t one of the footmen, who was
putting out the lamps in the supper-room, miles away."

Another silence.

"That is the dreadful part of it," burst out Ralph. "They must have been
taken by some one staying in the house--some one who saw me put them
there. The first thing I did was to send for the house-maids, and they
assured me that they had found every shutter shut, and every door
locked, this morning, as usual. Any one with time and wits _might_ have
got in through one of the library windows by taking out a pane and
forcing the shutter. I suppose a practised hand might have done such a
thing; but I went outside and there was not a footstep in the snow
anywhere near the library windows, or, for that matter, anywhere near
the house at all, except at the side and front doors, which are
impracticable for any one to force an entrance by."

"When did it leave off snowing?" asked Marston.

"About three o'clock," replied Ralph. "It must have snowed heavily till
then, for there was not a trace of all the carriage-wheels on the drive
when we went out last night, but our footprints down to the lodge are
clear in the snow now. There has been no snow since three o'clock this
morning."

"It all points to the same thing," said Charles, quietly, speaking for
the first time. "The jewels were taken by some one staying in the
house."

"One of the servants--" began Marston.

"No!" said Charles, cutting him short, "not one of the servants."

"It is impossible it should have been one of them," said Ralph, after
some thought. "First of all, none of them saw the jewels put into that
drawer; and, secondly, how could they suspect me of hiding them in a
place where I had never thought of putting them myself till that moment?
Besides, that one drawer only was broken open--the centre drawer in the
left-hand set of drawers. All the others were untouched, though they
were all locked. No one who had not _seen_ the jewels put in would have
found them so easily. That is the frightful part of it."

For a few minutes no one spoke. At last Marston raised his head from his
hands.

"There is no way out of it," he said, very gravely. "The robbery was
committed by one of the visitors staying in the house!"

"Yes!" said Charles.

"Yes!" echoed a whisper from the bed.

Charles looked up slowly and deliberately, and the eyes of father and
son met again.

"We do not often agree, father," he said, in a measured voice. "I mark
this exception to th