The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective
By Catherine Louisa Pirkis
1894.
Contents
The Black Bag Left on a Door-Step
The Murder at Troyte's Hill
The Redhill Sisterhood
A Princess's Vengeance
Drawn Daggers
The Ghost of Fountain Lane
Missing!

The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective.
By C. L. Pirkis,
Author of "Lady Lovelace," &c. &c.

I. THE BLACK BAG LEFT ON A DOOR-STEP.
"IT'S a big thing," said Loveday Brooke, addressing Ebenezer Dyer,
chief of the well-known detective agency in Lynch Court, Fleet Street;
"Lady Cathrow has lost £30,000 worth of jewellery, if the newspaper

accounts are to be trusted."
"They are fairly accurate this time. The robbery differs in few respects
from the usual run of country-house robberies. The time chosen, of
course, was the dinner-hour, when the family and guests were at table
and the servants not on duty were amusing themselves in their own
quarters. The fact of its being Christmas Eve would also of necessity
add to the business and consequent distraction of the household. The
entry to the house, however, in this case was not effected in the usual
manner by a ladder to the dressing-room window, but through the
window of a room on the ground floor--a small room with one window
and two doors, one of which opens into the hall, and the other into a
passage that leads by the back stairs to the bedroom floor. It is used, I
believe, as a sort of hat and coat room by the gentlemen of the house."
"It was, I suppose, the weak point of the house?"
"Quite so. A very weak point indeed. Craigen Court, the residence of
Sir George and Lady Cathrow, is an oddly-built old place, jutting out in
all directions, and as this window looked out upon a blank wall, it was
filled in with stained glass, kept fastened by a strong brass catch, and
never opened, day or night, ventilation being obtained by means of a
glass ventilator fitted in the upper panes. It seems absurd to think that
this window, being only about four feet from the ground, should have
had neither iron bars nor shutters added to it; such, however, was the
case. On the night of the robbery, someone within the house must have
deliberately, and of intention, unfastened its only protection, the brass
catch, and thus given the thieves easy entrance to the house."
"Your suspicions, I suppose, centre upon the servants?"
"Undoubtedly; and it is in the servants' hall that your services will be
required. The thieves, whoever they were, were perfectly cognizant of
the ways of the house. Lady Cathrow's jewellery was kept in a safe in
her dressing-room, and as the dressing-room was over the dining-room,
Sir George was in the habit of saying that it was the 'safest' room in the
house. (Note the pun, please; Sir George is rather proud of it.) By his
orders the window of the dining-room immediately under the

dressing-room window was always left unshuttered and without blind
during dinner, and as a full stream of light thus fell through it on to the
outside terrace, it would have been impossible for anyone to have
placed a ladder there unseen."
"I see from the newspapers that it was Sir George's invariable custom
to fill his house and give a large dinner on Christmas Eve."
"Yes. Sir George and Lady Cathrow are elderly people, with no family
and few relatives, and have consequently a large amount of time to
spend on their friends."
"I suppose the key of the safe was frequently left in the possession of
Lady Cathrow's maid?"
"Yes. She is a young French girl, Stephanie Delcroix by name. It was
her duty to clear the dressing-room directly after her mistress left it; put
away any jewellery that might be lying about, lock the safe, and keep
the key till her mistress came up to bed. On the night of the robbery,
however, she admits that, instead of so doing, directly her mistress left
the dressing-room, she ran down to the housekeeper's room to see if
any letters had come for her, and remained chatting with the other
servants for some time--she could not say for how long. It was by the
half-past-seven post that her letters generally arrived from St. Omer,
where her home is."
"Oh, then, she was in the habit of thus running down to enquire for her
letters, no doubt, and the thieves, who appear to be so thoroughly
cognizant of the house, would know this also."
"Perhaps; though at the present moment I must say things look very
black against the girl. Her manner, too, when questioned, is not
calculated to remove suspicion. She goes from one fit of hysterics into
another; contradicts herself nearly every time she opens