By this time the garden was alive. People were hurrying up from every direction: water was being poured over the roof of the cottage, and all sorts of things--from tables and chairs to millinery--were being flung out of the windows. 'I can't go in till I know that Tom is safe,' cried Mrs. Gregory. 'Why, here he is!' said the General, 'and by Jove! he looks as if he had seen a ghost!' Tom carried a lantern, the light of which, streaming upwards, showed his face as white as death. He strode up to the little group, and, taking no notice of the ladies, seized the General by the shoulder. 'Robbery has been done,' he said hoarsely. 'What? money! jewels! Lady Elton, for God's sake take Mrs. Gregory away!' said the General. 'Now,' as the three ladies moved away slowly, 'don't rave; but tell me plainly what has happened!' 'My desk has been ransacked and papers of incalculable value to me have been taken out.' 'Taken out? You are sure of that?' 'I am positive. I put them away in my escritoire. It has been forced open.' 'Anything besides papers gone?' 'Nothing. I put a twenty-pound note there--the price of my last design. It is there still.' 'And these papers--what are they?' 'I don't know. That is the cruel part of it. They were given to me by Mr. Cherry as explaining my inheritance, and I was to have looked over them to-night. But we are wasting time. Come back with me to the house and watch the people there. I have a suspicion that the papers were seized and the house fired by the same hand.' 'Impossible, Tom! I know how the fire arose.' They had been hurrying back to the house; but, on hearing this, Tom pulled up. 'You know!' he ejaculated. 'How can that be?' 'My dear boy, for heaven's sake don't be so melodramatic,' said the General tartly. 'You will be accusing _me_ of stealing your papers next. The fire broke out in the simplest way. Your mother put down her candle on the window-sill in the hall, and those muslin curtains of yours, against which I have preached till I am tired, caught fire. Now don't, like a good fellow, stare at me so! I am repeating your mother's own words.' 'Where is my mother?' asked Tom. 'She is with Lady Elton, and there she shall remain for the present. I refuse to permit you to ask her a single question to-night.' They were, by this time, in the midst of the little crowd that surrounded the house. Water was still playing over it; but the flames were dead. 'Pretty safe now?' said the General, addressing one of the policemen. 'Yes, sir; and we saved a goodish lot of things.' 'So I see. Any strangers about?' 'No, General; not a single soul. I was up here from the first. Do Mr. Gregory think----?' 'Mr. Gregory has missed some valuable papers.' 'If they were on this side, General, 'taint wonderful like.' 'They were on the other----'