“‘Keep yourself quiet,’ I heard him say in a low tone, ‘and go into the dining room. Make no noise, for your liberty is in danger.’
“Do you believe that, in cases of emergency, some of our faculties are strengthened to an enormous extent? I think that this must be so, and that I, for one, have been the subject of this phenomenon. Otherwise, how shall I account for being able to hear Mr. Stavanger’s words so distinctly? No doubt, the midnight quiet of the house and neighbourhood had something to do with it. Still, I shall always think that Providence thus showed its approval of my endeavours to save Harley Riddell from an unjust fate.
“Hugh’s answer to his father’s injunction was an ejaculation of which I did not catch the import. But he was evidently sufficiently impressed by his manner to be obedient for once. I heard the door quietly fastened again, and then the two men came into the room in which I was playing the eavesdropper. Mr. Stavanger, after turning up the gas, which he had previously lighted, seated himself, and requested his son to do the same.
“‘Now then,’ observed the latter, ‘I would like to know what all this mystery is about, and what you mean by insinuating that my liberty is in danger.’
“‘Have you no idea?’ questioned Mr. Stavanger.
“‘Not the slightest.’
“‘Think again.’
“‘Why the deuce don’t you out with it? It isn’t likely that I know just what you are driving at, and if I did, I am not fool enough to take the initiative.’
“‘Well I will tell you. I have all along suspected that you yourself were the thief for whom Riddell has been made the scapegoat. Perhaps it will be as well for me to tell you that I have from the first been sure of it. This was what made me so anxious to secure Riddell’s conviction. I hoped thereby to save our own name from disgrace. But my efforts are likely to prove futile, because, besides being a thief, a perjurer, and a scoundrel, you are proving yourself a fool. You have been spending and gambling recklessly of late, and people are talking about the amount of money you are getting through. The gossip about you has come to Mr. Lyon’s ears, and to-day I endured the greatest humiliation of my life, for I was told to my face that I had deliberately sent an innocent man to gaol, knowing the while that my son was guilty. It was in vain that I denied this. Mr. Lyon vows that he has proofs of your guilt, and he has given me his positive orders to refund the value of the theft and to endorse some story which he is going to trump up to show that no theft has been committed, or take the consequences.’
“‘Meaning that he would make me change places with Riddell! Good God! what shall I do? I can’t give up the diamonds!’