"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 094 - Castle of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

James Street.

CHAPTER II. CRIME DISCUSSED
CRIME talk was heavy at the Acropolis Club. It was the only subject among the members who had
gathered in the smoking lounge. Fog had not kept these gentlemen from their accustomed meeting place;
and in their discourse, they could find but one theme.
"Outrageous!" Such was the opinion given by a dignified man with a drooping, white mustache.

"Scotland Yard is not idle, however, Dunbarth," objected a roundish-faced club member. "Those
audacious crimes were committed one after the other, with such expedition that the law could not keep
pace with them."

"Quite so, Rutherwaite," acknowledged Dunbarth. "Nevertheless, crime may begin again. Mark my
words!"

"What is your opinion, Cranston?" queried Rutherwaite, turning to a tall, calm-faced personage who was
seated nearby. "Do you not agree that the miscreants will be content with the hauls that they have
made?"

"Quite probably," was the quiet response, "so far as London is concerned. Their booty has been
estimated at three hundred thousand pounds, I understand, and -"

"More nearly half a million," put in Rutherwaite, "according to the latest estimate of the Daily Sketch.".

"The Sketch! Bah!" Dunbarth gave an indignant ejaculation.

"What of the American journals?" queried Rutherwaite. "Have they exaggerated the news from
London?"

The question was addressed to Cranston. He made a quiet reply.

"I left New York," he stated, "two days after the crime wave began. At that time, the American
newspapers estimated that half a million dollars in valuables had been taken. While I was making the
voyage to England, the wave continued, to reach three times its original toll. A million and a half dollars
would coincide with Dunbarth's estimate of three hundred thousand pounds."

"Precisely," nodded Dunbarth. "The Duke of Clandermoor's gold plates; the portraits from the Earl of
Kelgood's gallery; the two jewelry shops on Bond Street; the jade vases housed in storage, that awaited
shipment to the British Museum -"

"And the jeweled tiaras," added Rutherwaite, "that belonged to Lady Darriol; to say nothing of the
Smith-Righterstone tapestries -"

"Which I intended to include," interposed Dunbarth, testily. "But why quibble over estimates? The vital
point is: what has Scotland Yard learned through its well-known Criminal Investigation Department?
Only that the robbers used motor vans in every expedition, to aid their entry and speed their departure."

"You term them robbers," observed Cranston. "I should deem them murderers."

"Quite right," agreed Rutherwaite. "A servant was slain at the Duke of Clandermoor's town house. An