Damaging Rumors
“Ho-hum, but I’m tired tonight. Hard day at the office.”
Carson Drew dropped his hat on the living room table and sank wearily on the davenport. “By the way, Nancy, I suppose you’ve heard the bad news by this time.”
“What news?” Nancy demanded anxiously. “Don’t dare tell me that Judge Graham isn’t coming after all the trouble I’ve had getting a satisfactory housekeeper.”
“Oh, Judge Graham will get here all right. I was referring to the news about your little friend, Emily Crandall.”
“Emily? Why, I saw her only this afternoon.”
“But you didn’t see the Crandall jewels.”
“Why, no, her guardian was to deliver them later in the day.”
“Read this!”
Mr. Drew spread out the front page of the evening paper before his daughter’s startled eyes.
“The Crandall jewels—stolen!” Nancy gasped. “Oh, how dreadful!”
“I can’t say that it surprises me much,” Mr. Drew commented dryly. “ Mrs. Willoughby didn’t appear to have used an ounce of sense. She invited trouble by carrying forty thousand dollars’ worth of diamonds unguarded.”