'You will worry him so that he will be crazier than a loon at the party,' she said, and so Harold waited, but started for the park the next morning as soon as he thought Mr. Tracy would see him.

He had rung at the door of the rear hall, but as no one heard him he ventured in, as he had sometimes done before, when sent for Jerry if it rained, and ascending the stairs to the upper hall, knocked two or three times at Arthur's door, first gently, and then louder as there came no response.

'He cannot be there, and I must come again,' he thought as he retraced his steps, reaching the door at the lower end of the hall just as Mrs.

Tracy came up the broad staircase on her way to her room.

As that day wore on, and the next, and the next, Harold began to care less for Tom's insult, and to think that possibly he had been hasty in his determination to decline Arthur's a.s.sistance, especially as he meant to pay back every dollar when he was a man. He would at all events wait a little, he thought, and so had made no further effort to see Mr.

Tracy, when Charles found him, and told he was wanted at the park house.

CHAPTER XXII.

SEARCHING FOR THE DIAMONDS.

They went directly to Mrs. Tracy's room, where they found that lady in a much higher fever of excitement than when she first discovered her loss.

All the household had a.s.sembled in the hall and in her room, except Arthur, who sat in his library, occasionally stopping to listen to the sound of the many voices, and to wonder why there was much noise.

Tom was there with his friend, Fred Raymond, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Harold, whose face wore a look of wonder and perplexity which deepened into utter amazement as Mrs. Tracy angrily demanded of him what his business was in the hall on Wednesday morning when she saw him sneaking through the door.

'Where had you been, and did you see my diamonds? Somebody has stolen them,' she said, while Harold gazed at her in utter astonishment.

'Somebody stolen your diamonds!' he repeated, without the shadow of an idea that she could in any way connect him with a theft; nor would the idea have come to him at all, if Tom had not said to him with a sneer:

'Better own up, Hal, and restore the property. It is your easiest way out of it.'

Then he comprehended, and had Tom knocked him senseless the effect could not have been greater. With lips as white as ashes and fists tightly clenched, he stood, shaking like a leaf and staring helplessly, first at one and then at another, unable to speak until his eyes fell on Jerry, whose face was a study. She had thrown her head forward and on one side, and was looking intently at Tom Tracy, while her blue eyes flashed fire, and her whole att.i.tude was like that of a tiger ready to pounce upon its prey. And when Harold said faintly, 'Ask Jerry; she knows,' she did pounce upon Tom, not bodily, but with her tongue, pouring out her words so rapidly and mingling with them so much German that it was almost impossible to understand all she said.

'You miserable, good-for-nothing, nasty fellow,' she began. 'Do you dare accuse Harold of stealing! Stealing! You, who are not fit to tie his shoes! And do you want to know why he was here that morning? I can tell you; but no, I won't tell _you_! I won't speak to you! I'll never speak to you again; and if you try to kiss me as you did the other day, I'll--I'll scratch out every single one of your eyes! _You_ twit Harold for being poor, and call him a charity! What are you but a charity yourself, I'd like to know! Is this your house? No, sir! It is Mr.

Arthur's! Everything is Mr. Arthur's, and if you don't quit being so mean to Harold I'll tell him every single nasty thing I know about you!

Then see what he will do!'

As Jerry warmed with her subject, every look, every gesture, and every tone of her voice was like Arthur's, and Frank watched with a fascination which made him forget everything else, until she turned suddenly to him, and in her own peculiar style and language told him why Harold had come to the park house that morning when the diamonds were missing.

'I advised him to come,' she said, with all the air of a grown woman, 'and I said I'd stand by him, and I will, forever and ever, amen!'

The words dropped from her lips the more maturely, perhaps, because she had used them once before with reference to the humiliated boy, to whose pale, set face there came a smile as he heard them again, and stretching out his hand he laid it on Jerry's curly head with a caressing motion which told plainer than words could have done of his affection for and trust in her.

What more Jerry might have said was prevented by the appearance of a new actor upon the scene in the person of Arthur himself. He had borne the noise and confusion as long as he could, and then had rung for Charles to enquire what it meant. But Charles was too much absorbed with other matters to heed the bell, though it rang three times sharply and loudly.

At last, as no one came, and the bustle outside grew louder, and Jerry's voice was distinctly heard, excited and angry, Arthur started to see for himself what had happened.

'Oh, Mr. Arthur,' Jerry cried, as she caught sight of him coming down the hall, 'I was just going after you, to come and turn Tom out of doors, and everybody else who says that Harold took Mrs. Tracy's diamonds. She has lost them, and Tom--'

But here she was interrupted by Tom himself, who, always afraid of his uncle, and now more afraid than ever because of the fiery gleam in his eyes, stammered out that he had not accused Harold, nor any one; that he only knew the diamonds were gone and could not have gone without help.

