latter a collection of exquisite jade was gathered together.

And the Buddha which Paul Van Vreck had coveted was gone!

CHAPTER XI

ANNESLEY REMEMBERS

There was great excitement for the next few days at Valley House and
throughout the neighbourhood, for the Annesley-Setons made no secret of
the robbery, and the affair got into the papers, not only the local ones,
but the London dailies.

Two of the latter sent representatives, to whom Lord Annesley-Seton
granted interviews. Something he said attracted the reporters' attention
to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Smith, who had been dining at Valley House on the
evening when the theft was discovered, and Knight was begged for an
interview.

He was asked if he had formed an opinion as to the disappearance of the
three heirlooms, and whether he knew personally Mr. Paul Van Vreck, the
American collector and retired head of the famous firm of jewellers, who
had wished to buy the vanished treasures.

Having spent most of his life in America, Knight had the theory that
unless you wished to be misrepresented, the only safe thing was to let
yourself be interviewed. He was accordingly so good-natured and
interesting that the reporters were delighted with him. If he had been
wishing for a wide advertisement of his personality, his possessions, and
his plans, he could not have chosen a surer way of getting it.

The two newspapers which had undertaken to boom the "Valley House
Heirloom Theft" had almost limitless circulations. One of them possessed
a Continental edition, and the other was immensely popular because of its
topical illustrations.

Snapshots, not so unflattering as usual, were obtained of the young
Anglo-American millionaire and his bride, as they started away from the
Knowle Hotel in their motor, or as they walked in the garden. Though
Knight had disclaimed any personal acquaintance with the great Paul Van
Vreck, he was able to state that Mr. Van Vreck had been convalescing
at Palm Beach, in Florida, at the time of the robbery. He had had an
attack of pneumonia in the autumn, and instead of travelling in his yacht
to Egypt, as he generally did travel early in the winter, he had been
ordered by his doctors to be satisfied with a "place in the sun" nearer
home.

Everyone in America knew this, Knight explained, and everyone in England
might know it also, unless it had been forgotten. If Mr. Van Vreck were
well enough to take an interest in the papers, he was sure