under your eyes. Right..."
Her voice, gay and triumphant, trailed off sud-denly.
"Oh," she said. "Oh .... "
"What's the matter, honey?" said her father.
Eve whispered: "It's gone.., it's gone .... "
"What's all this?" asked Pointz, coming for-ward.
Eve turned to him impetuously.
"It was like this. This pochette of mine has a big
paste stone in the middle of the clasp. It fell out
last night and just when you were showing that
diamond round I noticed that it was much the
same size. And so I thought in the night what a
good idea for a robbery it would be to wedge your
diamond into the gap with a bit of plasticine. I felt
sure nobody would ever spot it. That's what I did
tonight. First I dropped it--then went down after
it with the bag in my hand, stuck it into the gap
with a bit of plasticine which I had handy, put my
bag on the table and went on pretending to look
for the diamond. I thought it would be like the
Purloined Letter--you know--lying there in full
view under all your noses--and just looking like a
common bit of rhinestone. And it was a good plan
--none of you did notice."
"I wonder," said Mr. Stein.
"What did you say?"
Mr. Pointz took the bag, looked at the empty
hole with a fragment of plasticine still adhering to
it and said slowly: "It may have fallen out. We'd
better look again."