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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont, by Robert Barr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont
+
+Author: Robert Barr
+
+Release Date: September 25, 2006 [EBook #19369]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRIUMPHS OF EUGÈNE VALMONT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Sankar Viswanathan, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+    The Attribution and the Table of Contents are not part of the
+    original book.
+
+
+
+                           _The Triumphs of
+                            Eugène Valmont_
+
+
+                                  By
+
+
+                             Robert Barr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+1.  _The Mystery of the Five Hundred Diamonds_
+
+2.  _The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower_
+
+3.  _The Clue of the Silver Spoons_
+
+4.  _Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune_
+
+5.  _The Absent-Minded Coterie_
+
+6.  _The Ghost with the Club-Foot_
+
+7.  _The Liberation of Wyoming Ed_
+
+8.  _Lady Alicia's Emeralds_
+
+
+APPENDIX: TWO SHERLOCK HOLMES PARODIES
+
+1.  The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs
+
+2.  The Adventure of the Second Swag
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+1. _The Mystery of the Five Hundred Diamonds_
+
+
+When I say I am called Valmont, the name will convey no impression to
+the reader, one way or another. My occupation is that of private
+detective in London, but if you ask any policeman in Paris who Valmont
+was he will likely be able to tell you, unless he is a recent recruit.
+If you ask him where Valmont is now, he may not know, yet I have a
+good deal to do with the Parisian police.
+
+For a period of seven years I was chief detective to the Government of
+France, and if I am unable to prove myself a great crime hunter, it is
+because the record of my career is in the secret archives of Paris.
+
+I may admit at the outset that I have no grievances to air. The French
+Government considered itself justified in dismissing me, and it did
+so. In this action it was quite within its right, and I should be the
+last to dispute that right; but, on the other hand, I consider myself
+justified in publishing the following account of what actually
+occurred, especially as so many false rumours have been put abroad
+concerning the case. However, as I said at the beginning, I hold no
+grievance, because my worldly affairs are now much more prosperous
+than they were in Paris, my intimate knowledge of that city and the
+country of which it is the capital bringing to me many cases with
+which I have dealt more or less successfully since I established
+myself in London.
+
+Without further preliminary I shall at once plunge into an account of
+the case which riveted the attention of the whole world a little more
+than a decade ago.
+
+The year 1893 was a prosperous twelve months for France. The weather
+was good, the harvest excellent, and the wine of that vintage is
+celebrated to this day. Everyone was well off and reasonably happy, a
+marked contrast to the state of things a few years later, when
+dissension over the Dreyfus case rent the country in twain.
+
+Newspaper readers may remember that in 1893 the Government of France
+fell heir to an unexpected treasure which set the civilised world
+agog, especially those inhabitants of it who are interested in
+historical relics. This was the finding of the diamond necklace in
+the Château de Chaumont, where it had rested undiscovered for a
+century in a rubbish heap of an attic. I believe it has not been
+questioned that this was the veritable necklace which the court
+jeweller, Boehmer, hoped to sell to Marie Antoinette, although how it
+came to be in the Château de Chaumont no one has been able to form
+even a conjecture. For a hundred years it was supposed that the
+necklace had been broken up in London, and its half a thousand stones,
+great and small, sold separately. It has always seemed strange to me
+that the Countess de Lamotte-Valois, who was thought to have profited
+by the sale of these jewels, should not have abandoned France if she
+possessed money to leave that country, for exposure was inevitable if
+she remained. Indeed, the unfortunate woman was branded and
+imprisoned, and afterwards was dashed to death from the third storey
+of a London house, when, in the direst poverty, she sought escape from
+the consequences of the debts she had incurred.
+
+I am not superstitious in the least, yet this celebrated piece of
+treasure-trove seems actually to have exerted a malign influence over
+everyone who had the misfortune to be connected with it. Indeed, in a
+small way, I who write these words suffered dismissal and disgrace,
+though I caught but one glimpse of this dazzling scintillation of
+jewels. The jeweller who made the necklace met financial ruin; the
+Queen for whom it was constructed was beheaded; that high-born Prince
+Louis René Edouard, Cardinal de Rohan, who purchased it, was flung
+into prison; the unfortunate Countess, who said she acted as
+go-between until the transfer was concluded, clung for five awful
+minutes to a London window-sill before dropping to her death to the
+flags below; and now, a hundred and eight years later, up comes this
+devil's display of fireworks to the light again!
+
+Droulliard, the working man who found the ancient box, seems to have
+prised it open, and ignorant though he was--he had probably never seen
+a diamond in his life before--realised that a fortune was in his
+grasp. The baleful glitter from the combination must have sent madness
+into his brain, working havoc therein as though the shafts of
+brightness were those mysterious rays which scientists have recently
+discovered. He might quite easily have walked through the main gate of
+the Château unsuspected and unquestioned with the diamonds concealed
+about his person, but instead of this he crept from the attic window
+on to the steep roof, slipped to the eaves, fell to the ground, and
+lay dead with a broken neck, while the necklace, intact, shimmered in
+the sunlight beside his body. No matter where these jewels had been
+found the Government would have insisted that they belonged to the
+Treasury of the Republic; but as the Château de Chaumont was a
+historical monument, and the property of France, there could be no
+question regarding the ownership of the necklace. The Government at
+once claimed it, and ordered it to be sent by a trustworthy military
+man to Paris. It was carried safely and delivered promptly to the
+authorities by Alfred Dreyfus, a young captain of artillery, to whom
+its custody had been entrusted.
+
+In spite of its fall from the tall tower neither case nor jewels were
+perceptibly damaged. The lock of the box had apparently been forced by
+Droulliard's hatchet, or perhaps by the clasp knife found on his body.
+On reaching the ground the lid had flown open, and the necklace was
+thrown out.
+
+I believe there was some discussion in the Cabinet regarding the fate
+of this ill-omened trophy, one section wishing it to be placed in a
+museum on account of its historical interest, another advocating the
+breaking up of the necklace and the selling of the diamonds for what
+they would fetch. But a third party maintained that the method to get
+the most money into the coffers of the country was to sell the
+necklace as it stood, for as the world now contains so many rich
+amateurs who collect undoubted rarities, regardless of expense, the
+historic associations of the jewelled collar would enhance the
+intrinsic value of the stones; and, this view prevailing, it was
+announced that the necklace would be sold by auction a month later in
+the rooms of Meyer, Renault and Co., in the Boulevard des Italiens,
+near the Bank of the Crédit-Lyonnais.
+
+This announcement elicited much comment from the newspapers of all
+countries, and it seemed that, from a financial point of view at
+least, the decision of the Government had been wise, for it speedily
+became evident that a notable coterie of wealthy buyers would be
+congregated in Paris on the thirteenth (unlucky day for me!) when the
+sale was to take place. But we of the inner circle were made aware of
+another result somewhat more disquieting, which was that the most
+expert criminals in the world were also gathering like vultures upon
+the fair city. The honour of France was at stake. Whoever bought that
+necklace must be assured of a safe conduct out of the country. We
+might view with equanimity whatever happened afterwards, but while he
+was a resident of France his life and property must not be endangered.
+Thus it came about that I was given full authority to ensure that
+neither murder nor theft nor both combined should be committed while
+the purchaser of the necklace remained within our boundaries, and for
+this purpose the police resources of France were placed unreservedly
+at my disposal. If I failed there should be no one to blame but
+myself; consequently, as I have remarked before, I do not complain of
+my dismissal by the Government.
+
+The broken lock of the jewel-case had been very deftly repaired by an
+expert locksmith, who in executing his task was so unfortunate as to
+scratch a finger on the broken metal, whereupon blood poisoning set
+in, and although his life was saved, he was dismissed from the
+hospital with his right arm gone and his usefulness destroyed.
+
+When the jeweller Boehmer made the necklace he asked a hundred and
+sixty thousand pounds for it, but after years of disappointment he was
+content to sell it to Cardinal de Rohan for sixty-four thousand
+pounds, to be liquidated in three instalments, not one of which was
+ever paid. This latter amount was probably somewhere near the value of
+the five hundred and sixteen separate stones, one of which was of
+tremendous size, a very monarch of diamonds, holding its court among
+seventeen brilliants each as large as a filbert. This iridescent
+concentration of wealth was, as one might say, placed in my care, and
+I had to see to it that no harm came to the necklace or to its
+prospective owner until they were safely across the boundaries of
+France.
+
+The four weeks previous to the thirteenth proved a busy and anxious
+time for me. Thousands, most of whom were actuated by mere curiosity,
+wished to view the diamonds. We were compelled to discriminate, and
+sometimes discriminated against the wrong person, which caused
+unpleasantness. Three distinct attempts were made to rob the safe, but
+luckily these criminal efforts were frustrated, and so we came
+unscathed to the eventful thirteenth of the month.
+
+The sale was to begin at two o'clock, and on the morning of that day I
+took the somewhat tyrannical precaution of having the more dangerous
+of our own malefactors, and as many of the foreign thieves as I could
+trump up charges against, laid by the heels, yet I knew very well it
+was not these rascals I had most to fear, but the suave, well-groomed
+gentlemen, amply supplied with unimpeachable credentials, stopping at
+our fine hotels and living like princes. Many of these were foreigners
+against whom we could prove nothing, and whose arrest might land us
+into temporary international difficulties. Nevertheless, I had each of
+them shadowed, and on the morning of the thirteenth if one of them had
+even disputed a cab fare I should have had him in prison half an hour
+later, and taken the consequences, but these gentlemen are very shrewd
+and do not commit mistakes.
+
+I made up a list of all the men in the world who were able or likely
+to purchase the necklace. Many of them would not be present in person
+at the auction rooms; their bidding would be done by agents. This
+simplified matters a good deal, for the agents kept me duly informed
+of their purposes, and, besides, an agent who handles treasure every
+week is an adept at the business, and does not need the protection
+which must surround an amateur, who in nine cases out of ten has but
+scant idea of the dangers that threaten him, beyond knowing that if he
+goes down a dark street in a dangerous quarter he is likely to be
+maltreated and robbed.
+
+There were no less than sixteen clients all told, whom we learned were
+to attend personally on the day of the sale, any one of whom might
+well have made the purchase. The Marquis of Warlingham and Lord Oxtead
+from England were well-known jewel fanciers, while at least half a
+dozen millionaires were expected from the United States, with a
+smattering from Germany, Austria, and Russia, and one each from Italy,
+Belgium, and Holland.
+
+Admission to the auction rooms was allowed by ticket only, to be
+applied for at least a week in advance, applications to be accompanied
+by satisfactory testimonials. It would possibly have surprised many of
+the rich men collected there to know that they sat cheek by jowl with
+some of the most noted thieves of England and America, but I allowed
+this for two reasons: first, I wished to keep these sharpers under my
+own eye until I knew who had bought the necklace; and, secondly, I was
+desirous that they should not know they were suspected.
+
+I stationed trusty men outside on the Boulevard des Italiens, each of
+whom knew by sight most of the probable purchasers of the necklace. It
+was arranged that when the sale was over I should walk out to the
+boulevard alongside the man who was the new owner of the diamonds, and
+from that moment until he quitted France my men were not to lose sight
+of him if he took personal custody of the stones, instead of doing the
+sensible and proper thing of having them insured and forwarded to his
+residence by some responsible transit company, or depositing them in
+the bank. In fact, I took every precaution that occurred to me. All
+police Paris was on the _qui vive_, and felt itself pitted against the
+scoundrelism of the world.
+
+For one reason or another it was nearly half-past two before the sale
+began. There had been considerable delay because of forged tickets,
+and, indeed, each order for admittance was so closely scrutinised that
+this in itself took a good deal more time than we anticipated. Every
+chair was occupied, and still a number of the visitors were compelled
+to stand. I stationed myself by the swinging doors at the entrance end
+of the hall, where I could command a view of the entire assemblage.
+Some of my men were placed with backs against the wall, whilst others
+were distributed amongst the chairs, all in plain clothes. During the
+sale the diamonds themselves were not displayed, but the box
+containing them rested in front of the auctioneer and three policemen
+in uniform stood guard on either side.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Very quietly the auctioneer began by saying that there was no need for
+him to expatiate on the notable character of the treasure he was
+privileged to offer for sale, and with this preliminary, he requested
+those present to bid. Someone offered twenty thousand francs, which
+was received with much laughter; then the bidding went steadily on
+until it reached nine hundred thousand francs, which I knew to be less
+than half the reserve the Government had placed upon the necklace. The
+contest advanced more slowly until the million and a half was touched,
+and there it hung fire for a time, while the auctioneer remarked that
+this sum did not equal that which the maker of the necklace had been
+finally forced to accept for it. After another pause he added that, as
+the reserve was not exceeded, the necklace would be withdrawn, and
+probably never again offered for sale. He therefore urged those who
+were holding back to make their bids now. At this the contest livened
+until the sum of two million three hundred thousand francs had been
+offered, and now I knew the necklace would be sold. Nearing the three
+million mark the competition thinned down to a few dealers from
+Hamburg and the Marquis of Warlingham, from England, when a voice that
+had not yet been heard in the auction room was lifted in a tone of
+some impatience:--
+
+    'One million dollars!'
+
+There was an instant hush, followed by the scribbling of pencils, as
+each person present reduced the sum to its equivalent in his own
+currency--pounds for the English, francs for the French, marks for the
+German, and so on. The aggressive tone and the clear-cut face of the
+bidder proclaimed him an American, not less than the financial
+denomination he had used. In a moment it was realised that his bid was
+a clear leap of more than two million francs, and a sigh went up from
+the audience as if this settled it, and the great sale was done.
