Criminals -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction
She had half-opened the next door before she saw that there was a
light in the room and she stood motionless in the shadow of the
doorway. On the far side of the bed the little table-lamp was still
burning, and it would, she reflected, have helped her a great deal, if
only she could have been sure that the person who was lying among the
frilled pillows of the bed was really asleep. She waited rigid, and
with all her senses alert for five minutes, till the sound of regular
breathing from the bed reassured her. Then she slipped forward to the
dressing-table. Here, her task was easy. No less than a dozen little
velvet and leather cases lay strewn on the silk cover. She opened them
noiselessly one by one, and put their glittering contents into her
pocket, leaving the cases as they had been.
As she was handling the last of the jewels a thought struck her, and
she peered more closely at the sleeping figure. A thin pretty woman,
it seemed in the half-light. So this was the businesslike Lady
Ovingham. She left the room as noiselessly as she had entered it, and
more quickly, and tried the next door in the passage.
This one had not been locked.
It was Mrs. Lewinstein’s own room, but she was not sleeping quietly.
The door had been left open for her lord, who had made a promise to
see his wife to make arrangements for the morrow. This promise he had
quite forgotten in his perturbation. There was a little safe let into
the wall, and the keys were hanging in the lock; for Mr. Lewinstein,
who, being a prudent, careful man, was in the habit of depositing his
diamond studs every night.
The girl’s fingers went into the interior of the safe, and presently
she found what she wanted. Mrs. Lewinstein stopped breathing heavily,
grunted, and turned, and the girl stood stock-still. Presently the
snoring recommenced, and she stole out into the corridor.
As she closed each door she stopped only long enough to press a small
label against the surface of the handle before she passed on to the
next room.
Downstairs in the library, Mr. Lewinstein heard the soft purr of a
motor car, and rose with a sigh of relief. Only his butler had been
let into the secret, and that sleepy retainer, who was dozing in one
of the hall chairs, heard the sound with as great relief as his
employer. He opened the big front door.
Outside was a motor-ambulance from which two men had descended. They
pulled out a stretcher and a bundle of blankets, and made their way
into the hall.
“I will show you the way,” said Mr. Lewinstein. “You will make as
little noise as possible, please.”
He led the procession up the carpeted stairs, and came at last to the
girl’s room.
“Oh, here you are,” said the doctor, yawning. “Set the stretcher by
the side of the bed. You had better stand away some distance, Mr.
Lewinstein,” he said, and that gentleman obeyed with alacrity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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