"What necklace?"
"The one I am credited with having stolen from the wife of your worthy Chief of Police."
"Guess you mean Commissioner of Police—Commissioner Enright." Frankly mistrustful examination of Lanyard's face ended in the generous verdict: "Somebody's been kidding you, son."
"I will not dispute that—I begin to be distressed to discriminate the statements of fact which have recently been made me from what would seem to have been the fictions of a lively fancy. I have, for example, on the one hand, your word, as I understand it, that the good wife of Commissioner Enright did not, shortly prior to the sailing of the Port Royal, suffer the loss by theft of a valuable diamond necklace."
"Nor at any other time. Or if she did—and if he's got a wife—the Commish kept it darned quiet."
"On the other hand, I am suspected of having done much business in the Lone Wolf's well-known line—"
"Sure are."
"During a period which began, I take it, about the first of the year—"
"Some time before Christmas."
"And ended with my late but well-timed decease."