"I was dressing, and was in my underclothes, so it took me a minute, I should say, to get a pair of pantaloons on.
"Then I ran out into the hall and down the stairs. At the same moment my uncle ran up from the ground floor.
"I mention these facts, because they seem to me to be important. You see, we approached that room by two ways—by the only two ways except that by which Mrs. Pond came.
"Just as I got to the hall door of her bed-room she opened it, and fell into my arms in a faint.
"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.