第66章

"Burton," he said a little sharply, "while I was outside that doorway there, I heard you beg old Isaac to let you keep the rubies, and three times already you have asked the same of me.What would you do with them if I gave them back to you?"Burton did not reply for a moment--he was gazing at the masked face in a half-eager, half-doubtful way.

"You--you mean you will give them back!" he burst out finally.

"Answer my question," prompted Jimmie Dale.

"Do with them?" Burton repeated slowly."Why, I've told you.

They'd go back to Mr.Maddon--I'd take them back.""Would you?" Jimmie Dale's voice was quizzical.

A puzzled expression came to Burton's face.

"I don't know what you mean by that," he said."Of course, Iwould!"

"How?" asked Jimmie Dale."Do you know the combination of Mr.

Maddon's safe?"

"No," said Burton"And the safe would be locked, wouldn't it?""Yes."

"Quite so," said Jimmie Dale musingly."Then, granted that Mr.

Maddon has not already discovered the theft, how would you replace the stones before he does discover it? And if he already knows that they are gone, how would you get them back into his hands?""Yes, I know," Burton answered a little listlessly."I've thought of that.There's only one way--to take them back to him myself, and make a clean breast of it, and--" He hesitated.

"And tell him you stole them," supplied Jimmie Dale.

Burton nodded his head."Yes," he said.

"And then?" prodded Jimmie Dale.What will Maddon do? From what I've heard of him, he's not a man to trifle with, nor a man to take an overly complacent view of things--not the man whose philosophy is 'all's well that ends well.'""What does it matter?" Burton's voice was low."It isn't that so much.I'm ready for that.It's the fact that he trusted me implicitly, and I--well, I played the fool, or I'd never have got into a mess like this."For an instant Jimmie Dale looked at the other searchingly, and then, smiling strangely, he shook his head.

"There's a better way than that, Burton," he said quietly.

"I think, as I said before, you've had a lesson to-night that will last you all your life.I'm going to give you another chance--with Maddon.Here are the stones." He reached into his pocket and laid the case on the table.

But now Burton made no effort to take the case--his eyes, in that puzzled way again, were on Jimmie Dale.

"A better way?" he repeated tensely."What do you mean? What way?""Well, say at the expense of another man's reputation--of mine,"suggested Jimmie Dale, with his whimsical smile.You need only say that a man came to you this evening, told you that he stole these rubies from Mr.Maddon during the afternoon, and asked you, as Mr.

Maddon's private secretary, to restore them with his compliments to their owner."A slow flush of disappointment, deepening to one of anger dyed Burton's cheeks.

"Are you trying to make a fool of me?" he cried out."Go to Maddon with a childish tale like that! There's no man living would believe such a cock-and-bull story!""No?" inquired Jimmie Dale softly."And yet I am inclined to think there are a good many--that even Maddon would, hard-headed as he is.

You might say that when the man handed you the case you thought it was some practical joke being foisted on you, until you opened the case"--Jimmie Dale pushed it a little farther across the table, and Burton, mechanically, his eyes still on Jimme Dale, loosened the catch with his thumb nail--"until you opened the case, saw the rubies, and--""The Gray Seal!" Burton had snatched the case toward him, and was straining his eyes at the inside cover."You--the Gray Seal!""Well?" said Jimmie Dale whimsically.

Motionless, the case held open in his hands, Burton stood there.

"The Gray Seal!" he whispered.Then, with a catch in his voice:

"You mean this? You mean to let me have these back--you mean--you mean all you've said? For God's sake, don't play with me--the Gray Seal, the most notorious criminal in the country, to give back a fortune like this! You--you--""Dog with a bad name," said Jimmie Dale, with a wry smile; then, a little gruffly: "Put it in your pocket!"Slowly, almost as though he expected the case to be snatched back from him the next instant, Burton obeyed.