protect somebody?

Miss Grey was evidently anxious to transfer the scene at least to
the living-room, away from the sick-room, and Kennedy, seeing it,
fell in with the idea.

"Looks to me as though this robbery was an inside affair,"
remarked Lewis, as we all stood for a moment in the living-room.
"Do you suppose one of the servants could have been 'planted' for
the purpose of pulling it off?"

The idea was plausible enough. Yet, plausible as the suggestion
might seem, it took no account of the other circumstances of the
case. I could not believe that the illness of Mansfield was merely
an unfortunate coincidence.

Fleming Lewis's unguarded and blunt tendency to blurt out whatever
seemed uppermost in his mind soon became a study to me as we
talked together in the living-room. I could not quite make out
whether it was studied and astute or whether it was merely the
natural exuberance of youth. There was certainly some sort of
enmity between him and the doctor, which the remark about the
spangle seemed to fan into a flame.

Miss Grey manoeuvered tactfully, however, to prevent a scene. And,
after an interchange of remarks that threw more heat than light on
the matter, Kennedy and I followed Lewis out to the elevator, with
a parting promise to keep in touch with Miss Grey.

"What do you think of the spangle?" I queried of Craig as Lewis