“Yes, sir, I do.”

  “In which the items are listed?”

  “Well, some of them are listed.”

  “All right,” Mason said, “now, tell me one item of jewelry, just one item, mind you, that’s covered in that specific insurance policy and which was taken from your house in this burglary.”

  “I … I told you I’d have to make an inventory.”

  “Just one item,” Mason said, holding up his index finger so that it emphasized the figure “one.”

  “Just one item of jewelry covered in that insurance policy.”

  “I don’t think I can do it, offhand.”

  “All right,” Mason said, “now, tell me one item of jewelry that was taken that is not covered in that insurance policy.”

  “Well, for one thing, there’s a wrist watch.”

  “What make?”

  “A rather expensive Swiss wrist watch.”

  “How do you know it was taken?”

  “I haven’t seen it—it seems to be missing.”

  “All right,” Mason said. “Now that wrist watch would be covered in your other insurance policy, wouldn’t it? The ten per cent of your all-purpose coverage.”

  “I believe it would, yes.”

  “So,” Mason said, “you’re going to make a claim to the insurance company for this wrist watch in the event the police don’t recover it. Is that right?”

  “Well, I suppose so. I’m a busy man. I hadn’t thought … ”

  “Yes or no,” Mason said. “Are you going to make a claim to the insurance company?”

  “What does that have to do with it?” Colton asked.

  “Just this!” Mason said. “In the event that wrist watch was not taken and this man makes a claim to an insurance company, he’s going to be guilty of perjury and of obtaining money under false pretenses, and I think he knows it. So he’s not going to make any false statements in connection with a claim on an insurance policy. Now, then, Mr. Alder, you’re on oath. I want you to tell us one particular item of jewelry that was taken. Just one, any one.”

  “Well, I saw this person, that is she had been discovered trying to steal things from my desk, and I … I went in there and opened the locked compartment where I keep jewels, and … well, I took a look at the jewel box and estimated that a very large amount of jewelry had been taken.”

  “Where did you get this jewelry?”

  “Most of it came to me from my mother, after my father died. That is, it was part of father’s estate. It was mother’s jewelry.”

  “And some of your own?”

  “Wrist watch, cuff links, a diamond pin, a ruby ring … ”

  “Well, then,” Mason said, “we shouldn’t have any trouble, so let’s list these things. Now, the diamond pin is gone, the ruby ring is gone, the … ”

  “I didn’t say they were gone.”

  “They’re covered in the insurance policy?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  “Well, are they gone, or aren’t they?”

  “I don’t know. I tell you I didn’t make a detailed inventory. I took a look at the contents of the jewel box and estimated that about fifty thousand dollars worth of jewelry had been taken.”

  “Fifty thousand dollars,” Mason said, “is quite a lot of jewelry.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Alder moistened his lips, glanced somewhat appealingly toward the deputy district attorney.

  “How much jewelry was in that box?”

  “Quite a lot.”

  “Insured?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How much was it insured for?”

  “Fifty thousand dollars.”

  “That was the value of it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then all of it must have been taken if fifty thousand dollars worth of jewelry is missing.”

  “Well, it wasn’t all gone. I … I tell you I didn’t take an inventory.”

  “Why not?” Mason asked. “Wasn’t it good business for you to take an inventory?”

  “Surely,” Judge Lankershim interrupted, “you must have made some survey in order to find out what was missing, Mr. Alder.”

  “Well, I didn’t go through everything that was there. I was excited and … well, that was it, I was excited.”

  “You’re not excited now, are you?” Mason asked.

  “No.”

  “All right, tell us what was missing.”

  “I haven’t the jewel box here.”

  “Were you excited this morning before you went to the district attorney’s office?”

  “Of course there was the shock of having someone I’d trusted burglarize my house.”

  “How much of a shock?”

  “Quite a shock.”

  “So much so that you couldn’t concentrate on making a list of jewelry?”

