"How can you, since you are not friendly with Mrs. Vand?"
Bella laughed. "I know much more about the Manor-house than Mrs. Vand does, I assure you," she said significantly. "There are all manner of secret passages and unknown chambers in that ancient mansion. If I desired to enter, I could do so in the night-time by a secret door hidden behind the ivy at the back of the house."
"Then do so," said Durgo eagerly, "and search for the jewels."
"Not yet. Wait until you see Edwin Lister, and learn if he procured the jewels. By the way, where did your father get them?"
Durgo reflected for a few minutes. "I have heard much talk of my father's treasure, of which these jewels were part. You know how rich the Northern part of Africa was in the time of the Romans?"
"Yes. Cyril made me read Gibbons' History."
"Well, when the Arabs swept across Northern Africa, they looted the Roman cities, then possessed more or less by the Goths and Vandals. Many of the Arabs came South to Nigeria, and brought their plunder with them. I think that these jewels, which my father gave to Maxwell Faith, came into his possession from some remote ancestor, who so brought them. But I cannot say. Still, that is my opinion."
"It is a feasible idea, certainly," said Bella musingly, and astonished at the knowledge of the negro, quite forgetting that he had been educated at Oxford; "but where the jewels came from, matters little. What we have to find out, is where they are, and Mr. Pence——"
"I shall see this man," interrupted Durgo quietly; "he may lie to others: he will tell the truth to me."
"No violence," warned Bella anxiously.