“Every room there can be entered in a secret manner, and no doubt there are plenty of panels and passages which even I do not know.

“But there’s nothing of the kind here.  This wing was built under my eye, and from my own design.  I saw the beams laid and the floors nailed down.

“There is absolutely no way to enter the room in which we now stand except by the two doors and the window.

“My nephew has told you about the robberies.  You know that the doors and the windows were practically guarded all the time.

“I don’t believe that any mortal being could have got in here and got out again without being seen.

“As for myself, I understand the case perfectly.  My belief will seem strange to you, because you do not see with the eye of the spirit.  Everything has to be done by human hands, according to your matter-of-fact notion.

“I know better; and I tell you that these jewels were taken by the spirit of my deceased aunt, and that she did it to show me that my daughter was wrongfully in possession of them.”

When a healthy, hearty old man, who seems to be as sane as anybody else in the world, stands up and talks such nonsense as this, what can one say to him?

It is useless to tell him that he is wrong about the whole matter.  It is folly to attempt to reason with him.

The only way to do is to show him a perfectly natural explanation of the mystery, and simply make him see it.

That was the task which Nick had before him, and it must be owned that, at the first glance, he did not see how he was going to accomplish it.

He examined the room and satisfied himself that it had no secret entrances.

Such being the case, Nick was unable to form a theory of the robbery which would fit the facts as they had been stated to him.

After looking at the rooms, he went with Colonel Richmond to the parlor, on the ground floor, and there proceeded to question him about the mysterious occurrences.

“There have been three robberies in all,” said the colonel, “and they have been exactly alike.

“In every case my daughter has left some articles of jewelry on the dressing-table in her bed-room, and one of them has vanished.  Never more than one at a time.

“Twice it happened while she was in the adjoining room.  The bed-room door which opens into the hall was locked on these occasions.

“The third time she was in the hall, talking with my nephew.  He was standing in the upper hall, leaning over the banister rail.  They were discussing a plan for a drive out into the country.  Quite a party was to go.

“Horace had just received word from a gentleman whom they had invited that he would be unable to go.  He had read the note in his room, and he called downstairs to my daughter to tell her about it.

“That was how they happened to be standing in the hall.  Presently she went back into her room, and almost immediately noticed that a small locket set with diamonds had been taken.