Maureen looked unreally lovely — but tonight it wasn't this that had overpowered him. Now he was racked by doubt, mentally lost in a fog of hopeless misunderstanding… When dancing began, it was a long time before he managed to get Maureen for a partner. Even then, while Leidler danced with Shelley Downing, the dark man's glance followed Maureen ravenously about the room. Shelley had come as a leprechaun. It was plain that she knew nothing of the Irish climate, for she evidently thought leprechauns wore next to no clothes.
"Your friend, Theo," said Shaun, when he and Maureen were alone in the crowd of dancers, "seems to regard you as his private property!"
"Yes. He's getting to be a real nuisance." Maureen changed this subject quickly. "Do you think I deserve the first prize? Mr Lorkin says I shall win it."
"You have my vote, Maureen. Your dress is a dream. Did you have the earrings and necklace already, or are they those you bought in Port Said?"
"In Port Said I got the earrings at Simon Arzt's, and the shoes. I dyed my own stockings! The necklace I picked up at Suleyman's."
The band stopped, showed signs of resting; but Shaun, into whose mind the name, Suleyman, had crashed as a revelation, applauded persistently. Leidler, who had led Shelley back to her table, watched Maureen like a hungry wolf preparing to spring on a gazelle. The band started again. As Shaun and Maureen resumed dancing: "You did say Suleyman's, didn't you?" Shaun asked.
"Yes. Hadji Suleyman's. Do you know it? I'd just come from there when — I met you. It was the necklace you picked up!"
And then, while relief flooded through Shaun, Maureen laughingly told him all about the queer old woman who didn't know the price of anything, but all the same had charged her five dollars for a trinket worth fifty cents. "It's so heavy! It's fraying my neck. I'm going to my room in a minute to take it off."
Shaun started to remonstrate but the band stopped just then and they were hemmed in the crowd. "I'll only be a minute," Maureen said, and before Shaun could stop her she was gone.
Back in her cabin, Maureen dropped the heavy necklace on her dresser and paused to adjust her hair and make-up with hasty care. Then she ran out to return to the dance. For a moment she hesitated by a dark alleyway next to her room. She had a sense that someone was standing there in the shadows. Then she hurried on.
Maureen had hardly turned the corner by the purser's office when Shaun stepped out of the shadowy alleyway, glanced swiftly left and right, then opened the door of Maureen's room and glided inside. He reclosed the door. He had had no more time than to take cover when another man came in!
The second visitor wasted not a moment. He scooped up the green necklace, inhaling sharply, moved away, was about to turn, when: "What's the hurry, Leidler?" a casual voice inquired.
In a wing of Maureen's mirror, his own face suddenly blanched under the bronze, Theo Leidler saw Shaun Bantry standing at his elbow, holding an automatic.
"I'm here—" Leidler swallowed audibly — "at Miss Loner-gan's request—"
"Sure you are! But at my request you're coming along to see the captain. No! Leave the necklace in your pocket!"
In Captain McAndrew's quarters the story was told, that grim seaman presiding over the meeting. Shaun Bantry had done most of the talking.
'The Egyptian police have recovered an unusual cigarette stub left behind in the cafe. And they have a glass of rdki which Hadji Suleyman was drinking. It had enough dope in it to kill ten men!"
Leidler moistened dry lips. "What has this to do with me?"
"Six witnesses have described you — and / saw you come out Of the cafe. You may have meant just to send Suleyman to sleep. Instead, you sent him to Paradise! Don't waste your breath to interrupt me. We have the facts in line. I've figured out the set-up at Suleyman's."
Shaun paused to light a cigarette. An armed quarter-master who stood behind Leidler's chair looked hypnotised. Lorkin was studying the captain's angry face.
"When an agent of the gang dumped a valuable piece there, Suleyman put it in amongst a lot of junk. If there was any trouble he could say he'd bought it for a few piastres and didn't know its value. But he was taking big risks. And he wanted a big cut on profits."
"You're talking nonsense!" Leidler broke in hotly.
"Silencel" Captain McAndrew spoke in his bridge voice.
"You met at the cafe to settle terms. You had found out that Suleyman's wife knew nothing about her husband's underground connections, had no knowledge of precious stones. But he hadt Having put Suleyman to sleep, you counted on getting this—" he pointed to the necklace lying on the captain's desk — "for the price of a packet of cigarettes. Maybe you were desperate. It might have been your last deal. I'm just guessing. In any case, it is your last deal, Leidler."
Leidler's eyes darted furtively around the room, seeking a means of escape. Then, seeing the hopelessness of his situation, he shrugged his shoulders in an elegant gesture.
"Well… well," boomed Captain McAndrew. "Have you anything to say for yourself, man?"
Leidler smiled thinly. "In moments of this sort," he said, "I find it better to keep my own counsel."
The Captain stirred impatiently. "As you wish." He nodded to the quartermaster. 'Take the prisoner below. Mr Bantry, congratulations on a fine piece of work."
Now it was Shaun's turn to smile. "I've been waiting a long time to play out this little scene, sir," he said, softly. "Now I feel at sort of a loose end."
It was very late when Shaun leaned on the rail beside Maureen looking out across a dark Mediterranean. The band had packed up. St. Patrick's night was over, dawn not far away.
"What's that light, Shaun, over there? Not on the African side."
"Malta."
They were silent for awhile. Shaun's hand lay over Mau-reen's on the rail.
"Shaun, will you tell me something — now?" Her voice was barely audible above the lullaby of the sea as it swept the bows of the big ship.
"Anything."
"What really happened tonight?" She turned to him and her eyes were bright in the dim lights along the deck. "And why was my necklace stolen from my room? It only cost me five dollars!"
Shaun put his arm around her shoulders. "Five dollars was what it cost you, Maureen. But that necklace has been valued at two hundred and fifty thousand!"
"Shaun!"
He smiled down at her. "The emeralds alone are worth a fortune, without the diamonds. It's the famous necklace which Catherine II of Russia presented to Marie Antoinette."
She was silent a moment, shivering a little till his arm tightened around her and she was drawn against him. Her eyes were lifted, and now there was laughter behind their serious depths. "And that's what you were after all the time?" she asked.
"All the time," he agreed, solemnly.
"And nothing else?"
"Darling!" was what Shaun said.
A House Possessed
I strode briskly up the long beech avenue. The snow that later was to carpet the drive and to clothe the limbs of the great trees, now hung suspended in dull grey cloud banks over Devrers Hall. Thus I first set eyes upon the place.
W. Earl Ryland had seen it from the car when motoring to Stratford, had delayed one hour and twenty-five minutes to secure the keys and look over the house, and had leased it for three years. That had been two days ago. Now, as I passed the rusty, iron gates and walked up the broad stairs of the terrace to the front door, the clatter of buckets and a swish of brushes told me that the workmen were busy within. It is, afterall, a privilege to be the son of a Wall Street hustler.
Faithful to my promise, I inspected the progress made by the decorating contractor, and proceeded to look over the magnificent old mansion. Principally, I believe, it was from designs by Vanbrugh. The banqueting hall impressed me particularly with its fretwork ceiling, elaborate mouldings, and its large, stone-mullioned windows with many-hued, quarrel-pane lattices.