the following day was a blue one for me. deprived of all the exciting activities of the past few weeks i was at a loss what to do with myself. moreover, i was dissatisfied with the result of those activities. i had won out, so to speak, but my client had not. for her only tragic unhappiness had come of it. meanwhile that little inner voice continued to whisper that i had not got to the bottom of the case. i could not put that young fellow's amazed and despairing face out of my mind. it did not fit into the theory of his guilt. on top of it all i had had a quarrel with sadie the night before.

about noon my uncomfortable thoughts were broken into by the entrance of sadie herself with storm signals flying, to wit: a pair of flashing blue eyes and a red flag hoisted in either cheek. i had supposed that she was already on the way to amityville with miss hamerton, where they were to stay at a sanatorium conducted by a doctor friend of mine.

before i could speak she exploded like a bomb in my office. "ben, you've been a fool!"

"eh?" i said, blinking and looking precious like one, i expect.

she repeated it with amplifications.

"so you said last night," i remarked.

"but i hadn't seen her then."

"aren't you going to the country?" i asked, hoping to create a diversion.

"yes, at two o'clock. but i had to see you first."

"to tell me what you thought of me?"

"to beg you to do something."

"what is there to do?"

"you have made a hideous mistake! ruined both their lives!"

i may have had my own doubts, but it wouldn't have been human to confess them in the face of an attack like this. "easy, there!" i said sulkily. "have you discovered any new evidence?"

"oh, evidence!" she cried scornfully. "i know he couldn't have stolen her pearls, and in your heart you know it, too."

"sorry," i said sarcastically, "but in conducting my business i have to consult my head before my heart."

"i know it!" she said bitterly. "that's why you've been a fool!"

"well, next time i'll consult a clairvoyant."

"oh, don't try to be clever! it's too dreadful! if you had seen her! she will never act again. and he!—he will likely kill himself, if he has not already done it."

this struck a chill to my breast. sadie had an intuitive sense that i could not afford to despise. at the same time having been called a fool, i couldn't back down.

"i don't see what better he can do," i said hardily.

"you can say that!" she said aghast. "you don't mean it!"

a very real jealousy made me hot. that handsome young blackguard had all the women with him. "are you in love with him, too?" i asked sarcastically.

it was a mistake. she had me there. "you're doing your best to make me," she retorted.

"what are you abusing me for?" i complained. "i did no more than what i was engaged to do."

"she was distracted!" said sadie. "she couldn't think for herself. she depended on you."

"well, i did the best i could for her," i said doggedly. "you seem to think that i enjoyed doing it. there is a perfect case against him."

"there is not!" she said quickly. "your own evidence that you set such a store by is full of holes!"

i invited her to point them out.

"one of your points against him is that he lately came into possession of a lot of money, presumably the proceeds of the theft. yet you found the pearls on him, too. one fact contradicts the other."

"how do i know what other activities he's been engaged in?"

"you do not believe that."

"i beg your pardon," i said stiffly. "permit me to know my own beliefs."

"if it wasn't true it wouldn't anger you."

"i am not angry." i smiled to prove it.

"how can i talk to you if you act like such a child!" cried sadie.

"never mind my actions. stick to his."

"you know very well that he could not have carried out several successful robberies without a lot of experience. his whole open life gives the lie to that. have we not gone into every part of it?"

"i know i found the pearls on him," i said doggedly. "they could not very well have been planted in a locked drawer in his own safe. he did not even claim that they were."

she ignored this. "and that cryptogram," she went on, "i mean the first one. it didn't say so in so many words, but the inference was unmistakable that miss hamerton's pearls had been disposed of, and that part of the proceeds was waiting for the thief. how do you account for that?"

i did not try to account for it. i pooh-poohed it. "he convicted himself," i insisted. "we invited him, we begged him to explain. he could not."

"would not, you mean."

"what's the difference?"

she favoured me with an extraordinary glance of scorn. "and you set up to understand human nature!"

"well, let me have your understanding of it," i said sarcastically.

"he was in love with her," said sadie. "i suppose you don't question that."

"no, strange as it seems, i believe he was in love with her."

"that makes goose eggs of all your fine reasoning! reason all night and it wouldn't make sense. he might have stolen anybody else's pearls but never hers. it was she who wronged love in believing that he could. to find out that she suspected him killed his love dead. losing that, what did he care about his reputation? if he does away with himself it will be not because he was accused of a theft, but because she killed his trust in her, and he doesn't care to live without it."

i listened to all this with an affected smile of superiority, but it reached me. every word that the unhappy quarles had uttered fitted in with sadie's theory.

"suppose some one accused you of stealing miss hamerton's purse to buy me a present," she went on, artfully changing her tone. "i would make a tremendous virtuous fuss, of course, but in my heart i couldn't love you any less, though you might not have the sense to know it. but if they said you had stolen my purse to buy me something, how i would laugh! it's too silly for words."

i was rapidly weakening, but it was damnably hard to own up.

"the same with this case. you think i'm in love with quarles because i defend him. that's just like a man! the truth is, what hurts me is to see you deceive yourself, and then look fatuous about it."

she was now wielding a double-edged sword. "but if the woman who loves him was deceived, surely i have some excuse," i said meekly.

"that's the weakness of her character—or the penalty of her position, whichever you like. she is so surrounded by flattery and meanness, it has taught her to suspect even her lover."

"but how did the pearls get in his safe?" i cried, begging for mercy.

"i don't know. it's a mystery. i'm only trying to show you that you haven't solved the mystery yet." once more she changed her tone, the witch! "i'm so keen to have you make a great success of the case, ben. and to help a little."

that completed the rout of my forces. "sadie, darling," i cried. "in my heart i feel the same as you. i would have given in at once if you hadn't begun by slapping my face!"

there was a little private interlude here. boss and operative were lost sight of.

"now let's get to work!" i said.

"i hope it's not too late!" she said sadly.