"Are you sure the ring was really taken? Couldn't she have been mistaken about it?"
"That's the idea that occurred to me. But it happens that when Mrs. Pond came back from the drive my uncle banded her out of the carriage, and he distinctly remembers seeing the ring on her finger.
"She went straight to her room, and she couldn't have lost the ring by the way, for there was a guard ring on the outside of it, and that we found on the dressing-table.
"Of course, we hunted for the ruby ring. We took up the carpets; we made such a search as I never saw before. The ring was not there.
"I don't think there's a shadow of doubt that the ring was stolen, but I can't form an idea of how it was done.
"The more I think about it the more confused I get. To my mind the queerest part of it is that somebody held the door, and then let go of it and vanished in a quarter of a second. How are we going to explain that?"
"Didn't the thief put something against the door?"
"I thought of that, and tried to work out that theory, but it's impossible. Not a piece of furniture was out of place, and there wasn't a stick or a prop of any kind in the room that could have been used for such a purpose."
"Well, that's strange, I must admit," said Nick. "I guess it will be necessary for me to go down and look the ground over."
"That's just what we want."