'The thing was found in my box, sir, and I'll take the consequences
if I have to be hanged for it. But don't you believe a word James
says. He never touched it. It wasn't him.'

'How do you know it wasn't him,' says master very sharp. 'If you
didn't take it, how do you know who did?'

'How do I know?' I cried, forgetting for a moment who I was speaking
to. 'Why, if you'd half a grain of sense among the lot of you, you'd
know why I know it's not him. If you felt to a young man like I feel
to James, you'd know in your heart that he could not have done such
a thing, not if there was fifty diamond necklaces found in fifty
pockets on him at the same time.'

They said nothing, but Mr. Oliver chuckled in his collar till I'd
have liked to strangle him with my two hands round his fat throat.
And I went on--

'I'm as sure he didn't do it as I am that I didn't do it myself, and
as he would have been that I didn't if he had really loved me, as he
said, instead of believing that I could do such a thing, and trying
to save me with a black lie--God bless him for it.'

And James he never looked at me, but he said again, 'Don't mind
her--she's off her head with fright about me. You send me off to
prison as soon as you like, sir.'

And still none of the others spoke, but Mr. Oliver leaned back in
his chair, and he clapped his hands softly as though he was at a