Sally, we should never have let Madden have them at the price. They’re perfectly matched—I don’t know that I ever saw—” He stared for a moment into the rosy glow of the pearls, then laid them again on the table. “But Bob—where is Bob?”
“Oh, he’ll be along,” remarked Victor, taking up the necklace. “Just a case of missing each other.”
“I am the faulty one,” insisted Chan. “Shamed by my blunder—”
“Maybe,” said Eden. “But—now that you have the pearls, Sally, I’ll tell you something else. I didn’t want to worry you before. This afternoon at four o’clock some one called me—Madden again, he said. But something in his voice—anyhow, I was wary. Pearls were coming on the President Pierce, were they? Yes. And the name of the messenger? Why should I tell him that, I inquired. Well, he had just got hold of some inside facts that made him feel the string was in danger, and he didn’t want anything to happen. He was in a position to help in the matter. He insisted, so I finally said:’Very good, Mr. Madden. Hang up your receiver and I’ll call you back in ten minutes with the information you want.’There was a pause, then I heard him hang up. But I didn’t phone the desert. Instead I had that call traced, and I found it came from a pay-station in a cigar store at the corner of Sutter and Kearny Streets.”
Eden paused. He saw Charlie Chan regarding him with deep interest.
“Can you wonder I’m worried about Bob?” the jeweler continued. “There’s some funny business going on, and I tell you I don’t like it—”
A knock sounded on the door, and Eden himself opened
