The Man Who Couldn't Sleep Part 40

"No, I didn't say that. I had my necklace on when I was in the box--both Benny and I know that."

"And it disappeared?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"I noticed it was gone when I sat down at the table here."

The dominating gentleman turned round to me.

"You saw the necklace from the second box?" he demanded.

"I did," was my answer.

"And you saw it disappear?" he demanded.

"I saw _when_ it disappeared," I retorted.

The jewel thief with the crumpled s.h.i.+rt-front tried to break in at this juncture, but the bigger man quickly silenced him with an impatient side swing of the hand.

"When was that?" he continued.

"What difference does it make?" I calmly inquired, resenting the peremptoriness of his interrogations.

He stopped short and looked up at me. Then the first ghost of a smile, a patient and almost sorrowful smile, came to his lips.

"Well, we'll go at it another way. You witnessed this man across the table take the necklace from the young lady?"

"It practically amounts to that."

"That is, you actually detected him commit this crime?"

"I don't think I said that."

"But you a.s.sumed he committed this crime?"

"Rather."

"Just when was it committed?"

"During what they call a dark change in the first act."

"You mean the necklace was on before that change and gone when the lights were turned up again?"

"Precisely."

"And the position and actions of this man were suspicious to you?"

"Extremely so."

"In what way?"

"In different ways."

"He had crowded suspiciously close to the wearer of the necklace?"

"He had."

"And his eyes were glued on it during the early part of that act?"

"They certainly were."

"And you watched him?"

"With almost as much interest as he watched the necklace."

"And after the dark change, as you call it, the lady's neck was bare?"

"It was."

"You're sure of this?"

"Positive."

"And what did this man across the table do?"

"Having got what he was after, he hurried out of the theater and made his escape--or tried to make his escape."

"It embarra.s.sed him, I suppose, to have you studying him so closely?"

"He certainly looked embarra.s.sed."

"Of course," admitted my interrogator. Then he sighed deeply, almost contentedly, after which he sat with contemplative and pursed-up lips.

"I guess I've got this whole snarl now," he complacently admitted.

"All but one kink."

"What one kink?" demanded Benny Churchill.

The man at my side did not answer him. Instead, he rose to his feet.

"I want you to come with me," he had the effrontery to remark, with a curt head-nod in my direction.

"I much prefer staying here," I retorted. And for the second time he smiled his saddened smile.

"Oh, it's nothing objectionable," he explained. "n.o.body's going to hurt you. And we'll be back here in ten minutes."

"But, oddly enough, I have rooted objections to deserting my guests."