The Crimson Circle Read Online

He was gone three minutes and when he came back his eyes were almost bulging from his head.

    "My Buddha!" he gasped. "It is worth a hundred pounds. It was there this morning—"

    "Send for Miss Drummond," said the detective briefly.

    Thalia came, a cool, self-possessed girl, who stood by her employer's desk, her hands clasped behind her, scarcely looking at the detective.

    The interview was short, and for Mr. Froyant, painful. Upon the girl it had no apparent effect whatever. And yet she must have known, from the steely glare in Froyant's eyes, that her theft had been detected. For a little time the man found a difficulty in framing a coherent sentence.

    "You—you have stolen something of mine," he blurted out. His voice was almost a squeak. The accusing hand trembled in the intensity of his emotion. "You—you are a thief!"

    "I asked you for the money," said the girl coolly. "If you hadn't been such a wicked old skinflint, you'd have let me have it."

    "You—you—" spluttered Froyant, and then with a gasp—"I charge her, inspector. I charge her with theft. You shall go to prison for this. Mark my words, young woman. Wait—wait," he raised his hand. "I will see if anything else is missing."

    "You can save yourself the trouble," said the girl, as he was leaving the room. "The Buddha was the only thing I took, and it was an ugly little beast anyway."

    "Give me your keys," stormed the enraged man. "To think that I've allowed you to open my business letters!"

    "I've opened one which will not be pleasant for you, Mr. Froyant," she said quietly, and then he saw what she was holding in her hand.

    She passed the envelope across to him, and with staring eyes he saw the Crimson Circle, but the words written within the hoop were blurred and indistinct. He dropped the card and collapsed into a chair.

    THE magistrate was a kind-hearted man and seemed uncomfortable. He looked from the unemotional Mr. Parr who stood on the witness-stand, to the girl in the steel pen, and she was almost as cool and as self-controlled as the police witness. Her face was one which would have attracted attention in any circumstances, but in the drab setting of the police court, her beauty was emphasised and enhanced.

    The magistrate glanced down at the charge-sheet before him. Her age was described as twenty-one, her occupation as secretary.

    The man of law, who had had many shocks in his lifetime, and had steeled himself to the most unusual and improbable happenings, could only shake his head in despair. "Is anything known against this woman?" he asked, and felt it was absurd even to refer to the slim, girlish prisoner as a "woman."

    "She has been under observation for some time, your worship," was the reply, "but she has not been in the hands of the police before."

    The magistrate looked over his glasses at the girl.

    "I cannot understand how you got yourself into this terrible position," he said. "A girl who has evidently had the education of a lady, you have been charged with a theft of a few pounds, for although the article you stole was worth a large sum, that was all that your dishonesty realised. Your act was probably due to some great temptation. I suppose the need for the money was very urgent; yet that does not excuse your act. I shall bind you over to come up for judgment when called upon, treating you as a first offender, and I do most earnestly appeal to you to live honestly and avoid a repetition of this unpleasant experience." The girl bowed slightly and left the box for the police office, and the next case was called.

    Harvey Froyant rose at the same time and made his way out of the court. He was a rich man to whom money represented the goal and object of life.