“He left it lying on the table,” she assured him eagerly.
Taylor’s sneer was not pleasant to see.
“Oh, he left it on the table, did he?” he scoffed. “Well, of course there’s no necklace in it then. Don’t you see you’ve let him suspect you, and he’s just trying to bluff you.”
“It isn’t that,” she asserted. “He hasn’t got it, I tell you.”
“I know he has,” the implacable Taylor retorted, “and you’ve got to find out this very night where it is. You’ll probably have to search his room.”
She shrank back at the very thought of it. “I couldn’t,” she cried. “Oh, I couldn’t!”
“Yes you could, and you will,” he said, in his truculent tone. “And if you land him, use the same signal, pull down the shade in his room. We’ll be watching, and I’ve found a way to get there from the balcony.”
“I can’t,” the girl cried in desperation. “I’ve done what you asked. I won’t try to trap an innocent man.”
He looked at her threateningly. “Oh, you won’t, eh? Well, you will. I’ve been pretty nice to you, but I’m sick of it. You’ll go through for me, and you’ll go through right. I’ve had your sister followed—see here, look at this—” He showed her the fake warrant Duncan had prepared at his bidding. “This is a warrant for her arrest, and unless you land that necklace to-night, she’ll be in the Tombs in the morning.”
“Not that, not that?” she begged, covering her face with her hands.