Page:Rowland--The closing net.djvu/107

Rh you are right. What are you doing now? Automobiles? Léontine told me something of the sort. Well, I'll buy a car from you some day."

We both laughed and I got up to go. He saw me downstairs and we shook hands at the door.

As soon as I got back to my rooms I wrote a pneumatique to Léontine telling her of my success with Ivan and asking her to say nothing about our interview, as I wished Ivan to believe that I had counted entirely on his sense of fairness. This would suit Léontine, I thought, as she would not care to have Ivan know, if it could be helped, that after persuading him to steal the pearls she would turn around and give them back again.

I slept well that night and went to the office the next morning with a light heart. John was coming in at eleven to go with me to take out a prospective client. But at ten, as I was busy writing in the private office, the door burst suddenly open and in came John. His face was pale and pasty and there were heavy puffs under his eyes. He looked like a man half-drunk, and for that matter there was a reek of liquor in his breath.

"You're early," said I, wondering what had fetched him out at this hour.

John closed the door, then lurched into a chair, where he sat staring at me with a curious, sodden look.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Matter enough!" he growled. "Edith's pearls are gone, too!"