“Of course, it’s obvious when one puts two and two together. The Dangerfields never kept the Talisman in the cabinet at all. They had a replica for show and they kept the real Talisman in a safe place.”
“Yes,” agreed Westenhanger, “and that would account for the bell of tinted glass. The tinge would conceal the fact that the stones in this thing are paste. Even an expert couldn’t see anything wrong with the water of them, if he looked through that dingy cover.”
“You think that’s why Mr. Dangerfield wouldn’t allow it to be taken out of the cabinet?”
“Quite probably.”
“And that’s why he has been so easy-going over the whole thing? He didn’t stand to lose much—only a piece of sham jewellery.”
“Obviously correct, I think. ‘It’s very clever of you to have noticed it,’ as you once said to me.”
Eileen laughed.
“How you seem to treasure my sayings!”
She examined the armlet again.
“So this is the thing that brought me into all that trouble. And it’s only a sham after all! By the way, didn’t Mr. Dangerfield say something rather bitter about the original Talisman that night he told us the legend? Something about it’s being a sham and a fraud from the very start?”