CHAPTER VII.
THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE AND STRANGER RECOVERY OF THE COUNTESS'S DIAMONDS.
A barefaced robbery— The police at fault—I form a theory—success crowns my efforts—the restoration of the valuable dressing-case.
All London was talking about the robbery. It was the most barefaced theft attempted for many years. In broad daylight at a busy London station a dressing-case containing jewels of the value of £50,000, some of them impossible to replace, vanishes as if by magic, and notwithstanding the extraordinary exertions of detectives both public and private, not a trace of it can be found.
It was the duty of the lady's maid not to lose sight of this valuable dressing-case on the journey, and while she waited for the train she took the precaution to sit on it. It was to the bookstall for a paper or to the refreshment room for a bun she went, but the interval was long enough for the thief—during the few seconds she was absent the dressing case had been spirited away and no trace of it could be found of it in the station. The poor girl who had served her mistress, whom she adored faithfully, for several years, was distracted, and it was feared she would go out of her mind. She was a well conducted girl, and came from the same district as the countess. It was impossible after the most diligent enquiry to connect the servant with the theft. There was a man servant, but he was in a different part of the station at the time, and no collusion could be attributed to him. The large reward of £2,000 was a temptation, but its announcement in all the papers yielded no results. Agents scoured Europe in search of the missing property without getting the smallest clue to its recovery.
The affair was in this unsatisfactory state when I happened to run against D——, one of the smartest officers of the Metropolitan police.
"Nothing has been heard of the countess's jewellery?" I asked.
"Nothing whatever; we are beaten; everything has been tried and a large amount of money spent on the enquiry," D—— answered. "The earl said we were to spare no expense. Several articles of the jewellery were heirlooms, worth double their real value."
"It seems extraordinary; have you formed no opinion?"