I ran back to the store room, and there, a little bit sticky and
smelling terribly of rosin, lay Anne's pearl necklace!
I was so excited that I seized Aunt Selina by the hands and danced her
all over the place. Then I left her, trying to find her hair pins on the
floor, and ran up to tell the others. I met Betty in the hall and waved
the pearls at her. But she did not notice them.
"Is Mr. Harbison down there?" she asked breathlessly. "I left him on the
roof and went down to my room for my scarf, and when I went back he
had disappeared. He--he doesn't seem to be in the house." She tried
to laugh, but her voice was shaky. "He couldn't have got down without
passing me, anyhow," she supplemented. "I suppose I'm silly, but so many
queer things have happened, Kit."
"I wouldn't worry, Betty," I soothed her. "He is big enough to take care
of himself. And with the best intentions in the world, you can't have
him all the time, you know."
She was too much startled to be indignant. She followed me into the
library, where the sight of the pearls produced a tremendous excitement,
and then every one had to go down to the store room, and see where the
necklace had been hidden, and Max examined all the bars of soap for
thumb prints.
Mr. Harbison did not appear. Max commented on the fact caustically,
but Dal hushed him up. And so, Anne hugging her pearls, and Aunt Selina
having put a final seasoning of washing powder on the clothes in the
tub, we all went upstairs to bed. It had been a long day, and the
morning would at least bring bridge.
I was almost ready for bed when Jim tapped at my door. I had been very
cool to him since the night in the library when I was publicly staked
and martyred, and he was almost cringing when I opened the door.
"What is it now?" I asked cruelly. "Has Bella tired of it already, or
has somebody else a rash?"
"Don't be a shrew, Kit," he said. "I don't want you to do anything. I
only--when did you see Harbison last?"
"If you mean 'last,'" I retorted, "I'm afraid I haven't seen the last of
him yet." Then I saw that he was really worried. "Betty was leading him
to the roof," I added. "Why? Is he missing?"
"He isn't anywhere in the house. Dal and I have been over every inch
of it." Max had come up, in a dressing gown, and was watching me
insolently.
"I think we have seen the last of him," he said. "I'm sorry, Kit, to nip
the little romance in the bud. The fellow was crazy about you--there's
no doubt of it. But I've been watching him from the beginning, and I
think I'm upheld. Whether he went down the water spout, or across a
board to the next house--"