The girl swung around in her chair. There was a vague look of trouble upon her face.
“I’m afraid you’ll laugh at me,” she began tentatively.
“Won’t hurt you if I do,” Quest replied.
“I can’t help thinking of Macdougal,” Lenora continued falteringly. “He has never been recaptured, and I don’t know whether he’s dead or alive. He had a perfect passion for jewels. If he is alive, he would be desperate and would attempt anything.”
Quest smoked in silence for a moment.
“I guess the return of the jewels squelches the Macdougal theory,” he remarked. “He wouldn’t be likely to part with the stuff when he’d once got his hands on it. However, I always meant, when we had a moment’s spare time, to look into that fellow’s whereabouts. We’ll take it on straight away. Can’t do any harm.”
“I know the section boss on the railway at the spot where he disappeared,” Laura announced.
“Then just take the train down to Mountways—that’s the nearest spot—and get busy with him,” Quest directed. “Try and persuade him to loan us the gang’s hand-car to go down the line. Lenora and I will come on in the automobile.”
“Take you longer,” Lenora remarked, as she moved off to put on her jacket. “The cars do it in half an hour.”
“Can’t help that,” Quest replied. “Mrs. Rheinholdt’s coming here to identify her jewels at twelve o’clock, and I can’t run any risk of there being no train back. You’d better be making good with the section boss. Take plenty of bills with you.”