The Chase of the Golden Plate

Book Excerpt: ...straight. The sum total of everyone's knowledge, therefore, was this: Soon after the grand march a servant entered the smoking room and found the Burglar there alone, standing beside an open window, looking out. This smoking room connected, by a corridor, with a small dining room where the Randolph gold plate was kept in ostentatious seclusion. As the servant entered the smoking-room the Burglar turned away from the window and went out into the ballroom. He did not carry a bundle; he did not appear to be excited. Fifteen or twenty minutes later the servant discovered that eleven plates of the gold service, valued roughly at $15,000, were missing. He informed Mr. Randolph. The information, naturally enough, did not elevate the host's enjoyment of the ball, and he did things hastily. Meanwhile--that is, between the time when the Burglar left the smoking-room and the time when he passed out the front door--the Burglar had talked earnestly with a masked Girl of the West. It was establi.