Page:The Death-Doctor.djvu/32

20 going to faint. But she quickly pulled herself together.

"How dreadful it is to be mixed up in an affair like this!" she said across to me. "It makes me feel quite ill. What will they do?"

"Can't say," I answered. "Unless they search us all, and our baggage too."

At this moment my employer, with a fine diamond stud in his dress-shirt, strolled into the room and walked to our table, all the eyes in the room being fixed on his tall figure.

"Hallo!" he exclaimed, "everybody seems very quiet—it's more like a funeral than a dinner," and he glanced in an unconcerned way around the big dining-room. "Sorry to be late, little girlie," he said, smiling at his pale-faced daughter, "but I've only just got away from the 'Grand.' Been playing bridge, and had jolly good luck—grand slam on no trumps. But what the deuce is the matter?" he continued, with another quick glance around the room, where all the other diners sat almost silent, and, with but few exceptions, looking at him.

"Mrs. Cass has just had her jewels stolen, father," answered the girl in a low, frightened voice; "and the manager says we're all to sit here until the police come."