I said she was, of course, and S. K. grunted. And then he put his arm around me. It seemed to be catching.
“I am going to take care of you after this,” he said through set teeth. “I have adopted you for the present. Understand? No more of that sort of nonsense shall occur!”
“How about those noises outside--those noises that were heard on the balcony?” someone asked.
Jane got in her innings then, and I imagine that Debson was sorry he’d mentioned having seen her wear my bracelet.
“He come up to see me that way,” she said; “time and again he done it. He had a long stick with a hook on top that he jabbed in a window-sill or over the balcony rail, and then he come up, hand over hand. . . . He said he done a turn one year in vaudeville and that that was in his bill----” And then she laughed shortly.
“Is true,” said Ito. “Greatly we laugh when he approach in climb manner. It was in dark of court. No one have opportunity to see. We encourage him to arrive so like monkey. I think he plan to come in such manners so that we in back of apartment hear scrape noises. Jane will think he visit me, I think he visit Jane, meanwhile he inspect and salute Jumel bracelet.”
“Why did you want it?” asked the detective.
Debson said he did not, loudly protesting his innocence until one of our visiting gentlemen went forward, slapped his pockets, and then began to unload them. He found all sorts of interesting things. An implement that is called a “jimmy,” that is, I believe, largely used in burglaries; a pistol; S. K.’s best cuff links; and--most important--a ball of twine, and that matched the piece that I found tied to the bracelet. He had to give in, and when he saw that protests amounted to nothing he talked frankly.
“I thought I was safe,” said Debson, after his conviction was achieved. “No one up here believed the kid, and almost every night I prowled around somewhere, and during the day too. After I was thick with these two”--he motioned to Ito and Jane--“why, it looked as exciting as a Sunday-school picnic. To be sure, I hadn’t located the right bracelet (she had a way of hiding it), but I could get into her room any time I wanted to. One afternoon I walked in and busted the lock of the window, and no one said nothing. I thought I had it all fixed and that my hunting was over, for just to-day he promised not to kick up a search until she wanted it. And I believed it. I believed it!” After that he looked at us and laughed, laughed in a silent, sneering way, but I felt that his own failure was what made his unhappy mirth; his own failure and his being caught by such a simple trap.
“Why did you want it?” asked Uncle Archie. “The thing isn’t worth enough for all the trouble you gave it.”