Page:Burton Stevenson--The marathon mystery.djvu/193

Rh is Mrs. Delroy’s pearl necklace, worth something over a hundred thousand dollars. I put them in this cage, close the lid, and fasten it with these little hooks. Now, Graham, these stones have lost their lustre and sea-water’s the only thing that will restore it. I want you to tie a rope to this cage and lower it into the bay from the end of the pier, securing it, of course, so that it can’t thresh around or break away. It will have to stay there for three or four days, and during that time I’d like you and your boy to sleep at the boathouse and see that nobody meddles with it.”

The two men had listened intently, with serious faces.

“Very well, sir,” said the elder, as Delroy finished, and held out his hand for the cage.

Delroy gave it to him, with a little chuckle of enjoyment.

“You’d better have a gun with you—not that I think there’s any danger”

“Never fear, sir,” interrupted Graham. “We’ll ’tend t’ all that. Come on, Willum.”

Delroy watched them till the door closed behind them,

“I believe Graham would say ‘Very well, sir,’ in just that tone if I told him to burn the house down,” he remarked. “We’ll go down after dinner and see how he’s arranged things. And now,” he added, “my innards are beginning to clamour vigorously for refreshment.”

Drysdale lost no time in staring out of the window or in unprofitable meditation, for he was determined that Tremaine should have no second opportunity for