'What? money! jewels! Lady Elton, for God's sake take Mrs. Gregory away!' said the General. 'Now,' as the three ladies moved away slowly, 'don't rave; but tell me plainly what has happened!'
'My desk has been ransacked and papers of incalculable value to me have been taken out.'
'Taken out? You are sure of that?'
'I am positive. I put them away in my escritoire. It has been forced open.'
'Anything besides papers gone?'
'Nothing. I put a twenty-pound note there—the price of my last design. It is there still.'
'And these papers—what are they?'
'I don't know. That is the cruel part of it. They were given to me by Mr. Cherry as explaining my inheritance, and I was to have looked over them to-night. But we are wasting time. Come back with me to the house and watch the people there. I have a suspicion that the papers were seized and the house fired by the same hand.'
'Impossible, Tom! I know how the fire arose.'
They had been hurrying back to the house; but, on hearing this, Tom pulled up. 'You know!' he ejaculated. 'How can that be?'