Cutty put this aside because he did not care to disillusion Hawksley.
"I found an appraiser's receipt in your wallet. You carried some fine
jewels. Did you hide them or did Karlov get them? It struck me as
odd that you haven't inquired about them." The change that came into
Hawksley's face alarmed Cutty. The rich olive skin became chalky and the
eyes closed. "What is it? Shall I call Miss Frances?"
"No." Hawksley opened his eyes, but looked dully straight ahead. "The
stones! I was trying to forget! My God, I was trying to forget!"
"But they were yours?" Cutty was mystified beyond expression.
"Yes, mine, mine, mine!"--panting. "Damn them! Some day I'll tell you.
But just now I can't toe the mark. I was trying to forget them!
Against my heart, gnawing into my soul like the beetle of the Spanish
Inquisition!" Silence. "But they were future bread and butter--for
Gregor as well as for myself. They got them, and may they damn Karlov as
they have damned me! I had no chance when I returned to Gregor's. They
were on me instantly. I put up a fight, but I'd come from a lighted room
and was practically blind. Let them go. Most of those stones came out
of hell, anyhow. Let them go. There is an unknown grave between those
stones and me."
The level despair of the tone appalled Cutty. A crime somewhere? There
was still a bottom to this affair he had not plumbed? He rose, deeply
agitated.
"I'll fetch those togs for you. Miss Conover will breakfast with us, and
the sight of her will give you a brace. I'm sorry. I had to ask you."
"Beefsteak and a pretty girl! That's something. I suppose she was
trapped by the lift not running." Hawksley was trying to meet Cutty
halfway to cover up the tragedy. "I say, why the deuce do you let her
live where she does?"
"Because I'm not legally her guardian. She is the daughter of the man
and woman I loved best. All I can do is to watch over her. She lives on
her earnings as a newspaper writer. I'd give her half of all I have if I
had the least idea she would accept it."
"Fond of her?"
"Fond of her!" repeated Cutty. "Why, of course I'm fond of her!" There
was a touch of indignation in his tone.
"Is she fond of you?"