"I wonder whether
Laura's had any luck."
They were greeted, as they entered Quest's room, by a familiar little
ticking. Quest smiled with pleasure.
"It's the pocket wireless," he declared. "Let me take down the message."
He spelt it out to Lenora, who stood by his side:
"Have joined Servants' Club disguised as your butler. Craig
frequent visitor here ten years ago, comes now occasionally.
Thursday evenings most likely time. Shall wait here on chance of
seeing him."
"Good girl, that," Quest remarked. "She's a rare sticker, too."
He turned away from the instrument and was crossing the room towards his
cigar cabinet. Suddenly he stopped. He looked intently towards the
sideboard.
"What is it?" Lenora asked.
He did not answer. She followed the direction of his gaze. Exactly in the
same spot as before reposed another but somewhat larger black box, of the
same shape and material as the previous one.
"Say, who put that there?" he demanded.
Lenora shook her head.
"I locked the door when we went out," she assured him.
Quest took the box into his hands and removed the lid. It seemed half full
of cotton-wool. On the top were a few lines of writing and beneath them
the signature of the parted hands. He read the form out slowly:
"Drop all investigation. The hands that return these jewels
command it."
Quest raised the cotton-wool. Beneath lay Mrs. Rheinholdt's necklace!
CHAPTER V
AN OLD GRUDGE
1.
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