“Perhaps the wind blew it over,” Miss Swenster said, though her voice disclosed that she had no faith in her own words.
“It would have taken a cyclone to move that heavy sundial,” Madge declared. “Someone deliberately cracked it open. See, here’s the sledge-hammer he used. I knew I heard some such sound.”
“And like as not the pearls are gone!” Cara wailed.
“That’s a foregone conclusion,” Madge responded. “But we may as well get a light and make a thorough search.”
Miss Swenster already had started for the house. She returned a minute later with a flashlight. They turned it upon the dark interior of the broken pedestal and Madge felt around with her hand.
“If the pearls were ever here they’re gone now,” she announced.
The significance of the discovery was gradually dawning upon her. She knew that it was John Swenster who had been prowling about the garden and now she was convinced that he had broken open the sundial in an attempt to locate the pearls. At the risk of shocking Miss Swenster, she determined to withhold her information no longer.
“Miss Swenster, I should have told you this before,” she said quietly. “Your son is in Claymore—has been for days. I learned this afternoon that he had registered at the Grand Hotel.”
Miss Swenster’s face was hidden by the darkness but the girls saw her figure straighten. She spoke no word and Madge rushed recklessly on:
“Perhaps I ought not to say this, but I discovered that it was he who came here at night.”