“What?” ejaculated Bannister. “What the blazes is that?”
Anthony also eagerly awaited the Manager’s answer.
“ ‘The Peacock’s Eye’ is the description given to a magnificent blue-shaded emerald of somewhat peculiar shape. It is valued, I believe, at something like twenty thousand pounds. Anybody who has not been privileged to see it can have no adequate idea of its immense size or unique beauty. Miss Delaney asked for the gem, signed for its receipt and took the stone away with her.” He passed a slip of paper over to the Inspector. “There’s her signature for it,” he explained. Bannister pursed his lips in deep thought. Anthony bent over his shoulder. Stark took advantage of their silence to continue his story. “I pointed out to her the foolishness of the procedure as far as I could—consistently that is with my duty and position as her Bank Manager. I foreshadowed the risk she was running—tried to get her to visualise certain dangers to which she was exposing herself and also the stone. To no avail, gentlemen! The lady was adamant.”
“What did you do then?” inquired Bannister peremptorily.
“I went to our strong-room, opened Miss Delaney’s private safe in which the jewel was kept, took the case containing the ‘Peacock’s Eye’ back to my own room and handed it to her. Whereupon Miss Delaney signed the receipt-note that you’ve just examined.” He sat back in his chair with a certain amount of self-satisfaction.
“Did anybody else in the service of your Bank know of this transaction?”
“Nobody at all,” replied Stark firmly. “I confided the matter to no one, neither then nor since, and nobody could possibly have known what I was doing.”
“One moment, Mr. Stark,” Anthony broke in sharply, “had Miss Delaney ever made this request before?”
“Never—during my tenure of the Managership. I couldn’t say regarding the period before that—naturally.”
“If so—if she had done it previously—I take it there would be documentary substantiation of the occurrence?”