emerald had been handed to
him. If it had been sent to Don Pedro, or even to Professor Braddock, it
would have been much more reasonable.

It first occurred to him that Mrs. Jasher, out of gratitude for the way
in which he had treated her, had sent him the jewel. Remembering his
former experience, he smelt the parcel, but could detect no sign of the
famous Chinese scent which had proved a clue to the letter. Of course
the direction on the packet and the inscribed slip of paper were in
feigned handwriting, so he could gather nothing from that. Still, he
did not think that Mrs. Jasher had sent the emerald. She was desperately
hard up, and if she had become possessed of the gem by murder--presuming
her to have been the woman who talked to Bolton through the window--she
assuredly would have sold it to supply her own needs. Certainly, if
guilty, she would still possess the other emerald, of equal value; but
undoubtedly, had she risked her neck to gain a fortune, she would
have kept the entire plunder which was likely to cost her so dear. No;
whomsoever it was who had repented at the eleventh hour, Mrs. Jasher was
not the person.

Perhaps Widow Anne was the woman who had talked through the window, and
who had restored the emerald. But that was impossible, since Mrs. Bolton
habitually took more liquor than was good for her, and would not have
the nerve to deliver the jewel, much less commit the crime, the more
especially as the victim was her own son. Of course she might have
found out Sidney's scheme to run away with the jewels, and so would have
claimed her share. But if she had been in Pierside on that evening--and
her presence in Gartley had been sworn to by three or four cronies--she
would have guessed who had strangled her boy. If so, not all the jewels
in the world would have prevented her denouncing the criminal. With
all her faults--and they were many--Mrs. Bolton was a good mother, and
looked upon Sidney as the pride and joy of her somewhat dissipated life.
Mrs. Bolton was certainly as innocent as Mrs. Jasher.

There remained Hervey. Random laughed aloud when the name came into
his puzzled head. That buccaneer was the last person to surrender his
plunder or to feel compunction in committing a crime. Once the skipper
got his grip on two jewels, worth endless money, he would never let them
go--not even one of them. Arguing thus, it seemed that Hervey was out of
the running, and Random could think of no one else. In t