Berry and Co Part 71

I took our informant's name and address and those of the crier who had brought him to the car. Then we dispensed some silver, and left for home.

Of Adele's necklace we had heard nothing.

We determined to concentrate upon the recovery of the pearls upon the following day.

All through a wretched night the pitiful vacancy at the foot of my bed reminded me brutally of my loss. My poor little dog--where was he pa.s.sing these dark hours? How many more must drag their way along before the warm white ball lay curled again in the crook of my knees? Had he rested there for the last time? With a groan I thrust the thought from me, but always it returned, leering hideously. Miserably I recited his qualities--his love for me, his mettle, his beauty, his unfailing good humour.... What naughtiness there was in him seemed very precious.

Painfully I remembered his thousand pretty ways. He had a trick of waving his little paws, when he was tired of begging....

Small wonder that I slept ill and fitfully.

Early as I was, the others were already at breakfast when I came down.

Only Adele had not appeared.

It was a melancholy meal.

Jonah said not a word, and Berry hardly opened his mouth. There were dark rings under Jill's grey eyes, and Daphne looked pale and tired.

A communication from the Secretary of the Brooch Dog Show, enclosing a pa.s.s for the following day, and informing me that my Sealyham must arrive at the Show in the charge of not more than one attendant by 11 a.m., did not tend to revive our drooping spirits. We had nearly finished, when, with a glance at the clock, my sister set her foot upon the bell.

As the butler entered the room--

"Send up and see if Miss Feste will breakfast upstairs, Falcon. I think----"

"Miss Feste has breakfasted, madam."

"Already?"

"Yes, madam. Her breakfast was taken to her before eight o'clock."

"Where is she?"

"I think she's out bicycling, madam."

"Bicycling?"

The inquiry leapt from five mouths simultaneously.

"Yes, madam. She sent for me and asked if I could find 'er a lady's bicycle, an' Greenaway was very 'appy to lend 'er 'ers, madam. An' Fitch pumped up the tires, an' she went off about 'alf-past eight, madam."

We stared at one another in bewilderment.

"Did she say where she was going?" said Berry.

"No, sir."

"All right, Falcon."

The butler bowed and withdrew.

Amid the chorus of astonished exclamation, Berry held up his hand.

"It's very simple," he said. "She's unhinged."

"Rubbish," said his wife.

"The disappearance of n.o.bby, followed by the loss of her necklace, has preyed upon her mind. Regardless alike of my feelings and of the canons of good taste, she rises at an hour which is almost blasphemous and goes forth unreasonably to indulge in the most h.e.l.lish form of exercise ever invented. What further evidence do we need? By this time she has probably detached the lamp from the velocipede and is walking about, saying she's Florence Nightingale."

"Idiot," said Daphne.

"Not yet," said her husband, "but I can feel it coming on." He cast an eye downward and s.h.i.+vered. "I feared as much. My left leg is all unb.u.t.toned."

"For goodness' sake," said his wife, "don't sit there drivelling----"

"Sorry," said Berry, "but I haven't got a clean bib left. This laundry strike----"

"I said 'drivelling,' not 'dribbling.' You know I did. And what are we wasting time for? Let's do something--anything."

"Right-oh," said her husband. "What about giving the bread some birds?"

And with that he picked up a loaf and deliberately pitched it out of the window on to the terrace.

The fact that the cas.e.m.e.nt was not open until after the cast, made his behaviour the more outrageous.

The very wantonness of the act, however, had the excellent effect of breaking the spell of melancholy under which we were labouring.

In a moment all was confusion.

Jill burst into shrieks of laughter; Jonah, who had been immersed in _The Times_, cursed his cousin for the shock to his nerves; in a shaking voice Daphne a.s.sured the butler, whom the crash had brought running, that it was "All right, Falcon; Major Pleydell thought the window was open"; and the delinquent himself was loudly clamouring to be told whether he had won the slop-pail outright or had only got to keep it clean for one year.

Twenty minutes later Jonah had left for Brooch to see the Chief Constable about the missing jewels and arrange for the printing and distribution of an advertis.e.m.e.nt for n.o.bby. The rest of us, doing our utmost to garnish a forlorn hope with the seasoning of expectation, made diligent search for the necklace about the terrace, gardens and tennis-lawn. After a fruitless two hours we repaired to the house, where we probed the depths of sofas and chairs, emptied umbrella-stands, settles, flower-bowls and every other receptacle over which our guest might have leaned, and finally thrust an electric torch into the bowels of the piano and subjected that instrument to a thorough examination.

At length--

"I give it up," said Daphne, sinking into a chair. "I don't think it can be here."

"Nor I," said I. "I think we've looked everywhere."

"Yes," said Berry. "There's only the cesspool left. We can drag that before lunch, if you like, but I should prefer one more full meal before I die."

"Boy! Boy!"

Somewhere from behind closed doors a sweet excited voice was calling.

I sprang to the door.

"Yes, Adele, yes?" I shouted.

A moment later my lady sped down a pa.s.sage and into the hall.