“Valuable pearls, eh?”
“Yes.”
“We may be mistaken after all,” persisted the lanky plebe. “Limbs have a habit of dropping from trees, you know. We would feel rather foolish if we aroused the house, and found only a cat or something like that. Miss Windom would laugh.”
“I’ll take the risk of that. I’d take any risk rather than see——”
“See the pearls stolen,” interrupted Joy, with an internal chuckle.
“Confound the pearls.”
“Oh, I meant girl. Excuse me.”
By this time the villa was reached. The extensive grounds were separated from the street by a stone wall ten feet in height and surmounted by an ornamental iron railing.
Clif halted near one end of the wall and announced that he would try to enter there.
“No use arousing the lodge-keeper,” he added. “There may be nothing in it after all, and I don’t want to raise an alarm without proof. You can stay here and I’ll take a peep through the grounds on the quiet.”