en from my sister, Berry and myself, and the spurious
telegram was handed over. The insurance company was, of course, informed
of the crime.

Despite the paucity of detail, our description of the gang and its
methods aroused tremendous excitement at Scotland Yard. The master, it
appeared, was a veritable Prince of Darkness. Save that he existed, and
was a man of large ideas and the utmost daring, to whose charge half the
great unplaced robberies of recent years were, rightly or wrongly, laid,
little or nothing was known of his manners or personality.

"I tell you," said the Assistant Commissioner, leaning back and tilting
his chair, "he's just about as hot as they make 'em. And when we do take
him, if ever we do--and that might be to-morrow, or in ten years'
time--we might walk straight into him next week with the stuff in his
hands; you never know--well, when we do take him, as like as not, he'll
prove to be a popular M.P., or a recognized authority on livestock or
something. You've probably seen him heaps of times in St. James's, and,
as like as not, he's a member of your own Club. Depend upon it, the old
sinner moves in those circles which you know are above suspicion. If
somebody pinched your watch at Ascot, you'd never look for the thief in
the enclosure, would you? Of course not. Well, I may be wrong, but I
don't think so. Meanwhile let's have some lunch."

For my sister the ordeal had been severe, and for the thirty hours
following the robbery she had kept her bed. Berry had contracted a
slight cold, and I was not one penny the worse. Jill was overcome to
learn what she had missed, and the reflection that she had mercifully
slept upstairs, while such a drama was being enacted upon the ground
floor, rendered her inconsolable. Jonah was summoned by telegram, and
came pelting from Somerset, to be regaled with a picturesque account of
the outrage, the more purple features of which he at first regarded as
embroidery, and for some time flatly refused to believe. As was to be
expected, Nobby paid for his treachery with an attack of biliousness,
the closing stages of which were terrible to behold. At one time it
seemed as if no constitution could survive such an upheaval; but,
although the final convulsion left him subdued and listless, he was as
right as ever upon the following morning.

The next Sunday we registered what was to be our last attendance of
Church Parade for at least three months.

By common consent w