“Yes,” said Westerham, eagerly, “what of him?”
“He burgled your rooms,” said Melun, calmly.
“What!” Westerham jumped out of his chair and stood over Melun. “What do you mean? Why, it is impossible. If he did that it must have been by Lord Penshurst's orders, and what, in the name of Heaven, could they have expected to find here?”
“Exactly what Hilden came to find—what he did find, and what he took away with him.”
“In the name of Heaven, what?” asked Westerham, to whom things were becoming a little too complicated for him to follow.
“What Hilden found,” said Melun, slowly and precisely, “were Lady Kathleen's diamonds.”
“Lady Kathleen's diamonds!”
“Yes,” answered Melun, smiling as though with intense relish of an infinitely fine jest, “Lady Kathleen's diamonds.
“They were missed shortly after your departure, and you were at once suspected of being the author of the theft. And therefore Lord Penshurst, knowing that Bagley had made one attempt before, and that I was connected with Bagley, at first suspected me.
“In fact, at about two in the morning, Hilden came around to my rooms with the Premier. They roused me from sleep and taxed me with the theft, Lord Penshurst threatening that if I did not give them up he would certainly not accede to the other terms which I am asking of him.