Chapter 39

"I'd been keeping an eye on the pearls and when the last tin was opened I saw that the Twins were missing: by the purest chance, Rairi's thieving hand had landed on their box. I was on the point of telling Schmidt that the pearls he had seen were not bad, but that the finest of the lot were in the tuck of his partner's waistband. I don't know why I didn't speak--they might have had a row which would have given me my chance--but for some reason I kept my mouth shut. When Rairi had made a bundle of my papers and made…