  “Well, I was excited, yes.”

  “So, when you told the district attorney fifty thousand dollars in jewelry was taken, you were excited?”

  “I don’t see what that has to do with it.”

  “You were so excited that you couldn’t make an inventory of what jewelry was missing. Isn’t that right?”

  “Well, you might put it that way.”

  “I’m not putting it that way,” Mason said, “you are. I’m simply trying to summarize your testimony. Now, isn’t it quite possible that when you said fifty thousand dollars, you had in mind the figure of the insurance policy, and … ”

  “I guess perhaps that’s right, perhaps I could have.”

  “Right now, at the present moment, you wouldn’t swear that even ten thousand dollars worth of jewelry was taken, would you?”

  “Look here,” Alder said angrily, “this young woman broke into my house; she was at my desk; my jewel case was open. Someone opened the door and surprised her. One of the guests started to ask her what she was doing there, and the woman grabbed this bottle, and dashed for the window, and … ”

  Alder stopped abruptly.

  “What bottle?” Mason asked.

  “The bottle with the jewelry in it,” Alder said angrily.

  “You keep your jewelry in a bottle?”

  “I don’t know. No, of course not, but it looked to some of the witnesses who saw her jump out of the window as though she had put the jewelry in a bottle or something. She had her escape all planned, and I suppose she didn’t want to lose the jewelry in swimming. I don’t know. All I know is some of the guests said a bottle.”

  “You didn’t see her?”

  “Not close. I saw her running after she’d jumped through the window. I turned the dog loose. If he’d caught her, we’d have found how much of my property she had. She and that contemptible accomplice of hers!”

  “No need to get worked up about it,” Mason said. “We’re simply trying to get the matter straight. As far as you yourself are concerned, you don’t know that even as much as two thousand dollars worth of jewelry was taken, do you?”

  “Well, I think … ”

  “You don’t even know that one thousand dollars worth of jewelry was taken.”

  “I don’t know anything was taken,” Alder said angrily. “I took a look at that open jewel box and it looked to me as though a great deal of stuff was missing.”

  “But when you said fifty thousand dollars, you were thinking of the fact that the jewelry was insured for fifty thousand dollars. You were excited, and so you said fifty thousand dollars worth of jewelry had been taken. Is that it?”

  “Well, that might be an explanation.”

  “You haven’t made any claim on the insurance company?”

  “No, sir.”

  “And, as a matter of fact,” Mason said, pointing his finger at Alder, “you don’t intend to make any claim on the insurance company, do you?”

  “I don’t see where that has anything to do with it, and I don’t think I have to sit here and be browbeaten about the matter,” Alder said.

  Mason turned to Judge Lankershim. “There you are, Your Honor. I’m willing to be bound by the stipulation. If he had said fifty thousand dollars had been taken, I’d have had the Court make fifty thousand dollars bail. As it is, he can’t say that anything was taken. In which event, the district attorney agreed he would permit my client to be released on her own recognizance, and would dismiss the case, and … ”

  “Not so fast, not so fast,” Colton interposed. “It’s a far cry from browbeating and confusing this witness to … ”

  “I don’t like that word, browbeating,” Mason said. “This man’s a businessman. He knows his rights. I’m simply asking him to make a direct, positive, unequivocal statement to this Court. He’s afraid to do it. He’s afraid to list any one particular item of jewelry and swear that this woman stole that item of jewelry, because he knows he can’t prove it. It’s one thing to tell newspaper reporters and the police that he’s lost fifty thousand dollars worth of jewelry, and it’s another thing to prove it.”

  “But why on earth would a man want to claim he’d lost fifty thousand dollars worth of jewelry if he hadn’t?” Judge Lankershim asked in perplexity. “We have here no question of a publicity-seeking individual who wants to see his name in the papers.”

  “Because,” Mason said, “for reasons of his own, he wanted the defendant apprehended.”