+Nevertheless the auctioneer's hammer hovered over the lid of his desk,
+and he looked up and down the long line of faces turned towards him.
+He seemed reluctant to tap the board, but no one ventured to compete
+against this tremendous sum, and with a sharp click the mallet fell.
+
+'What name?' he asked, bending over towards the customer.
+
+'Cash,' replied the American; 'here's a cheque for the amount. I'll
+take the diamonds with me.'
+
+'Your request is somewhat unusual,' protested the auctioneer mildly.
+
+'I know what you mean,' interrupted the American; 'you think the
+cheque may not be cashed. You will notice it is drawn on the
+Crédit-Lyonnais, which is practically next door. I must have the
+jewels with me. Send round your messenger with the cheque; it will
+take only a few minutes to find out whether or not the money is there
+to meet it. The necklace is mine, and I insist on having it.'
+
+The auctioneer with some demur handed the cheque to the representative
+of the French Government who was present, and this official himself
+went to the bank. There were some other things to be sold and the
+auctioneer endeavoured to go on through the list, but no one paid the
+slightest attention to him.
+
+Meanwhile I was studying the countenance of the man who had made the
+astounding bid, when I should instead have adjusted my preparations to
+meet the new conditions now confronting me. Here was a man about whom
+we knew nothing whatever. I had come to the instant conclusion that he
+was a prince of criminals, and that a sinister design, not at that
+moment fathomed by me, was on foot to get possession of the jewels.
+The handing up of the cheque was clearly a trick of some sort, and I
+fully expected the official to return and say the draft was good. I
+determined to prevent this man from getting the jewel box until I knew
+more of his game. Quickly I removed from my place near the door to
+the auctioneer's desk, having two objects in view; first, to warn the
+auctioneer not to part with the treasure too easily; and, second, to
+study the suspected man at closer range. Of all evil-doers the
+American is most to be feared; he uses more ingenuity in the planning
+of his projects, and will take greater risks in carrying them out than
+any other malefactor on earth.
+
+From my new station I saw there were two men to deal with. The
+bidder's face was keen and intellectual; his hands refined, lady-like,
+clean and white, showing they were long divorced from manual labour,
+if indeed they had ever done any useful work. Coolness and
+imperturbability were his beyond a doubt. The companion who sat at his
+right was of an entirely different stamp. His hands were hairy and
+sun-tanned; his face bore the stamp of grim determination and
+unflinching bravery. I knew that these two types usually hunted in
+couples--the one to scheme, the other to execute, and they always
+formed a combination dangerous to encounter and difficult to
+circumvent.
+
+There was a buzz of conversation up and down the hall as these two men
+talked together in low tones. I knew now that I was face to face with
+the most hazardous problem of my life.
+
+I whispered to the auctioneer, who bent his head to listen. He knew
+very well who I was, of course.
+
+'You must not give up the necklace,' I began.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+'I am under the orders of the official from the Ministry of the
+Interior. You must speak to him.'
+
+'I shall not fail to do so,' I replied. 'Nevertheless, do not give up
+the box too readily.'
+
+'I am helpless,' he protested with another shrug. 'I obey the orders
+of the Government.'
+
+Seeing it was useless to parley further with the auctioneer, I set my
+wits to work to meet the new emergency. I felt convinced that the
+cheque would prove to be genuine, and that the fraud, wherever it lay,
+might not be disclosed in time to aid the authorities. My duty,
+therefore, was to make sure we lost sight neither of the buyer nor the
+thing bought. Of course I could not arrest the purchaser merely on
+suspicion; besides, it would make the Government the laughing-stock of
+the world if they sold a case of jewels and immediately placed the
+buyer in custody when they themselves had handed over his goods to
+him. Ridicule kills in France. A breath of laughter may blow a
+Government out of existence in Paris much more effectually than will a
+whiff of cannon smoke. My duty then was to give the Government full
+warning, and never lose sight of my man until he was clear of France;
+then my responsibility ended.
+
+I took aside one of my own men in plain clothes and said to him,--
+
+'You have seen the American who has bought the necklace?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Very well. Go outside quietly, and station yourself there. He is
+likely to emerge presently with the jewels in his possession. You are
+not to lose sight of either the man or the casket. I shall follow him
+and be close behind him as he emerges, and you are to shadow us. If he
+parts with the case you must be ready at a sign from me to follow
+either the man or the jewels. Do you understand?' 'Yes, sir,' he
+answered, and left the room.
+
+It is ever the unforeseen that baffles us; it is easy to be wise after
+the event. I should have sent two men, and I have often thought since
+how admirable is the regulation of the Italian Government which sends
+out its policemen in pairs. Or I should have given my man power to
+call for help, but even as it was he did only half as well as I had a
+right to expect of him, and the blunder he committed by a moment's
+dull-witted hesitation--ah, well! there is no use of scolding. After
+all the result might have been the same.
+
+Just as my man disappeared between the two folding doors the official
+from the Ministry of the Interior entered. I intercepted him about
+half-way on his journey from the door to the auctioneer.
+
+'Possibly the cheque appears to be genuine,' I whispered to him.
+
+'But certainly,' he replied pompously. He was an individual greatly
+impressed with his own importance; a kind of character with which it
+is always difficult to deal. Afterwards the Government asserted that
+this official had warned me, and the utterances of an empty-headed ass
+dressed in a little brief authority, as the English poet says, were
+looked upon as the epitome of wisdom.
+
+'I advise you strongly not to hand over the necklace as has been
+requested,' I went on.
+
+'Why?' he asked.
+
+'Because I am convinced the bidder is a criminal.'
+
+'If you have proof of that, arrest him.'
+
+'I have no proof at the present moment, but I request you to delay the
+delivery of the goods.'
+
+'That is absurd,' he cried impatiently. 'The necklace is his, not
+ours. The money has already been transferred to the account of the
+Government; we cannot retain the five million francs, and refuse to
+hand over to him what he has bought with them,' and so the man left me
+standing there, nonplussed and anxious. The eyes of everyone in the
+room had been turned on us during our brief conversation, and now the
+official proceeded ostentatiously up the room with a grand air of
+importance; then, with a bow and a flourish of the hand, he said,
+dramatically,--
+
+'The jewels belong to Monsieur.'
+
+The two Americans rose simultaneously, the taller holding out his hand
+while the auctioneer passed to him the case he had apparently paid so
+highly for. The American nonchalantly opened the box and for the first
+time the electric radiance of the jewels burst upon that audience,
+each member of which craned his neck to behold it. It seemed to me a
+most reckless thing to do. He examined the jewels minutely for a few
+moments, then snapped the lid shut again, and calmly put the box in
+his outside pocket, and I could not help noticing that the light
+overcoat he wore possessed pockets made extraordinarily large, as if
+on purpose for this very case. And now this amazing man walked
+serenely down the room past miscreants who joyfully would have cut his
+throat for even the smallest diamond in that conglomeration; yet he
+did not take the trouble to put his hand on the pocket which contained
+the case, or in any way attempt to protect it. The assemblage seemed
+stricken dumb by his audacity. His friend followed closely at his
+heels, and the tall man disappeared through the folding doors. Not so
+the other. He turned quickly, and whipped two revolvers out of his
+pockets, which he presented at the astonished crowd. There had been a
+movement on the part of every one to leave the room, but the sight of
+these deadly weapons confronting them made each one shrink into his
+place again.
+
+The man with his back to the door spoke in a loud and domineering
+voice, asking the auctioneer to translate what he had to say into
+French and German; he spoke in English.
+
+'These here shiners are valuable; they belong to my friend who has
+just gone out. Casting no reflections on the generality of people in
+this room, there are, nevertheless, half a dozen "crooks" among us
+whom my friend wishes to avoid. Now, no honest man here will object to
+giving the buyer of that there trinket five clear minutes in which to
+get away. It's only the "crooks" that can kick. I ask these five
+minutes as a favour, but if they are not granted I am going to take
+them as a right. Any man who moves will get shot.'
+
+'I am an honest man,' I cried, 'and I object. I am chief detective of
+the French Government. Stand aside; the police will protect your
+friend.'
+
+'Hold on, my son,' warned the American, turning one weapon directly
+upon me, while the other held a sort of roving commission, pointing
+all over the room. 'My friend is from New York and he distrusts the
+police as much as he does the grafters. You may be twenty detectives,
+but if you move before that clock strikes three, I'll bring you down,
+and don't you forget it.'
+
+It is one thing to face death in a fierce struggle, but quite another
+to advance coldly upon it toward the muzzle of a pistol held so
+steadily that there could be no chance of escape. The gleam of
+determination in the man's eyes convinced me he meant what he said. I
+did not consider then, nor have I considered since, that the next five
+minutes, precious as they were, would be worth paying my life for.
+Apparently everyone else was of my opinion, for none moved hand or
+foot until the clock slowly struck three.
+
+'Thank you, gentlemen,' said the American, as he vanished between the
+spring-doors. When I say vanished, I mean that word and no other,
+because my men outside saw nothing of this individual then or later.
+He vanished as if he had never existed, and it was some hours before
+we found how this had been accomplished.
+
+I rushed out almost on his heels, as one might say, and hurriedly
+questioned my waiting men. They had all seen the tall American come
+out with the greatest leisure and stroll towards the west. As he was
+not the man any of them were looking for they paid no further
+attention to him, as, indeed, is the custom with our Parisian force.
+They have eyes for nothing but what they are sent to look for, and
+this trait has its drawbacks for their superiors.
+
+I ran up the boulevard, my whole thought intent on the diamonds and
+their owner. I knew my subordinate in command of the men inside the
+hall would look after the scoundrel with the pistols. A short distance
+up I found the stupid fellow I had sent out, standing in a dazed
+manner at the corner of the Rue Michodière, gazing alternately down
+that short street and towards the Place de l'Opéra. The very fact that
+he was there furnished proof that he had failed.
+
+'Where is the American?' I demanded.
+
+'He went down this street, sir.'
+
+'Then why are you standing here like a fool?'
+
+'I followed him this far, when a man came up the Rue Michodière, and
+without a word the American handed him the jewel-box, turning
+instantly down the street up which the other had come. The other
+jumped into a cab, and drove towards the Place de l'Opéra.'
+
+'And what did you do? Stood here like a post, I suppose?'
+
+'I didn't know what to do, sir. It all happened in a moment.'
+
+'Why didn't you follow the cab?'
+
+'I didn't know which to follow, sir, and the cab was gone instantly
+while I watched the American.'
+
+'What was its number?'
+
+'I don't know, sir.'
+
+'You clod! Why didn't you call one of our men, whoever was nearest,
+and leave him to shadow the American while you followed the cab?'
+
+'I did shout to the nearest man, sir, but he said you told him to stay
+there and watch the English lord, and even before he had spoken both
+American and cabman were out of sight.'
+
+'Was the man to whom he gave the box an American also?'
+
+'No, sir, he was French.'
+
+'How do you know?'
+
+'By his appearance and the words he spoke.'
+
+'I thought you said he didn't speak.'
+
+'He did not speak to the American, sir, but he said to the cabman,
+"Drive to the Madeleine as quickly as you can."'
+
+'Describe the man.'
+
+'He was a head shorter than the American, wore a black beard and
+moustache rather neatly trimmed, and seemed to be a superior sort of
+artisan.'
+
+'You did not take the number of the cab. Should you know the cabman if
+you saw him again?'
+
+'Yes, sir, I think so.'
+
+Taking this fellow with me I returned to the now nearly empty auction
+room and there gathered all my men about me. Each in his notebook
+took down particulars of the cabman and his passenger from the lips of
+my incompetent spy; next I dictated a full description of the two
+Americans, then scattered my men to the various railway stations of
+the lines leading out of Paris, with orders to make inquiries of the
+police on duty there, and to arrest one or more of the four persons
+described should they be so fortunate as to find any of them.
+
+I now learned how the rogue with the pistols vanished so completely as
+he did. My subordinate in the auction room had speedily solved the
+mystery. To the left of the main entrance of the auction room was a
+door that gave private access to the rear of the premises. As the
+attendant in charge confessed when questioned, he had been bribed by
+the American earlier in the day to leave this side door open and to
+allow the man to escape by the goods entrance. Thus the ruffian did
+not appear on the boulevard at all, and so had not been observed by
+any of my men.
+
+Taking my futile spy with me I returned to my own office, and sent an
+order throughout the city that every cabman who had been in the
+Boulevard des Italiens between half-past two and half-past three that
+afternoon, should report immediately to me. The examination of these
+men proved a very tedious business indeed, but whatever other
+countries may say of us, we French are patient, and if the haystack is
+searched long enough, the needle will be found. I did not discover the
+needle I was looking for, but I came upon one quite as important, if
+not more so.
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock at night when a cabman answered my
+oft-repeated questions in the affirmative.
+
+'Did you take up a passenger a few minutes past three o'clock on the
+Boulevard des Italiens, near the Crédit-Lyonnais? Had he a short black
+beard? Did he carry a small box in his hand and order you to drive to
+the Madeleine?'
+
+The cabman seemed puzzled.
+
+'He wore a short black beard when he got out of the cab,' he replied.
+
+'What do you mean by that?'
