Jeffrey."
"How did you carry them?"
"In a hand-bag which I locked myself."
"Before leaving the southwest chamber?"
"Yes."
"Then it is still in that room?"
"Find it," was his laconic reply.
Here most men would have stopped, but I have a bulldog's tenacity
when once I lay hold. That night I went back to the Moore house
and, taking every precaution against being surprised by the
sarcastic Durbin or some of his many flatterers, I ransacked the
southwest chamber on my own behalf for what certainly I had
little reason to expect to find there.
It seemed a hopeless cause from the first, but I acted as if no
one had hunted for this object before. Moving every article, I
sought first on the open floor and then in every possible cranny
for the missing trinket. But I failed to find it and was about
to acknowledge myself defeated when my eye fell on the long
brocaded curtains which I had drawn across the several windows to
hide every gleam of light from the street. They were almost free
from folds, but I shook them well, especially the one nearest the
table, and naturally with no effect.
"Folly," I muttered, yet did not quite desist. For the great
tassels still hung at the sides and - Well! you may call it an
impossible find or say that if the bauble was there it should have
been discovered in the first search for it! I will not say no.
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