'Do you mean those stones your mother flashed in my eyes that night?

Serves her right if she has lost them,' Arthur said, without manifesting the slightest interest or concern in the matter.

But when Jerry began her story, which she told rapidly in German, he became excited at once, and his manner was that of a maniac, as he turned fiercely upon Tom, denouncing him as a coward and a liar, and threatening to turn him out of the house if he dared harbor such a suspicion against Harold Hastings.

'I'll turn you all into the street,' he continued, 'if you are not careful, and bring Harold and Jerry here to live; then see if I can have peace. Diamonds, indeed! what has a poor man's wife to do with diamonds? Gretchen's diamonds, too! If they are lost, search the house, but never accuse Harold again.'

At this paint Arthur wandered off into German, which no one could understand except Jerry, who stood, holding fast to his arm, her face flushed and triumphant at Harold's victory and Tom's defeat; but as the tirade in German went on, she started suddenly forward, and with clasped hands and staring eyes stood confronting Arthur until he had ceased speaking, and with a wave of his hand signified that he was through and his audience dismissed. Jerry, however, did not move, but stood regarding him with a frightened, questioning expression in her face, which was lost upon the spectators, who were too much interested in the all-absorbing topic to notice anyone particularly.

Tom was the first to go away, and his example was followed by all the servants, except Charles, who succeeded in getting his master back to his room and quieting him somewhat, though he kept talking to himself of diamonds, and Paris, and Gretchen, who, he said, should not he wronged.

'I am sorry, Harold, that this thing has happened. I have no idea that you know anything of the matter. I would as soon suspect my own son,'

Frank said to Harold, as he was leaving the house.

With this grain of comfort, the boy went slowly home, humiliated and cut to the heart with the indignity put upon him; while Jerry walked silently at his side, never speaking a word until they were nearly home, when she said, suddenly:

'I know where the diamonds are, but I shan't tell now while there is such a fuss;' but Harold was too much absorbed in his own thoughts to pay much attention to the remark, although it recurred to him years after, when the diamonds came up to confront him again.

It did not take long for the whole town to know of Mrs. Tracy's loss.

The papers were full of it. The neighbors talked of it constantly, and two detectives were employed to work the matter up and discover the thief, if possible. A thorough search was also made at the park house.

Every servant was examined and cross-examined, and all their trunks and boxes searched; every nook and corner and room was gone through in the most systematic order, even to Arthur's apartments. This last was merely done as a matter of form, and to let the indignant servant see that no partiality was shown, the polite officers explained to Arthur, who at first refused to let them in, but who finally opened the door himself, and bade them go where they liked.

Half hidden among the cushions of the sofa from which Arthur had arisen when he let the officers in and to which he returned again, was Jerry, her face pale to her lips and her eyes like the eyes of some haunted animal, when she saw the policemen cross the threshold.

After her return home the previous day she had been unusually taciturn and had taken no part in the conversation relative to the missing diamonds, but just before going to bed she said to Harold:

'What will they do with the one who took the diamonds, if they find him?'

'Send him to state prison,' Harold answered.

'And what do they do to them in state prison?' Jerry continued.

'Cut their hair off; make them eat bread and water and mush, and sleep on a board, and work awful hard,' was Harold's reply, given at random and without the least suspicion why the question had been asked.

Jerry said no more, but the next morning she started for the park house, which she knew was to be searched, and going to Mr. Arthur's room looked him wistfully in the face as she asked in a whisper:

'Are they found?'

'Found! What found?' he said, as if all recollection of the missing jewels had pa.s.sed entirely from his mind.

'The diamonds; Mrs. Tracy's diamonds; the ones you gave her,' was Jerry's answer.

For a moment, Arthur looked perplexed and bewildered and confused, and seemed trying to recall something which would not come at his bidding.

'I don't know anything about it,' he said at last. 'I don't seem to think of anything, my head is so thick with all the noise there was here yesterday and the tumult this morning. Search-warrants, Charles says, and two strange men driving up so early. Who are they, Jerry?'

'Police, come to search the house; search everybody and everything.

Ain't you afraid?' Jerry said.

'Afraid? No: why should I be afraid? Why, child, how white you are, and what makes you tremble so? You didn't take the diamonds,' was Arthur's response, as he drew the little girl close to him and looked into her pallid face.

'Mr. Arthur,' Jerry began, very low, as if afraid of being heard, 'if I should give Maude something for her very own, and she should accept and keep it a good while, and then some day I should take it from her, when she did not know it, and hide it, and not give it up, would that be stealing?'