+
+'I drive a closed cab, sir. When he got in he was a smooth-faced
+gentleman; when he got out he wore a short black beard.'
+
+'Was he a Frenchman?'
+
+'No, sir; he was a foreigner, either English or American.'
+
+'Was he carrying a box?'
+
+'No, sir; he held in his hand a small leather bag.'
+
+'Where did he tell you to drive?'
+
+'He told me to follow the cab in front, which had just driven off very
+rapidly towards the Madeleine. In fact, I heard the man, such as you
+describe, order the other cabman to drive to the Madeleine. I had come
+alongside the curb when this man held up his hand for a cab, but the
+open cab cut in ahead of me. Just then my passenger stepped up and
+said in French, but with a foreign accent: "Follow that cab wherever
+it goes."'
+
+I turned with some indignation to my inefficient spy.
+
+'You told me,' I said, 'that the American had gone down a side street.
+Yet he evidently met a second man, obtained from him the handbag,
+turned back, and got into the closed cab directly behind you.'
+
+'Well, sir,' stammered the spy, 'I could not look in two directions at
+the same time. The American certainly went down the side street, but
+of course I watched the cab which contained the jewels.'
+
+'And you saw nothing of the closed cab right at your elbow?'
+
+'The boulevard was full of cabs, sir, and the pavement crowded with
+passers-by, as it always is at that hour of the day, and I have only
+two eyes in my head.'
+
+'I am glad to know you had that many, for I was beginning to think you
+were blind.'
+
+Although I said this, I knew in my heart it was useless to censure the
+poor wretch, for the fault was entirely my own in not sending two men,
+and in failing to guess the possibility of the jewels and their owner
+being separated. Besides, here was a clue to my hand at last, and no
+time must be lost in following it up. So I continued my interrogation
+of the cabman.
+
+'The other cab was an open vehicle, you say?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'You succeeded in following it?'
+
+'Oh, yes, sir. At the Madeleine the man in front redirected the
+coachman, who turned to the left and drove to the Place de la
+Concorde, then up the Champs-Elysées to the Arch and so down the
+Avenue de la Grande Armée, and the Avenue de Neuilly, to the Pont de
+Neuilly, where it came to a standstill. My fare got out, and I saw he
+now wore a short black beard, which he had evidently put on inside the
+cab. He gave me a ten-franc piece, which was very satisfactory.
+
+'And the fare you were following? What did he do?'
+
+'He also stepped out, paid the cabman, went down the bank of the river
+and got on board a steam launch that seemed to be waiting for him.'
+
+'Did he look behind, or appear to know that he was being followed?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'And your fare?'
+
+'He ran after the first man, and also went aboard the steam launch,
+which instantly started down the river.'
+
+'And that was the last you saw of them?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'At what time did you reach the Pont de Neuilly?'
+
+'I do not know, sir; I was compelled to drive rather fast, but the
+distance is seven to eight kilometres.'
+
+'You would do it under the hour?'
+
+'But certainly, under the hour.'
+
+'Then you must have reached Neuilly bridge about four o'clock?'
+
+'It is very likely, sir.'
+
+The plan of the tall American was now perfectly clear to me, and it
+comprised nothing that was contrary to law. He had evidently placed
+his luggage on board the steam launch in the morning. The handbag had
+contained various materials which would enable him to disguise
+himself, and this bag he had probably left in some shop down the side
+street, or else someone was waiting with it for him. The giving of the
+treasure to another man was not so risky as it had at first appeared,
+because he instantly followed that man, who was probably his
+confidential servant. Despite the windings of the river there was
+ample time for the launch to reach Havre before the American steamer
+sailed on Saturday morning. I surmised it was his intention to come
+alongside the steamer before she left her berth in Havre harbour, and
+thus transfer himself and his belongings unperceived by anyone on
+watch at the land side of the liner.
+
+All this, of course, was perfectly justifiable, and seemed, in truth,
+merely a well-laid scheme for escaping observation. His only danger of
+being tracked was when he got into the cab. Once away from the
+neighbourhood of the Boulevard des Italiens he was reasonably sure to
+evade pursuit, and the five minutes which his friend with the pistols
+had won for him afforded just the time he needed to get so far as the
+Place Madeleine, and after that everything was easy. Yet, if it had
+not been for those five minutes secured by coercion, I should not have
+found the slightest excuse for arresting him. But he was accessory
+after the act in that piece of illegality--in fact, it was absolutely
+certain that he had been accessory before the act, and guilty of
+conspiracy with the man who had presented firearms to the auctioneer's
+audience, and who had interfered with an officer in the discharge of
+his duty by threatening me and my men. So I was now legally in the
+right if I arrested every person on board that steam launch.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With a map of the river before me I proceeded to make some
+calculations. It was now nearly ten o'clock at night. The launch had
+had six hours in which to travel at its utmost speed. It was doubtful
+if so small a vessel could make ten miles an hour, even with the
+current in its favour, which is rather sluggish because of the locks
+and the level country. Sixty miles would place her beyond Meulan,
+which is fifty-eight miles from the Pont Royal, and, of course, a
+lesser distance from the Pont de Neuilly. But the navigation of the
+river is difficult at all times, and almost impossible after dark.
+There were chances of the boat running aground, and then there was the
+inevitable delay at the locks. So I estimated that the launch could
+not yet have reached Meulan, which was less than twenty-five miles
+from Paris by rail. Looking up the timetable I saw there were still
+two trains to Meulan, the next at 10.25, which reached Meulan at
+11.40. I therefore had time to reach St. Lazare station, and accomplish
+some telegraphing before the train left.
+
+With three of my assistants I got into a cab and drove to the station.
+On arrival I sent one of my men to hold the train while I went into
+the telegraph office, cleared the wires, and got into communication
+with the lock master at Meulan. He replied that no steam launch had
+passed down since an hour before sunset. I then instructed him to
+allow the yacht to enter the lock, close the upper gate, let half of
+the water out, and hold the vessel there until I came. I also ordered
+the local Meulan police to send enough men to the lock to enforce this
+command. Lastly, I sent messages all along the river asking the police
+to report to me on the train the passage of the steam launch.
+
+The 10.25 is a slow train, stopping at every station. However, every
+drawback has its compensation, and these stoppages enabled me to
+receive and to send telegraphic messages. I was quite well aware that
+I might be on a fool's errand in going to Meulan. The yacht could have
+put about before it had steamed a mile, and so returned back to Paris.
+There had been no time to learn whether this was so or not if I was to
+catch the 10.25. Also, it might have landed its passengers anywhere
+along the river. I may say at once that neither of these two things
+happened, and my calculations regarding her movements were accurate to
+the letter. But a trap most carefully set may be prematurely sprung by
+inadvertence, or more often by the over-zeal of some stupid ass who
+fails to understand his instructions, or oversteps them if they are
+understood. I received a most annoying telegram from Denouval, a lock
+about thirteen miles above that of Meulan. The local policeman,
+arriving at the lock, found that the yacht had just cleared. The fool
+shouted to the captain to return, threatening him with all the pains
+and penalties of the law if he refused. The captain did refuse, rung
+on full speed ahead, and disappeared in the darkness. Through this
+well-meant blunder of an understrapper those on board the launch had
+received warning that we were on their track. I telegraphed to the
+lock-keeper at Denouval to allow no craft to pass toward Paris until
+further orders. We thus held the launch in a thirteen-mile stretch of
+water, but the night was pitch dark, and passengers might be landed on
+either bank with all France before them, over which to effect their
+escape in any direction.
+
+It was midnight when I reached the lock at Meulan, and, as was to be
+expected, nothing had been seen or heard of the launch. It gave me
+some satisfaction to telegraph to that dunderhead at Denouval to walk
+along the river bank to Meulan, and report if he learnt the launch's
+whereabouts. We took up our quarters in the lodgekeeper's house and
+waited. There was little sense in sending men to scour the country at
+this time of night, for the pursued were on the alert, and very
+unlikely to allow themselves to be caught if they had gone ashore. On
+the other hand, there was every chance that the captain would refuse
+to let them land, because he must know his vessel was in a trap from
+which it could not escape, and although the demand of the policeman at
+Denouval was quite unauthorised, nevertheless the captain could not
+know that, while he must be well aware of his danger in refusing to
+obey a command from the authorities. Even if he got away for the
+moment he must know that arrest was certain, and that his punishment
+would be severe. His only plea could be that he had not heard and
+understood the order to return. But this plea would be invalidated if
+he aided in the escape of two men, whom he must know were wanted by
+the police. I was therefore very confident that if his passengers
+asked to be set ashore, the captain would refuse when he had had time
+to think about his own danger. My estimate proved accurate, for
+towards one o'clock the lock-keeper came in and said the green and red
+lights of an approaching craft were visible, and as he spoke the yacht
+whistled for the opening of the lock. I stood by the lock-keeper while
+he opened the gates; my men and the local police were concealed on
+each side of the lock. The launch came slowly in, and as soon as it
+had done so I asked the captain to step ashore, which he did.
+
+'I wish a word with you,' I said. 'Follow me.'
+
+I took him into the lock-keeper's house and closed the door.
+
+'Where are you going?'
+
+'To Havre.'
+
+'Where did you come from?'
+
+'Paris.'
+
+'From what quay?'
+
+'From the Pont de Neuilly.'
+
+'When did you leave there?'
+
+'At five minutes to four o'clock this afternoon.'
+
+'Yesterday afternoon, you mean?'
+
+'Yesterday afternoon.'
+
+'Who engaged you to make this voyage?'
+
+'An American; I do not know his name.'
+
+'He paid you well, I suppose?'
+
+'He paid me what I asked.'
+
+'Have you received the money?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'I may inform you, captain, that I am Eugène Valmont, chief detective
+of the French Government, and that all the police of France at this
+moment are under my control. I ask you, therefore, to be careful of
+your answers. You were ordered by a policeman at Denouval to return.
+Why did you not do so?'
+
+'The lock-keeper ordered me to return, but as he had no right to order
+me, I went on.'
+
+'You knew very well it was the police who ordered you, and you ignored
+the command. Again I ask you why you did so.'
+
+'I did not know it was the police.'
+
+'I thought you would say that. You knew very well, but were paid to
+take the risk, and it is likely to cost you dear. You had two
+passengers aboard?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Did you put them ashore between here and Denouval?'
+
+'No, sir; but one of them went overboard, and we couldn't find him
+again.'
+
+'Which one?'
+
+'The short man.'
+
+'Then the American is still aboard?'
+
+'What American, sir?'
+
+'Captain, you must not trifle with me. The man who engaged you is
+still aboard?'
+
+'Oh, no, sir; he has never been aboard.'
+
+'Do you mean to tell me that the second man who came on your launch at
+the Pont de Neuilly is not the American who engaged you?'
+
+'No, sir; the American was a smooth-faced man; this man wore a black
+beard.'
+
+'Yes, a false beard.'
+
+'I did not know that, sir. I understood from the American that I was
+to take but one passenger. One came aboard with a small box in his
+hand; the other with a small bag. Each declared himself to be the
+passenger in question. I did not know what to do, so I left Paris with
+both of them on board.'
+
+'Then the tall man with the black beard is still with you?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Well, captain, is there anything else you have to tell me? I think
+you will find it better in the end to make a clean breast of it.'
+
+The captain hesitated, turning his cap about in his hands for a few
+moments, then he said,--
+
+'I am not sure that the first passenger went overboard of his own
+accord. When the police hailed us at Denouval--'
+
+'Ah, you knew it was the police, then?'
+
+'I was afraid after I left it might have been. You see, when the
+bargain was made with me the American said that if I reached Havre at
+a certain time a thousand francs extra would be paid to me, so I was
+anxious to get along as quickly as I could. I told him it was
+dangerous to navigate the Seine at night, but he paid me well for
+attempting it. After the policeman called to us at Denouval the man
+with the small box became very much excited, and asked me to put him
+ashore, which I refused to do. The tall man appeared to be watching
+him, never letting him get far away. When I heard the splash in the
+water I ran aft, and I saw the tall man putting the box which the
+other had held into his handbag, although I said nothing of it at the
+time. We cruised back and forward about the spot where the other man
+had gone overboard, but saw nothing more of him. Then I came on to
+Meulan, intending to give information about what I had seen. That is
+all I know of the matter, sir.'
+
+'Was the man who had the jewels a Frenchman?'
+
+'What jewels, sir?'
+
+'The man with the small box.'
+
+'Oh, yes, sir; he was French.'
+
+'You have hinted that the foreigner threw him overboard. What grounds
+have you for such a belief if you did not see the struggle?'
+
+'The night is very dark, sir, and I did not see what happened. I was
+at the wheel in the forward part of the launch, with my back turned to
+these two. I heard a scream, then a splash. If the man had jumped
+overboard as the other said he did, he would not have screamed.
+Besides, as I told you, when I ran aft I saw the foreigner put the
+little box in his handbag, which he shut up quickly as if he did not
+wish me to notice.'
+
+'Very good, captain. If you have told the truth it will go easier with
+you in the investigation that is to follow.'
+
+I now turned the captain over to one of my men, and ordered in the
+foreigner with his bag and bogus black whiskers. Before questioning
+him I ordered him to open the handbag, which he did with evident
+reluctance. It was filled with false whiskers, false moustaches, and
+various bottles, but on top of them all lay the jewel case. I raised
+the lid and displayed that accursed necklace. I looked up at the man,
+who stood there calmly enough, saying nothing in spite of the
+overwhelming evidence against him.
