Page:Arthur B Reeve - The Dream Doctor.djvu/229

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The Crimeometer
221

"But what about Annie Grayson?" persisted Donnelly.

"I have taken care of her," responded Kennedy laconically. "She is already under arrest. Would you like to see why?"

A moment later we had all piled into Dr. Guthrie's car, standing at the door.

At the cosy little Grayson villa we found two large-eyed detectives and a very angry woman waiting impatiently. Heaped up on a table in the living room was a store of loot that readily accounted for the ocular peculiarity of the detectives.

The jumble on the table contained a most magnificent collection of diamonds, sapphires, ropes of pearls, emeralds, statuettes, and bronze and ivory antiques, books in rare bindings, and other baubles which wealth alone can command. It dazzled our eyes as we made a mental inventory of the heap. Yet it was a most miscellaneous collection. Beside a pearl collar with a diamond clasp were a pair of plain leather slippers and a pair of silk stockings. Things of value and things of no value were mixed as if by a lunatic. A beautiful neck ornament of carved coral lay near a half-dozen common linen handkerchiefs. A strip of silk hid a valuable collection of antique jewellery. Besides diamonds and precious stones by the score were gold and silver ornaments, silks, satins, laces, draperies, articles of virtu, plumes, even cutlery and bric-à-brac. All this must have been the result of countless excursions to the stores of New York and innumerable clever thefts.

We could only look at each other in amazement