachern had retired to his lair to smoke—in his shirt sleeves—the last and best cigar of the day, when his solitude was invaded by his old New York friend, Mr. Samuel Galer.
"I've done a fair cop, sir," said Mr. Galer, without preamble, quivering with self-congratulation.
"How's that?" said the master of the house.
"A fair cop, sir. Caught him in the very blooming act, sir. Dark it was. Oo, pitch. Fair pitch. Like this, sir. Room opposite where the jewels was. One of the gents' bedrooms. Me hiding in there. Door on the jar. Waited a goodish bit. Footsteps. Hullo, they've stopped! Opened door a trifle and looked out. Couldn't see much. Just made out man's figure. Door of dressing room was open. Showed up against opening. Just see him. Caught you at it, my beauty, have I? says I to myself. Out I jumped. Got hold of him. Being a bit to the good in strength, and knowing something about the game, downed him after a while and got the darbies on him. Took him off and locked him in the cellar. That's how it was, sir."
"Good boy," said Mr. McEachern approvingly. "You're no rube."
"No, sir."
"Put one of these cigars into your face."
"Thank you, sir. Very enjoyable thing, a cigar, sir. 'Specially a good un. I have a light, I thank you, sir."
"Well, and who was he?"
"Not the man you told me to watch, for. 'Nother chap altogether."
"That red-headed——"
"No, sir. Dark-haired chap. Seen him hanging about, suspicious, for a long time. Had my eye on him."
Mr. Galer chuckled reminiscently.
"Rummest card, sir, I ever lagged in my natural," he said.
"How's that? inquired Mr. McEachern amiably.
"Why," grinned Mr. Galer, "you'll hardly believe it, sir, but he had the impudence, the gall, if I may use the word, the sauce to tell me he was in my own line of business. A detective, sir! Said he was going into the room to keep guard. I said to him at the time, I said, it's too thin, cocky. That's to say——"
Mr. McEachern started.
"A detective!"
"A detective, sir," said Mr. Galer, with a chuckle. "I said to him at the time——"
"The valet!" cried Mr. McEachern.
"That's it, sir. Sir Thomas Blunt's valet, he was. That's how he got into the house, sir."
Mr. McEachern grunted despairingly.
"The man was right. He is a detective. Sir Thomas brought him down from London. He niver travels without him. Ye've done it. Ye've arristed wan of the bhoys."
Mr. Galer's jaw dropped slightly.
"He was? He really was——"
"Ye'd better go straight to where it was ye locked him up, and let him loose. And I'd suggest ye hand him an apology. G'wan, mister. Lively as you can step."
"I never thought——"
"That's the trouble with you fly cops," said his employer caustically. "Ye niver do think."
"It never occurred to me——"
"G'wan!" said the master of the house. "Up an alley!"
Mr. Galer departed.
"And I asked them," said Mr. McEachern, "I asked them particularly not to send me a rube!"
He lit another cigar, and began to brood over the folly of mankind.
He was in a very pessimistic frame of mind when Jimmy curveted into the room, with his head in the clouds and his feet on air.
"Can you spare me a few minutes, Mr. McEachern?" said Jimmy.
The policeman stared heavily.
"I can," he said slowly. "What is ut?"
"Several things," said Jimmy, sitting down. "I'll take them in order. I'll start with our bright friend, Galer."
"Galer!"
"Of New York, according to you. Personally, I should think that he's seen about as much of New York as I have of Timbuctoo. Look here, McEachern, we've known each other some time, and I ask you, as man to man, do you think it playing the game to set a farmer like poor old Galer to watch me? I put it to you?"
The policeman stammered. The question chimed in so exactly with the opinion he had just formed, on his own account, of the human bloodhound who was now in the cellar making the peace with his injured fellow worker.
"Hits you where you live, that, doesn't it?" said Jimmy. "I wonder you didn't have more self-respect, let alone consideration for my feelings. I'm surprised at you."
"Ye're——"
"In fact, if you weren't going to be my father-in-law, I doubt if I could bring myself to forgive you. As it is, I overlook it."
The policeman's face turned purple.
"Only," said Jimmy, with quiet severity, taking a cigar from the box and snipping off the end, "don't let it occur again."
He lit the cigar. Mr. McEachern continued to stare fixedly at him. So might the colonel of a regiment have looked at the latest-joined subaltern, if the latter, during mess, had offered to teach him how to conduct himself on parade.