as he found it."

"Just so. I suppose the brooch, was really gone? I mean, there was no
chance of Mrs. Armitage having mislaid it?"

"Oh, none at all! There was a most careful search."

"Then, as to getting in at the window, would it have been easy?"

"Well, yes," Sir James replied; "yes, perhaps it would. It was a
first-floor window, and it looks over the roof and skylight of the
billiard-room. I built the billiard-room myself--built it out from a
smoking-room just at this corner. It would be easy enough to get at the
window from the billiard-room roof. But, then," he added, "that couldn't
have been the way. Somebody or other was in the billiard-room the whole
time, and nobody could have got over the roof (which is nearly all
skylight) without being seen and heard. I was there myself for an hour or
two, taking a little practice."

"Well, was anything done?"

"Strict inquiry was made among the servants, of course, but nothing came
of it. It was such a small matter that Mrs. Armitage wouldn't hear of my
calling in the police or anything of that sort, although I felt pretty
certain that there must be a dishonest servant about somewhere. A servant
might take a plain brooch, you know, who would feel afraid of a valuable
ring, the loss of which would be made a greater matter of."

"Well, yes, perhaps so, in the case of an inexperienced thief, who also
would be likely to snatch up whatever she took in a hurry. But I'm
doubtful. What made you connect these two robberies together?"

"Nothing whatever--for some months. They seemed quite of a different sort.
But scarcely more than a month ago I met Mrs. Armitage at Brighton, and we
talked, among other things, of the previous robbery--that of Mrs. Heath's
bracelet. I described the circumstances pretty minutely, and, when I
mentioned the match found on the table, she said: 'How strange! Why, _my_
thief left a match on the dressing-table when he took my poor little
brooch!'"

Hewitt nodded. "Yes," he said. "A spent match, of course?"

"Yes, of course, a spent match. She noticed it lying close by the
pin-cushion, but threw it away without mentioning the circumstance. Still,
it seemed rather curious to me that a match should be lit and dropped, in
each case, on the dressing-cover an inch from where the article was taken.
I mentioned it to Lloyd when I got back, and he agreed that it seemed
significant."

"Scarcely," said Hewitt, shaking his head. "Scarcely, so far, to be c