She locked it away carefully and then went down as she had first intended and managed to borrow some fine flour from the cook without exciting any special interest in that good woman’s lethargic mind; she had supplied both Celia and Evelyn with many curious things in her time when they had been amusing themselves learning to cook. So far Evelyn had succeeded beyond her wildest dreams; she had now the most delicate part of her self-imposed task before her. A confidence, however, in her own dexterity of touch—if a clumsy-handed man like Humblethorne could do it, she certainly could, was her thought—and a belief that any discovery her experiment might yield would at best be only additional to what she already knew helped to steady her excitement and kept her from realizing how unusual her action was. She put on a pair of thin gloves, went along the passage, first making sure that no one was about, and, after examining the statuette once more as it stood, lifted it down by the arm which was free of any stain. She was surprised to find how heavy it was; it looked slight and small in position, but she realized what a terrible blow it must have inflicted, hurled from that height. One other thing she noticed as she carried it unobserved to her room, and that was that it had become loose on its little ebony pedestal. The closer inspection, which was possible as soon as she was secure against observation or interruption inside her own locked door, revealed that the stout pins which entered the pedestal from the feet and held the figure in place had been badly strained, so that one foot had driven slightly into the pedestal to one side, and then when the statuette was put again in an upright condition had shifted back, leaving a distinct mark on the polished wood. That the statuette had had a severe fall was placed beyond all doubt. Celia was a keen and skilful artist in delicate water-colour, so Evelyn had only to slip through to the girls’ study and borrow a fine brush to have all her preparations made for the new experiment. First of all, however, she practised making a few finger-prints by pressing her thumb on the polished mahogany of her dressing-table and sprinkling and brushing the flour. She had not been quite so ignorant of the elements of the art as her questions to Humblethorne had suggested and in any case did not find it particularly difficult. After a few attempts she felt reasonably sure of being able to make visible whatever the statuette concealed.