The Lion's Mouse
Page 17
XVII
THE MYSTERY OF THE BOUDOIR
"It's Roger," Beverley thought. "He's ringing for Johnson--perhaps toask more questions!"
"I must speak to my husband," she said to Miss Blackburne. "The pearlsare in that case. There are two hundred and fifty. About thirty cameunstrung. You'll see for yourself how they ought to be graduated. I'llbe with you again in a few minutes."
She flew to the hall, hoping to intercept Johnson before he could reachRoger's room. But the man was not on his way there. It was the sound ofthe door-bell she had heard. Johnson was in the act of admitting a girlin a black chiffon cloak lined with blue. A large frilled hood pulledover the wearer's eyes hid the profile from Beverley. The girl turned;it was Clo.
"I'll go with you to your room," Beverley said, controlling her voicefor the benefit of Johnson, and trying not to show how frantic was herhaste. It was only when she had noiselessly closed the door of the big,bare room, that she dared let herself go.
"What's happened?" she implored. "Why are you dressed like this? Ofcourse you haven't got the papers?"
"I dressed like this to make a get-away," said Clo. "I stole the cloak.I'll tell you everything by and by. But first, you must find out foryourself whether I've got the papers. I've got something--something in athick envelope. That's all I know."
She threw off the cloak of the girl at the Dietz, and unpinned thepocket which held the precious package--the pocket which, thanks to thepin, had guarded its contents through the whole series of heradventures.
Beverley took the large linen envelope, not even thanking Clo. Neithernoticed the omission.
"Addressed to Justin O'Reilly!" she exclaimed. "It's the right size. Butwhat makes you think it may have my envelope inside?"
"Because it was carefully hidden in a safe in the wall. I thought ofopening it to make sure. There wasn't--enough time."
"I'll open it ... now!" said Beverley. Her words were firm, yet shehesitated, and turning, the envelope over, stared at the fiveofficial-looking red seals. What if it should contain legal documentsbelonging to some client of O'Reilly's?
"Tap--tap!" came at the door.
Beverley laid the envelope on the glass table, where Clo's medicinebottles once had stood. Over the red seals she flung her handkerchief,lest it should be Roger at the door.
Meanwhile, Clo had answered the knock and revealed Johnson.
"Madam, the lady who came with Mr. Sands wishes to see you immediately;it's very urgent," he announced.
"Say I'll be there in a few minutes," she replied. "I can't come justyet."
Johnson departed. "Madam will come in a few minutes," he repeated toMiss Blackburne, who had been anxiously awaiting him at a half-opendoor. "I think," he added, "she is busy, miss."
"In that case," suggested the pearl-stringer, "perhaps you'd better callMr. Sands."
"Very well, miss, I'll do so." Johnson turned away, and Miss Blackburneretreated to the boudoir.
But it occurred to Clo that Roger might be summoned if Beverley delayed.
"Something must be worrying Miss Blackburne," she said. "I wonder ifit's anything you'd like Mr. Sands to mix up in, or if you'd ratherattend to it yourself? You know, we've lots of time before ten o'clock.If the papers are in this envelope, it's all right. If not, there'snothing doing."
Just why Beverley did not want Roger to go to her boudoir she hardlyknew, unless she feared that a pearl might be missing, and that Rogerwould be more vexed than he was already. Whatever the motive in hermind, she felt suddenly impelled to haste. Even with Clo she could notleave the envelope. Wrapping it in the handkerchief to hide the address,she hurried off with it in her hand.
"You sent for me, Miss Blackburne?" she asked, as she threw open thedoor.
The pearl-stringer stood by the table, looking pale and strange.
"Oh, Mrs. Sands," she exclaimed, "you told me the pearls were in theircase, but they're not. I found it empty. You must have laid themsomewhere else."
Beverley wondered whether she had become temporarily insane, and hadhidden the pearls in a place already forgotten. But in her heart sheknew that nothing of the sort had happened.
"No," she said, answering herself as well as Miss Blackburne, "I didn'ttouch the pearls after I put them away, and brought them in here. Oh,please don't tease me! This is too serious!"
