The Danvers Jewels, and Sir Charles DanversCholmondeley, Mary
General
The Danvers Jewels, and Sir Charles Danvers
Cholmondeley, Mary
Detective and mystery stories
Jane was delighted to see me. It seemed she had written to inform me of
her change of address, but the letter did not reach me before I started
for England with the Danvers jewels, about which I have been asked to
write this account. Considering this _is_ an account of the jewels, it
is wonderful how seldom I have had occasion to mention them so far; but
you may rest assured that all this time they were safe in their bag
under my waiscoat; and knowing I had them there all right, I did not
trouble my head much about them. I never was a person to worry about
things.
Still I had no wish to be inconvenienced by a hard packet of little
knobs against my chest any longer than was necessary, and I wrote the
same evening to Sir George Danvers, stating the bare facts of the case,
and asking what steps he or his second son wished me to take to put the
legacy in the possession of its owner. I had no notion of trusting a
packet of such immense value to the newly organized Parcels Post. With
jewels I consider you cannot be too cautious. Indeed, I told Jane so at
the time, and she quite agreed with me.
CHAPTER III.
I did not much like the arrangement of Jane's new house when I came to
stay in it. The way the two bedrooms, hers and mine, were shut off from
the rest of the house by a door, barred and locked at night for fear of
burglars, was, I thought, unpleasant, especially as, once in my room for
the night, there was no possibility of getting out of it, the key of the
door of the passage not being even allowed to remain in the lock, but
retiring with Jane, the canary cage, and other valuables, into her own
apartment. I remonstrated, but I soon found that Jane had not remained
unmarried for nothing. She was decided on the point. The outer door
would be locked as usual, and the key would be deposited under the
pin-cushion in her room, as usual; and it was so.
The next morning, as Jane and I went out for a stroll before luncheon,
we had to pass the house to which I had driven by mistake the day
before. To our astonishment, there was a crowd before the door, and a
policeman with his back to it was guarding the entrance. The blinds were
all drawn down. The image of the pale lonely woman, sitting by her
little fire, whom I had disturbed the day before, came suddenly back to
me with a strange qualm.
"What is it?" I hurriedly asked a baker's boy, who was standing at an
area railing, rubbing his chin against the loaf he was waiting to
deliver. The boy grinned.
"It's murder!" he said, with relish. "Burgilars in the night. I've
supplied her reg'lar these two months. One quartern best white, one
half-quartern brown every morning, French rolls occasional; but it's all
up now." And he went off whistling a tune which all bakers' boys
whistled about that time, called "My Grandfather's Timepiece," or
something similar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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