“If she went away,” I pointed out, “there’d have been a chance for some one to open the safe if it weren’t locked, or to unlock it if he knew the combination, and get the necklace while your grandmother was asleep. For that matter, isn’t it likely that Miss Digby knows the combination to the safe herself? She must have seen your grandmother open it a hundred times.” “Yes,” he said, “I suppose she does.” Then he laughed. “Old Digs didn’t take the necklace though,” he said. I agreed with him about that. It wasn’t possible seriously to suspect Miss Digby. “I’m not talking about the probability that any one stole it,” I explained. “I’m trying to include all the people who had a chance to take the necklace at that time.” “Well,” he said, “if Digs went out, everybody who was in the house had a chance.” “Including,” I remarked, “your assumed thief who had concealed himself somewhere on the premises.” “It wouldn’t have been so good a chance for him as the other time,” he insisted, “because Judy was right there in her room across the hall, and her door was open when Miss Digby sent me away. Besides, there were a lot of people down-stairs all the rest of the afternoon. He’d have had trouble getting away without meeting anybody.” “What are they doing about it?” I asked. “How many people know the necklace is gone?” “Only mother and Uncle Alec, besides Gran and Judy and me. Oh, and Digs, of course. I went and got mother and she sent me for Uncle Alec. They jawed about it, there in grandmother’s room, until it was time to go down to dinner.” “Didn’t your grandmother herself have anything to say about it?” “Oh, she was in bed in the next room. The hypodermic put her out, I guess. It was mostly mother and Uncle Alec. He’s awfully excited about it. Wants to send for detectives. But mother won’t have it.” “How about Judy?” I asked. “You’d think her vote would count, as long as it was to have been her necklace.” “Judy didn’t vote. She didn’t seem to care what they did. It seemed as if she was still thinking about something else. I don’t think she wanted the police, though.” “What do _you_ want?” I asked. The intensity of his answer startled me. “I don’t care much about the necklace now,” he said, “but I want the thief found. _I’m_ not afraid who it’ll turn out to be.” “You mean,” I asked, “that you think your mother and Judy _are_ afraid?” He looked at me steadily but did not answer. Possibly to his relief, and certainly to my own, we heard a car door slam just then, and Punch darted to the window to see who it was. “Here’s mother now,” he said, and went to open the door for her. I couldn’t see her face when she perceived her small son, but of course I heard what she said to him. “Oh, you’re here, are you? We were wondering what had become of you.”