“He eloped with Judy, and they came straight to my house. They told me they meant to be married as early this morning as possible. I agreed, after I’d heard the circumstances, that it was the thing for them to do, and offered my house for them to be married in. Bill went off to get his license and his parson, and Judy waited with me for him to come back with them. It was while we were waiting that Alec telephoned.” I stopped for a long breath and then went on. “My proposal to her was that she wait at my house and marry Bill, according to plan, when he came back. She refused to do that for reasons which I won’t undertake to explain, left a note for Bill, and came back with me. “I promise you there will be no difficulty about finding him. He’ll come back to my house and then he’ll follow on here. When he appears here is only a question of how long it takes him to get his license and to find his parson. In the meantime I suggest that we set about trying to find the person who stole the necklace.” Victoria’s only comment was, “You’ve always hated me, haven’t you?” The barest possible denial was the only answer that I had to make to that. Bruce had more to say. “Of course,” he remarked, “if Mrs. Corbin wishes to go through the motions of searching for the necklace, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t. But it won’t be found till my cousin, at some time that suits his convenience, produces it.” “Apparently,” I observed, “you’re not one of his friends.” His dark face flushed a little darker. “I’ve never pretended to like him,” he said. “But he’s the nearest relation I’ve got, and I wanted to be on terms with him if possible. It has seemed more possible lately. I had the idea that he was settling down. That was my mistake. He’s always been an anarchist; done what he liked, had what he wanted. He’s never been under any decent discipline. This performance of his is like him enough, though it goes far beyond, of course, anything I’ve known him to do before.” “Which performance do you refer to?” I asked. “His eloping with Judy or his supposed theft of the necklace?” “Both,” he said. “Let me be sure that I understand you. Do you think he pretended he wanted to marry Judy in order to steal the necklace? Or that he had meant to marry her and on the spur of the moment took the necklace instead? In either case I assume that you’re not expecting him to come back.” He hesitated, then said, “I don’t see why he shouldn’t come back. In fact, I dare say he will. He’d see no reason why he shouldn’t have Judy and the necklace as well. He’s had plenty of time to hide it somewhere. He can come back now and submit to a search with all the innocence in the world. He can marry Judy and be safe. Don’t you see the beauty of it? Once he’s married to Judy, he’s committed no crime at all. It’s her necklace, and he’s her husband. He figured that out, no doubt, before he came into my room.” “I take your point,” I said, “but I shouldn’t call it beautiful.”