He should not be a thief! She would foil that as well as his attempt to marry the other girl!
Her first impulse was to hurl those stones from the porthole and destroy the evidence against him, but as she swayed to take a step in that direction, she realized what she was doing. Those were Sherrill Cameron’s jewels. Hurling them into the sea would not make Carter any less a thief, even if no one ever found it out. And Sherrill Cameron had been wonderful to her, generous in the extreme. She could not do that to her, throw her costly jewels in the sea! That other girl had already suffered greatly through herself; she should not also lose her property. No, the only possible way to undo the wrong that Carter had done was to return them to their owner. Somehow she must return them and yet shield Carter! Shield him from going to the penitentiary!
Hastily she wrapped the jewels in a clean handkerchief, tied the corners securely, and hid it in her own suitcase beneath the lingerie. Then she hurried back to pick up Carter’s things. If she could only restore them to their place before he returned!
She schooled herself to go carefully, folding each garment without a wrinkle, laying everything smoothly back in its place. It seemed to her that it was hours before that suitcase was fastened and back on the top of the pile where he had left it.
Then she went to her own suitcase and began frantically hunting through it among the various contents for a suitable container for the jewels. If she could only get them in the mail before it closed! She glanced at her wristwatch. There was a little over half an hour. She must not fail to get them in. She must get them wrapped in time! He should not be allowed to be a thief! He might have done many crooked things in business, doubtless had; she could not help the past, but insofar as she was able, he should not be allowed to steal a lady’s jewels! She never could endure life with that over her, that she had helped him to take the necklace of the girl who had given him up to her. It was too low and contemptible! He wouldn’t be thinking himself of doing it if he weren’t so utterly frantic about money! He had been decently brought up, just as decently as she was. He wasn’t naturally a crook. She must protect him against his worst self.
And she must protect the necklace from her own weakness, too, she realized. If he should discover she had it, should look at her with his beautiful eyes, kiss her the way he did last night, ask her to surrender it, could she resist? She doubted her own strength. She must put that necklace where neither he nor she could ever get it again.
She found in the suitcase a little leather case containing lovely crystal bottles of perfume and lotions. She took out the bottles and packed the jewels carefully, swiftly, among soft folds of Sherrill’s own fine handkerchiefs. Then she scribbled a hasty note.
You must have dropped this when you were packing. I found it in the suitcase. I hope it has not caused you any anxiety.
Arla McArthur
With the leather case wrapped in a bit of silk lingerie and then in paper, she went hurriedly out and procured a mailing carton from the stewardess, addressed her package at a desk, and was not satisfied until it was safe in the keeping of the ship’s mail service.
When she went back, Carter was directing the steward about the baggage. She was silent and abstracted, putting a few last things in her suitcase. The baggage was all going up on deck at once. The whole ship was in a state of getting ready to land.
Carter, too, seemed absorbed in his own thoughts. Just before they left their stateroom, he remarked briskly that they would go directly to the hotel and he would leave her there for the morning. He had some business to be transacted that must be attended to the first thing. Then he would be free to go about with her if all went well.
All during the slow process of arrival and landing and on the way to the hotel, Arla was thinking what to do when her husband should discover his loss. Now that she was safe on land and the package in the return mail