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taken the necklace. If he had been caught there I was sure he would have had a ready explanation for his presence.
    During the night when I was trying to sleep I went over what had happened since I last put the necklace on and I was sure I had put it back in the case when I last took it off.
    My father was naturally horrified. He ordered that my room be thoroughly searched. He fired questions at me. Did I remember taking off the necklace? Did I remember putting it into the case? Who had been in my room since then? Only the maid to clean and Miss Milne, of course. She came to discuss something with me. I forgot what.
    He said that everyone should assemble in the library.
    “This is a grievous matter,” he said to the company. “A valuable piece of jewellery is missing. Someone in this house knows where it is. I am going to give that person a chance to hand it over now. If this is done, I will consider the matter. But if it is not brought to me this day I shall inform the police. Is everyone here?”
    “Where is Ellen?” asked Mrs. Kirkwell.
    “I don’t know,” said Bess. “She was giving me a hand with the rooms. I called out to her when we had the order to come to the library.”
    “Someone should be sent to tell her,” said Mrs. Kirkwell. “I’ll go myself.”
    Mrs. Kirkwell did not have to go for just at that moment Ellen appeared. In her hand she held the pearl necklace.
    “Ellen!” cried Mrs. Kirkwell.
    “I heard Bess calling that we were to come here,” said Ellen. “But … I was finding this. I couldn’t shut the drawer … it looked untidy … half open. I thought something in the drawer below might have caught up somehow. So I opened the lower drawer. It was a petticoat. I pulled it out and as I did this fell out. Is it the one that’s been lost?”
    “In what drawer did you find this?” demanded my father.
    “It was in Miss Milne’s room, sir.”
    I looked at Lilias. Her face had turned scarlet; and then it was deathly pale. It was as though a voice was clanging in my head. “A nest egg … a nest egg …”
    It could not be Lilias.
    Everyone was looking at her.
    My father said: “Miss Milne, can you explain how the necklace came to be in your drawer?”
    “In … my drawer … it couldn’t have been.”
    “But Ellen has just told us it was. And here it is. Come, Miss Milne, an explanation is needed.”
    “I … I didn’t put it there. I … can’t understand.”
    My father was looking at her severely. “It won’t do, Miss Milne, I want an explanation.”
    I heard myself say in a high-pitched hysterical voice: “There must be some reason …”
    “Of course, there is a reason,” said my father impatiently. “Miss Milne will give it to us. You took the necklace, did you not, Miss Milne? Unfortunately for you, you did not shut the drawer properly so Ellen saw that something was wrong. That was fortunate for us … but not for you.”
    I have never seen such horror in any face as I saw in Lilias’ then.
    How could you? I thought. I would always have helped you. Why did you take the necklace? And my father knows! My father is the sort of man who will not tolerate any sin—and stealing is a great sin. “Thou shalt not steal.” It is one of the commandments. Think of Kitty. Hamish, of course, was all right, but then he was a good coachman.
    I wanted this nightmare to be over. The silence was terrible. It was broken by my father. “I am waiting for an explanation, Miss Milne.”
    “I … I do not know how it came to be there. I did not know it was there …”
    My father laughed softly but derisively.
    “It will not do, Miss Milne. You have been discovered. I could, of course, hand you over to the police.”
    She caught her breath. I thought she was going to faint. I had to restrain myself from going to her and putting my arms around her and telling her that whatever she had done she was my friend.
    She raised her eyes and looked at me … pleadingly … asking me to believe her.