“It’s all a rotten lie!” gasped Tom. “It must be,” turning appealingly to Marjorie. But she stood silent. She had done her loyal best, she could do no more. The inevitable had happened.
“Did you tell your daughter that you had the pendant, Fordyce?” asked Calhoun-Cooper, forgetting for the moment Joe’s prospective matrimonial plans.
“Yes, I showed it to her.”
“Anyone who reads the Star knew father had the ruby,” said Duncan slowly.
“But no outsider knew where your father kept the jewel,” interrupted Kathryn.
“Suppose you look and see if it is gone,” suggested Duncan, and Calderon Fordyce rose and opened the secret drawer. A groan of horror escaped him on seeing the empty case.
“Janet saw me place the case in there,” he gasped. “Her mother uses the secret drawer for many private documents and sometimes for her jewelry. Janet, my own dear daughter, a thief!” His agony was unconcealed.
“Do not condemn Janet so soon,” said Paul Potter quietly. “The girl was acting under auto-suggestion.”
CHAPTER XXVI
UNCOVERED
Marjorie and the others gazed at the physician in stupefied silence.