"I know what she said," interrupted Vand imperiously. "Hold your tongue, Rosamund, and let me speak. Granny said what she did say in a trance. At one time I really believed in such things; now, and especially since our ghost has proved to be you, I have ceased to believe. You heard merely the raving of an old beldame. I dare say she wished to blackmail myself and Rosamund by bringing this unfounded charge, and chose this so-called trance to bring the charge. If she really has any grounds to go upon--and I swear that she has not--she will doubtless go to the police to-morrow."
"And I hope she will go!" cried Mrs. Vand angrily, "for then Henry and I can have her up for libel. No wonder everyone is so disagreeable! Granny, no doubt, has been spreading all manner of reports against us. I daresay we are regarded as a couple of criminal, gory, murdering assassins," ended Mrs. Vand, with a fine choice of words.
Bella was puzzled. Like the Vands themselves, she did not believe in the occult arts with which Granny Tunks was supposed to be familiar, and it was not unlikely that the clever old woman intended to risk blackmail. Certainly, if Mrs. Tunks could really prove the guilt of Vand, she would not have retreated so easily when he ordered her out of the house, much less would she have condoned the blow of Mrs. Vand. If Granny honestly could prove her case, she was mistress of the situation; but as she had slunk away so quietly, it seemed that she had merely spoken from conjecture. Bella began to think she had been too precipitate in revealing herself, as the Vands decidedly had right on their side.
"Yet, after all," she said reluctantly, "how did Granny come to know about the jewels?"
"Jewels! Had Jabez really jewels?" asked Mrs. Vand avariciously.
"Yes," said Bella coldly. "I read some papers which proved that he had jewels valued at forty thousand pounds."
"I refuse to tell you that," retorted the girl, anxious not to incriminate Mrs. Tunks until she had interviewed her.
"You must tell!" yelled Mrs. Vand, her face on fire with rage and expectation. "You've come in sneaking by these secret passages to steal. Jabez never gave you any of his papers. They are mine, and if they tell where the jewels are, you minx----"