"For that very reason. He is jealous of me, and knows that you will never marry him. If by implicating you he could secure your arrest, and then could save you by confessing that he found the eye and placed it on the table, he might think you would marry him out of gratitude." "Oh, the idea is absurd," said Gertrude petulantly. "It's such a roundabout way of going to work. Let us ask Joseph?" "No," I said cautiously; "after all what I say is merely theoretical. If Joseph did not place the eye on the table, it is no use our letting him know that it was there. It would supply him with a weapon." "Then you don't think he----" "I can't say what I think; as I said before," I muttered, rising to pace the room, "if I were a born detective I might unravel this mystery. As it is I can't see my way to the truth." "If the truth is never known," remarked Gertrude, after a pause, "what does it matter?" "This much. You will always be in danger of being denounced by your aunt." "Not if I give her half the fifty thousand pounds." "Quite so, my dear, but there again, the truth must be discovered, as you can't gain possession of the money otherwise. Can you trust your servant?" "Eliza? Oh yes. She has been with us for years. She could not have placed the eye on the drawing-room table. What time did you see it?" "About three o'clock. I was about to enter the room through the middle window, which was open, and saw it suddenly. Then your father called me. When I returned in half-an-hour you were in the room and the eye was gone." "I had just entered the drawing-room a few moments before you came with papa," said Gertrude thoughtfully; "and I entered through the window, as I had been seeing my aunt out of the gate. The eye certainly was not on the table then. I should have seen it otherwise, as you did." "Well then, it was gone just before half-past three," I remarked, "and I saw it at the hour. When you were in the drawing-room before that time did you see anything?" "No," replied Gertrude impatiently, "I told you I never saw the eye at all, Cyrus. I did not enter the drawing-room after luncheon until half-past three o'clock. In the morning I certainly saw nothing." "Was your father in the drawing-room after luncheon?" "Not to my knowledge. He was pottering round the greenhouses. Surely you don't suspect papa?" and her color rose. "No; certainly not. Only I wondered if he had seen it." "He could not have seen it, else he would have picked it up to show me." "Well," I said, with a long-drawn sigh, for the mystery of the thing perplexed me, "I don't know who placed it there, or who took it away. Perhaps Striver removed it," I added with an afterthought. "Why should he?" "Why shouldn't he?" I echoed. "It's the very thing he wanted, since when I saw him at Mootley he was hunting for the eye to secure the money." "But you said----"