  “Are you aware, Mr. Mason, that that is a most serious charge?”

  “I’m aware it’s a most serious charge,” Mason said, “and I’m so greatly aware of it that I can advise this Court and Mr. Alder that the defendant, Dorothy Fenner, is going to bring suit against him for defamation of character, and then I’m going to take his deposition and when I get him on the witness stand I’m going to defy him to produce any evidence of any single article of jewelry that was taken. Furthermore, I’m going to insist that representatives of the insurance company go to his house and make an inventory of the jewelry that’s left, and check it against the items mentioned in the insurance policy.”

  Mason ceased speaking, and there was a tense, dramatic silence.

  That silence was broken at length by Colton, who said, “It sounds to me as though Mr. Mason is trying to intimidate the witness.”

  “Well, listen again,” Mason said, “and you’ll find that I’m simply trying to protect my client against imposition.”

  “This whole business is absurd,” Alder said. “I was excited Saturday night, and I was confused yesterday morning. I didn’t realize any lawyer was going to browbeat me … ”

  “You’ve used that word several times,” Judge Lankershim interrupted. “This Court isn’t going to let anyone browbeat you, Mr. Alder, but the Court will ask you a question. Would you be willing for a representative of the Court to go to your house with you and check the contents of your jewelry chest against the inventory of the jewelry used for insurance purposes?”

  “When?”

  “Now.”

  “It wouldn’t be convenient now. I have other engagements.”

  “All right then, you fix a time.”

  There was an interval of silence, then Alder said, “I’ll go home and make that inventory myself. I’m a reputable citizen. There’s no need to have all this fanfare. You’d think I was the thief—I already seem to be the defendant.”

  Judge Lankershim pursed his lips.

  Again there was a silence.

  “Oh, well,” Judge Lankershim said. “I’ll admit the defendant to twenty-five hundred dollars bail.”

  Mason picked up his brief case, turned toward the door as Judge Lankershim left the bench.

  “Say, what’s the idea?” Colton asked Mason, his manner curious. “Do you know anything about this burglary that I don’t know?”

  “Ask Alder,” Mason said.

  Colton laughed grimly. “Don’t think I’m not going to do that very thing,” he said.

  Alder left the witness stand, seemingly trying to avoid both Mason and Colton.

  Colton suddenly swung toward him. “Don’t leave, Mr. Alder,” he said. “I want you to go back to my office with me. I want to talk to you.”

  “I have some other matters,” Alder said crisply, “some appointments.”

  “I don’t think they are as important as this matter,” Colton told him. “You’d better get this straightened out while we have the chance.”

  Mason said to the clerk of the court, “If you’ll make me a certified copy of the judge’s order, Mr. Clerk, I’ll see about getting my client released on bail.”

  Colton nodded to Alder. “This way, Mr. Alder,” he said.

  Chapter 6

  Perry Mason smiled at the matron, said to Dorothy Fenner, “All right, Dorothy, get your things ready. You’re going home.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, startled.

  “You’re getting out of here,” Mason told her. “Judge Lankershim admitted you to twenty-five hundred dollars bail, and a surety company has put up the money.”

  “But … but doesn’t the surety company demand money from me as collateral security, or something?”

  “Oh, I have an arrangement with them,” Mason said airily. “You can get your things together and go on home. Where do you live, incidentally? I may be able to drive you home.”

  “At the Monadnock Hotel Apartments.”

  Mason said, “I’m going to be busy. We stole a march on the newspapers. No one expected any fireworks. We walked into court, and gave Alder a very bad ten minutes.”

  “Did he say anything about the … ”

  Mason glanced significantly in the direction of the matron, and said, “He started to let the cat out of the bag, and then tried to catch himself in time.”

  The matron said with a laugh, “Don’t mind me, Mr. Mason. I have one-way ears … Perhaps I’d better withdraw for a while. You have the bail bond and the order for release?”

