De Richleau smiled. “I fear we shall never see those famous jewels.”
“No, we’ll never sit round fingering those pretties now!”
Marie Lou had just finished ramming the last of the bloodstained cloths into the stove. “Did you say, Monsieur, that you had met Prince Shulimoff?” she asked.
At that moment there came a heavy knocking on the door.
XIX — Hidden Corn
De Richleau signalled Rex towards the cupboard with a wave of his hand. The American, with a lightness surprising in so large a man, tiptoed across the room.
The knocking came again, more persistently this time.
“What is it?” called Marie Lou, in an angry voice.
“Open!” cried a voice, in Russian. “Open in the name of the Soviets!”
De Richleau saw the iodine bottle, with its London label. He snatched it up quickly, and thrust it in his pocket.