“Yes,” Nan nodded her head to indicate that he was right. “It’s missing.”
“What do you mean, missing?” Adair asked. “Have you lost it?”
“No, it was in my room, and it’s gone now.” Nan said this very positively.
“Gone, gone where?” Adair flared up as usual.
“That’s what I don’t know,” Nan was having a difficult time being patient. “I wish I did.”
“You think it’s stolen.” Adair now had the girls by the arm and was taking them back to the hacienda.
“I don’t like to say that,” Nan hedged.
“If that’s what happened, speak up.” Adair wanted to get to the bottom of this right away and although he was very fond of Nan he wasn’t going to spare her or her feelings any now. The ring, he felt, was a personal loss to him too and as he went into the house, he was determined to find it.
First he quizzed all the girls to find out, if by chance, they knew of anything that would indicate that Nan was mistaken. They didn’t. No one had seen her wearing it after the time at which she said she had put it away.
Then he quizzed all of the upstairs’ servants. This was done with Walker’s help, since he was the only one in the crowd that knew any Spanish at all. Again, there was no light cast on the mystery.