“Haven’t you read about it? A large house in Derbyshire, belonging to Lord Dalston, was broken into last Wednesday, and a quantity of valuable things stolen. They say they’ve got a clue, but they haven’t been able to find any of the thieves yet.”
“And they won’t either. They never do, except by a fluke.”
“They say that the robbery must have been most carefully planned, and that it was most skilfully carried out.”
“They always say that. That is to excuse the utter incompetency of the police in face of a little daring and dexterity.”
“And they say that it looks like the work of the same hand that committed several large jewel robberies some years ago.”
“Whose hand was that?”
“Ah, they don’t know! The man was never discovered.”
“That is another newspaper commonplace. To say that the way one ladder was placed against a window, the window opened and entered, and the diamonds taken away, looks very like the way another ladder was placed against another window, and another set of diamonds taken away, sounds very cute indeed; and to imply that there is only one thief in England with skill enough to baffle them raises that uncaught thief into a half divinity whom it is quite excusable in mere human policemen to fail to catch.”
“Well, I hope they will catch this one, whether he is a half divinity or not.”
“Why, what harm has the poor thief done you? You have nothing to fear from diamond-robbers, because you have no diamonds.”