Penny bent closer, suddenly realizing that the old lady was in possession of her faculties and was trying to disclose something of great importance.
“I went there this morning,” Mrs. Marborough completed with difficulty. “The pearls were gone. They’ve been stolen. Now I have nothing.”
CHAPTER
22
THE MISSING NECKLACE
Penny tried to quiet the old lady by assuring her that the pearl necklace must be somewhere in the house.
“No—no, it is gone,” Mrs. Marborough insisted. “A thief entered the house during the night. The shock of it brought on this attack.”
Spent by the effort required to speak, the widow closed her eyes, and relaxed. Thinking that she had gone to sleep, Penny left the bedside for a moment. A quick glance assured her that the kitchen window was open, and far more alarming, the screen had been neatly cut from its frame. An empty China teapot stood on the kitchen table.
“It must be true!” Penny thought with a sinking heart. “The pearls have been stolen, and the shock of it nearly killed Mrs. Marborough! But who could have known that she had the necklace here in the house?”
Louise and Rhoda were beyond suspicion, and for a moment she could think of no others who had knowledge of the pearls. Then, with a start, it came to her that the story had been told the previous night at the Breens.
“Ted knew about it and he was interested!” she thought. “But I can’t believe he would do such a contemptible thing—even if he did once steal a chicken.”
Penny’s unhappy reflections were broken by the arrival of Rhoda with Doctor Hamilton. For the next half hour the girls were kept more than busy carrying out his instructions.