But there was no sign of the necklace. It was clean gone.
* * * * *
The lamentations with which the news of our misfortunes was received
were loud and exceeding bitter.
Jill burst into tears; Daphne tried vainly to comfort her, and then
followed her example; Berry and Jonah vied with each other in gloomy
cross-examination of Adele and myself concerning our movements since we
had left White Ladies, and in cheerless speculation with regard to the
probable whereabouts of our respective treasures.
After a hurried meal the Rolls was again requisitioned, and all six of
us proceeded to Fallow Hill. Not until eleven o'clock would the fun of
the fair be suspended, and it was better to be on the spot, even if for
the second time we had to come empty away, than to spend the evening in
the torment of inactivity.
Of the loss of the Sealyham we could speak more definitely than of that
of the necklace. Nobby had been by my side when the gipsy hailed us, so
that there was no doubt but that he was lost at the fair. Regarding her
pearls, Adele could speak less positively. In fact, to say that she had
had the necklace before breakfast that morning was really as far as she
could go. "I know I had it then," she affirmed, "because I always take
it off before taking my bath, and I remember putting it on afterwards.
As luck will have it, I was rather late this morning, and I couldn't
fasten the safety-chain, so after two or three shots I gave up trying,
intending to do it later on. And this is the result." She had not bathed
again.
It was a sweet pretty gaud. So perfectly matched were its hundred and
two pearls that many would have believed it unreal. It had belonged to
her great-grandmother, and was not insured.
Arrived at Fallow Hill, we went straight to the police. The loss of the
jewels we communicated to them alone. Somewhat shamefacedly and plainly
against Adele's will, I described the old gipsy and commended her to
their vigilance. When they learned that she had laid hands upon Adele,
the two inspectors exchanged glances which there was no mistaking....
So far as Nobby was concerned, as well as informing the police, we
enlisted the sympathy of the Boy Scouts. Also we engaged six rustics to
perambulate the fair and cry the loss of the Sealyham for all to hear.
Information leading to his recovery would be rewarded with the sum of
five pounds, while the crier to whom the communication was made would
receive five more for himself. Our six employees went about their work
with a will, bellowing lustily. Daphne and Jonah sat in the car,
rejecting the luckless mongrels which were excitedly paraded before
them, one after another, from the moment that our loss was made known.
The rest of us hunted in couples--Adele with Berry, and Jill with
me--scouring the maze of temporary alleys and lanes and crooked
quadrangles, till we knew them by heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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