So there, in its patched design, the great pearl secret lay exposed! Fitted in with the forced confessions from the side of the Inner Circle, and from what Claremanagh had overheard, it was complete.
What to do with the guilty ones was the next question.
Sanders being a private detective, not a member of the police, considered that his obligation was to his employers, not to the public. He was going to leave the decision to Captain Manners and the Duchess—who were paying for his services. If they and the Duke wanted to pack the lot to prison, at the price of a big scandal, well and good. If, on the contrary, the culprits were to be let off and silence kept, it was the same to him.
Later, when he learned by telephone from Manners what had happened in the Inner Circle building, he did not change his mind. He obeyed instructions and ordered the Duchess's car to go there at once. Fortunately night had fallen and the Duke, in any sort of toilet, could easily be smuggled home.
"Claremanagh has the pearls," 'phoned Jack. "And he'll soon be fit again—the two principal things. These blighters have got a dead man here—Markoff—but they've a doctor's certificate testifying that he died of heart failure. Arrangements have been made to bury him to-morrow. We think, on the whole, that the dead past had best bury its dead, too! No great crime has actually been done, as it turns out. But the scandal would be great, for a number of innocent ones who don't deserve it. What?"
Sanders grinned quietly. He guessed which innocent one was most in Manners' thoughts!
"Right!" he said. "Though it seems a pity that d—d Inner Circle should get off scot free."
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. It won't. Pat not only found the pearls, but overheard such a lot he's in a position to turn blackmailer. He's held up the rotters. They've had to sign a paper swearing to mend their ways. Lowndes is one of them; there's an Irishman—compatriot of Pat's—from a London rag, who slugged him. And the editor—Gee! you'd never guess who he's turned out to be."
"But I know!" said the detective.
"Well, anyhow, he's going to transform the Inner Circle into a sort of Inner Shrine, if he keeps his promise. Lord! Won't the next number be a sensation?"