“Let’s go ahead with this, Main,” he insisted. “What I want is money to carry on with—money; I want money every hour. I can’t wait until it is safe to sell the big stones. What I thought was I might get half a dozen of the smaller ones out, have them reset or broken up, and raise something that way.”
“Yes,” Felix Main muttered absently. “We might do that.”
“Listen to me, will you?” Charles almost shouted. “Don’t stand there looking like a mesmerised rabbit. Listen to me whilst I tell you what must be done. If you are my partner in this, you must do as I wish.”
Felix Main raised his head and glanced at this big, formidable-looking young man. Yes, he was tall and he had great limbs—at one time, without doubt, huge muscles. Just now he seemed like a windbag, as though one blow in the right place would knock him out. The detective moistened his dry lips.
“Yes, we are partners,” he admitted hoarsely. “We will decide together what is best to be done.”
“You fool,” Charles scoffed, “it is I who will decide. What have you done to be my partner? Nothing yet. You arranged the revolver business, true. I daresay that is all right. You have undertaken to dispose of the diamonds. You haven’t done anything about that yet. This is where you are to be tested. If we are partners, tell me what you propose. I want several thousand pounds. I need clothes. I must have an automobile. There is a lady—”
“Yes, I understand,” Felix Main interrupted.
“Very well, Mr. de Suess, I will tell you what I propose.”
He ran over the stones rapidly.
“There are twelve here—beautiful stones,” he pointed out, “but not unusual in size or colour or shape. I propose that I have those twelve taken out, chipped a little—I fear that will be necessary—and deposited with a man I know of. He will ask no questions. He will give me a receipt for them by weight and he will advance perhaps half their value, which is as much as one can hope for.”
“What do you suppose half the value would be?” Charles demanded.
Felix Main brooded for some time longer over the necklace. He touched the stones lovingly, one by one.
“They are not the best of the stones,” he said. “I think, perhaps, for the twelve, I could get an advance of two thousand pounds. That would be a thousand each.”
“I want more than that,” was the angry protest. “What do you want an advance for? You’re not in need of money, are you? You can take your share when the rest are sold.”
Mr. Felix Main shook his head.
“In a partnership,” he rejoined, “it is better to divide as we sell. Yes, I think so, Mr. de Suess— divide as we sell. You will leave it to me. I will have the necklace broken up. You shall come with me, if you will, to the man who will advance the money, or you shall see his papers. Half of what we get for the twelve stones shall be paid to you at once. Remember, you may have run your risk in getting the necklace, but I will run just as great a one in trying to dispose of it. I doubt whether there is any one else could do it safely for you except me. I am not being overpaid, Mr. de Suess. Pray don’t think that. I am afraid of the business but I cannot refuse it.”
“How long will it be before you can get the money?” Charles asked.
“About a week.”
The young man bit his nether lip savagely.
“Do you mean,” he expostulated, “that I must leave the necklace in your keeping and get no money for a week?”
Mr. Felix Main extended his hands.
“My dear young friend,” he argued, “how else can it be arranged? I have to send a man who works for me down to the East End. I have to go into the workshop and stand over him whilst he takes these stones out. It will cost us fifty pounds, perhaps, that. When they are safely out, you can have the necklace back, if you wish. If I were you, though, I would have all the stones taken out, and have them sealed in a little packet. Then you might put them in a safe deposit. You forget that to be found with the diamonds stolen from Glenlitten, the jewels that were stolen that night, might be as bad for you as the finding of that revolver will be for Max Drayton.”
The young man shivered a little in his chair. There was a venomous gleam in his eyes as he looked towards his companion.
“Mr. Main,” he said, “you are not to misunderstand me. I have told you the truth. I stole the necklace. It is my sister’s. It was her own fault. She should have provided for us. It is not a great thing, that theft. She would always see to it that I was never charged.”
“But the other thing?”
“There was no other thing! Don’t imagine for a moment that it was I who shot De Besset. You need never think you have that over me.”
Felix Main coughed.
“That’s all right, Mr. de Suess,” he agreed soothingly. “It isn’t my worry, anyway.”
“So far as the necklace is concerned,” Charles repeated, “I frankly admit that I stole it. My sister has married a very rich man and she has treated us all very badly. I think that she owes us money. I had a chance to get quits by stealing the necklace and I did it. If, at any time, the theft were brought home to me, neither you nor I would get into trouble. There would be no prosecution. It would be a family affair and it would be hushed up. But as regards the murder,” Charles concluded, his voice losing a little of its self-assured ring—“that is a different thing. With that I had nothing to do. Nobody could ever connect me with it, anyway.”
Mr. Felix Main stroked his sandy moustache. His eyes had narrowed a little.
“If it makes you feel any better to talk like that, Mr. de Suess,” he said, “why, go on as long as you like, only, between you and me, is it worth while?”
“I won’t have you believe that you’ve got that over me,” Charles shouted. “No, keep your damned wine,” he added, as the other approached with the bottle. “No one is going to blackmail me, now or at any other time.”
Felix Main was shocked. He very nearly put the bottle down but Charles, who had apparently changed his mind, held out the glass.
“Blackmail is not a word, Mr. de Suess,” his host remonstrated, “to be mentioned between gentlemen. The very idea between us is unthinkable. Your position is a peculiar one, Mr. de Suess. It possesses great possibilities, but you need help. You will need help all the time. You could never have found any one more suitable than I. For one thing, I dislike very much your brother-in-law. I think you and your family are unjustly treated. When a man is unjustly treated he must set the matter right himself. He owes it to himself. A top on your glass, Mr. de Suess.”
Charles drained his glass and stood up. His eyes rested covetously upon the necklace.
“I do not like to leave those diamonds with you,” he acknowledged bluntly.
“There is no help for it,” Mr. Main pointed out. “As a matter of fact, it is to your advantage. I shall know how to keep them safely, and as soon as the trial is over and Drayton is hanged, we will get to work with the larger stones.”
The young man turned away with a little shiver.
“Very well,” he muttered. “Remember I shall want some money on Thursday.”
“You shall have some money on Thursday,” the detective promised him.
As soon as his visitor had departed, Felix Main relocked the door. For five minutes he held the necklace in his hand, passing it slowly back and forth, studying every stone. Then he went to the telephone, searched through the book, and rang up Glenlitten House.
“Does