hich would terrify your nice Scotch gardeners into fits, if they found
their way here to do a little tidying up. Come into the library and I'll
give you one of my choice cigars. Here's Craig waiting to let us in. Any
news, Craig?"

The man-servant in plain clothes who admitted them shook his head.

"Nothing has happened, sir," he replied. "The telephone is ringing in the
study now, though."

"I will answer it myself," the Professor declared, bustling off.

He hurried across the bare landing and into an apartment which seemed to
be half museum, half library. There were skeletons leaning in unexpected
corners, strange charts upon the walls, a wilderness of books and
pamphlets in all manner of unexpected places, mingled with quaintly-carved
curios, gods from West African temples, implements of savage warfare,
butterfly nets. It was a room which Lord Ashleigh was never able to enter
without a shudder.

The Professor took up the receiver from the telephone. His "Hello" was
mild and enquiring. He had no doubt that the call was from some admiring
disciple. The change in his face as he listened, however, was amazing. His
lips began to twitch. An expression of horrified dismay overspread his
features. His first reply was almost incoherent. He held the receiver away
from him and turned towards his brother.

"George," he gasped, "the greatest tragedy in the world has happened! My
ape is stolen!"

His brother looked at him blankly.

"Your ape is stolen?" he repeated.

"The skeleton of my anthropoid ape," the Professor continued, his voice
growing alike in sadness and firmness. "It is the curator of the museum
who is speaking. They have just opened the box. It has lain for two days
in an anteroom. It is empty!"

Lord Ashleigh muttered something a little vague. The theft of a skeleton
scarcely appeared to his unscientific mind to be a realisable thing. The
Professor turned back to the telephone.

"Mr. Francis," he said, "I cannot talk to you. I can say nothing. I shall
come to you at once. I am on the point of starting. Your news has
overwhelmed me."

He laid down the receiver. He looked around him like a man in a nightmare.

"The taxicab is still waiting, sir," Craig reminded him.

"That is most fortunate," the Professor pronounced. "I remember now that I
had no change with which to pay him. I must go back. Look after my
brother. And, Craig, telephone at once to Mr. Sanford Quest. Ask him to
meet me at the museum in