"Tease you!" echoed Miss Blackburne. "Why, Mrs. Sands, I wouldn't dosuch a thing! I wish to goodness I'd insisted on your staying till I'dopened the case and counted the pearls. I don't think I was ever sofoolish before! Now, maybe you'll believe that I've sto----"
"No--no!" exclaimed Beverley, calmed by the other's distress. "Of courseI believe nothing so foolish. Even if you--what nonsense to speak ofit!--but even if you wanted the pearls, you couldn't hide them. Let methink! Let me go back in my mind over everything that happened. I was inthe next room practically all the time when I wasn't here. The door wasopen between. I could have seen any one who came in. Oh, the pearlscan't have been stolen. There's been nobody to steal them."
"What about our little friend, Clo Riley?" Miss Blackburne asked. "Couldshe possibly know anything? Mightn't she help with some suggestion? Ithought hers one of the brightest, quickest minds I ever met. Indeed, Iowe my life to its quickness."
Beverley forgot to answer. The pearl-stringer's words had sent herthoughts travelling along a new path. Suddenly she became aware that shehad deceived Miss Blackburne and herself. When she made that statement,she had not reflected. Clo's return, in O'Reilly's company, now seemedso long ago that she had not cast her mind back so far in connectionwith the pearls. She had thought of what she had done since O'Reilly'srefusal of her request, and his departure. She had pictured herself ashaving seen the pearls in their case since then. But she had not doneso. She had seen only the closed case, and had naturally taken it forgranted that the pearls were in it. As a matter of fact, she had notactually seen them since she herself closed the velvet case. Could Clopossibly have dashed into the boudoir and hidden the pearls?
"I'll speak to Clo," she finally replied, with a dazed look after asilence that puzzled Miss Blackburne.
"Please stay here. I'll be back in three or four minutes, and bring Clowith me, if she's well enough."
Clo, denuded of the stolen cloak, had flung herself upon the bed torest, and call back the force of her vitality for a later effort. Hernerves were throbbing like hot wires, and she jumped at the opening ofthe door.
"Oh, I'm glad it's you!" she sighed, at sight of Beverley. "Have youopened the envelope?"
"The envelope!" Beverley repeated. "Oh, Clo, I thought nothing on earthcould have put it out of my head for a second. But Miss Blackburnecalled me to say the pearls have disappeared. I forgot the envelope. Imust hurry back. Did you do anything with the pearls, on your way out?"
Clo looked aghast. "Good gracious, no!" she cried. "I went through thekitchen, and down the servants' elevator. Oh, Mrs. Sands--Angel--youdon't think----"
"Nonsense! You're as bad as Miss Blackburne!" Beverley cut her short. "Ithought that, for some reason, you might have hidden them. Now I knowyou 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 fewminutes 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 heknow--was he anywhere near them?"
Beverley, who had been standing by the bed, sank down upon it, andstared. "He did know," she said slowly. "And--and he was alone in theroom with the pearls for some minutes if I remember rightly. You see,Sister Lake arrived. She was angry about your being out. I tried tosoothe her. It was no use. She left, bag and baggage, in injureddignity. O'Reilly was in my boudoir. Oh, Clo, it must be he who took thepearls!"
The girl herself had said it: yet, when the words were repeated by otherlips than hers, it gave her a shock. O'Reilly's face rose before hereyes. "I don't believe
he did it!" she was surprised to hear her ownvoice cry out aloud.
"You suggested it yourself!" exclaimed Beverley.
"I know," the girl confessed. "The idea popped into my head. But itcan'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 musthave been he who stole the pearls. There's a strong motive--somethingfor 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 toomany things against me. I can't cope with them all at once. I must go tothe 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 wantyou to come to me."
When the door had shut behind her Angel, the girl felt she would bethankful for the five minutes' respite. She lay flat and straight as afigure on a marble tomb, yet she could not rest for thinking ofO'Reilly. His eyes seemed to be looking into hers. By shutting them, shecould not shut him out. When she thought that the five minutes must havepassed, she slid wearily off the bed.
"I must go to Angel," she said half aloud. But she had not got to herfeet when, without knocking, Beverley flung the door open.
Instantly Clo guessed that some new and worse misfortune had happened.
"This time it's the end. I give up!" Beverley panted. "The envelope hasgone with the pearls. I hadn't even opened it. I don't know what wasinside."
"Gone! The envelope gone!" gasped the girl. "Gone--from--where?"
"From the table in the boudoir," Beverley answered. "I laid it therewhen Miss Blackburne told me about the pearls. It was there when I cameto you. Miss Blackburne hasn't left the room. She didn't even see theenvelope. I've searched everywhere for it--but it's gone."