"Oh, they didn't do it," and Bannard tossed off the idea as absurd.
"You don't know. Leaving out, as I said before, the question of how the villain got in or out, it might easily have been one or more of the servants. And other help is hired beside the regular house crowd. Take it from me, it was somebody in the house, and not an intruder from outside."
"And take it from me, you don't know what you're talking about," said Roger Downing, as he angrily stalked away.
Bannard had said very little to Iris since his coming to Pellbrook, but he now sought her out, and asked her what she thought about the whole matter.
"I don't know what to think," Iris replied to his question, "but I don't know as it matters so much about solving the mystery. Poor Aunt Ursula is dead, she was killed, but I don't see how we can find out who did it. I think, Win, it must have been somebody we don't know about--say, someone connected with her early life--you know, she has had a more or less varied career."
"How do you mean? She lived here very quietly."
"Yes, but before she came here. Before we knew her, even before we were born. And then, her jewels. Nobody ever owned a splendid collection of jewels but what they were beset by robbers and burglars to get the treasure."
"Then you think it an ordinary jewel robbery?"
"Not ordinary! Far from that! But I can't help thinking that was what the thieves were after. Why, you know her jewels are world famous."
"Well, maybe not that, but well known among jewelers and jewel collectors. So they would, of course, be known to professional jewel thieves."
"Oh, I oughtn't to say that, but truly, Iris, I supposed of course you knew where Aunt Ursula kept 'em."
"Well, I don't. I've not the slightest notion of her hiding place."
"Hiding place! Aren't they in a safe deposit, or something of that sort?"
"They may be, but I don't think so. But it will be told in the will. Mr. Chapin is so ridiculously secretive about the will! Sometimes I think she may have left them all to someone else after all."
"Yes, someone besides us. I think, don't you, that we ought to be her principal heirs? But she promised me, always, her wonderful diamond pin."
"Huh! I don't think one diamond pin so much! Why, she has----"