Then something in its particular shade of blue struck a sudden note in his memory, and he stared at it curiously.
“What’s that little blue thing by the roots of those laurels, Alec?” he asked, frowning at it. “It seems vaguely familiar somehow.”
He stepped across the path and picked it up. It was a piece of blue china.
“Hullo!” he said eagerly, holding it up so that Alec could see it. “Do you realise what this is?”
Alec joined him on the path and looked at the piece of china without very much interest.
“Yes, it’s a bit of broken plate or something.”
“Oh, no, it isn’t! Don’t you recognise the colour? It’s a bit of the missing vase, my boy. I wonder—— By Jove, I wonder if the rest is in here.”
He dropped on his hands and knees and peered among the laurels. “Yes, I believe I can see some other bits farther in. I’ll investigate, if you’ll keep an eye open to see that nobody is coming.” And he crawled laboriously into the little shrubbery.
A few moments later he returned by the same route. In his hands were several more pieces of the vase.
“It’s all in there,” he announced triumphantly. “Right back by the wall. You see what must have happened?”