+
+'Will you oblige me by removing your false beard?'
+
+He did so at once, throwing it into the open bag. I knew the moment I
+saw him that he was not the American, and thus my theory had broken
+down, in one very important part at least. Informing him who I was,
+and cautioning him to speak the truth, I asked how he came in
+possession of the jewels.
+
+'Am I under arrest?' he asked.
+
+'But certainly,' I replied.
+
+'Of what am I accused?'
+
+'You are accused, in the first place, of being in possession of
+property which does not belong to you.'
+
+'I plead guilty to that. What in the second place?'
+
+'In the second place, you may find yourself accused of murder.'
+
+'I am innocent of the second charge. The man jumped overboard.'
+
+'If that is true, why did he scream as he went over?'
+
+'Because, too late to recover his balance, I seized this box and held
+it.'
+
+'He was in rightful possession of the box; the owner gave it to him.'
+
+'I admit that; I saw the owner give it to him.'
+
+'Then why should he jump overboard?'
+
+'I do not know. He seemed to become panic-stricken when the police at
+the last lock ordered us to return. He implored the captain to put him
+ashore, and from that moment I watched him keenly, expecting that if
+we drew near to the land he would attempt to escape, as the captain
+had refused to beach the launch. He remained quiet for about half an
+hour, seated on a camp chair by the rail, with his eyes turned toward
+the shore, trying, as I imagined, to penetrate the darkness and
+estimate the distance. Then suddenly he sprung up and made his dash. I
+was prepared for this, and instantly caught the box from his hand. He
+gave a half turn, trying either to save himself or to retain the box;
+then with a scream went down shoulders first into the water. It all
+happened within a second after he leaped from his chair.'
+
+'You admit yourself, then, indirectly responsible for his drowning, at
+least?'
+
+'I see no reason to suppose that the man was drowned. If able to swim
+he could easily have reached the river bank. If unable to swim, why
+should he attempt it encumbered by the box?'
+
+'You believe he escaped, then?'
+
+'I think so.'
+
+'It will be lucky for you should that prove to be the case.'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'How did you come to be in the yacht at all?' 'I shall give you a
+full account of the affair, concealing nothing. I am a private
+detective, with an office in London. I was certain that some attempt
+would be made, probably by the most expert criminals at large, to rob
+the possessor of this necklace. I came over to Paris, anticipating
+trouble, determined to keep an eye upon the jewel case if this proved
+possible. If the jewels were stolen the crime was bound to be one of
+the most celebrated in legal annals. I was present during the sale,
+and saw the buyer of the necklace. I followed the official who went to
+the bank, and thus learned that the money was behind the cheque. I
+then stopped outside and waited for the buyer to appear. He held the
+case in his hand.'
+
+'In his pocket, you mean?' I interrupted.
+
+'He had it in his hand when I saw him. Then the man who afterwards
+jumped overboard approached him, took the case without a word, held up
+his hand for a cab, and when an open vehicle approached the curb he
+stepped in, saying, "The Madeleine." I hailed a closed cab, instructed
+the cabman to follow the first, disguising myself with whiskers as
+near like those the man in front wore as I had in my collection.'
+
+'Why did you do that?'
+
+'As a detective you should know why I did it. I wished as nearly as
+possible to resemble the man in front, so that if necessity arose I
+could pretend that I was the person commissioned to carry the jewel
+case. As a matter of fact, the crisis arose when we came to the end of
+our cab journey. The captain did not know which was his true
+passenger, and so let us both remain aboard the launch. And now you
+have the whole story.'
+
+'An extremely improbable one, sir. Even by your own account you had no
+right to interfere in this business at all.'
+
+'I quite agree with you there,' he replied, with great nonchalance,
+taking a card from his pocket-book, which he handed to me.
+
+'That is my London address; you may make inquiries, and you will find
+I am exactly what I represent myself to be.'
+
+The first train for Paris left Meulan at eleven minutes past four in
+the morning. It was now a quarter after two. I left the captain, crew,
+and launch in charge of two of my men, with orders to proceed to Paris
+as soon as it was daylight. I, supported by the third man, waited at
+the station with our English prisoner, and reached Paris at half-past
+five in the morning.
+
+The English prisoner, though severely interrogated by the judge, stood
+by his story. Inquiry by the police in London proved that what he said
+of himself was true. His case, however, began to look very serious
+when two of the men from the launch asserted that they had seen him
+push the Frenchman overboard, and their statement could not be shaken.
+All our energies were bent for the next two weeks on trying to find
+something of the identity of the missing man, or to get any trace of
+the two Americans. If the tall American were alive, it seemed
+incredible that he should not have made application for the valuable
+property he had lost. All attempts to trace him by means of the cheque
+on the Crédit-Lyonnais proved futile. The bank pretended to give me
+every assistance, but I sometimes doubt if it actually did so. It had
+evidently been well paid for its services, and evinced no impetuous
+desire to betray so good a customer.
+
+We made inquiries about every missing man in Paris, but also without
+result.
+
+The case had excited much attention throughout the world, and
+doubtless was published in full in the American papers. The Englishman
+had been in custody three weeks when the chief of police in Paris
+received the following letter:--
+
+'DEAR SIR,--On my arrival in New York by the English steamer
+_Lucania_, I was much amused to read in the papers accounts of the
+exploits of detectives, French and English. I am sorry that only one
+of them seems to be in prison; I think his French _confrère_ ought to
+be there also. I regret exceedingly, however, that there is the rumour
+of the death by drowning of my friend Martin Dubois, of 375 Rue aux
+Juifs, Rouen. If this is indeed the case he has met his death through
+the blunders of the police. Nevertheless, I wish you would communicate
+with his family at the address I have given, and assure them that I
+will make arrangements for their future support.
+
+'I beg to inform you that I am a manufacturer of imitation diamonds,
+and through extensive advertising succeeded in accumulating a fortune
+of many millions. I was in Europe when the necklace was found, and had
+in my possession over a thousand imitation diamonds of my own
+manufacture. It occurred to me that here was the opportunity of the
+most magnificent advertisement in the world. I saw the necklace,
+received its measurements, and also obtained photographs of it taken
+by the French Government. Then I set my expert friend Martin Dubois at
+work, and, with the artificial stones I gave him, he made an imitation
+necklace so closely resembling the original that you apparently do not
+know it is the unreal you have in your possession. I did not fear the
+villainy of the crooks as much as the blundering of the police, who
+would have protected me with brass-band vehemence if I could not elude
+them. I knew that the detectives would overlook the obvious, but would
+at once follow a clue if I provided one for them. Consequently, I laid
+my plans, just as you have discovered, and got Martin Dubois up from
+Rouen to carry the case I gave him down to Havre. I had had another
+box prepared and wrapped in brown paper, with my address in New York
+written thereon. The moment I emerged from the auction room, while my
+friend the cowboy was holding up the audience, I turned my face to the
+door, took out the genuine diamonds from the case and slipped it into
+the box I had prepared for mailing. Into the genuine case I put the
+bogus diamonds. After handing the box to Dubois, I turned down a side
+street, and then into another whose name I do not know, and there in a
+shop with sealing wax and string did up the real diamonds for posting.
+I labelled the package "Books", went to the nearest post office, paid
+letter postage, and handed it over unregistered as if it were of no
+particular value. After this I went to my rooms in the Grand Hotel
+where I had been staying under my own name for more than a month. Next
+morning I took train for London, and the day after sailed from
+Liverpool on the _Lucania_. I arrived before the _Gascoigne_, which
+sailed from Havre on Saturday, met my box at the Customs house, paid
+duty, and it now reposes in my safe. I intend to construct an
+imitation necklace which will be so like the genuine one that nobody
+can tell the two apart; then I shall come to Europe and exhibit the
+pair, for the publication of the truth of this matter will give me the
+greatest advertisement that ever was.
+
+'Yours truly,
+
+'JOHN P HAZARD.'
+
+I at once communicated with Rouen and found Martin Dubois alive and
+well. His first words were:--'I swear I did not steal the jewels.'
+
+He had swum ashore, tramped to Rouen, and kept quiet in great fear
+while I was fruitlessly searching Paris for him. It took Mr. Hazard
+longer to make his imitation necklace than he supposed, and several
+years later he booked his passage with the two necklaces on the
+ill-fated steamer _Burgoyne_, and now rests beside them at the bottom
+of the Atlantic.
+
+    Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
+    The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
+
+
+
+
+2. _The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower_
+
+
+The events previously related in 'The Mystery of the Five Hundred
+Diamonds' led to my dismissal by the French Government. It was not
+because I had arrested an innocent man; I had done that dozens of
+times before, with nothing said about it. It was not because I had
+followed a wrong clue, or because I had failed to solve the mystery of
+the five hundred diamonds. Every detective follows a wrong clue now
+and then, and every detective fails more often than he cares to admit.
+No. All these things would not have shaken my position, but the
+newspapers were so fortunate as to find something humorous in the
+case, and for weeks Paris rang with laughter over my exploits and my
+defeat. The fact that the chief French detective had placed the most
+celebrated English detective into prison, and that each of them were
+busily sleuth-hounding a bogus clue, deliberately flung across their
+path by an amateur, roused all France to great hilarity. The
+Government was furious. The Englishman was released and I was
+dismissed. Since the year 1893 I have been a resident of London.
+
+When a man is, as one might say, the guest of a country, it does not
+become him to criticise that country. I have studied this strange
+people with interest, and often with astonishment, and if I now set
+down some of the differences between the English and the French, I
+trust that no note of criticism of the former will appear, even when
+my sympathies are entirely with the latter. These differences have
+sunk deeply into my mind, because, during the first years of my stay
+in London my lack of understanding them was often a cause of my own
+failure when I thought I had success in hand. Many a time did I come
+to the verge of starvation in Soho, through not appreciating the
+peculiar trend of mind which causes an Englishman to do inexplicable
+things--that is, of course, from my Gallic standpoint.
+
+For instance, an arrested man is presumed to be innocent until he is
+proved guilty. In England, if a murderer is caught red-handed over his
+victim, he is held guiltless until the judge sentences him. In France
+we make no such foolish assumption, and although I admit that innocent
+men have sometimes been punished, my experience enables me to state
+very emphatically that this happens not nearly so often as the public
+imagines. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred an innocent man can at
+once prove his innocence without the least difficulty. I hold it is
+his duty towards the State to run the very slight risk of unjust
+imprisonment in order that obstacles may not be thrown in the way of
+the conviction of real criminals. But it is impossible to persuade an
+Englishman of this. _Mon Dieu!_ I have tried it often enough.
+
+Never shall I forget the bitterness of my disappointment when I
+captured Felini, the Italian anarchist, in connection with the
+Greenwich Park murder. At this time--it gives me no shame to confess
+it--I was myself living in Soho, in a state of extreme poverty. Having
+been employed so long by the French Government, I had formed the
+absurd idea that the future depended on my getting, not exactly a
+similar connection with Scotland Yard, but at least a subordinate
+position on the police force which would enable me to prove my
+capabilities, and lead to promotion. I had no knowledge, at that time,
+of the immense income which awaited me entirely outside the Government
+circle. Whether it is contempt for the foreigner, as has often been
+stated, or that native stolidity which spells complacency, the British
+official of any class rarely thinks it worth his while to discover the
+real cause of things in France, or Germany, or Russia, but plods
+heavily on from one mistake to another. Take, for example, those
+periodical outbursts of hatred against England which appear in the
+Continental Press. They create a dangerous international situation,
+and more than once have brought Britain to the verge of a serious war.
+Britain sternly spends millions in defence and preparation, whereas,
+if she would place in my hand half a million pounds I would guarantee
+to cause Britannia to be proclaimed an angel with white wings in every
+European country.
+
+When I attempted to arrive at some connection with Scotland Yard, I
+was invariably asked for my credentials. When I proclaimed that I had
+been chief detective to the Republic of France, I could see that this
+announcement made a serious impression, but when I added that the
+Government of France had dismissed me without credentials,
+recommendation, or pension, official sympathy with officialism at once
+turned the tables against me. And here I may be pardoned for pointing
+out another portentous dissimilarity between the two lands which I
+think is not at all to the credit of my countrymen.
+
+I was summarily dismissed. You may say it was because I failed, and it
+is true that in the case of the Queen's necklace I had undoubtedly
+failed, but, on the other hand, I had followed unerringly the clue
+which lay in my path, and although the conclusion was not in
+accordance with the facts, it was in accordance with logic. No, I was
+not dismissed because I failed. I had failed on various occasions
+before, as might happen to any man in any profession. I was dismissed
+because I made France for the moment the laughing-stock of Europe and
+America. France dismissed me because France had been laughed at. No
+Frenchman can endure the turning of a joke against him, but the
+Englishman does not appear to care in the least. So far as failure is
+concerned, never had any man failed so egregiously as I did with
+Felini, a slippery criminal who possessed all the bravery of a
+Frenchman and all the subtlety of an Italian. Three times he was in my
+hands--twice in Paris, once in Marseilles--and each time he escaped
+me; yet I was not dismissed.
+
+When I say that Signor Felini was as brave as a Frenchman, perhaps I
+do him a little more than justice. He was desperately afraid of one
+man, and that man was myself. Our last interview in France he is not
+likely to forget, and although he eluded me, he took good care to get
+into England as fast as train and boat could carry him, and never
+again, while I was at the head of the French detective force, did he
+set foot on French soil. He was an educated villain, a graduate of the
+University of Turin, who spoke Spanish, French, and English as well as
+his own language, and this education made him all the more dangerous
+when he turned his talents to crime.
+
+Now, I knew Felini's handiwork, either in murder or in housebreaking,
+as well as I know my own signature on a piece of white paper, and as
+soon as I saw the body of the murdered man in Greenwich Park I was
+certain Felini was the murderer. The English authorities at that time
+looked upon me with a tolerant, good-natured contempt.
+
+Inspector Standish assumed the manner of a man placing at my disposal
+plenty of rope with which I might entangle myself. He appeared to
+think me excitable, and used soothing expressions as if I were a
+fractious child to be calmed, rather than a sane equal to be reasoned
+with. On many occasions I had the facts at my finger ends, while he
+remained in a state of most complacent ignorance, and though this
+attitude of lowering himself to deal gently with one whom he
+evidently looked upon as an irresponsible lunatic was most
+exasperating, I nevertheless claim great credit for having kept my
+temper with him. However, it turned out to be impossible for me to
+overcome his insular prejudice. He always supposed me to be a
+frivolous, volatile person, and so I was unable to prove myself of any
+value to him in his arduous duties.
+
+The Felini instance was my last endeavour to win his favour. Inspector
+Standish appeared in his most amiable mood when I was admitted to his
+presence, and this in spite of the fact that all London was ringing
+with the Greenwich Park tragedy, while the police possessed not the
+faintest idea regarding the crime or its perpetrator. I judged from
+Inspector Standish's benevolent smile that I was somewhat excited when
+I spoke to him, and perhaps used many gestures which seemed
+superfluous to a large man whom I should describe as immovable, and
+who spoke slowly, with no motion of the hand, as if his utterances
+were the condensed wisdom of the ages.
+
+'Inspector Standish,' I cried, 'is it within your power to arrest a
+man on suspicion?'
+
+'Of course it is,' he replied; 'but we must harbour the suspicion
+before we make the arrest.'
+
+'Have confidence in me,' I exclaimed. 'The man who committed the
+Greenwich Park murder is an Italian named Felini.'
+
+I gave the address of the exact room in which he was to be found, with
+cautions regarding the elusive nature of this individual. I said that
+he had been three times in my custody, and those three times he had
+slipped through my fingers. I have since thought that Inspector
+Standish did not credit a word I had spoken.
+
+'What is your proof against this Italian?' asked the Inspector slowly.
+
+'The proof is on the body of the murdered man, but, nevertheless, if
+you suddenly confront Felini with me without giving him any hint of
+whom he is going to meet, you shall have the evidence from his own
+lips before he recovers from his surprise and fright.'
+
+Something of my confidence must have impressed the official, for the
+order of arrest was made. Now, during the absence of the constable
+sent to bring in Felini, I explained to the inspector fully the
+details of my plan. Practically he did not listen to me, for his head
+was bent over a writing-pad on which I thought he was taking down my
+remarks, but when I had finished he went on writing as before, so I
+saw I had flattered myself unnecessarily. More than two hours passed
+before the constable returned, bringing with him the trembling
+Italian. I swung round in front of him, and cried, in a menacing
+voice:--
+
+'Felini! Regard me! You know Valmont too well to trifle with him! What
+have you to say of the murder in Greenwich Park?'
+
+I give you my word that the Italian collapsed, and would have fallen
+to the floor in a heap had not the constables upheld him with hands
+under each arm. His face became of a pasty whiteness, and he began to
+stammer his confession, when this incredible thing happened, which
+could not be believed in France. Inspector Standish held up his
+finger.
+
+'One moment,' he cautioned solemnly, 'remember that whatever you say
+will be used against you!'
+
+The quick, beady black eyes of the Italian shot from Standish to me,
+and from me to Standish. In an instant his alert mind grasped the
+situation. Metaphorically I had been waved aside. I was not there in
+any official capacity, and he saw in a moment with what an opaque
+intellect he had to deal. The Italian closed his mouth like a steel
+trap, and refused to utter a word. Shortly after he was liberated, as
+there was no evidence against him. When at last complete proof was in
+the tardy hands of the British authorities, the agile Felini was safe
+in the Apennine mountains, and today is serving a life sentence in
+Italy for the assassination of a senator whose name I have forgotten.
+
+Is it any wonder that I threw up my hands in despair at finding myself
+amongst such a people. But this was in the early days, and now that I
+have greater experience of the English, many of my first opinions have
+been modified.
+
+I mention all this to explain why, in a private capacity, I often did
+what no English official would dare to do. A people who will send a
+policeman, without even a pistol to protect him, to arrest a desperate
+criminal in the most dangerous quarter of London, cannot be
+comprehended by any native of France, Italy, Spain, or Germany. When I
+began to succeed as a private detective in London, and had accumulated
+money enough for my project, I determined not to be hampered by this
+unexplainable softness of the English toward an accused person. I
+therefore reconstructed my flat, and placed in the centre of it a dark
+room strong as any Bastille cell. It was twelve feet square, and
+contained no furniture except a number of shelves, a lavatory in one
+corner, and a pallet on the floor. It was ventilated by two flues
+from the centre of the ceiling, in one of which operated an electric
+fan, which, when the room was occupied, sent the foul air up that
+flue, and drew down fresh air through the other. The entrance to this
+cell opened out from my bedroom, and the most minute inspection would
+have failed to reveal the door, which was of massive steel, and was
+opened and shut by electric buttons that were partially concealed by
+the head of my bed. Even if they had been discovered, they would have
+revealed nothing, because the first turn of the button lit the
+electric light at the head of my bed; the second turn put it out; and
+this would happen as often as the button was turned to the right. But
+turn it three times slowly to the left, and the steel door opened. Its
+juncture was completely concealed by panelling. I have brought many a
+scoundrel to reason within the impregnable walls of that small room.
+
+Those who know the building regulations of London will wonder how it
+was possible for me to delude the Government inspector during the
+erection of this section of the Bastille in the midst of the modern
+metropolis. It was the simplest thing in the world. Liberty of the
+subject is the first great rule with the English people, and thus many
+a criminal is allowed to escape. Here was I laying plans for the
+contravening of this first great rule, and to do so I took advantage
+of the second great rule of the English people, which is, that
+property is sacred. I told the building authorities I was a rich man
+with a great distrust of banks, and I wished to build in my flat a
+safe or strong-room in which to deposit my valuables. I built then
+such a room as may be found in every bank, and many private premises
+of the City, and a tenant might have lived in my flat for a year and
+never suspected the existence of this prison. A railway engine might
+have screeched its whistle within it, and not a sound would have
+penetrated the apartments that surrounded it unless the door were
+open.
+
+But besides M. Eugène Valmont, dressed in elegant attire as if he were
+still a boulevardier of Paris, occupier of the top floor in the
+Imperial Flats, there was another Frenchman in London to whom I must
+introduce you, namely, Professor Paul Ducharme, who occupied a squalid
+back room in the cheapest and most undesirable quarter of Soho.
+Valmont flatters himself he is not yet middle-aged, but poor Ducharme
+does not need his sparse gray beard to proclaim his advancing years.
+Valmont vaunts an air of prosperity; Ducharme wears the shabby
+habiliments and the shoulder-stoop of hopeless poverty. He shuffles
+cringingly along the street, a compatriot not to be proud of. There
+are so many Frenchmen anxious to give lessons in their language, that
+merely a small living is to be picked up by any one of them. You will
+never see the spruce Valmont walking alongside the dejected Ducharme.
+
+'Ah!' you exclaim, 'Valmont in his prosperity has forgotten those less
+fortunate of his nationality.'
+
+Pardon, my friends, it is not so. Behold, I proclaim to you, the
+exquisite Valmont and the threadbare Ducharme are one and the same
+person. That is why they do not promenade together. And, indeed, it
+requires no great histrionic art on my part to act the rôle of the
+miserable Ducharme, for when I first came to London, I warded off
+starvation in this wretched room, and my hand it was that nailed to
+the door the painted sign 'Professor Paul Ducharme, Teacher of the
+French Language'. I never gave up the room, even when I became
+prosperous and moved to Imperial Flats, with its concealed chamber of
+horrors unknown to British authority. I did not give up the Soho
+chamber principally for this reason: Paul Ducharme, if the truth were
+known about him, would have been regarded as a dangerous character;
+yet this was a character sometimes necessary for me to assume. He was
+a member of the very inner circle of the International, an anarchist
+of the anarchists. This malign organisation has its real headquarters
+in London, and we who were officials connected with the Secret Service
+of the Continent have more than once cursed the complacency of the
+British Government which allows such a nest of vipers to exist
+practically unmolested. I confess that before I came to know the
+English people as well as I do now, I thought that this complacency
+was due to utter selfishness, because the anarchists never commit an
+outrage in England. England is the one spot on the map of Europe where
+an anarchist cannot be laid by the heels unless there is evidence
+against him that will stand the test of open court. Anarchists take
+advantage of this fact, and plots are hatched in London which are
+executed in Paris, Berlin, Petersburg, or Madrid. I know now that this
+leniency on the part of the British Government does not arise from
+craft, but from their unexplainable devotion to their shibboleth--'The
+liberty of the subject.' Time and again France has demanded the
+extradition of an anarchist, always to be met with the question,--
+
+'Where is your proof?'
+
+I know many instances where our certainty was absolute, and also cases
+where we possessed legal proof as well, but legal proof which, for one
+reason or another, we dared not use in public; yet all this had no
+effect on the British authorities. They would never give up even the
+vilest criminal except on publicly attested legal evidence, and not
+even then, if the crime were political.
+
+During my term of office under the French Government, no part of my
+duties caused me more anxiety than that which pertained to the
+political secret societies. Of course, with a large portion of the
+Secret Service fund at my disposal, I was able to buy expert
+assistance, and even to get information from anarchists themselves.
+This latter device, however, was always more or less unreliable. I
+have never yet met an anarchist I could believe on oath, and when one
+of them offered to sell exclusive information to the police, we rarely
+knew whether he was merely trying to get a few francs to keep himself
+from starving, or whether he was giving us false particulars which
+would lead us into a trap. I have always regarded our dealings with
+nihilists, anarchists, or other secret associations for the
+perpetrating of murder as the most dangerous service a detective is
+called upon to perform. Yet it is absolutely necessary that the
+authorities should know what is going on in these secret conclaves.
+There are three methods of getting this intelligence. First,
+periodical raids upon the suspected, accompanied by confiscation and
+search of all papers found. This method is much in favour with the
+Russian police. I have always regarded it as largely futile; first,
+because the anarchists are not such fools, speaking generally, as to
+commit their purposes to writing; and, second, because it leads to
+reprisal. Each raid is usually followed by a fresh outbreak of
+activity on the part of those left free. The second method is to bribe
+an anarchist to betray his comrades. I have never found any difficulty
+in getting these gentry to accept money. They are eternally in need,
+but I usually find the information they give in return to be either
+unimportant or inaccurate. There remains, then, the third method,
+which is to place a spy among them. The spy battalion is the forlorn
+hope of the detective service. In one year I lost three men on
+anarchist duty, among the victims being my most valuable helper, Henri
+Brisson. Poor Brisson's fate was an example of how a man may follow a
+perilous occupation for months with safety, and then by a slight
+mistake bring disaster on himself. At the last gathering Brisson
+attended he received news of such immediate and fateful import that on
+emerging from the cellar where the gathering was held, he made
+directly for my residence instead of going to his own squalid room in
+the Rue Falgarie. My concierge said that he arrived shortly after one
+o'clock in the morning, and it would seem that at this hour he could
+easily have made himself acquainted with the fact that he was
+followed. Still, as there was on his track that human panther, Felini,
+it is not strange poor Brisson failed to elude him.
+
+Arriving at the tall building in which my flat was then situated,
+Brisson rang the bell, and the concierge, as usual, in that strange
+state of semi-somnolence which envelops concierges during the night,
+pulled the looped wire at the head of his bed, and unbolted the door.
+Brisson assuredly closed the huge door behind him, and yet the moment
+before he did so, Felini must have slipped in unnoticed to the
+stone-paved courtyard. If Brisson had not spoken and announced
+himself, the concierge would have been wide awake in an instant. If he
+had given a name unknown to the concierge, the same result would have
+ensued. As it was he cried aloud 'Brisson,' whereupon the concierge of
+the famous chief of the French detective staff, Valmont, muttered
+'_Bon_! and was instantly asleep again.
+
+Now Felini had known Brisson well, but it was under the name of
+Revensky, and as an exiled Russian. Brisson had spent all his early
+years in Russia, and spoke the language like a native. The moment
+Brisson had uttered his true name he had pronounced his own death
+warrant. Felini followed him up to the first landing--my rooms were on
+the second floor--and there placed his sign manual on the unfortunate
+man, which was the swift downward stroke of a long, narrow, sharp
+poniard, entering the body below the shoulders, and piercing the
+heart. The advantage presented by this terrible blow is that the
+victim sinks instantly in a heap at the feet of his slayer, without
+uttering a moan. The wound left is a scarcely perceptible blue mark
+which rarely even bleeds. It was this mark I saw on the body of the
+Maire of Marseilles, and afterwards on one other in Paris besides poor
+Brisson. It was the mark found on the man in Greenwich Park; always
+just below the left shoulder-blade, struck from behind. Felini's
+comrades claim that there was this nobility in his action, namely, he
+allowed the traitor to prove himself before he struck the blow. I
+should be sorry to take away this poor shred of credit from Felini's
+character, but the reason he followed Brisson into the courtyard was
+to give himself time to escape. He knew perfectly the ways of the
+concierge. He knew that the body would lie there until the morning, as
+it actually did, and that this would give him hours in which to effect
+his retreat. And this was the man whom British law warned not to
+incriminate himself! What a people! What a people!
+
+After Brisson's tragic death, I resolved to set no more valuable men
+on the track of the anarchists, but to place upon myself the task in
+my moments of relaxation. I became very much interested in the
+underground workings of the International. I joined the organisation
+under the name of Paul Ducharme, a professor of advanced opinions, who
+because of them had been dismissed his situation in Nantes. As a
+matter of fact there had been such a Paul Ducharme, who had been so
+dismissed, but he had drowned himself in the Loire, at Orleans, as the
+records show. I adopted the precaution of getting a photograph of this
+foolish old man from the police at Nantes, and made myself up to
+resemble him. It says much for my disguise that I was recognised as
+the professor by a delegate from Nantes, at the annual Convention held
+in Paris, which I attended, and although we conversed for some time
+together he never suspected that I was not the professor, whose fate
+was known to no one but the police of Orleans. I gained much credit
+among my comrades because of this encounter, which, during its first
+few moments, filled me with dismay, for the delegate from Nantes held
+me up as an example of a man well off, who had deliberately sacrificed
+his worldly position for the sake of principle. Shortly after this I
+was chosen delegate to carry a message to our comrades in London, and
+this delicate undertaking passed off without mishap.
+
+It was perhaps natural then, that when I came to London after my
+dismissal by the French Government, I should assume the name and
+appearance of Paul Ducharme, and adopt the profession of French
+teacher. This profession gave me great advantages. I could be absent
+from my rooms for hours at a time without attracting the least
+attention, because a teacher goes wherever there are pupils. If any of
+my anarchist comrades saw me emerging shabbily from the grand Imperial
+Flats where Valmont lived, he greeted me affably, thinking I was
+coming from a pupil.
+
+The sumptuous flat was therefore the office in which I received my
+rich clients, while the squalid room in Soho was often the workshop in
+which the tasks entrusted to me were brought to completion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I now come to very modern days indeed, when I spent much time with the
+emissaries of the International.
+
+It will be remembered that the King of England made a round of visits
+to European capitals, the far-reaching results of which in the
+interest of peace we perhaps do not yet fully understand and
+appreciate. His visit to Paris was the beginning of the present
+_entente cordiale_, and I betray no confidence when I say that this
+brief official call at the French capital was the occasion of great
+anxiety to the Government of my own country and also of that in which
+I was domiciled. Anarchists are against all government, and would like
+to see each one destroyed, not even excepting that of Great Britain.
+
+My task in connection with the visit of King Edward to Paris was
+entirely unofficial. A nobleman, for whom on a previous occasion I had
+been so happy as to solve a little mystery which troubled him,
+complimented me by calling at my flat about two weeks before the
+King's entry into the French capital. I know I shall be pardoned if I
+fail to mention this nobleman's name. I gathered that the intended
+visit of the King met with his disapproval. He asked if I knew
+anything, or could discover anything, of the purposes animating the
+anarchist clubs of Paris, and their attitude towards the royal
+function, which was now the chief topic in the newspapers. I replied
+that within four days I would be able to submit to him a complete
+report on the subject. He bowed coldly and withdrew. On the evening of
+the fourth day I permitted myself the happiness of waiting upon his
+lordship at his West End London mansion.
+
+'I have the honour to report to your lordship,' I began, 'that the
+anarchists of Paris are somewhat divided in their opinions regarding
+His Majesty's forthcoming progress through that city. A minority,
+contemptible in point of number, but important so far as the extremity
+of their opinions are concerned, has been trying--'
+
+'Excuse me,' interrupted the nobleman, with some severity of tone,
+'are they going to attempt to injure the King or not?'
+
+'They are not, your lordship,' I replied, with what, I trust, is my
+usual urbanity of manner, despite his curt interpolation. 'His most
+gracious Majesty will suffer no molestation, and their reason for
+quiescence--'
+
+'Their reasons do not interest me,' put in his lordship gruffly. 'You
+are sure of what you say?'
+
+'Perfectly sure, your lordship.'
+
+'No precautions need be taken?'
+
+'None in the least, your lordship.'
+
+'Very well,' concluded the nobleman shortly, 'if you tell my secretary
+in the next room as you go out how much I owe you, he will hand you a
+cheque,' and with that I was dismissed.
+
+I may say that, mixing as I do with the highest in two lands, and
+meeting invariably such courtesy as I myself am always eager to
+bestow, a feeling almost of resentment arose at this cavalier
+treatment. However, I merely bowed somewhat ceremoniously in silence,
+and availed myself of the opportunity in the next room to double my
+bill, which was paid without demur.
+
+Now, if this nobleman had but listened, he would have heard much that
+might interest an ordinary man, although I must say that during my
+three conversations with him his mind seemed closed to all outward
+impressions save and except the grandeur of his line, which he traced
+back unblemished into the northern part of my own country.
+
+The King's visit had come as a surprise to the anarchists, and they
+did not quite know what to do about it. The Paris Reds were rather in
+favour of a demonstration, while London bade them, in God's name, to
+hold their hands, for, as they pointed out, England is the only refuge
+in which an anarchist is safe until some particular crime can be
+imputed to him, and what is more, proven up to the hilt.
+
+It will be remembered that the visit of the King to Paris passed off
+without incident, as did the return visit of the President to London.
+On the surface all was peace and goodwill, but under the surface
+seethed plot and counterplot, and behind the scenes two great
+governments were extremely anxious, and high officials in the Secret
+Service spent sleepless nights. As no 'untoward incident' had
+happened, the vigilance of the authorities on both sides of the
+Channel relaxed at the very moment when, if they had known their
+adversaries, it should have been redoubled. Always beware of the
+anarchist when he has been good: look out for the reaction. It annoys
+him to be compelled to remain quiet when there is a grand opportunity
+for strutting across the world's stage, and when he misses the
+psychological moment, he is apt to turn 'nasty', as the English say.
+
+When it first became known that there was to be a Royal procession
+through the streets of Paris, a few fanatical hot-heads, both in that
+city and in London, wished to take action, but they were overruled by
+the saner members of the organisation. It must not be supposed that
+anarchists are a band of lunatics. There are able brains among them,
+and these born leaders as naturally assume control in the underground
+world of anarchy as would have been the case if they had devoted their
+talents to affairs in ordinary life. They were men whose minds, at one
+period, had taken the wrong turning. These people, although they
+calmed the frenzy of the extremists, nevertheless regarded the
+possible _rapprochement_ between England and France with grave
+apprehension. If France and England became as friendly as France and
+Russia, might not the refuge which England had given to anarchy become
+a thing of the past? I may say here that my own weight as an anarchist
+while attending these meetings in disguise under the name of Paul
+Ducharme was invariably thrown in to help the cause of moderation. My
+rôle, of course, was not to talk too much; not to make myself
+prominent, yet in such a gathering a man cannot remain wholly a
+spectator. Care for my own safety led me to be as inconspicuous as
+possible, for members of communities banded together against the laws
+of the land in which they live, are extremely suspicious of one
+another, and an inadvertent word may cause disaster to the person
+speaking it.
+
+Perhaps it was this conservatism on my part that caused my advice to
+be sought after by the inner circle; what you might term the governing
+body of the anarchists; for, strange as it may appear, this
+organisation, sworn to put down all law and order, was itself most
+rigidly governed, with a Russian prince elected as its chairman, a man
+of striking ability, who, nevertheless, I believe, owed his election
+more to the fact that he was a nobleman than to the recognition of his
+intrinsic worth. And another point which interested me much was that
+this prince ruled his obstreperous subjects after the fashion of
+Russian despotism, rather than according to the liberal ideas of the
+country in which he was domiciled. I have known him more than once
+ruthlessly overturn the action of the majority, stamp his foot, smite
+his huge fist on the table, and declare so and so should not be done,
+no matter what the vote was. And the thing was not done, either.
+
+At the more recent period of which I speak, the chairmanship of the
+London anarchists was held by a weak, vacillating man, and the mob had
+got somewhat out of hand. In the crisis that confronted us, I yearned
+for the firm fist and dominant boot of the uncompromising Russian. I
+spoke only once during this time, and assured my listeners that they
+had nothing to fear from the coming friendship of the two nations. I
+said the Englishman was so wedded to his grotesque ideas regarding the
+liberty of the subject he so worshipped absolute legal evidence, that
+we would never find our comrades disappear mysteriously from England
+as had been the case in continental countries.
+
+Although restless during the exchange of visits between King and
+President, I believe I could have carried the English phalanx with me,
+if the international courtesies had ended there. But after it was
+announced that members of the British Parliament were to meet the
+members of the French Legislature, the Paris circle became alarmed,
+and when that conference did not end the _entente_, but merely paved
+the way for a meeting of business men belonging to the two countries
+in Paris, the French anarchists sent a delegate over to us, who made a
+wild speech one night, waving continually the red flag. This aroused
+all our own malcontents to a frenzy. The French speaker practically
+charged the English contingent with cowardice; said that as they were
+safe from molestation, they felt no sympathy for their comrades in
+Paris, at any time liable to summary arrest and the torture of the
+secret cross-examination. This Anglo-French love-feast must be wafted
+to the heavens in a halo of dynamite. The Paris anarchists were
+determined, and although they wished the co-operation of their London
+brethren, yet if the speaker did not bring back with him assurance of
+such co-operation, Paris would act on its own initiative.
+
+The Russian despot would have made short work of this blood-blinded
+rhetoric, but alas, he was absent, and an overwhelming vote in favour
+of force was carried and accepted by the trembling chairman. My French
+_confrère_ took back with him to Paris the unanimous consent of the
+English comrades to whom he had appealed. All that was asked of the
+English contingent was that it should arrange for the escape and safe
+keeping of the assassin who flung the bomb into the midst of the
+English visitors, and after the oratorical madman had departed, I, to
+my horror, was chosen to arrange for the safe transport and future
+custody of the bomb-thrower. It is not etiquette in anarchist circles
+for any member to decline whatever task is given him by the vote of
+his comrades. He knows the alternative, which is suicide. If he
+declines the task and still remains upon earth, the dilemma is solved
+for him, as the Italian Felini solved it through the back of my
+unfortunate helper Brisson. I therefore accepted the unwelcome office
+in silence, and received from the treasurer the money necessary for
+carrying out the same.
+
+I realised for the first time since joining the anarchist association
+years before that I was in genuine danger. A single false step, a
+single inadvertent word, might close the career of Eugène Valmont, and
+at the same moment terminate the existence of the quiet, inoffensive
+Paul Ducharme, teacher of the French language. I knew perfectly well I
+should be followed. The moment I received the money the French
+delegate asked when they were to expect me in Paris. He wished to know
+so that all the resources of their organisation might be placed at my
+disposal. I replied calmly enough that I could not state definitely on
+what day I should leave England. There was plenty of time, as the
+business men's representatives from London would not reach Paris for
+another two weeks. I was well known to the majority of the Paris
+organisation, and would present myself before them on the first night
+of my arrival. The Paris delegate exhibited all the energy of a new
+recruit, and he seemed dissatisfied with my vagueness, but I went on
+without heeding his displeasure. He was not personally known to me,
+nor I to him, but if I may say so, Paul Ducharme was well thought of
+by all the rest of those present.
+
+I had learned a great lesson during the episode of the Queen's
+Necklace, which resulted in my dismissal by the French Government. I
+had learned that if you expect pursuit it is always well to leave a
+clue for the pursuer to follow. Therefore I continued in a low
+conversational tone:--
+
+'I shall want the whole of tomorrow for myself: I must notify my
+pupils of my absence. Even if my pupils leave me it will not so much
+matter. I can probably get others. But what does matter is my
+secretarial work with Monsieur Valmont of the Imperial Flats. I am
+just finishing for him the translation of a volume from French into
+English, and tomorrow I can complete the work, and get his permission
+to leave for a fortnight. This man, who is a compatriot of my own,
+has given me employment ever since I came to London. From him I have
+received the bulk of my income, and if it had not been for his
+patronage, I do not know what I should have done. I not only have no
+desire to offend him, but I wish the secretarial work to continue when
+I return to London.'
+
+There was a murmur of approval at this. It was generally recognised
+that a man's living should not be interfered with, if possible.
+Anarchists are not poverty-stricken individuals, as most people think,
+for many of them hold excellent situations, some occupying positions
+of great trust, which is rarely betrayed.
+
+It is recognised that a man's duty, not only to himself, but to the
+organisation, is to make all the money he can, and thus not be liable
+to fall back on the relief fund. This frank admission of my dependence
+on Valmont made it all the more impossible that anyone there listening
+should suspect that it was Valmont himself who was addressing the
+conclave.
+
+'You will then take the night train tomorrow for Paris?' persisted the
+inquisitive French delegate.
