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His eyes changed a trifle but did not swerve. Of course he had been informed by his mother of the suspicious action of the young lady who had been a member of that gentleman’s party, and shrank, as any one in his position would, from the responsibilities entailed by this knowledge.

“No,” said he. “We have done all we can. The next move must come from you.”

“There is one that will settle the matter in a moment,” I assured him, still with my eyes fixed scrutinizingly on his face,–“a universal search, not of places, but of persons. But it is a harsh measure.”

“A most disagreeable one,” he emphasized, flushing. “Such an indignity offered to guests would never be forgotten or forgiven.”

“True, but if they offered to submit to this themselves?”

“They? How?”

“If you, the son of the house,–their host we may say,–should call them together and, for your own satisfaction, empty out your pockets in the sight of every one, don’t you think that all the men, and possibly all the women too–” (here I let my voice fall suggestively) “would be glad to follow suit? It could be done in apparent joke.”

He shook his head with a straightforward air, which raised him high in my estimation.

“That would call for little but effrontery on my part,” said he; “but think what it would demand from these boys who came here for the sole purpose of enjoying themselves. I will not so much as mention the ladies.”

“Yet one of the latter–“

“I know,” he quietly acknowledged, growing restless for the first time.

I withdrew my eyes from his face. I had learned what I wished. Personally he did not shrink from search, therefore the jewel was not in his pockets. This left but two persons for suspicion to halt between. But I disclosed nothing of my thoughts; I merely asked pardon for a suggestion that, while pardonable in a man accustomed to handle crime with ungloved hands, could not fail to prove offensive to a gentleman like himself.

“We must move by means less open,” I concluded. “It adds to our difficulties, but that can not be helped. I should now like a glimpse of Mr. Deane.”

“Do you not wish to speak to him?”

“I should prefer a sight of his face first.”

He led me across the hall and pointed through an open door. In the center of a small room containing a table and some chairs, I perceived a young man sitting, with fallen head and dejected air, staring at vacancy. By his side, with hand laid on his, knelt a young girl, striving in this gentle but speechless way to comfort him. It made a pathetic picture. I drew Ashley away.

“I am disposed to believe in that young man,” said I. “If he still has the jewel, he would not try to carry off the situation in just this way. He really looks broken-hearted.”

“Oh, he is dreadfully cut up. If you could have seen how frantically he searched for the stone, and the depression into which he fell when he realized that it was not to be found, you would not doubt him for an instant. What made you think he might still have the ruby?”

“Oh, we police officers think of everything. Then the fact that he insists that something or some one touched his breast on the driveway strikes me as a trifle suspicious. Your mother says that no second person could have been there, or the snow would have given evidence of it.”

“Yes; I looked expressly. Of course, the drive itself was full of hoof-marks and wheel-tracks, for several carriages had already passed over it. Then there were all of Deane’s footsteps, but no other man’s, as far as I could see.”

“Yet he insists that he was touched or struck.”

“Yes.”

“With no one there to touch or strike him.”

Mr. Ashley was silent.

“Let us step out and take a view of the place,” I suggested. “I should prefer doing this to questioning the young man in his present state of mind.” Then, as we turned to put on our coats, I asked with suitable precaution: “Do you suppose that he has the same secret suspicions as ourselves, and that it is to hide these he insists upon the jewel’s having been taken away from him at a point the ladies are known not to have approached?”