Page:Burton Stevenson--The marathon mystery.djvu/240

214 and hurried away to St. Pierre. When he came back, he told me that we were to come at once to New York.”

It was exasperating. I felt that the secret lay just under my hand, and yet I could not grasp it. I seemed to be revolving round and round about it, without getting any nearer. What could the message be which brought Tremaine hot foot to New York?

That was the question to which there seemed no possibility of finding the answer at present; besides I thought it well to lead the talk away from Tremaine for a while, or even Cecily, unsuspecting as she was, might guess my purpose. So I turned to another point.

“You have some very pretty jewelry, Cecily,” I said, touching the great brooch of gold that gleamed at her throat.

She laughed like a pleased child.

“Yes—are they not pretty, chè? Let me show you,” and springing from the couch, she ran into her bedroom. In a moment she was back again, a box of inlaid ebony in her hands.

“See!” she cried, and threw back the lid.

Indeed they were worth seeing, and it was not wholly to disarm her suspicions, if she had any, that I lingered over them. At last, I came to the piece I wanted.

“Here is a beautiful pin,” I said. “An opal in a circle of diamonds,” and I held it up to the light. “But see, Cecily; one of the diamonds is missing. Have you lost it?”

“Doudoux lost it,” she answered. “He wore it