Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/69

 be a satisfaction. What beast, what maniac is there vile enough to murder her ladyship, good to every one, loved by every one? It's beyond reason. It's the act of a monster. Why, sir"—and Barnard stooped lower—"did you see—did you notice—her ladyship's rings are gone, the beautiful rings she always wore, and her brooch"

"Yes, I saw," Sir Ian answered, his voice breaking as if at the recollection of that first awful moment when he had seen what there was to see.

"Then it was a robbery"

"It looks like it."

"Some tramp—hiding here in the Tower. The brute—the unspeakable brute! I hope to heaven they'll catch him. I wish I"

The muffled sound of feet on the carpet of pine-needles outside broke short Tom s sentence. The doctor had arrived at the same time with a superintendent of police and a constable.