Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/48

38 His smile broadened. Then he grew quite serious again.

"When the engagement has every aspect of fairness," he ventured. And that made me rather sit up again. He was intimating, of course, that sneak-thieving wasn't exactly the noblest of pastimes.

"I wonder what she really ought to do?" I impersonally inquired.

For the second time he found it necessary to give my question considerable thought.

"I should think the easiest solution of the situation would be for her to drop the little parcel intact into the hotel mail-box," he told me. "In that way the unfortunate lady will be relieved of all possible embarrassment and the owners of the missing—er—ornaments will undoubtedly come into possession of them again!"

I was still staring out at the blue Atlantic.

"I believe that is exactly what the lady intends to do," I quietly announced.

"When?" he inquired.

I did not answer him at once, for Bud, who was hovering about the background, was telling me by sign-talk to stick to the stranger and follow on to the city when the way was clear.

"When?" demanded my new friend.