o hole in the window."

"There was a hole."

"Nonsense, we would have seen it."

"In order to see it, you must look for it, and no one has looked. The
hole is there; it must be there, at the side of the window, in the
putty. In a vertical direction, of course."

The count arose. He was greatly excited. He paced up and down the room,
two or three times, in a nervous manner; then, approaching Floriani,
said:

"Nobody has been in that room since; nothing has been changed."

"Very well, monsieur, you can easily satisfy yourself that my
explanation is correct."

"It does not agree with the facts established by the examining judge.
You have seen nothing, and yet you contradict all that we have seen and
all that we know."

Floriani paid no attention to the count's petulance. He simply smiled
and said:

"Mon Dieu, monsieur, I submit my theory; that is all. If I am mistaken,
you can easily prove it."

"I will do so at once....I confess that your assurance---"

The count muttered a few more words; then suddenly rushed to the door
and passed out. Not a word was uttered in his absence; and this profound
silence gave the situation an air of almost tragic importance. Finally,
the count returned. He was pale and nervous. He said to his friends, in
a trembling voice:

"I beg your pardon.... the revelations of the chevalier were so
unexpected....I should never have thought...."

His wife questioned him, eagerly:

"Speak.... what is it?"

He stammered: "The hole is there, at the very spot, at the side of the
window---"

He seized the chevalier's arm, and said to him in an imperious tone:

"Now, monsieur, proceed. I admit that you are right so far, but
now.... that is not all.... go on.... tell us the rest of it."

Floriani disengaged his arm gently, and, after a moment, continued:

"Well, in my opinion, this is what happened. The thief, knowing that the
countess was going to wear the necklace that evening, had prepared his
gangway or bridge during your absence. He watched you through the window
and saw you hide the necklace. Afterward, he cut the glass and pulled
the ring."

"Ah! but the distance was so great that it would be impossible for him
to reach the window-fastening through the transom."

"Well, then, if he could not open the window by reaching through the
transom, he must have crawled through the transom."

"Impossible; it is too small. No man could crawl through it."

"Then it was not a man," decl