“It is a task demanding much time and care, if the statue is not to be ruined; otherwise I should have performed it in Mr. Paxton’s studio instead of going to the trouble of removing the figure--and---- Nina’s condition has caused me grave anxiety throughout the night.” He stared hard at Moris Klaw. We could hear the sound of coughing from some room hard by. “Who are you, m’sieur?” he asked, pointedly. “An old fool who knew Nina when she posed at Julien’s, Jean,” was the reply, “and who knew you, also, in Paris.” V Paxton, Coram, myself, and Moris Klaw sat in the studio, and all of us gazed reflectively at the recovered statue. “It was so evident,” explained Klaw, “that, since you were absent from here but thirty seconds, for any one to have removed the statue during that time was out of the question.” “But someone did----” “Not during that time,” rumbled Moris Klaw. “Nicris was removed whilst you all made merry within the house!” “But, my dear Mr. Klaw, Searles, Coram, and I saw the statue long after that--some time about one o’clock!” “Wrong, my friend! You saw the _model!_” “What! Nina?” “Madame Colette, whom you knew in Paris as Nina--yes! Listen--when I drop off to sleep here and dream that I am afraid for what may happen to some very large man, I dream, also, that I fear to be _touched!_ I look down at myself, and I am beautiful! I am ivory of limb and decked with gold! I creep, so cautiously, out of the studio (in my dream--_you_ would call it a dream), and I know, when I wake, that I must have been Nicris! Ah, you wonder! Listen. “At about midnight, whilst your party is amiable together, comes one, Jean Colette, a clever scamp from that metropolis of such perverted genius--Paris. Into Doctor Gleeson’s he goes, supporting Madame--your model. This is seen by Constable Freeman. When the trees hide them they climb over the fence into the lane and over the wall into your garden. Nina has a cast of the studio key. How easy for her to get it! “Jean, a clever rogue with his hands, and a man who promised to be, once, a great artist, detaches the figure from the throne and arrays it as Madame--in Madame’s outer garb! Beneath her cloak, Madame is Nicris--with copies of the jewels and all complete. He is clever, this Jean! He is, too, a man of vast strength--a modern Crotonian Milo. Not only does he carry that great piece of ivory from the studio, he lifts it over the wall--did Madame assist?--and into Doctor Gleeson’s drive. He bears it to the gate, wrapped in Nina’s furs. He calls a policeman! Ah, genius is here! He gives the wrong address. He is as cool as an orange! “Do they escape now? Not so! He sees that you, finding Nicris missing, will apply to the point-policeman and get hold upon a thread. He says, ‘I will make it to appear that the robbery took place at a later time. I will thus gain hours! Another policeman will be on duty when the discovery is made; he will know nothing.’ He leaves Nina to pretend to be Nicris!