“Yes. She will be down in a few minutes.”
“Then I must make haste. For I could not meet her. You know it is about—Rees.”
“Is he dead?”
“No, unhappily, I might almost say. He is concerned in a stupendous robbery.”
Deborah listened with surprising outward calmness. She had expected some calamity of this sort for such a long time that it almost seemed to her that she was hearing old news.
“Is he in the hands of the police?” she asked quietly.
“No. They have not even been informed of the robbery yet, except perhaps unofficially. For the great object is to get the jewels back without noise.”
“Jewels?”
“Crown jewels.”
Deborah started. She had not expected anything so sensational as that.