Under Cover Part 13

"Oh," said Taylor with the confidential air of a family physician. "You were away. I see! Who did find out?"

"My sister. It was she who missed them."

"Oh, your sister missed them, did she?" he said.

He pushed the buzzer and wrote something on a slip of paper.

"So of course," the girl continued, "it must have been some thief from the outside."

Taylor looked thoughtful. "I suppose you're right," he admitted, and then asked quickly: "I wonder if you'd mind telephoning your sister to come down here now?"

"Why, she came with me," Miss Cartwright returned. "She's outside."

"That's fine," he said brightly. "It makes it easier." He pushed the buzzer again. "Perhaps she'll be able to help us."

"She'll come if I wish," said the elder sister, "but she knows even less about it than I do."

"I understand that," Taylor said smoothly, "but she may remember a few seemingly unimportant details that will help me where they wouldn't seem significant to you."

He looked up as Peter came in. "Ask Miss Cartwright's sister to come in for a moment. Tell her Miss Ethel wants to talk to her."

"Amy will tell you all she can," the girl a.s.serted.

"Just as you would yourself," Taylor said confidentially. He had no other air than of a man who is sworn to recover stolen diamonds. Ethel Cartwright admitted she had misjudged him.

"It must be wonderful to be a detective and piece together little unimportant facts into an important whole."

"It is," he answered a trifle drily; "quite wonderful."

Amy Cartwright was brought into the deputy-surveyor's room by Peter.

Plainly she was of a less self-reliant type than her elder sister, for the rather startled expression her face wore was lost when she saw Ethel. She was a pretty girl not more than eighteen and like her sister dressed charmingly.

"You wanted me, Ethel?" she asked.

"Yes, dear," the elder returned. "Amy, this is Mr. Taylor, who thinks he may be able to get back my diamonds for me."

Amy Cartwright shot a quick, almost furtive look at Taylor and then gripped her sister's arm. "Your diamonds!" she cried.

Taylor had missed nothing of her anxious manner. "Yes," he said. "Your sister has been kind enough to give me some information in reference to the theft, and I thought you might be able to add to the facts we already have."

"I?" the younger girl exclaimed.

"Yes," her sister commanded. "You must answer all Mr. Taylor's questions."

"Of course," Amy said with an effort to be cheerful.

Taylor looked at her magisterially. "How did you discover your sister's jewels were stolen?"

"Why," she replied nervously, not meeting his eye, "I went to her dressing-table one morning and they weren't there."

"Oh!" he exclaimed meaningly. "So they weren't there! Then what did you do?"

"Why, I telephoned to the company she insured them in."

"Without consulting your sister?" he asked. His manner, although quick and alert, was friendly. Ethel Cartwright felt he was desirous of helping her, and if Amy seemed nervous, it was her first experience with a man of this type. She had so little experience in relying on herself that this trifling ordeal was magnified into a judicial cross-examination. She determined to help Amy out.

"You must remember," she said to Taylor, "that I was out of town."

"Of course!" Amy exclaimed with a show of relief. "How could I consult her when she was in Maine?"

"Were you certain she hadn't taken her diamonds with her?" he asked.

Amy hesitated for a moment. "I think she must have told me before she left."

"Hm!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "You _think_ she did?"

Amy turned to her sister. "Didn't you tell me, Ethel?"

Miss Cartwright knit her brows in thought. "Perhaps I did," she admitted.

"But you didn't telegraph your sister to make sure?" Taylor queried.

"Why, no," the girl said hesitating and seemingly confused. "No, I didn't." She was now staring at her interrogator with real fear in her eyes.

"Well, that doesn't make any difference," he said genially, "so long as the jewels were stolen and not merely mislaid, does it?"

"No," she said with a sigh of relief.

"There's one other point," he said, turning to the elder sister. "You received the compensation money from the company, didn't you?"

"Naturally," she said tranquilly.

"Please don't think me impertinent," he said, "but you still have it intact, I presume?"

"Only part," the girl returned. "I gave half of it to my sister."

"I rather thought you might have done that," he purred as though his especial hobby was discovering affection in other families, "That was a very nice generous thing to do, Miss Cartwright. But you realize of course that if I get your jewels back the money must be returned to the Burglar Insurance people in full,"--he looked significantly at the shrinking younger girl,--"from both of you."

Amy Cartwright clasped her hands nervously. "Oh, I couldn't do that,"

she exclaimed.

Ethel turned to her in astonishment.

"But Amy, why not?"

"I haven't got it all now."

"But, dear, what did you do with it?" Ethel persisted.