“No, sir,” replied Glyn, who began to feel that he was treading upon dangerous ground, and he hastened to add, “that’s why I gave him such strict orders, sir.”
“Quite right, Mr Severn; quite right,” said the Doctor. “I highly approve of what you have done. But between ourselves—I say it because you are a very sensible lad, and I trust that you will see that it is something not to be repeated, for I speak with the best intentions—I am a little surprised that your father the Colonel, Mr Singh’s guardian, should have placed at a mere boy’s disposal what I presume to be a very valuable and unique portion of an Indian regalia.”
“Well, sir, it was like this,” said Glyn, flushing and speaking hastily. “Like a child who, longing for a toy, Singh was always bothering my father to let him have it to wear. You see, sir, Indian princes dress up so very much, to look big before their people, and they have such numbers of jewels and ornaments that one more or less does not seem of much consequence. Singh has got hundreds of things belonging to him that he will have some day to do what he pleases with, and my father, I suppose, thought that it didn’t much matter about letting him have one.”
“No doubt, Mr Severn, the Colonel had perfectly correct views upon the subject, living as he has done nearly all his life at an Indian court, and I am only looking at the matter with the eyes of an ordinary Englishman who never wears so much as a ring. Oh, here he comes. Let me see. I have a large magnifying-glass here in my table-drawer that may be useful to help to decipher the intaglio writing. Ah, we ought to have had here that poor friend of Mr Morris’s who applied to me for an engagement; but I hear that he has left the town.”
The Doctor was searching in his drawer so that he did not see the change in Glyn’s countenance; and as he looked up it was not at his pupil, but at the door, which was suddenly thrown open, and Singh rushed in, looking wild and staring, as he literally shouted: “It’s gone! It’s gone!”
Chapter Twenty Five.
Singh’s Announcement.
“Gone!” said the Doctor, letting the reading-glass fall upon his blotting-pad. “What has gone?”