“It may,” agreed the doctor, “and it may set you off on the wrong track, hounding some poor little innocent girl!”
“Is it a valuable piece?” and Belknap held it out toward Phyllis.
“I don’t want to touch it,” she shrank back. “Please don’t make me.”
“Let me see it,” said Millicent reaching out a hand. “I’ll soon tell you.”
After a moment’s scrutiny she said, “It’s a fairly good fur, and it’s the latest style; what they call a choker. It’s new this season, but not worth more than thirty or forty dollars.”
“It might belong to ’most anybody, then,” mused Belknap.
“Yes,” said Millicent, “but you see by the label inside, it came from a shop patronized more by bargain hunters than by an exclusive class of customers.”
“Pointing to the less aristocratic type,” Belknap nodded. “Well, we must trace the owner of the collar. Where was it, Doctor?”
“In a chair in the room,” said Davenport, looking as sheepish as a censured schoolboy. “I was a fool I suppose, to take it, but I thought if it belonged to Miss Lindsay, it might lead to a lot of unpleasant notoriety for her——”
“All right, all right,” Belknap shut off his apologies. “Now to find an owner for the fur. Any suggestions?”