"Nothing worries me so long as I am with you," the girl said, as she stood with Jack's arm about her. "And yet I almost wish that you had never told me what you did yesterday."
"You cannot wish it more than I do, sweetheart," Jack murmured; "but don't you see that it was almost necessary? There is some desperate rascality going on here, and your happiness could never have been an assured thing till we got to the bottom of it."
"But that is just what frightens me," Clare protested. "I cannot get out of my mind the recollection of what happened last night. I shall never listen to that music again without the feeling that some unknown danger is hovering about me. I am frightened, Jack, frightened to my very soul. And yet the whole thing can be explained; I am sure you can explain it yourself if you like?"
Jack replied that he hoped to do so in a few days. He assured Claire that there was nothing supernatural about the thing. For both their sakes he exhorted Claire to be brave. The red mouth grew hard and firm; there was a look of resolution in the girl's blue eyes.
"It shall be even as you say," she cried. "But tell me, has anything fresh happened since last night?"
"Nothing that is worth speaking of," Jack said, feeling a little ashamed of his evasion. "Did Anstruther go out again last night? By the way, he seldom wears an overcoat; at least, so I understood him to say. When he came in last evening, after the fire broke out, I noticed that he was not wearing an overcoat then. Where does he get those wonderful embroidered scarves from?"
"He has only one, so far as I know," Claire explained. "Originally there were three, but two were either lost or given away. Wonderful work, is it not?"
"Wonderful work, indeed," Jack agreed; "but he did not tell me where they came from."
"So far as I can understand they came from Mexico. The silk is really Chinese, of a quality which is made only for the imperial palace of Pekin. To steal this material is an offense punishable by death, but it is sometimes smuggled out of the town, and clever natives of Southern Mexico do the embroidery. But why are you so curious about this scarf?"
"Oh, I merely thought I should like to get one like it," Jack said carelessly. He had no intention of frightening Claire more than was absolutely necessary. "Couldn't you let me see it for a minute or two? I suppose you know where it is kept?"