“She lost consciousness only for a moment, and, on coming to herself, she cried out that a thief had been in her room.
“By this time there were three or four servants in the hall below. One of them staid there by my uncle's orders. The others went outside and made a circuit of the house.
“We led Mrs. Pond back into her room, and she pointed to her dressing-table.
“There lay two or three rings and a pin, but the most valuable ring that she had put there was gone.
“It was a queer, old-fashioned ring in the form of a snake, and in its mouth was a ruby worth about two hundred and fifty dollars. The eyes were made of small diamonds.
“She declared that she had left the ring there. She told us how the door between the two rooms had closed.
“It appears that after she had struggled to open it for several minutes it suddenly yielded, and she almost fell into the room.
“Of course, she expected to rush straight upon the thief. He had been holding the door, and naturally he couldn't have gone far after releasing it.
“She was inside just as soon as the pressure on the other side was removed. But the room was empty.
“She thought of her jewels at once. She rushed to her dressing-table, and instantly missed the ruby ring.
“Now, that's all there is to it. We hunted high and low for the thief, and did not find a trace of him.
“How did he get away? That's where I give up the riddle. The door in the hall was locked on the inside, and practically guarded by my uncle and myself. At the other door stood Mrs. Pond.
“There is only one window. It looks out on a sort of court with the house on three sides of it.
“A man with a wagon was almost under the window all the time. He was delivering groceries to the cook.
“It's absurd to suppose that anybody got in or out by that window. No thief would have been fool enough to try it at that time of day, and, as I've told you, there were two persons who would have been perfectly sure to see him if he had. And he couldn't have got in or out without a ladder.
“I admit that it looked very queer. What do you make of it, Mr. Carter?”
“Are you sure the ring was really taken? Couldn't she have been mistaken about it?”
“That's the idea that occurred to me. But it happens that when Mrs. Pond came back from the drive my uncle banded her out of the carriage, and he distinctly remembers seeing the ring on her finger.
“She went straight to her room, and she couldn't have lost the ring by the way, for there was a guard ring on the outside of it, and that we found on the dressing-table.
“Of course, we hunted for the ruby ring. We took up the carpets; we made such a search as I never saw before. The ring was not there.
“I don't think there's a shadow of doubt that the ring was stolen, but I can't form an idea of how it was done.
“The more I think about it the more confused I get. To my mind the queerest part of it is that somebody held the door, and then let go of it and vanished in a quarter of a second. How are we going to explain that?”
“Didn't the thief put something against the door?”
“I thought of that, and tried to work out that theory, but it's impossible. Not a piece of furniture was out of place, and there wasn't a stick or a prop of any kind in the room that could have been used for such a purpose.”
“Well, that's strange, I must admit,” said Nick. “I guess it will be necessary for me to go down and look the ground over.”
“That's just what we want.”
“Come along, then. I'm ready.”
CHAPTER II. NICK IS BOLDLY CHALLENGED.
Nick knew the old Plummer mansion well. There is not a house to match it in this country.
A hundred years and more ago it must have been the scene of strange adventures. It was built, certainly, by one who did not expect a peaceful and quiet life within it.
The thick stone walls, which look so unnecessarily massive, are really double. There are secret passages and movable panels and trap-doors enough in that house to hide a man, if a regiment of soldiers was after him.
Evidently such a place offered every chance to shrewd criminals who might have a motive for playing upon the superstitious beliefs of the present proprietor.
Anybody who couldn't get up a respectable ghost in the old Plummer house must be a very poor fakir.
The mere fact that all the doors and windows of a room were closed did not prevent any person from going in or out at will, if he knew the secrets of the house.
