You will no doubt recollect
the sensation caused by the theft of the jewels of the Princess
Wilhelmine of Schaumbourg-Lippe from the lady's-maid in the rapide
between Cannes and Les Arcs, the robbery from the Marseilles branch of
the Credit Lyonnais, and the great haul of plate from the chateau of
Bardon, the Paris millionaire, close to Arcachon."
"Yes," I said, for they were all robberies of which I had read in the
newspapers a couple of years before.
"Well," she said, "they were all committed by Archer or Woodroffe and
his gang--with accomplices ashore, of course--and never once did it seem
that any suspicion fell upon us. While the police were frantically
searching hither and thither, we used to weigh anchor and calmly steam
away with our booty on board. We had with us an old Dutch lapidary, and
one of the cabins was fitted as a workshop, where he altered the
appearance of the stones, and prepared them ready for sale, while the
gold was melted in a crucible and put ashore to be sent to agents in
Hamburg.
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