  Mason handed her the papers.

  “Okay,” she said, “I’ll be back here when you’re ready to go. Now, if you’ll excuse me a moment, I have another matter to attend to.”

  She stepped out of the office.

  Dorothy Fenner said in a quick, anxious voice, “Wasn’t anything said about the paper?”

  “Certainly not,” Mason said. “He got excited and said something about a bottle, then he hastily tried to claim that you had a bottle to carry the jewels in.”

  “All fifty thousand dollars worth of them, I suppose,” she said bitterly.

  “Well,” Mason grinned, “that amount got whittled materially. It hadn’t occurred to him that the insurance company might be interested in this. And then I dropped a bombshell by stating that we were going to sue him for defamation of character. I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard from Mr. Alder and found that he wanted to patch things up.”

  “And what do I tell him?”

  Mason said, “You tell him precisely this: ‘See my lawyer.’ That’s all. Can you remember to tell him that?”

  “Yes.”

  “And newspapermen may be calling on you,” Mason went on. “I want you to tell them that you are not in a position to make any statement. Can you remember to do that? Can I trust you?”

  “But, Mr. Mason, what are we going to do now? How are we ever going to get that paper that was in the bottle brought into evidence? It seems to me now that we’re—well, we’re doing all this fighting just to get back to where we started.”

  “That,” Mason told her, “is what comes of not doing what I told you to do at the start. However, don’t worry too much about the evidence now. Alder is on the defensive, and I don’t think he likes being on the defensive. Now let’s get started.”

  “Where are you going to be?” she asked. “Can I get in touch with you—later on tonight if anything should develop?”

  Mason said, “If anything really important should turn up, ring up the Drake Detective Agency; that’s a detective agency that has offices in the same building as mine and on the same floor. They’re just to the right of the elevator as you leave the elevator. You ask for Paul Drake, and he’ll know how to get a message to me, but don’t call unless it’s something very important, and don’t let anyone stampede you into talking. They may try all sorts of tricks, but don’t let them get away with it.”

  She took his hand in both of hers. “Mr. Mason,” she said, “you … I can’t … ” Her voice choked up and tears were in her eyes.

  “That’s all right,” Mason told her. “You just sit tight and carry on as though nothing had happened.”

  She blinked back the tears. “But, Mr. Mason … somehow … that paper … ”

  “You leave all that to me,” Mason said.

  “But I don’t see how you can … unless I make a statement now … ”

  “You keep absolutely quiet,” Mason warned. “Say nothing to anyone. Now we’ll get the matron, have you released, and I’ll drop you at your apartment house after we get to the city.”

  Chapter 7

  Mason found Della Street waiting in the private office.

  “Well,” she asked, “what happened?”

  Mason chuckled. “Alder had to make some explanation to his guests. He said the unknown thief had broken into his house and stolen fifty thousand dollars worth of gems. At the time he didn’t realize that Dorothy Fenner had left a bath towel, bathing cap, and a rubber bag on his property near the illuminated sign, so he embellished the burglary with a lot of lurid details.

  “Then, very much to his consternation, the police ran down the clue of the laundry mark on the towel and apprehended Dorothy.

  “Naturally, Alder is a little flabbergasted. Then when I pointed out to him that all of his jewelry was insured, and the insurance company would expect him to make a claim of loss—and he knew damned well that the insurance company would be suspicious of the whole setup—well, he began to lose his ardor very rapidly.”

  Della Street said, “You have a visitor waiting in the reception room, Chief. He said he’d wait until I closed up the office no matter what time it was.”

  “Who?” Mason asked.

  “Mr. Dorley H. Alder.”

  Mason gave a low whistle.

  “He told me he simply had to see you tonight.”

  Mason, narrowing his eyes in thought, gave the matter careful consideration, then said, “Try and fix the time when he came, Della. I want to find whether it was before or after George Alder began to realize he had a bear by the tail.”