why had he not switched on the regular room lights?
She strained her ears to catch a sound. For a while, she heard
nothing except the soft breathing. Then came a voice that she knew
well; and, abandoning her hiding-place, she came out into the room,
and found Jimmy standing, with the torch in his hand, over some dark
object in the corner of the room.
It was a full minute after Jimmy's first exclamation of surprise
before either of them spoke again. The light of the torch hurt
Molly's eyes. She put up a hand, to shade them. It seemed to her
that they had been standing like this for years.
Jimmy had not moved. There was something in his attitude that filled
Molly with a vague fear. In the shadow behind the torch, he looked
shapeless and inhuman.
'You're hurting my eyes,' she said, at last.
'I'm sorry,' said Jimmy. 'I didn't think. Is that better?' He turned
the light from her face. Something in his voice and the apologetic
haste with which he moved the torch seemed to relax the strain of
the situation. The feeling of stunned surprise began to leave her.
She found herself thinking coherently again.
The relief was but momentary. Why was Jimmy in the room at that
time? Why had he a torch? What had he been doing? The questions shot
from her brain like sparks from an anvil.
The darkness began to tear at her nerves. She felt along the wall
for the switch, and flooded the whole room with light.
Jimmy laid down the torch, and stood for a moment, undecided. He had
concealed the necklace behind him. Now, he brought it forward, and
dangled it silently before the eyes of Molly and his lordship.
Excellent as were his motives for being in. that room with the
necklace in his hand, he could not help feeling, as he met Molly's
startled gaze, quite as guilty as if his intentions had been
altogether different.
His lordship, having by this time pulled himself together to some
extent, was the first to speak.
'I say, you know, what ho!' he observed, not without emotion.
'What?'
Molly drew back.
'Jimmy! You were--oh, you can't have been!'
'Looks jolly like it!' said his lordship, judicially.
'I wasn't,' said Jimmy. 'I was putting them back.'
'Putting them back?'
'Pitt, old man,' said his lordship solemnly, 'that sounds a bit
thin.'
'Dreever, old man,' said Jimmy. 'I know it does. But it's the
truth.'
His lordship's manner became kindly.
'Now, look here, Pitt, old son,' he said, 'there's nothing to worry
about. We're all pals here. You can pitch it straight to us. We
won't give you away. We--'
'Be quiet!' cried Molly. 'Jimmy!'
