already
they loved their beautiful gifts. That evening the Stanton girls and
their Aunt Jane received their parcels, being fully as much surprised as
the others had been, and their boxes also contained pearls. Flo and Maud
had lavallieres, the latter receiving one as large and beautiful as that
of Patsy Doyle, while Mrs. Montrose found a brooch set with numerous
smaller pearls.

Patsy urged them all to wear the ornaments to dinner that evening, which
they did, and although Jones was not there to observe the effect of the
splendid pearls, Mr. Le Drieux was at his place in the dining room and
made more notes in his little book.

That was exactly what Patsy wanted. "I can't stand the suspense of this
thing," she whispered to Uncle John, "and if that man wants any
information about these pearls I propose we give it to him. In that way
he will soon discover he is wrong in suspecting the identity of Jack
Andrews and A. Jones."

Mr. Merrick nodded absently and went to his corner for a smoke. Arthur
soon after joined him, while Aunt Jane took her bevy of girls to another
part of the loge.

"Le Drieux will be here presently," said Uncle John to young Weldon.

"Oh, the fellow with the book. Why, sir?"

"He's a detective, I think. Anyhow, he is shadowing Jones, whom he
suspects is a thief."

He then told Arthur frankly of his former conversation with Le Drieux,
and of the puzzling photograph.

"It really resembles the boy," he admitted, with a frown of perplexity,
"yet at the same time I realized the whole thing was absurd. Neither
Patsy nor I can believe that Jones is the man who robbed an Austrian
countess. It's preposterous! And let me say right now, Arthur, that I'm
going to stand by this young fellow, with all my influence, in case those
hounds try to make him trouble."

Arthur did not reply at once. He puffed his cigar silently while he
revolved the startling accusation in his mind.

"Both you and Patsy are staunch friends," he observed, after a while,
"and I have noticed that your intuition as regards character is seldom
at fault. But I advise you, in this instance, not to be hasty, for--"

"I know; you are going to refer to those pearls."

"Naturally. If I don't, Le Drieux will, as you have yourself prophesied.
Pearls--especially such pearls as these--are rare and easy to recognize.
The world does not contain many black-pearls, for instance, such as that
you are wearing. An expert--a man with a photograph t