"I thought ..." began the politician nervously—"I thought I ought to have a word with you, Mr. Collop, before we ..."
"That's right!" roared Mr. Collop. "That's my style too. Always think of everything!"
"Not so loud! Not so loud!" implored his agonized host. He took the detective aside into yet another room with yet another fire. It looked like some little nursery or schoolroom, and Mr. Collop, used as he was to the houses of the great, marvelled at so many rooms, so many fires ... an empty room all ready, and with so many pictures in it, though on a bedroom floor.
"Mr. Collop," said the Home Secretary hurriedly when he had shut the door, "I thought I ought to tell you privately, and alone, before we go down to dinner what the circumstances are. The jewel was dropped by my daughter—last night after dinner. My three guests went down on the floor at once to look for it—it was upon the polar-bear rug which you will see in the West Room later. We shall go there together after all have retired. When they got up it had not been found ... they said it had not been found ... they all said it had not been found.... There is suspicion naturally, Mr. Collop.... You understand me?"
"There's always suspicion when vallybles are missing," said Mr. Collop, after some thought.
"Yes, Mr. Collop, exactly! Precisely!" said the Home Secretary. "But of course, you know, I must be told when you come to any clue.... I blame no one. I suspect no one.... But the emerald is missing. And what's more," he added with the firmness of a newly stuffed pillow, "I shall not spare the culprit."
"No, of course not," said Mr. Collop sympathetically. "I'll get it for you, never fear."
His manner, though hearty, was respectful enough in such privacy, for he knew that though his promotion depended principally upon permanent officials, a good word from one of the fleeting politicians was not without its value at the Home Office. Therefore did he forbear to lay a hand upon the Home Secretary's shoulder; and therefore—still more—did he forbear to slap it as nature would have seemed to demand.
"Thank you, Mr. Collop," said the Home Secretary gratefully, as though he had been given a considerable sum of money. "I trust you. I trust you implicitly."
"You may trust me implicitly and explicitly," declared Mr. Collop in solemn religious tones.