ghtower's jewels and the recent
mysterious murder at Hoxton. The news was at first meager and
unsatisfactory, and contained little more in substance than was found
in the big headlines and on the posters of the leading papers:

DARING ROBBERY AT LAMB AND DRUMMOND'S.

THE FAMOUS REMBRANDT CARRIED OFF--WATCHMAN BRUTALLY HANDLED.

The early journals had gone to press before a full report of the affair
could reach them, but a detailed account appeared between ten and eleven
o'clock in the first edition of the afternoon papers. The Rembrandt was
gone--there was no doubt of it--and the story of its disappearance
contained many dramatic elements. A curious crowd gathered about the
premises of Lamb and Drummond on Pall Mall, to gaze at the now vacant
window, and the services of a policeman were required to keep the
sidewalk clear. Many persons recalled the similar case, some years
before, of the Gainsborough portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire.

Mr. Lamb, it appeared, had been detained at his place of business until
long after the closing hour, writing important letters. He left at nine
o'clock, and Raper, the night watchman, fastened the street door behind
him. During the night the policeman on duty in Pall Mall saw or heard
nothing suspicious about the premises. The Rembrandt was on an easel in
a large room back of the shop proper, and from it a rear door opened on
a narrow paved passage leading to Crown Court; the inmates heard no
noise in the night. At four o'clock in the morning a policeman, flashing
his lantern in Crown Court, found a window open at the back of Lamb and
Drummond's premises. He entered at once. Inside the gas was burning
dimly, and the watchman lay bound and gagged in a corner, with a strong
odor of drugs mingling with his breath. The Rembrandt had been cut out
of its frame and carried away.

"The robbery was evidently well-planned, and is enveloped in mystery,"
said the _St. James' Gazette_, "and the thieves left not the slightest
clew. It is difficult to conceive their motive. They cannot hope at
present to dispose of the picture, which is known by reputation in
Europe and America, nor is it certain that they could safely realize
on it after the lapse of years. The watchman, who has recovered
consciousness, declared that he has no knowledge of how the thieves
entered the building. It was about midnight, he states, when he was
knocked down from behind. He remembers nothing after that."

The _Globe