“I hope you will submit quietly to the necessary search, mum.  It will be the better for you,” said the officer.

Then rage got the better of fright in Rose Cameron’s distracted bosom.

“I’ll tear your e’en out, first, ye—­” here followed a volley of expletives not fit to be reported here—­“before ye s’ all bring me to sic an open shame!  Search my house, will ye?  Ye daur!” and here the handsome Amazon struck an attitude of resistance.

The policeman went to the front window, threw it up, and beckoned to some persons below.

In two minutes, the sound of footsteps was heard upon the stairs, the door was opened, and a couple of officers entered the room.

Rose Cameron gazed at them in terror and defiance.

“Mrs. Scott, you are my prisoner.  We arrest you on the charge of complicity in the murder of Sir Lemuel Levison, and the robbery of Castle Lone!” said the first policeman, laying his hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Tak’ yer claws affen me, ye de’il!” exclaimed Rose, springing from under his hand, and then shrinking, shuddering, into the nearest chair.

“Perkins, look after this woman, while I direct the search of the house.  You come with me, Thompson.  We will go through this room now,” said the first policeman, putting his hand on the lock of the chamber door.

“Ye sell na gae into my bedroom, ye de’il!  It is na decent for a strange mon to gae into a leddy’s chamber!” cried Rose, springing before him to bar his entrance.

“Never mind her, Mr. Pryor; I’ll take care of her,” said the man called Perkins, as with a firm hand he laid hold of his prisoner, and forced her, screaming, scratching, and resisting with all her might from the door.

“Excuse me, my girl, but this is a murder case, and we must not stand upon politeness to the fair sex; here,” added Perkins, as he forced her down upon her chair and held her there so firmly that all she could do was to spit, glare, and rail at him.

“Oh, my dear, good lady, do be quiet.  You are in the hands of the law, which I believe you to be as innersent as the dove unborn; but it will be the best for you to submit quietly,” said the housekeeper, who had hitherto sat in appalled silence, taking note of the proceedings.

“I will na submit to ony sic indignity,” screamed Rose, with an additional torrent of very objectionable language.

Meantime officers Pryor and Thompson passed into the bedroom and began the search.  Bureau and bureau drawers, wardrobes, boxes, caskets, cases, were opened, ransacked, and their contents turned out, but no sign of the stolen property was discovered.  Closets, wash-stands, and chair cushions next underwent a thorough examination, with a similar result.  Then the bed was pulled to pieces, and the mattresses were closely scrutinized, to detect any sign of a recent ripping and re-sewing of any part of the seams through which the stolen jewels might have been pushed in among the stuffing, but evidently the mattresses had not been tampered with.