"Have you lost them ?" "Stolen!" Mrs.Rheinholdt shrieked.

"Stolen there in the conservatory!" They gazed at her open-mouthed, incredulous.

Then a still, quiet voice from the outside of the little circle intervened.
"Instruct your servants, Mr.Rheinholdt, to lock and bar all the doors of the house," the Professor suggested.

"No one must leave it until we have heard your mother's story." The young man obeyed almost mechanically.

There was a general exodus of servants from the room.