Jasher was not the person.
Perhaps Widow Anne was the woman who had talked through the
window, and who had restored the emerald. But that was
impossible, since Mrs. Bolton habitually took more liquor than
was good for her, and would not have the nerve to deliver the
jewel, much less commit the crime, the more especially as the
victim was her own son. Of course she might have found out
Sidney's scheme to run away with the jewels, and so would have
claimed her share. But if she had been in Pierside on that
evening--and her presence in Gartley had been sworn to by three
or four cronies--she would have guessed who had strangled her
boy. If so, not all the jewels in the world would have prevented
her denouncing the criminal. With all her faults--and they were
many--Mrs. Bolton was a good mother, and looked upon Sidney as
the pride and joy of her somewhat dissipated life. Mrs. Bolton
was certainly as innocent as Mrs. Jasher.
There remained Hervey. Random laughed aloud when the name came
into his puzzled head. That buccaneer was the last person to
surrender his plunder or to feel compunction in committing a
crime. Once the skipper got his grip on two jewels, worth
endless money, he would never let them go--not even one of them.
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