"I am sick at heart about all this," Marcia murmured as the two descended the stairs. "You see, it was I who suggested to Mr. Heath where to hide the gems. We were hurried and had no time to think up a place. I had used this hide-out before and as it had always proved safe, I thought it would be so now. I feel responsible--as if this loss was my fault."
"It is a great pity," was Currier's ambiguous reply.
Preceding him into the kitchen, Marcia went straight to the hearth and pointed to the brick at her feet.
"It was here we put the jewel-case," she said.
"I think, with your permission, I will take up the brick," the little man at her elbow quietly announced.
"There might be some crevice, some opening--"
Taking out his knife, Currier knelt and soon had the brick out of its hole.
Beneath it lay the jewel-case, wrapped as before in Stanley Heath's monogrammed handkerchief.
"But--but--it wasn't there when I looked. I could swear it wasn't."
"Who could have taken it out? And if someone did why return anything so valuable?" Currier inquired.
"I don't know. I do not understand it at all," the woman replied, passing a hand across her forehead in complete bewilderment. "There is something uncanny about the whole affair."
"Well, at any rate, the gems are here now," said Currier in a matter-of-fact tone. "Mr. Heath will be much relieved. Their loss must, I am sure, have distressed him deeply. Shall I go up and--"
"I'll go," Marcia cried. "It won't take me a minute. I'll be right back."
Her haste, the radiance of her face must have suggested to the stranger a thought that had not occurred to him before, for after she had gone, he stood immovable in the middle of the floor looking after her.
Then a slow, shadowy smile passed across his features.
Thrusting his hands into his pockets, he took two or three meditative strides up and down the room.
It happened he had quite an opportunity for thought before his hostess returned and he employed it to the utmost.
He was still absorbed in reverie when Marcia, breathless and flushed, rejoined him.
Perhaps she did not realize the length of time she had been gone.
"Well," queried she, "what conclusion have you arrived at?"
"A very interesting one," Currier returned promptly.