thick, red-topped English match. But I further found that Mr. Lloyd had a
parrot which was a most intelligent pet, and had been trained into
comparative quietness--for a parrot. Also, I learned that more than once
the groom had met Mr. Lloyd carrying his parrot under his coat, it having,
as its owner explained, learned the trick of opening its cage-door and
escaping.

"I said nothing, of course, to you of all this, because I had as yet
nothing but a train of argument and no results. I got to Lloyd's room as
soon as possible. My chief object in going there was achieved when I
played with the parrot, and induced it to bite a quill toothpick.

"When you left me in the smoking-room, I compared the quill and the match
very carefully, and found that the marks corresponded exactly. After this
I felt very little doubt indeed. The fact of Lloyd having met the ladies
walking before dark on the day of the first robbery proved nothing,
because, since it was clear that the match had _not_ been used to procure
a light, the robbery might as easily have taken place in daylight as
not--must have so taken place, in fact, if my conjectures were right. That
they were right I felt no doubt. There could be no other explanation.

"When Mrs. Heath left her window open and her door shut, anybody climbing
upon the open sash of Lloyd's high window could have put the bird upon the
sill above. The match placed in the bird's beak for the purpose I have
indicated, and struck first, in case by accident it should ignite by
rubbing against something and startle the bird--this match would, of
course, be dropped just where the object to be removed was taken up; as
you know, in every case the match was found almost upon the spot where the
missing article had been left--scarcely a likely triple coincidence had
the match been used by a human thief. This would have been done as soon