"Of course, I suspected Horace at once, because his room was directly
overhead. In fact, the two are connected, as you see, by a ventilator in
the form of a pipe with a grated opening in each room.

"The grating here, you see, is open."

"But, bless me," exclaimed Judge Lorrimer, "no thief could come through
such a place. Why, it isn't six inches square."

"Step in here a minute and see," said Nick, and then he called out:

"All ready, Chick!"

The whole party had by this time gone into Mrs. Pond's sitting-room.

Nick said hush, and pointed to the ventilator. Most of the party could
see it through the door.

Instantly there appeared a mass of green feathers, and then Horace
Richmond's parrot fluttered noiselessly down into the room.

For a minute or two it ran around the floor. Then it flew up on to the
dressing-table, seized a small gold bar pin in its beak, and flew back
into the ventilator pipe.

"A nice trick," said the detective. "I believe it took you some time to
teach the bird that."

"About a year," growled Horace. "The bird was well trained before."

"Is it all clear?" said Nick.

"Perfectly," said the colonel. "But how did you get at it?"

"Simply enough. There was only one way into this room when those
robberies were committed, and the parrot was the only living thing in
the house that was small enough to go through that pipe and intelligent
enough to do the trick.

"You see, Horace trained the bird to pick up bright objects, and
especially articles of the color of gold, and to go up and down that
pipe.

"Then he schemed to have your daughter come here. The rest was easy. He
waited till she was in the farther room, and then closed the door
between by the electrical device.

"Immediately he sent down the parrot. The bird was so well trained that
he required only a minute or two to secure something.

"Of course, it was not always something of value. There were probably a
dozen failures where the bird brought back nothing or some useless
object that glittered.

"I suspected the bird, and so put Chick on that lay. As you see, he has
got the creature to work very well.

"Now, colonel, what more can I do for you? What shall be done with the
prisoners?"

"Nothing; I will not prosecute."

"I guess we can hush it up, if you say so," responded Nick. "By the way,
there's one thing that I want to explain. I mean the strange appearance
of that diamond pin in the box on the occasion of Mrs. S