“Yes, I see!” cried Ricardo, with enthusiasm.  “You are wonderful.”

Hanaud was not displeased with his companion’s enthusiasm.

“But wait a moment.  We have only conjectures so far, and one fact that Helene Vauquier lied about the colour of the strange woman’s hair.  Now we get another fact.  Mlle. Celie was wearing buckles on her shoes.  And there is my slit in the sofa cushions.  For when she is flung on to the sofa, what will she do?  She will kick, she will struggle.  Of course it is conjecture.  I do not as yet hold pigheadedly to it.  I am not yet sure that Mlle. Celie is innocent.  I am willing at any moment to admit that the facts contradict my theory.  But, on the contrary, each fact that I discover helps it to take shape.

“Now I come to Helene Vauquier’s second mistake.  On the evening when you saw Mlle. Celie in the garden behind the baccarat-rooms you noticed that she wore no jewellery except a pair of diamond eardrops.  In the photograph of her which Wethermill showed me, again she was wearing them.  Is it not, therefore, probable that she usually wore them?  When I examined her room I found the case for those earrings—­the case was empty.  It was natural, then, to infer that she was wearing them when she came down to the seance.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I read a description—­a carefully written description—­of the missing girl, made by Helene Vauquier after an examination of the girl’s wardrobe.  There is no mention of the earrings.  So I asked her—­’Was she not wearing them?’ Helene Vauquier was taken by surprise.  How should I know anything of Mlle. Celie’s earrings?  She hesitated.  She did not quite know what answer to make.  Now, why?  Since she herself dressed Mile.  Celie, and remembers so very well all she wore, why does she hesitate?  Well, there is a reason.  She does not know how much I know about those diamond eardrops.  She is not sure whether we have not dipped into that pot of cold cream and found them.  Yet without knowing she cannot answer.  So now we come back to our pot of cold cream.”

“Yes!” cried Mr. Ricardo.  “They were there.”

“Wait a bit,” said Hanaud.  “Let us see how it works out.  Remember the conditions.  Vauquier has some small thing which she must hide, and which she wishes to hide in Mlle. Celie’s room.  For she admitted that it was her suggestion that she should look through mademoiselle’s wardrobe.  For what reason does she choose the girl’s room, except that if the thing were discovered that would be the natural place for it?  It is, then, something belonging to Mlle. Celie.  There was a second condition we laid down.  It was something Vauquier had not been able to hide before.  It came, then, into her possession last night.  Why could she not bide it last night?  Because she was not alone.  There were the man and the woman, her accomplices.  It was something, then, which she was concerned in hiding from them.