'And what do they do to them in state prison?' Jerry continued.
'Cut their hair off; make them eat bread and water and mush, and sleep
on a board, and work awful hard,' was Harold's reply, given at random
and without the least suspicion why the question had been asked.
Jerry said no more, but the next morning she started for the park house,
which she knew was to be searched, and going to Mr. Arthur's room looked
him wistfully in the face as she asked in a whisper:
'Are they found?'
'Found! What found?' he said, as if all recollection of the missing
jewels had passed entirely from his mind.
'The diamonds; Mrs. Tracy's diamonds; the ones you gave her,' was
Jerry's answer.
For a moment, Arthur looked perplexed and bewildered and confused, and
seemed trying to recall something which would not come at his bidding.
'I don't know anything about it,' he said at last. 'I don't seem to
think of anything, my head is so thick with all the noise there was here
yesterday and the tumult this morning. Search-warrants, Charles says,
and two strange men driving up so early. Who are they, Jerry?'
'Police, come to search the house; search everybody and everything.
Ain't you afraid?' Jerry said.
'Afraid? No: why should I be afraid? Why, child, how white you are, and
what makes you tremble so? You didn't take the diamonds,' was Arthur's
response, as he drew the little girl close to him and looked into her
pallid face.
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