s?"

Before he had fairly finished speaking, Lady Leake caught up his
hand, and, holding it fast squeezed in both her own, looked up at
him with bright, wet eyes.

"It must have been heaven itself that sent you to us this morning,"
she cried. "If any man in the world _can_ help us, I believe in
my soul that you are the man. Mawson, you hear, dearest? It is Mr.
Cleek. The wonderful Mr. Cleek. Why didn't we think of _him_ before?
Tell him, Mawson--tell him everything, my dear."

Sir Mawson acted upon the suggestion instantly.

"Mr. Cleek, I beg, I implore you to come to our assistance!" he
exclaimed in a very transport of excitement. "Lady Leake is right.
If any man _can_, you are he! You ask if anything has happened
with regard to that accursed necklace and if I can give you any
information on the subject? To both questions, yes! It is gone! It
is lost! It is stolen!"

"What's that? Stolen? The Ladder of Light? Good heavens! When? Where?
How?"

"Yesterday--from my keeping! From my house! And God have mercy on
me, I have every reason to believe that the thief is my eldest son!"

CHAPTER XXI

It was a full minute later and in all that minute's length no one
had spoken, no one had made a single sound.

The shock, the shame, of such a confession, telling, as it did, why
he had attempted to destroy himself, had crumpled the man up, taken
all the vitality out of him. He faced round and leaned his bent arm
against the wall of the stable, hid his face in the crook of it, and
Cleek, pitying him, let him have that minute all to himself. Then:

"Come," he said, very gently, going over to him and patting him on
the shoulder. "Buck up! Buck up! There's nothing in all the world
so deceptive as appearances, Sir Mawson; perhaps, when I've heard
the facts----Well, haven't I told you that I am out for a pair of
expert jewel thieves, and that that necklace is just the sort of
thing they'd be likely to make play for? How do you know, then, that
they didn't?"

"I wish I could believe that, I wish I could even hope it," he gave
back miserably. "But you don't know the facts, Mr. Cleek."

"To be sure I don't; and they're what I'm after. Let's have them,
please. To begin with, how came the Ladder of Light to be in your
possession at all?"

"It was brought to me yesterday--for repairing--by the Ranee's own
_major domo_. Not a mere _cice_, Mr. Cleek, but the most trusted of
all her henchmen. Three of the narrow gold links