“Light-hearted chaps!” said Eustace, admiring the sang-froid of the criminal world. “Full of spirits!”
“This won’t do,” said Jane Hubbard, shaking her head. “We can’t have this sort of thing. I’ll go and fetch my gun.”
“They’ll murder you, dear!” panted Mrs. Hignett, clinging to her arm.
Jane Hubbard laughed.
“Murder me!” she said amusedly. “I’d like to catch them at it!”
Mrs. Hignett stood staring at the door as Jane closed it softly behind her.
“Eustace,” she said solemnly, “that is a wonderful girl!”
“Yes! She once killed a panther—or a puma, I forget which—with a hat-pin!” said Eustace with enthusiasm.
“I could wish you no better wife!” said Mrs. Hignett.
She broke off with a sharp wail. Out in the passage something like a battery of artillery had roared.