There was a pair of dumbbells on the floor, belonging to Mike. He never used them, but they always managed to get themselves packed with the rest of his belongings on the last day of the holidays. Mr. Downing seized one of these, and delivered two rapid blows at the cupboard door. The wood splintered. A third blow smashed the flimsy lock. The cupboard, with any skeletons it might contain, was open for all to view. Mr. Downing uttered a cry of triumph, and tore the shoe from its resting place. "I told you," he said. "I told you." "I wondered where that shoe had got to," said Psmith. "I've been looking for it for days." Mr. Downing was examining his find. He looked up with an exclamation of surprise and wrath. "This shoe has no paint on it," he said, glaring at Psmith. "This is not the shoe." "It certainly appears, sir," said Psmith sympathetically, "to be free from paint. There's a sort of reddish glow just there, if you look at it sideways," he added helpfully. "Did you place that shoe there, Smith?" "I must have done. Then, when I lost the key--" "Are you satisfied now, Downing?" interrupted Mr. Outwood with asperity, "or is there any more furniture you wish to break?" The excitement of seeing his household goods smashed with a dumbbell had made the archaeological student quite a swashbuckler for the moment. A little more, and one could imagine him giving Mr. Downing a good, hard knock. The sleuth-hound stood still for a moment, baffled. But his brain was working with the rapidity of a buzz saw. A chance remark of Mr. Outwood's set him fizzing off on the trail once more. Mr. Outwood had caught sight of the little pile of soot in the grate. He bent down to inspect it. "Dear me," he said, "I must remember to have the chimneys swept. It should have been done before." Mr. Downing's eye, rolling in a fine frenzy from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, also focused itself on the pile of soot; and a thrill went through him. Soot in the fireplace! Smith washing his hands! ("You know my methods, my dear Watson. Apply them.") Mr. Downing's mind at that moment contained one single thought; and that thought was, "What ho for the chimney!" He dived forward with a rush, nearly knocking Mr. Outwood off his feet, and thrust an arm up into the unknown. An avalanche of soot fell upon his hand and wrist, but he ignored it, for at the same instant his fingers had closed upon what he was seeking. "Ah," he said. "I thought as much. You were not quite clever enough, after all, Smith." "No, sir," said Psmith patiently. "We all make mistakes." "You would have done better, Smith, not to have given me all this trouble. You have done yourself no good by it." "It's been great fun, though, sir," argued Psmith. "Fun!" Mr. Downing laughed grimly. "You may have reason to change your opinion of what constitutes--"