“We’ll take the suitcase along,” Miss Swenster told him.
He looked as though he intended to refuse, but the sight of a policeman moving through the train gate, caused him to change his mind. Madge and Cara carried the suitcase to a taxi cab, not trusting it in his hands.
“This is an outrage!” John Swenster protested as they drove toward the mansion.
His foster-mother paid scant attention. Not until they were all in the living room of the mansion did she speak her mind.
“John,” she said calmly, “I’ve stood entirely too much at your hands. I’ve protected you for the last time. Now either give up the pearls or I’ll turn you over to the authorities.”
“Pearls!” he scoffed. “I don’t know anything about your pearls.”
“Madge, will you search the suitcase?”
The girls had been waiting for this opportunity. Quickly, while John Swenster looked on furiously, they unstrapped the case and opened it. They lifted out several layers of clothing. In the very bottom, lay an old candy box. Madge shook it. Something rattled. She opened the box.
Inside lay a string of pearls, perfect in shape, skillfully matched—the most beautiful necklace the girls had ever seen.
“The famous old Swenster pearls that were willed to my mother!” Miss Swenster exclaimed. She turned coldly to her adopted son, “And you would have stolen them from me!”