liged to do so, Madam," put in the Scotland
Yard man in a quiet, expressionless voice. "We might take steps to
enable us to examine this young lady's belongings, if we find it
necessary."

"Very well, then, charge me! Get an order, or whatever it's called," I
said quietly but firmly. I meditated swiftly. "Getting an order" might
take time, quite a lot of time! Anything to do with "the law" seems to
take such ages before it happens! In that time Miss Million would, I
hope to goodness! have turned up again. If she were here I should not
feel so helpless as I do now--a girl absolutely "on her own," with all
her visible means of support (notably her heiress-mistress) taken from
her!

"Oh, we hope that it will not be found necessary," persisted the
manager, who, I suspect, thought he was being very nice about the
affair. "I am sure Miss Smith will only have to think the matter over to
see the reasonableness of what is being asked her. Here we are, in this
big hotel, all sorts of people coming and going----"

"Coming and going" rather described my absent mistress's procedure. "And
we find suddenly that a piece of very valuable jewellery is missing."

"The Rattenheimer ruby! Not another like it in the world!" cried the
stout and excited Jew. "I won't tell you how much I gave for that stone!
My wife wears it as a pendant, unmounted, just pierced so as to hold on
a gold chain.... I won't let that be lost, I can tell you! I will search
everywhere, everything, everybody. I tell you, young woman, you need not
imagine that you can get out of having your boxes overhauled, if it
takes all Scotland Yard to do it!"

Here the pleasant, rather slow voice of the American with the unfamiliar
note in boots and clothes and thick, mouse-coloured hair broke in upon
the other man's yapping. "Ca'm yourself, Rats. Ca'm yourself. You keep
quite ca'm and easy. You won't get anything out of a young lady like
this by your film-acting and your shouts!"

"I tell her I'll have her searched."

"Not with my consent," I said, feeling absolutely determined now. "And
to do it without my consent you have to wait."

"I shall go through the other girl's things, then, first," snorted the
excited Jew. "What's the name of the girl this one's alleged to be
working for?" In every look and tone the man voiced his conviction that
poor little Million and I were two notorious, practised jewel thieves in
a new disguise.

"This woman who calls herself Million, I