"I saw when it disappeared," I retorted.
The jewel thief with the crumpled shirt-front tried to break in at this juncture, but the bigger man quickly silenced him with an impatient side swing of the hand.
"When was that?" he continued.
"What difference does it make?" I calmly inquired, resenting the peremptoriness of his interrogations.
He stopped short and looked up at me. Then the first ghost of a smile, a patient and almost sorrowful smile, came to his lips.
"Well, we'll go at it another way. You witnessed this man across the table take the necklace from the young lady?"
"It practically amounts to that."
"That is, you actually detected him commit this crime?"
"I don't think I said that."
"But you assumed he committed this crime?"