Garretse called attention to him. And it was then that
Lad's nose suddenly pointed skyward. In another moment, he had bounded
eagerly toward one of the windows,--the window that was slightly open
from the top.

From that direction, the scent now came; and it was more potent than at
any earlier time in his quest.

Even as the astonished eyes of the group followed Lad window-ward,
those same eyes were attracted by a partial darkening of the open space
at the window's top.

Into the room, through the narrow aperture wiggled a hairy form, moving
with eel-like speed.

Thence, it leaped to the floor. For the fraction of a second, the
intruder crouched there; peering about, to determine into what company
his jump had landed him.

He was a gray monkey, small, infinitely aged and withered of aspect.
His paws and forearms were black with half-dry ink. Here and there, all
over his fuzzy gray body, ink-blobs were spattered. In one skinny paw
he still clutched the splintered fragment of a Satsuma vase.

By the time the gaping humans could get a single good look at the
monkey, Lad was at him. Here at last was the solution of that
mysterious scent, so new to the collie.

Lad galloped toward the wizened and malodorous gray bunch; more intent
on investigation than on attack. The monkey did not wait for him. With
an incredibly agile leap, he was on the spattered window curtains and
swarming up to the rod at the top. There he squatted, well out of
reach; grimacing horribly and chattering in simian wrath.

"It's--it's a devil!" stammered Rutherford Garretse; his nearsighted
eyes squinting as he sought to take in the motley details of the
creature's appearance. "I--"

"It's Mrs. McMurdle's pest of a monkey, sirs" blithered the maid.
"Asking your pardon. The one she made such a fuss about sending away,
last month, when all beastees was barred from the Park. It must 'a'
strayed back from where she sent it to, the crafty little nuisance!
It's--"

"Incidentally," said the Master, "it is the creature that wrecked your
room. See the ink on it. And that bit of porcelain it's brandishing at
us looks like a match for some of these smashed bits on the floor. It
got in here, I suppose, through that window, earlier,--and--"

"No," corrected the Mistress, wiser at deduction. "Through the doorway,
downstairs. From somewhere outside. Probably while the maid was dusting
the dining-room. It came in here and began destroying things; as
monkeys