“The first scream,” Reggie murmured. “And then the lights went out. I ran away and tumbled over that chair and then out into the passage. I kept bumping into things and it was horrid. And then--oh, somebody caught hold of me and I screamed----” “The second scream,” Reggie murmured. “I was sort of flung about. There were men there fighting in the dark. Horrid. Hitting all round me, you know. And then--oh, well, I suppose I stopped one, didn’t I?” There was a tap at the door. “May I come in, doctor?” said Alice Beach. “Oh, Alice, have they caught anyone?” “Not a creature. Isn’t it awful? Oh, Sally, you poor darling,” her sister embraced her. “What a shame! Is it bad?” “I’m all muddled. And jolly sore.” “My dear! It is too bad it should be you. Oh, Mr. Fortune, what did happen?” “Some fellow knocked her out. She’ll be all right in the morning. But keep her quiet and get her off to sleep.” He went to the window. It was open and the curtains blowing in the wind. He looked out. A ladder stood against the wall. “And that’s that. Yes. Put her to bed, Mrs. Beach.” Outside in the passage he found Captain Cosdon waiting. “I say, Fortune, is she much hurt?” “She’s taken a good hard knock. She’s not made for it. But she’ll be all right.” “Sally! Oh damn,” said Cosdon. “Did you catch anybody?” “Napoo. All clear. The Colonel’s going round to see if they got away with anything. And Faulks wants you to look at his poor eye.” “Nothing of yours gone?” Cosdon laughed. “No. But I’m not exactly the burglar’s friend, don’t you know? My family jewels wouldn’t please the haughty crook. I say, it’s a queer stunt. Ever been in one like it?” “I don’t think it went according to plan,” said Reggie Fortune. He came down and found Faulks with an eye dwindling behind a bruise of many colours, arguing with an agitated butler that the house must contain arnica. Before he could give the attention which Mr. Faulks imperiously demanded, the parade voice of the Colonel rang through the house. “Fortune, come up here!” Tom Beach stood in the study where he writes the biographies of his poultry and his iris. There also are kept the cups, medals and other silver with which shows reward their beauty. “Look at that!” he cried, with a tragic gesture. The black pedestals of the cups, the velvet cases of the medals stood empty. “Great Jimmy!” said Captain Cosdon in awe. “Well, that’s very thorough,” said Reggie. “And the next thing, please.” Colonel Beach said it was a damned outrage. He also supposed that the fellows had stripped the whole place. And he bounced out. Reggie went to his own room. He had nothing which could be stolen but his brushes, and they were not gone. He looked out of the window. In the cold March moonlight he saw two men moving hither and thither, and recognized one for his chauffeur and factotum Sam, and shouted. “Nothing doing, sir,” Sam called back. “Clean getaway.”