eleven
o'clock
The next morning London awoke to a new sensation , which quite eclipsed the week-old theft of the Duchess of Hightower 's jewels and the recent mysterious murder at Hoxton . The news was at first meager and unsatisfactory , and contained little more in substance than was found in the big headlines and on the posters of the leading papers : DARING ROBBERY AT LAMB AND DRUMMOND 'S . THE FAMOUS REMBRANDT CARRIED OFF -- WATCHMAN BRUTALLY HANDLED . The early journals had gone to press before a full report of the affair could reach them , but a detailed account appeared between ten and eleven o'clock in the first edition of the afternoon papers . The Rembrandt was gone -- there was no doubt of it -- and the story of its disappearance contained many dramatic elements . A curious crowd gathered about the premises of Lamb and Drummond on Pall Mall , to gaze at the now vacant window , and the services of a policeman were required to keep the sidewalk clear . Many persons recalled the similar case , some years before , of the Gainsborough portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire .