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Rh Jane met him at the head of the stairs.

"The men are here now to put up the picture, sir."

"Very well, I'll see them." He went to the library, where he found two workmen standing in dubious silence before the portrait which they had raised from the desk. At his approach they turned and the huskier of the two remarked:

"We can't handle this. We ain't used to this sort of work, boss."

"I thought not." Odell smiled. "Are you the same men who were here this morning?"

"We are." The spokesman advanced truculently. "If you think it is any joke comin' twice and we paid by our time—"

"How long would it have taken you to hang that portrait, supposing you had done that sort of work before?" Odell interrupted.

"The good part of an hour," the other responded sulkily. "Well, I'll pay you for that hour and you can loaf away the rest of it after the next two minutes if you'll give me your expert opinion on something you do know about."

The two men looked at each other and then the smaller one remarked:

"Sounds fair enough; but I knew there was somethin' phoney about this whole business after what happened this morning. What do you say, Bill?"

"All right." The other hitched his overall-strap over one shoulder. "We'll give it a try, sir."

Odell paid them and then drew from his pocket the short lengths of steel wire which he had cut from the back of the portrait-frame that morning.

"This end I clipped myself," he explained. "Can you