the hands of the clock over the stables were pointing to half-past five when eve halliday, tiptoeing furtively, made another descent of the stairs. her feelings as she went were very different from those which had caused her to jump at every[p. 268] sound when she had started on this same journey three hours earlier. then, she had been a prowler in the darkness and, as such, a fitting object of suspicion: now, if she happened to run into anybody, she was merely a girl who, unable to sleep, had risen early to take a stroll in the garden. it was a distinction that made all the difference.

moreover, it covered the facts. she had not been able to sleep—except for an hour when she had dozed off in a chair by her window; and she certainly proposed to take a stroll in the garden. it was her intention to recover the necklace from the place where she had deposited it, and bury it somewhere where no one could possibly find it. there it could lie until she had a chance of meeting and talking to mr. keeble, and ascertaining what was the next step he wished taken.

two reasons had led eve, after making her panic dash back into the house after lurking in the bushes while baxter patrolled the terrace, to leave her precious flower-pot on the sill of the window beside the front door. she had read in stories of sensation that for purposes of concealment the most open place is the best place: and, secondly, the nearer the front door she put the flower-pot, the less distance would she have to carry it when the time came for its removal. in the present excited condition of the household, with every guest an amateur detective, the spectacle of a girl tripping downstairs with a flower-pot in her arms would excite remark.

eve felt exhilarated. she was not used to getting only one hour’s sleep in the course of a night, but excitement and the reflection that she had played a difficult game and won it against odds bore her up so strongly that she was not conscious of fatigue: and so uplifted did she feel that as she reached the landing[p. 269] above the hall she abandoned her cautious mode of progress and ran down the remaining stairs. she had the sensation of being in the last few yards of a winning race.

* * * * *

the hall was quite light now. every object in it was plainly visible. there was the huge dinner-gong: there was the long leather settee: there was the table which she had upset in the darkness. and there was the sill of the window by the front door. but the flower-pot which had been on it was gone.