“When? Where, child, did you get that necklace?”
Jane drew up beside Gloria protectingly.
Gloria was visibly embarrassed. She looked from the mysterious beads into the woman’s flushed face.
“We had a—sort of game,” she stammered, “and this was the forfeit. I do not know who gave it to me.”
Speechless with excitement Mrs. Corday assumed her lorgnette. She was actually breathing aloud in gasps.
“It—can’t be, and yet it may be!” she exclaimed finally. “The lost clue to little Jack’s treasures——”
“A lost clue!” Jane repeated. It was her turn to inspect the beads.
“Such a long and strange story!” panted Mrs. Corday. “But if this should be it!”
“What?” asked Gloria, in her direct way.
“The clue to the hiding place. It was a stone, set in a necklace! My dear husband told me almost with his last breath!”