"You don't really think it was any of them, I know, Mr. Forbes, or you wouldn't speak like that," said Ted. "I know you think as I do, that some queer mischance or accident is responsible for the disappearance. But WHAT was that accident, and WHERE is the jewel?"
The two boys searched methodically. They did not look into cupboards or drawers; they asked questions and tried to think out some theory.
"Could any one have come in at the window?" asked Ted.
"No chance of that," said Mr. Forbes, "considering the window is in the fourth story, and no balcony, or any way of reaching it from the ground."
Geordie stuck his head out of the window in question.
"Who lives next door?" he said, looking across the narrow yard to the next house.
"People named Mortimer," replied Mr. Forbes. "But they're all away from home. They're somewhere down South."
"There's somebody over there. I see a light in one of the rooms."
"A caretaker, maybe. But don't be absurd. It's all of ten or twelve feet across to that house from our back extension to theirs. Are you thinking somebody could spring across, take the jewel and spring back again?"
"That ISN'T very likely, is it?" Ted laughed, "but there's some explanation, somewhere," and the boy shook his head. "You see, Mr. Forbes, somebody might have made entrance to this room after the girls left it Sunday afternoon, and before you discovered your loss."