"It is possible," said Mount, looking bored.
"If so, it is much to the interest of your business to run them down. So I have come to ask for your co-operation."
"My dear sir," Mount replied with his indulgent, worldly smile, "the world is full of trouble. I do not try to escape my share; I face it like a man, or as near like a man as I can. But I never go searching for more. We have by your skill recovered the jewels. The reasons for not pursuing the matter any further are to me obvious. Better let well enough alone."
I appeared to give in to him. "Maybe you're right. I thought I saw a chance to earn a little glory."
"There will be plenty of opportunities for that," he said affably. "You can count on me."
We parted in friendly fashion.
So much for Mr. Alfred Mount. At least he would never be able to say later that I had not given him his chance.
I went to the magnificent marble building which houses Dunsany and Company, and asked boldly for Mr. Walter Dunsany, great-grandson of the founder of the house, and its present head. I was admitted to him without difficulty. I found him a jeweller and a man of affairs of a type very different from him I had just come from. Mr. Dunsany was a simple, unassuming man, direct and outspoken. In short, a man's man. I was strongly attracted to him, and I may say without vanity that he seemed to like me. From the first he trusted me more than I had any right to expect.
At this time he was a man of about forty-five years old, somewhat bald, and beginning to be corpulent, but with a humorous, eager, youthful glance. He glanced up from my card with a whimsical smile.
"Confidential investigator? More trouble, I suppose?"