+
+'Yes, and no. I shall take the night train, and it shall be for Paris,
+but not from Charing Cross, Victoria, or Waterloo. I shall travel on
+the 8.30 Continental express from Liverpool Street to Harwich, cross
+to the Hook of Holland, and from there make my way to Paris through
+Holland and Belgium. I wish to investigate that route as a possible
+path for our comrade to escape. After the blow is struck, Calais,
+Boulogne, Dieppe, and Havre will be closely watched. I shall perhaps
+bring him to London by way of Antwerp and the Hook.'
+
+These amiable disclosures were so fully in keeping with Paul
+Ducharme's reputation for candour and caution that I saw they made an
+excellent impression on my audience, and here the chairman intervened,
+putting an end to further cross-examination by saying they all had the
+utmost confidence in the judgment of Monsieur Paul Ducharme, and the
+Paris delegate might advise his friends to be on the lookout for the
+London representative within the next three or four days.
+
+I left the meeting and went directly to my room in Soho, without even
+taking the trouble to observe whether I was watched or not. There I
+stayed all night, and in the morning quitted Soho as Ducharme, with a
+gray beard and bowed shoulders, walked west to the Imperial Flats,
+took the lift to the top, and, seeing the corridor was clear, let
+myself in to my own flat. I departed from my flat promptly at six
+o'clock, again as Paul Ducharme, carrying this time a bundle done up
+in brown paper under my arm, and proceeded directly to my room in
+Soho. Later I took a bus, still carrying my brown paper parcel, and
+reached Liverpool Street in ample time for the Continental train. By a
+little private arrangement with the guard, I secured a compartment for
+myself, although up to the moment the train left the station, I could
+not be sure but that I might be compelled to take the trip to the Hook
+of Holland after all. If any one had insisted on coming into my
+compartment, I should have crossed the North Sea that night. I knew I
+should be followed from Soho to the station, and that probably the spy
+would go as far as Harwich, and see me on the boat. It was doubtful if
+he would cross. I had chosen this route for the reason that we have no
+organisation in Holland: the nearest circle is in Brussels, and if
+there had been time, the Brussels circle would have been warned to
+keep an eye on me. There was, however, no time for a letter, and
+anarchists never use the telegraph, especially so far as the Continent
+is concerned, unless in cases of the greatest emergency. If they
+telegraphed my description to Brussels the chances were it would not
+be an anarchist who watched my landing, but a member of the Belgian
+police force.
+
+The 8.30 Continental express does not stop between Liverpool Street
+and Parkeston Quay, which it is timed to reach three minutes before
+ten. This gave me an hour and a half in which to change my apparel.
+The garments of the poor old professor I rolled up into a ball one by
+one and flung out through the open window, far into the marsh past
+which we were flying in a pitch dark night. Coat, trousers, and
+waistcoat rested in separate swamps at least ten miles apart. Gray
+whiskers and gray wig I tore into little pieces, and dropped the bits
+out of the open window.
+
+I had taken the precaution to secure a compartment in the front of
+the train, and when it came to rest at Parkeston Quay Station, the
+crowd, eager for the steamer, rushed past me, and I stepped out into
+the midst of it, a dapper, well-dressed young man, with black beard
+and moustaches, my own closely cropped black hair covered by a new
+bowler hat. Anyone looking for Paul Ducharme would have paid small
+attention to me, and to any friend of Valmont's I was equally
+unrecognisable.
+
+I strolled in leisurely manner to the Great Eastern Hotel on the Quay,
+and asked the clerk if a portmanteau addressed to Mr. John Wilkins had
+arrived that day from London. He said 'Yes,' whereupon I secured a
+room for the night, as the last train had already left for the
+metropolis.
+
+Next morning, Mr. John Wilkins, accompanied by a brand new and rather
+expensive portmanteau, took the 8.57 train for Liverpool Street, where
+he arrived at half-past ten, stepped into a cab, and drove to the
+Savoy Restaurant, lunching there with the portmanteau deposited in the
+cloak room. When John Wilkins had finished an excellent lunch in a
+leisurely manner at the Café Parisien of the Savoy, and had paid his
+bill, he did not go out into the Strand over the rubber-paved court by
+which he had entered, but went through the hotel and down the stairs,
+and so out into the thoroughfare facing the Embankment. Then turning
+to his right he reached the Embankment entrance of the Hotel Cecil.
+This leads into a long, dark corridor, at the end of which the lift
+may be rung for. It does not come lower than the floor above unless
+specially summoned. In this dark corridor, which was empty, John
+Wilkins took off the black beard and moustache, hid it in the inside
+pocket of his coat, and there went up into the lift a few moments
+later to the office floor, I, Eugène Valmont, myself for the first
+time in several days.
+
+Even then I did not take a cab to my flat, but passed under the arched
+Strand front of the 'Cecil' in a cab, bound for the residence of that
+nobleman who had formerly engaged me to see after the safety of the
+King.
+
+You will say that this was all very elaborate precaution to take when
+a man was not even sure he was followed. To tell you the truth, I do
+not know to this day whether anyone watched me or not, nor do I care.
+I live in the present: when once the past is done with, it ceases to
+exist for me. It is quite possible, nay, entirely probable, that no
+one tracked me farther than Liverpool Street Station the night before,
+yet it was for lack of such precaution that my assistant Brisson
+received the Italian's dagger under his shoulder blade fifteen years
+before. The present moment is ever the critical time; the future is
+merely for intelligent forethought. It was to prepare for the future
+that I was now in a cab on the way to my lord's residence. It was not
+the French anarchists I feared during the contest in which I was about
+to become engaged, but the Paris police. I knew French officialdom too
+well not to understand the futility of going to the authorities there
+and proclaiming my object. If I ventured to approach the chief of
+police with the information that I, in London, had discovered what it
+was his business in Paris to know, my reception would be far from
+cordial, even though, or rather because, I announced myself as Eugène
+Valmont. The exploits of Eugène had become part of the legends of
+Paris, and these legends were extremely distasteful to those men in
+power. My doings have frequently been made the subject of feuilletons
+in the columns of the Paris Press, and were, of course, exaggerated by
+the imagination of the writers, yet, nevertheless, I admit I did some
+good strokes of detection during my service with the French
+Government. It is but natural, then, that the present authorities
+should listen with some impatience when the name of Eugène Valmont is
+mentioned. I recognise this as quite in the order of things to be
+expected, and am honest enough to confess that in my own time I often
+hearkened to narratives regarding the performances of Lecocq with a
+doubting shrug of the shoulders.
+
+Now, if the French police knew anything of this anarchist plot, which
+was quite within the bounds of possibility, and if I were in
+surreptitious communication with the anarchists, more especially with
+the man who was to fling the bomb, there was every chance I might find
+myself in the grip of French justice. I must, then, provide myself
+with credentials to show that I was acting, not against the peace and
+quiet of my country, but on the side of law and order. I therefore
+wished to get from the nobleman a commission in writing, similar to
+that command which he had placed upon me during the King's visit. This
+commission I should lodge at my bank in Paris, to be a voucher for me
+at the last extremity. I had no doubt his lordship would empower me to
+act in this instance as I had acted on two former occasions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Perhaps if I had not lunched so well I might have approached his
+lordship with greater deference than was the case; but when ordering
+lunch I permitted a bottle of Château du Tertre, 1878, a most
+delicious claret, to be decanted carefully for my delectation at the
+table, and this caused a genial glow to permeate throughout my system,
+inducing a mental optimism which left me ready to salute the greatest
+of earth on a plane of absolute equality. Besides, after all, I am the
+citizen of a Republic.
+
+The nobleman received me with frigid correctness, implying disapproval
+of my unauthorised visit, rather than expressing it. Our interview was
+extremely brief.
+
+'I had the felicity of serving your lordship upon two occasions,' I
+began.
+
+'They are well within my recollection,' he interrupted, 'but I do not
+remember sending for you a third time.'
+
+'I have taken the liberty of coming unrequested, my lord, because of
+the importance of the news I carry. I surmise that you are interested
+in the promotion of friendship between France and England.'
+
+'Your surmise, sir, is incorrect. I care not a button about it. My
+only anxiety was for the safety of the King.'
+
+Even the superb claret was not enough to fortify me against words so
+harsh, and tones so discourteous, as those his lordship permitted
+himself to use.
+
+'Sir,' said I, dropping the title in my rising anger, 'it may interest
+you to know that a number of your countrymen run the risk of being
+blown to eternity by an anarchist bomb in less than two weeks from
+today. A party of business men, true representatives of a class to
+which the pre-eminence of your Empire is due, are about to proceed--'
+
+'Pray spare me,' interpolated his lordship wearily, 'I have read that
+sort of thing so often in the newspapers. If all these estimable City
+men are blown up, the Empire would doubtless miss them, as you hint,
+but I should not, and their fate does not interest me in the least,
+although you did me the credit of believing that it would. Thompson,
+you will show this person out? Sir, if I desire your presence here in
+future I will send for you.'
+
+'You may send for the devil!' I cried, now thoroughly enraged, the
+wine getting the better of me.
+
+'You express my meaning more tersely than I cared to do,' he replied
+coldly, and that was the last I ever saw of him.
+
+Entering the cab I now drove to my flat, indignant at the reception I
+had met with. However, I knew the English people too well to malign
+them for the action of one of their number, and resentment never
+dwells long with me. Arriving at my rooms I looked through the
+newspapers to learn all I could of the proposed business men's
+excursion to Paris, and in reading the names of those most prominent
+in carrying out the necessary arrangements, I came across that of W.
+Raymond White, which caused me to sit back in my chair and wrinkle my
+brow in an endeavour to stir my memory. Unless I was much mistaken, I
+had been so happy as to oblige this gentleman some dozen or thirteen
+years before. As I remembered him, he was a business man who engaged
+in large transactions with France, dealing especially in Lyons and
+that district. His address was given in the newspaper as Old Change,
+so at once I resolved to see him. Although I could not recall the
+details of our previous meeting, if, indeed, he should turn out to be
+the same person, yet the mere sight of the name had produced a mental
+pleasure, as a chance chord struck may bring a grateful harmony to the
+mind. I determined to get my credentials from Mr. White if possible,
+for his recommendation would in truth be much more valuable than that
+of the gruff old nobleman to whom I had first applied, because, if I
+got into trouble with the police of Paris, I was well enough
+acquainted with the natural politeness of the authorities to know that
+a letter from one of the city's guests would secure my instant
+release.
+
+I took a hansom to the head of that narrow thoroughfare known as Old
+Change, and there dismissed my cab. I was so fortunate as to recognise
+Mr. White coming out of his office. A moment later, and I should have
+missed him.
+
+'Mr. White,' I accosted him, 'I desire to enjoy both the pleasure and
+the honour of introducing myself to you.'
+
+'Monsieur,' replied Mr. White with a smile, 'the introduction is not
+necessary, and the pleasure and honour are mine. Unless I am very much
+mistaken, this is Monsieur Valmont of Paris?'
+
+'Late of Paris,' I corrected.
+
+'Are you no longer in Government service then?'
+
+'For a little more than ten years I have been a resident of London.'
+
+'What, and have never let me know? That is something the diplomatists
+call an unfriendly act, monsieur. Now, shall we return to my office,
+or go to a café?'
+
+'To your office, if you please, Mr. White. I come on rather important
+business.'
+
+Entering his private office the merchant closed the door, offered me a
+chair, and sat down himself by his desk. From the first he had
+addressed me in French, which he spoke with an accent so pure that it
+did my lonesome heart good to hear it.
+
+'I called upon you half a dozen years ago,' he went on, 'when I was
+over in Paris on a festive occasion, where I hoped to secure your
+company, but I could not learn definitely whether you were still with
+the Government or not.'
+
+'It is the way of the French officialism,' I replied. 'If they knew my
+whereabouts they would keep the knowledge to themselves.'
+
+'Well, if you have been ten years in London, Monsieur Valmont, we may
+now perhaps have the pleasure of claiming you as an Englishman; so I
+beg you will accompany us on another festive occasion to Paris next
+week. Perhaps you have seen that a number of us are going over there
+to make the welkin ring.'
+
+'Yes; I have read all about the business men's excursion to Paris, and
+it is with reference to this journey that I wish to consult you,' and
+here I gave Mr. White in detail the plot of the anarchists against the
+growing cordiality of the two countries. The merchant listened quietly
+without interruption until I had finished; then he said,--'I suppose
+it will be rather useless to inform the police of Paris?'
+
+'Indeed, Mr. White, it is the police of Paris I fear more than the
+anarchists. They would resent information coming to them from the
+outside, especially from an ex-official, the inference being that they
+were not up to their own duties. Friction and delay would ensue until
+the deed was inevitable. It is quite on the cards that the police of
+Paris may have some inkling of the plot, and in that case, just before
+the event, they are reasonably certain to arrest the wrong men. I
+shall be moving about Paris, not as Eugène Valmont, but as Paul
+Ducharme, the anarchist; therefore, there is some danger that as a
+stranger and a suspect I may be laid by the heels at the critical
+moment. If you would be so good as to furnish me with credentials
+which I can deposit somewhere in Paris in case of need, I may thus be
+able to convince the authorities that they have taken the wrong man.'
+
+Mr. White, entirely unperturbed by the prospect of having a bomb thrown
+at him within two weeks, calmly wrote several documents, then turned
+his untroubled face to me, and said, in a very confidential, winning
+tone:--'Monsieur Valmont, you have stated the case with that clear
+comprehensiveness pertaining to a nation which understands the
+meaning of words, and the correct adjustment of them; that felicity of
+language which has given France the first place in the literature of
+nations. Consequently, I think I see very clearly the delicacies of
+the situation. We may expect hindrances, rather than help, from
+officials on either side of the Channel. Secrecy is essential to
+success. Have you spoken of this to anyone but me?'
