stolen treaties, anything that comes along."
"And you would have special ways of finding anything?"
"You'd be surprised."
"A sort of---"
" Technique."
"Yes, technique. At present, it all seems so hopeless. It's like hunting for a needle in a haystack."
"What is?"
"It's so difficult to know how to start telling you. Well, first of all, Cakebread isn't Cakebread."
"Aha! Now we're getting somewhere."
"He's my uncle." Jeff blinked.
"You said---"
"Cakebread is my uncle."
"This uncle?" asked Jeff, indicating Lord Uffenham: who had once more become remote and was looking like arecently unveiled statue.
"Yes. You see, we decided that the only thing to be done, if he was going to let the house—and he had to let the house, to get some ready money—was for him to stay on, in case he suddenly remembered. And the only way he could stay on was by being the butler. It's quite simple, really."
"Oh, quite. Remembered, did you say?"
"Where he had hidden it."
"I see. Yes, that explains it all. Er—hidden what?"
Anne Benedick gave a sudden laugh, so silvery, so musical, that it seemed to Jeff that his great passion, in the truest and deepest sense of the words, really dated from this moment. Ever since she had come in, shimmering across the threshold like the spirit of the June day, he had known, of course, in a sort of general way that the strange emotion she awoke in him was love, but this laugh—hitherto she had merely smiled—seemed to underline the facts and clarify his outlook. There was all Heaven in Anne Benedick's laugh. It conjured up visions of a cosy home on a winter's night, with one's slippers on one's feet, the dog on one's lap, an open fire in the grate and the good old pipe drawing nicely.
"I'm not telling this story very well, am I?" she said. "The word 'it' refers to a small packet of extremely valuable diamonds representing the combined Uffenham and Benedick fortunes. My uncle hid them somewhere on the premises of Shipley Hall, and now hasn't the slightest recollection where."
Inside the spacious cupboard, Chimp Twist, for all that he realised the imperative need of keeping his presence undetected, found it impossible to repress a startled snort. The thought of diamonds lying around loose in a country house—a country house, moreover, in which were established those old allies of his, Mr. and Mrs. Soapy Molloy, was one that spoke to his very depths. If this was not money in the bank, he did not know such money when he saw it. So he snorted.
Fortunately for his aims and objects, Jeff had snorted simultaneously on his own account, and with such abandon that the Twist contribution passed unnoticed. The idea did, indeed, cross Lord Uffenham's mind that there was a curious echo in the room and set him musing dreamily on acoustics, but that was all.
"That surprises you?"
"It does."
"It surprised me, too, when he told me. I had always known that he had an original mind, but I hadn't been prepared for that."
Jeff had recovered somewhat. He was even able, though a little feebly, to place the tips of his fingers together again.
"Let me get this clear," he said. "He put the entire family funds into diamonds?"
"Yes."
"And hid them?"
"Yes."
"And then forgot where?"
"Yes "
"Like a dog with a bone?"
"Exactly like a dog with a bone."
"Yes," said Jeff, expelling a deep breath. "'Original' is correct. No need to consult the Thesaurus. You've got the right word."
"You see," said Anne. "I told you it would make you look a chump. Mr. Adair is stunned."
As far as such an action was within the scope of a man weighing two hundred and sixty pounds, Lord Uffenham bridled.
"I refuse to admit," he said stiffly, "that it makes me look any such dashed thing. My motives, as I told you before, were fundamentally sound. Lord-love-a-duck, what's wrong with diamonds ? One of the few good investments left in a world where everything else seems to be going to hell. It was only after considerable thought, after I had
"And you would have special ways of finding anything?"
"You'd be surprised."
"A sort of---"
" Technique."
"Yes, technique. At present, it all seems so hopeless. It's like hunting for a needle in a haystack."
"What is?"
"It's so difficult to know how to start telling you. Well, first of all, Cakebread isn't Cakebread."
"Aha! Now we're getting somewhere."
"He's my uncle." Jeff blinked.
"You said---"
"Cakebread is my uncle."
"This uncle?" asked Jeff, indicating Lord Uffenham: who had once more become remote and was looking like arecently unveiled statue.
"Yes. You see, we decided that the only thing to be done, if he was going to let the house—and he had to let the house, to get some ready money—was for him to stay on, in case he suddenly remembered. And the only way he could stay on was by being the butler. It's quite simple, really."
"Oh, quite. Remembered, did you say?"
"Where he had hidden it."
"I see. Yes, that explains it all. Er—hidden what?"
Anne Benedick gave a sudden laugh, so silvery, so musical, that it seemed to Jeff that his great passion, in the truest and deepest sense of the words, really dated from this moment. Ever since she had come in, shimmering across the threshold like the spirit of the June day, he had known, of course, in a sort of general way that the strange emotion she awoke in him was love, but this laugh—hitherto she had merely smiled—seemed to underline the facts and clarify his outlook. There was all Heaven in Anne Benedick's laugh. It conjured up visions of a cosy home on a winter's night, with one's slippers on one's feet, the dog on one's lap, an open fire in the grate and the good old pipe drawing nicely.
"I'm not telling this story very well, am I?" she said. "The word 'it' refers to a small packet of extremely valuable diamonds representing the combined Uffenham and Benedick fortunes. My uncle hid them somewhere on the premises of Shipley Hall, and now hasn't the slightest recollection where."
Inside the spacious cupboard, Chimp Twist, for all that he realised the imperative need of keeping his presence undetected, found it impossible to repress a startled snort. The thought of diamonds lying around loose in a country house—a country house, moreover, in which were established those old allies of his, Mr. and Mrs. Soapy Molloy, was one that spoke to his very depths. If this was not money in the bank, he did not know such money when he saw it. So he snorted.
Fortunately for his aims and objects, Jeff had snorted simultaneously on his own account, and with such abandon that the Twist contribution passed unnoticed. The idea did, indeed, cross Lord Uffenham's mind that there was a curious echo in the room and set him musing dreamily on acoustics, but that was all.
"That surprises you?"
"It does."
"It surprised me, too, when he told me. I had always known that he had an original mind, but I hadn't been prepared for that."
Jeff had recovered somewhat. He was even able, though a little feebly, to place the tips of his fingers together again.
"Let me get this clear," he said. "He put the entire family funds into diamonds?"
"Yes."
"And hid them?"
"Yes."
"And then forgot where?"
"Yes "
"Like a dog with a bone?"
"Exactly like a dog with a bone."
"Yes," said Jeff, expelling a deep breath. "'Original' is correct. No need to consult the Thesaurus. You've got the right word."
"You see," said Anne. "I told you it would make you look a chump. Mr. Adair is stunned."
As far as such an action was within the scope of a man weighing two hundred and sixty pounds, Lord Uffenham bridled.
"I refuse to admit," he said stiffly, "that it makes me look any such dashed thing. My motives, as I told you before, were fundamentally sound. Lord-love-a-duck, what's wrong with diamonds ? One of the few good investments left in a world where everything else seems to be going to hell. It was only after considerable thought, after I had
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