“Quite a mistake, sir,” said the sergeant. “It was not I who sent him.”
“Why, bless my heart and mind, Cripp, you’ll be for telling me next the sun never shone! Where’s your recollection gone to?”
“I hope my recollection is where it always has been, Squire. We must be at cross-purposes. I do not know any one of the name of Eccles, and I have not sent any one to you. As a proof that I could not have done it, I may tell you, sir, that I was summoned to Gloucester on business last Friday directly after I saw you, and did not get back here until this morning.”
The Squire rubbed his face, whilst he revolved probabilities, and thought Cripp must be dreaming.
“He came direct from you—from yourself, Cripp; and he disclosed to me your reasons for hoping you had found the earring, and your doubts of the honesty of the man who had bought it—the lawyer, you remember. And he brought back the other earring to you that you might compare them.”
“Eh—what?” cried Cripp, briskly. “Brought away the other earring, do you say, sir?”
“To be sure he did. What else did you send him for?”
“And he has not returned it to you?”
“Returned it! of course not. You hold it, don’t you?”
“Then, Squire Todhetley, you have been cleverly robbed of this second earring,” cried Cripp, quietly. “Dodged out of it, sir. The man who went over to you must have been a member of the swell-mob. Well-dressed, and a black moustache!”