thrown
open, and an urgent voice at an incredible pitch shrieked, "Thieves!"
"Murder!" Then the bell sounded again and yet again, until I heard it
fall with a crash upon the stone floor of the corridor below. The wild
voice, once loosed, went on shrieking, "Murder!" "Thieves!" I hurried
the money I had stolen back into the bag, tied it as I had found it, and
awaited the result with perfect equanimity. In less than half a minute
doors were banging all over the house, and hurrying feet charged
up-stairs and down-stairs. The voice of alarm never ceased for a moment.
I stepped out into the corridor, and faced the manager, who was the
first man to arrive upon the field.

"Lady Rollinson is alarmed," I said; "you had better send some of your
women to her. I have just robbed her of forty thousand pounds, and the
money is in my room."

The man glared at me with an expression of profound astonishment. Words
were utterly beyond him, and he could only gasp at me.

"Tell Lady Rollinson," I continued, "that the money is quite safe. I
shall surrender it to Miss Rossano, to whom it belongs, but to no other
person. Now go!"

The corridor by this time was full of half-clad people, who were staring
in each other's faces with the bewilderment natural to startled sleep.
I returned to my own room, closing the door behind me, and awaited the
progress of events. I heard excited voices outside, but could make out
nothing of their purport. Thirty or forty people made a very babel of
noise outside my door; but by-and-by Hinge came in, wide-eyed, in a very
short night-shirt.

"I have saved the count," I said, very quietly. "There is the money
which was to have betrayed him."

"Good Lord, sir," Hinge cried, "how did you get hold of it?"

"I stole it," I responded; "it was the only thing to do." While Hinge
still stared at me in wordless amazement the outer door was flung open,
and the manager appeared, ushering in a policeman.

"This is the man!" he cried.

"Yes," I answered, "I have not the slightest doubt that I am the man you
want. You are an officer of the police?" The man said "Yes," bustling
forward with a brace of handcuffs in his hand. "I claim this money," I
said, laying my hand upon the bag which rested on the table. "There need
be no doubt about the matter, officer. I have become illegally possessed
of this, but I claim it, and I shall surrender it only to the hands
of your inspector. He will keep it until its rightful owner