"Just so. And they were worth quite three hundred pounds."
Captain Lennox opened his eyes.
"Three hundred pounds! So much as that! I wonder how they were taken! By some light-handed fellow, I suppose, who contrived to find his way upstairs amid the general bustle of the house."
"No, we think not. The servants say it was hardly possible for anyone to do that unnoticed; Aunt Gertrude thinks the same; And the servants are all trustworthy. It is a curious matter altogether."
Captain Lennox looked at her.
"Surely you cannot suspect any of the guests?"
"It would be uncharitable to do that," was Ella's light answer. But the keen-witted Captain noticed that she did not deny it more emphatically.
"What a pity that the jewels were not safely locked up!" he exclaimed.
"The dressing-room, in which they were, was locked; at least, the key was turned--and who would be likely to intrude into it? Aunt Gertrude remembers that perfectly. She found Philip Cleeve lying on the sofa in her boudoir with a bad headache, and she went into the dressing-room to get her smelling-salts, unlocking the door to enter. Whether she relocked it is another matter."
"Did Cleeve notice whether anybody else went in while he was lying there?"