tle consideration made that
purpose pretty clear. A noisy, chattering bird would probably betray
itself at once. Therefore it must be trained to keep quiet both while
going for and coming away with its plunder. What readier or more probably
effectual way than, while teaching it to carry without dropping, to teach
it also to keep quiet while carrying? The one thing would practically
cover the other.

"I thought at once, of course, of a jackdaw or a magpie--these birds'
thievish reputations made the guess natural. But the marks on the match
were much too wide apart to have been made by the beak of either. I
conjectured, therefore, that it must be a raven. So that, when we arrived
near the coach-house, I seized the opportunity of a little chat with your
groom on the subject of dogs and pets in general, and ascertained that
there was no tame raven in the place. I also, incidentally, by getting a
light from the coach-house box of matches, ascertained that the match
found was of the sort generally used about the establishment--the large,
thick, red-topped English match. But I further found that Mr. Lloyd had a
parrot which was a most intelligent pet, and had been trained into
comparative quietness--for a parrot. Also, I learned that more than once
the groom had met Mr. Lloyd carrying his parrot under his coat, it having,
as its owner explained, learned the trick of opening its cage-door and
escaping.

"I said nothing, of course, to you of all this, because I had as yet
nothing but a train of argument and no results. I got to Lloyd's room as
soon as possible. My chief object in going there was achieved when I
played with the parrot, and induced it to bite a quill toothpick.

"When you left me in the smoking-room, I compared the quill and the match
very carefully, and found that the marks corresponded exactly. After this
I felt very little doubt indeed. The fact of Lloyd having met the ladies
walking before dark on the day of the first robbery proved nothing,
because, since it was clear that the match had _not_ been used to procure
a light, the robbery might as easily have taken place in daylight as
not--must have so taken place, in fact, if my conjectures were right. That
they were right I felt no doubt. There could be no other explanation.

"When Mrs. Heath left her window open and her door shut, anybody climbing
upon the open sash of Lloyd's high window could have put the bird upon the
sill above. The match placed in the