Night
before last Mrs. Hale thought she heard a noise in her outer room.
She made a look-see, but found nothing. In the morning when she got
up, about ten (she's a late riser) the necklace was gone."
"Where had it been left?"
"On a stand in her sitting-room."
"Anything else taken?"
"That's the strange part of it. Her purse, with over a hundred
dollars in it, which lay under the necklace, wasn't touched."
"Does she usually leave valuables around in that casual way?"
"Well, you see, she's always stayed at the Denton and she felt
perfectly secure here."
"Any other thefts in the hotel?"
"Not that I can discover. But one of the guests on the same floor
with Mrs. Hale saw a fellow acting queerly that same night. There
he sits, yonder, at that table. I'll ask him to come over."
The guest, an elderly man, already interested in the case, was
willing enough to tell all he knew.
"I was awakened by some one fumbling at my door and making a
clinking noise," he explained. "I called out. Nobody answered.
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