“I’d like you to go,” said Jones, “just for me to be able to say I ascertained as no one had left the house. Which is his room?”
“I’ll take you,” said Harry; and they went upstairs together. Presently Harry came tearing down.
“Mary Jane;” he said, looking as scared as if he’d seen a ghost, “the London physician’s gone, and he’s taken his portmanteau with him!”
I couldn’t speak. I dropped down flop on the stairs with horror.
And at that very minute a man on horseback came dashing through the streets, and pulled up by our door as Jones ran out to see what it could be.
It was a groom from the Hall. “I’m going to the station for help,” he said. “The Hall’s been broken into in the night by burglars, and the missus’s jewellery——”
* * * * *
“What’s that? It’s in the best sitting-room, Susan. It’s something smashed. Oh dear me, whatever can it be? What! the best vase! Of course; the cat got on the mantelpiece! Well, whose fault is it? I told you you’d shut it in one day by accident, and now you see what’s happened!”
CHAPTER VI.
MR. AND MRS. SMITH.
It was a long time before I got over the burglary at the Hall. It was a most daring thing, and the detective that came down from London, said it was the work of an old hand. A nice haul the wretches had made, though they hadn’t got all Mrs. Phillips’s diamonds and jewels, because, it seems, the best had been sent to the bank, but they had taken a lot that were in her room, and valuable plate and things, and got clean away with everything.