“No Marie, he returned to give them to Julian Inderwick. But since that man was a profligate and would have squandered them, Ferrier evidently hid them somewhere about St. Peter’s Well, or pool, as he calls it on the tail of the bird, and marked the hiding-place with a red triangle. And of course, if George Inderwick had been able to read the riddle he would easily have found the gems. My word!” Alan stared at the golden bird, now reft of the secret it had held for so long, “and to think that the solution is so easy after all. Why those rings such as I have described my grandmother having, are by no means rare.” “I believe Simon Ferrier did make this silver one,” said Marie, fingering the article thoughtfully, “since it is a kind of key to the riddle.” Alan shrugged his shoulders. “I believe that George Inderwick found it as hard to guess as the mystery of the peacock. At all events he never arrived at the solution of the thing. And so easy, so easy after all.” “Perhaps the very ease made it difficult to guess,” suggested Marie. “Like Columbus and the egg,” laughed Fuller, taking back a tray of gems to the hiding-place. “Let us put these away, Marie, and then go down to the well. We must close the panel in case that man Moon left behind should come in and learn too much.” He was thinking of the stiletto as he spoke. “Oh, that is all right,” said Miss Inderwick, assisting to replace the jewels; “he went away this morning. Inspector Moon sent him a wire saying he was to go back to town.” “Oh!” said Alan thoughtfully, as he closed the panel, and it resumed its innocent look. “I expect Moon has given up all hope of Sorley returning to this place. Well, I expect he is right. It would be foolish of your uncle, dear, to thrust his head into the lion’s jaws.” “I am sure he will return and prove his innocence,” cried Marie resolutely; “and won’t he be pleased when he learns that we have found the Begum’s jewels, Alan?” “We haven’t found them yet,” answered Fuller, determined in his own mind that whether innocent or guilty the man should not meddle with the girl’s property. “Let us go and look, Marie. Ask Henny or Jenny for a crowbar.” “What for?” “We must pry up the stone under which the treasure is hidden. I expect, as you suggest, that it is marked with a red triangle.” “I don’t expect we have a crowbar,” said Miss Inderwick dubiously, but went into the back part of the house on her errand, nevertheless, while Alan took his way to St. Peter’s dell. He surveyed what Ferrier had called “The Pool” in his cryptogram, and expected that he had done so, since there was no gem’s name beginning with “W” which he could have placed in the peacock’s tail. The man had engraved the letter “K” on the ring as a hint to his master, as was evident, but had not taken the same liberty with the peacock, since it might solve the riddle too easily.