CHAPTER X
When Lord Emsworth, sighting Mr. Peters in the group of returnedchurchgoers, drew him aside and broke the news that the valuablescarab, so kindly presented by him to the castle museum, had beenstolen in the night by some person unknown, he thought themillionaire took it exceedingly well. Though the stolen object nolonger belonged to him, Mr. Peters no doubt still continued totake an affectionate interest in it and might have been excusedhad he shown annoyance that his gift had been so carelesslyguarded.
Mr. Peters was, however, thoroughly magnanimous about the matter.He deprecated the notion that the earl could possibly haveprevented this unfortunate occurrence. He quite understood. Hewas not in the least hurt. Nobody could have foreseen such acalamity. These things happened and one had to accept them. Hehimself had once suffered in much the same way, the gem of hiscollection having been removed almost beneath his eyes in thesmoothest possible fashion.
Altogether, he relieved Lord Emsworth's mind very much; and whenhe had finished doing so he departed swiftly and rang for Ashe.When Ashe arrived he bubbled over with enthusiasm. He was lyricalin his praise. He went so far as to slap Ashe on the back. It wasonly when the latter disclaimed all credit for what had occurredthat he checked the flow of approbation.
"It wasn't you who got it? Who was it, then?"
"It was Miss Peters' maid. It's a long story; but we were workingin partnership. I tried for the thing and failed, and shesucceeded."
It was with mixed feelings that Ashe listened while Mr. Peterstransferred his adjectives of commendation to Joan. He admiredJoan's courage, he was relieved that her venture had endedwithout disaster, and he knew that she deserved whatever anyonecould find to say in praise of her enterprise: but, at first,though he tried to crush it down, he could not help feeling acertain amount of chagrin that a girl should have succeeded wherehe, though having the advantage of first chance, had failed. Theterms of his partnership with Joan had jarred on him from thebeginning.
A man may be in sympathy with the modern movement for theemancipation of woman and yet feel aggrieved when a mere girlproves herself a more efficient thief than himself. Woman isinvading man's sphere more successfully every day; but there arestill certain fields in which man may consider that he isrightfully entitled to a monopoly--and the purloining of scarabsin the watches of the night is surely one of them. Joan, inAshe's opinion, should have played a meeker and less active part.
These unworthy emotions did not last long. Whatever his othershortcomings, Ashe possessed a just mind. By the time he hadfound Joan, after Mr. Peters had said his say, and dispatched himbelow stairs for that purpose, he had purged himself of pettyregrets and was prepared to congratulate her whole-heartedly. Hewas, however, resolved that nothing should induce him to share inthe reward. On that point, he resolved, he would refuse to beshaken.
"I have just left Mr. Peters," he began. "All is well. His checkbook lies before him on the table and he is trying to make hisfountain pen work long enough to write a check. But there is justone thing I want to say--"
She interrupted him. To his surprise, she was eyeing him coldlyand with disapproval.
"And there is just one thing I want to say," she said; "and thatis, if you imagine I shall consent to accept a penny of thereward--"
"Exactly what I was going to say. Of course I couldn't dream oftaking any of it."
"I don't understand you. You are certainly going to have it all.I told you when we made our agreement that I should only take myshare if you let me do my share of the work. Now that you havebroken that agreement, nothing could induce me to take it. I knowyou meant it kindly, Mr. Marson, but I simply can't feelgrateful. I told you that ours was a business contract and that Iwouldn't have any chivalry; and I thought that after you hadgiven me your promise--"
"One moment," said Ashe, bewildered. "I can't follow this. Whatdo you mean?"
"What do I mean? Why, that you went down to the museum last nightbefore me and took the scarab, though you had promised to stayaway and give me my chance."
"But I didn't do anything of the sort."
It was Joan's turn to look bewildered.
"But you have got the scarab, Mr. Marson?"
"Why, you have got it!"
"No!"
"But--but it has gone!"
"I know. I went down to the museum last night, as we hadarranged; and when I got there there was no scarab. It haddisappeared."
They looked at each other in consternation. Ashe was the first tospeak.
"It was gone when you got to the museum?"
"There wasn't a trace of it. I took it for granted that you hadbeen down before me. I was furious!"
"But this is ridiculous!" said Ashe. "Who can have taken it?There was nobody beside ourselves who knew Mr. Peters wasoffering the reward. What exactly happened last night?"
"I waited until one o'clock. Then I slipped down, got into themuseum, struck a match, and looked for the scarab. It wasn'tthere. I couldn't believe it at first. I struck some morematches--quite a number--but it was no good. The scarab was gone;so I went back to bed and thought hard thoughts about you. It wassilly of me. I ought to have known you would not break your word;but there didn't seem any other solution of the thing'sdisappearance.
"Well, somebody must have taken it; and the question is, what arewe to do?" She laughed. "It seems to me that we were a littlepremature in quarreling about how we are to divide that reward.It looks as though there wasn't going to be any reward."
"Meantime," said Ashe gloomily, "I suppose I have got to go backand tell Peters. I expect it will break his heart."
Something New Page 10