The Gem Collector | Page 6

and was accepted. "The bridegroom," said a
society paper, "is one of those typical captains of industry of whom our
cousins 'across the streak' can boast so many. Tall, muscular,
square-shouldered, with the bulldog jaw and twinkling gray eye of the
born leader. You look at him and turn away satisfied. You have seen a
man!"
Lady Jane, who had fallen in love with the abbey some years before,
during a visit to the neighborhood, had prevailed upon her
square-shouldered lord to turn his twinkling gray eye in that direction,
and the captain of industry, with the remark that here, at last, was a real
bully old sure-fire English stately home, had sent down builders and

their like, not in single spies, but in battalions, with instructions to get
busy.
The results were excellent. A happy combination of deep purse on the
part of the employer and excellent taste on the part of the architect had
led to the erection of one of the handsomest buildings in Shropshire. To
stand on the hill at the back of the house was to see a view worth
remembering. The lower portion of the hill, between the house and the
lake, had been cut into broad terraces. The lake itself, with its island
with the little boathouse in the centre, was a glimpse of fairyland. Mr.
McEachern was not poetical, but he had secured as his private sanctum
a room which commanded this view.
He was sitting in this room one evening, about a week after the meeting
between Spennie and Jimmy Pitt at the Savoy.
"See, here, Jane," he was saying, "this is my point. I've been fixing up
things in my mind, and this is the way I make it out. I reckon there's no
sense in taking risks when you needn't. You've a mighty high-toned
bunch of guests here. I'm not saying you haven't. What I say is, it
would make us all feel more comfortable if we knew there was a
detective in the house keeping his eye skinned. I'm not alluding to any
of them in particular, but how are we to know that all these social
headliners are on the level?"
"If you mean our guests, Pat, I can assure you that they are all perfectly
honest."
Lady Jane looked out of the window, as she spoke, at a group of those
under discussion. Certainly at the moment the sternest censor could
have found nothing to cavil at in their movements. Some were playing
tennis, some clock golf, and the rest were smoking. She had frequently
complained, in her gentle, languid way, of her husband's unhappily
suspicious nature. She could never understand it. For her part she
suspected no one. She liked and trusted everybody, which was the
reason why she was so popular, and so often taken in.
Mr. McEachern looked bovine, as was his habit when he was

endeavoring to gain a point against opposition.
"They may be on the level," he said. "I'm not saying anything against
any one. But I've seen a lot of crooks in my time, and it's not the ones
with the low brows and the cauliflower ears that you want to watch for.
It's the innocent Willies who look as if all they could do was to lead the
cotillon and wear bangles on their ankles. I've had a lot to do with them,
and it's up to a man that don't want to be stung not to go by what a
fellow looks like."
"Really, Pat, dear, I sometimes think you ought to have been a
policeman. What is the matter?"
"Matter?"
"You shouted."
"Shouted? Not me. Spark from my cigar fell on my hand."
"You know, you smoke too much, Pat," said his wife, seizing the
opening with the instinct which makes an Irishman at a fair hit every
head he sees.
"I'm all right, me dear. Faith, I c'u'd smoke wan hondred a day and no
harm done."
By way of proving the assertion he puffed out with increased vigor at
his cigar. The pause gave him time to think of another argument, which
might otherwise have escaped him.
"When we were married, me dear Jane," he said, "there was a detective
in the room to watch the presents. Two of them. I remimber seeing
them at once. There go two of the boys, I said to mysilf. I mean," he
added hastily, "two of the police force."
"But detectives at wedding receptions are quite ordinary. Nobody
minds them. You see, the presents are so valuable that it would be silly
to risk losing them."

"And are there not valuable things here," asked McEachern
triumphantly, "which it would be silly to risk losing? And Sir Thomas
is coming to-day with his wife. And you know what a deal of