rd,
and she was obliged to hurry down, to save herself from being run over.
Two figures had joined Mervyn, the voice of one proclaiming her as
Bertha, quivering with excitement. 'In there? My emeralds are in there!
Open the door, or he will make off with my--my emeralds!'

'Safe, my child? Don't stand before that door,' cried Miss Fennimore,
pulling Phoebe back with a fond, eager grasp.

'Here, some of you,' shouted Mervyn to the men, whose heads appeared
behind the herd of maids, 'come and lay hold of the fellow when I unlock
the door.'

The women fell back with suppressed screams, and readily made way for the
men, but they shuffled, backed, and talked of pistols, and the butler
suggested the policeman.

'The policeman--he lives two miles off,' cried Bertha. 'He'll go out of
window with my emeralds! Unlock the door, Mervyn.'

'Unlock it yourself,' said Mervyn, with an impatient stamp of his foot.
'Pshaw! but thank you,' as Miss Fennimore put into his hand his
double-barrelled gun, the first weapon she had found--unloaded, indeed,
but even as a club formidable enough to give him confidence to unlock the
door, and call to the man to give himself up. The servants huddled
together like sheep, but there was no answer. He called for a light. It
was put into his hand by Phoebe, and as he opened the door, was blown out
by a stream of cold air from the open window.

The thief was gone. Everybody was ready to press in and look for him in
every impossible place, but he had evidently escaped by the leads of the
portico beneath; not, however, with 'my emeralds'--he had only attempted
the lock of the jewel cabinet.

Phoebe hurried to see whether Maria had been frightened, and finding her
happily asleep, followed the rest of the world down-stairs, where the
servants seemed to be vying with each other in the magnitude of the
losses they announced, while Mervyn was shouting himself hoarse with
passionate orders that everything should be left alone--doors, windows,
plate-chests, and all--for the inspection of the police; and human nature
could not resist lifting up and displaying signs of the robbery every
moment, in the midst of the storm of vituperation thus excited.

Mervyn could hardly attend to Phoebe's mention of the cart, but as soon
as it reached his senses, he redoubled his hot commands to keepers and
stablemen to set off in pursuit, and called for his horse to ride to
Elverslope, to give information at the po