+
+'Only to Lord Blank,' I replied; 'and now I deeply regret having made
+a confidant of him.'
+
+'That does not in the least matter,' said Mr. White, with a smile;
+'Lord Blank's mind is entirely occupied by his own greatness. Chemists
+tell me that you cannot add a new ingredient to a saturated solution;
+therefore your revelation will have made no impression upon his
+lordship's intellect. He has already forgotten all about it. Am I
+right in supposing that everything hinges on the man who is to throw
+the bomb?'
+
+'Quite right, sir. He may be venal, he may be traitorous, he may be a
+coward, he may be revengeful, he may be a drunkard. Before I am in
+conversation with him for ten minutes, I shall know what his weak spot
+is. It is upon that spot I must act, and my action must be delayed
+till the very last moment; for, if he disappears too long before the
+event, his first, second, or third substitute will instantly step into
+his place.'
+
+'Precisely. So you cannot complete your plans until you have met this
+man?'
+
+'_Parfaitement._'
+
+'Then I propose,' continued Mr. White, 'that we take no one into our
+confidence. In a case like this there is little use in going before a
+committee. I can see that you do not need any advice, and my own part
+shall be to remain in the background, content to support the most
+competent man that could have been chosen to grapple with a very
+difficult crisis.'
+
+I bowed profoundly. There was a compliment in his glance as well as in
+his words. Never before had I met so charming a man.
+
+'Here,' he continued, handing me one of the papers he had written, 'is
+a letter to whom it may concern, appointing you my agent for the next
+three weeks, and holding myself responsible for all you see fit to do.
+Here,' he went on, passing to me a second sheet, 'is a letter of
+introduction to Monsieur Largent, the manager of my bank in Paris, a
+man well known and highly respected in all circles, both official and
+commercial. I suggest that you introduce yourself to him, and he will
+hold himself in readiness to respond to any call you may make, night
+or day. I assure you that his mere presence before the authorities
+will at once remove any ordinary difficulty. And now,' he added,
+taking in hand the third slip of paper, speaking with some hesitation,
+and choosing his words with care, 'I come to a point which cannot be
+ignored. Money is a magician's wand, which, like faith, will remove
+mountains. It may also remove an anarchist hovering about the route of
+a business man's procession.'
+
+He now handed to me what I saw was a draft on Paris for a thousand
+pounds.
+
+'I assure you, monsieur,' I protested, covered with confusion, 'that
+no thought of money was in my mind when I took the liberty of
+presenting myself to you. I have already received more than I could
+have expected in the generous confidence you were good enough to
+repose in me, as exhibited by these credentials, and especially the
+letter to your banker. Thanks to the generosity of your countrymen, Mr
+White, of which you are a most notable example, I am in no need of
+money.'
+
+'Monsieur Valmont, I am delighted to hear that you have got on well
+amongst us. This money is for two purposes. First, you will use what
+you need. I know Paris very well, monsieur, and have never found gold
+an embarrassment there. The second purpose is this: I suggest that
+when you present the letter of introduction to Monsieur Largent, you
+will casually place this amount to your account in his bank. He will
+thus see that besides writing you a letter of introduction, I transfer
+a certain amount of my own balance to your credit. That will do you no
+harm with him, I assure you. And now, Monsieur Valmont, it only
+remains for me to thank you for the opportunity you have given me, and
+to assure you that I shall march from the Gare du Nord without a
+tremor, knowing the outcome is in such capable custody.'
+
+And then this estimable man shook hands with me in action the most
+cordial. I walked away from Old Change as if I trod upon air; a
+feeling vastly different from that with which I departed from the
+residence of the old nobleman in the West End but a few hours before.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning I was in Paris, and next night I attended the underground
+meeting of the anarchists, held within a quarter of a mile of the
+Luxembourg. I was known to many there assembled, but my acquaintance
+of course was not so large as with the London circle. They had half
+expected me the night before, knowing that even going by the Hook of
+Holland I might have reached Paris in time for the conclave. I was
+introduced generally to the assemblage as the emissary from England,
+who was to assist the bomb-throwing brother to escape either to that
+country, or to such other point of safety as I might choose. No
+questions were asked me regarding my doings of the day before, nor was
+I required to divulge the plans for my fellow-member's escape. I was
+responsible; that was enough. If I failed through no fault of my own,
+it was but part of the ill-luck we were all prepared to face. If I
+failed through treachery, then a dagger in the back at the earliest
+possible moment. We all knew the conditions of our sinister contract,
+and we all recognised that the least said the better.
+
+The cellar was dimly lighted by one oil lamp depending from the
+ceiling. From this hung a cord attached to an extinguisher, and one
+jerk of the cord would put out the light. Then, while the main entry
+doors were being battered down by police, the occupants of the room
+escaped through one of three or four human rat-holes provided for that
+purpose.
+
+If any Parisian anarchist does me the honour to read these jottings, I
+beg to inform him that while I remained in office under the Government
+of France there was never a time when I did not know the exit of each
+of these underground passages, and could during any night there was
+conference have bagged the whole lot of those there assembled. It was
+never my purpose, however, to shake the anarchists' confidence in
+their system, for that merely meant the removal of the gathering to
+another spot, thus giving us the additional trouble of mapping out
+their new exits and entrances. When I did make a raid on anarchist
+headquarters in Paris, it was always to secure some particular man. I
+had my emissaries in plain clothes stationed at each exit. In any
+case, the rats were allowed to escape unmolested, sneaking forth with
+great caution into the night, but we always spotted the man we wanted,
+and almost invariably arrested him elsewhere, having followed him from
+his kennel. In each case my uniformed officers found a dark and empty
+cellar, and retired apparently baffled. But the coincidence that on
+the night of every raid some member there present was secretly
+arrested in another quarter of Paris, and perhaps given a free passage
+to Russia, never seemed to awaken suspicion in the minds of the
+conspirators.
+
+I think the London anarchists' method is much better, and I have ever
+considered the English nihilist the most dangerous of this fraternity,
+for he is cool-headed and not carried away by his own enthusiasm, and
+consequently rarely carried away by his own police. The authorities of
+London meet no opposition in making a raid. They find a well-lighted
+room containing a more or less shabby coterie playing cards at cheap
+pine tables. There is no money visible, and, indeed, very little coin
+would be brought to light if the whole party were searched; so the
+police are unable to convict the players under the Gambling Act.
+Besides, it is difficult in any case to obtain a conviction under the
+Gambling Act, because the accused has the sympathy of the whole
+country with him. It has always been to me one of the anomalies of the
+English nature that a magistrate can keep a straight face while he
+fines some poor wretch for gambling, knowing that next race day (if
+the court is not sitting) the magistrate himself, in correct sporting
+costume, with binoculars hanging at his hip, will be on the lawn by
+the course backing his favourite horse.
+
+After my reception at the anarchists' club of Paris, I remained seated
+unobtrusively on a bench waiting until routine business was finished,
+after which I expected an introduction to the man selected to throw
+the bomb. I am a very sensitive person, and sitting there quietly I
+became aware that I was being scrutinised with more than ordinary
+intensity by someone, which gave me a feeling of uneasiness. At last,
+in the semi-obscurity opposite me I saw a pair of eyes as luminous as
+those of a tiger peering fixedly at me. I returned the stare with such
+composure as I could bring to my aid, and the man, as if fascinated by
+a look as steady as his own, leaned forward, and came more and more
+into the circle of light.
+
+Then I received a shock which it required my utmost self-control to
+conceal. The face, haggard and drawn, was none other than that of
+Adolph Simard, who had been my second assistant in the Secret Service
+of France during my last year in office. He was a most capable and
+rising young man at that time, and, of course, he knew me well. Had
+he, then, penetrated my disguise? Such an event seemed impossible; he
+could not have recognised my voice, for I had said nothing aloud
+since entering the room, my few words to the president being spoken in
+a whisper. Simard's presence there bewildered me; by this time he
+should be high up in the Secret Service. If he were now a spy, he
+would, of course, wish to familiarise himself with every particular of
+my appearance, as in my hands lay the escape of the criminal. Yet, if
+such were his mission, why did he attract the attention of all members
+by this open-eyed scrutiny? That he recognised me as Valmont I had not
+the least fear; my disguise was too perfect; and, even if I were there
+in my own proper person, I had not seen Simard, nor he me, for ten
+years, and great changes occur in a man's appearance during so long a
+period. Yet I remembered with disquietude that Mr. White recognised me,
+and here tonight I had recognised Simard. I could not move my bench
+farther back because it stood already against the wall.
+
+Simard, on the contrary, was seated on one of the few chairs in the
+room, and this he periodically hitched forward, the better to continue
+his examination, which now attracted the notice of others besides
+myself. As he came forward, I could not help admiring the completeness
+of his disguise so far as apparel was concerned. He was a perfect
+picture of the Paris wastrel, and what was more, he wore on his head a
+cap of the Apaches, the most dangerous band of cut-throats that have
+ever cursed a civilised city. I could understand that even among
+lawless anarchists this badge of membership of the Apache band might
+well strike tenor. I felt that before the meeting adjourned I must
+speak with him, and I determined to begin our conversation by asking
+him why he stared so fixedly at me. Yet even then I should have made
+little progress. I did not dare to hint that he belonged to the Secret
+Service; nevertheless, if the authorities had this plot in charge, it
+was absolutely necessary we should work together, or, at least, that I
+should know they were in the secret, and steer my course accordingly.
+The fact that Simard appeared with undisguised face was not so
+important as might appear to an outsider.
+
+It is always safer for a spy to preserve his natural appearance if
+that is possible, because a false beard or false moustache or wig run
+the risk of being deranged or torn away. As I have said, an anarchist
+assemblage is simply a room filled with the atmosphere of suspicion. I
+have known instances where an innocent stranger was suddenly set upon
+in the midst of solemn proceedings by two or three impetuous
+fellow-members, who nearly jerked his own whiskers from his face
+under the impression that they were false. If Simard, therefore,
+appeared in his own scraggy beard and unkempt hair it meant that he
+communicated with headquarters by some circuitous route. I realised,
+therefore, that a very touchy bit of diplomacy awaited me if I was to
+learn from himself his actual status. While I pondered over this
+perplexity, it was suddenly dissolved by the action of the president,
+and another substituted for it.
+
+'Will Brother Simard come forward?' asked the president.
+
+My former subordinate removed his eyes from me, slowly rose from his
+chair, and shuffled up to the president's table.
+
+'Brother Ducharme,' said that official to me in a quiet tone, 'I
+introduce you to Brother Simard, whom you are commissioned to see into
+a place of safety when he has dispersed the procession.'
+
+Simard turned his fishy goggle eyes upon me, and a grin disclosed
+wolf-like teeth. He held out his hand, which, rising to my feet, I
+took. He gave me a flabby grasp, and all the time his inquiring eyes
+travelled over me.
+
+'You don't look up to much,' he said. 'What are you?'
+
+'I am a teacher of the French language in London.'
+
+'Umph!' growled Simard, evidently in no wise prepossessed by my
+appearance. 'I thought you weren't much of a fighter. The gendarmes
+will make short work of this fellow,' he growled to the chairman.
+
+'Brother Ducharme is vouched for by the whole English circle,' replied
+the president firmly.
+
+'Oh, the English! I think very little of them. Still, it doesn't
+matter,' and with a shrug of the shoulders he shuffled to his seat
+again, leaving me standing there in a very embarrassed state of mind;
+my brain in a whirl. That the man was present with his own face was
+bewildering enough, but that he should be here under his own name was
+simply astounding. I scarcely heard what the president said. It seemed
+to the effect that Simard would take me to his own room, where we
+might talk over our plans. And now Simard rose again from his chair,
+and said to the president that if nothing more were wanted of him, we
+should go. Accordingly we left the place of meeting together. I
+watched my comrade narrowly. There was now a trembling eagerness in
+his action, and without a word he hurried me to the nearest café,
+where we sat down before a little iron table on the pavement.
+
+'Garçon!' he shouted harshly, 'bring me four absinthes. What will you
+drink, Ducharme?',
+
+'A café-cognac, if you please.'
+
+'Bah!' cried Simard; 'better have absinthe.'
+
+Then he cursed the waiter for his slowness. When the absinthe came he
+grasped the half-full glass and swallowed the liquid raw, a thing I
+had never seen done before. Into the next measure of the wormwood he
+poured the water impetuously from the carafe, another thing I had
+never seen done before, and dropped two lumps of sugar into it. Over
+the third glass he placed a flat perforated plated spoon, piled the
+sugar on this bridge, and now quite expertly allowed the water to drip
+through, the proper way of concocting this seductive mixture.
+Finishing his second glass he placed the perforated spoon over the
+fourth, and began now more calmly sipping the third while the water
+dripped slowly into the last glass.
+
+Here before my eyes was enacted a more wonderful change than the
+gradual transformation of transparent absinthe into an opaque
+opalescent liquid. Simard, under the influence of the drink, was
+slowly becoming the Simard I had known ten years before. Remarkable!
+Absinthe having in earlier years made a beast of the man was now
+forming a man out of the beast. His staring eyes took on an expression
+of human comradeship. The whole mystery became perfectly clear to me
+without a question asked or an answer uttered. This man was no spy,
+but a genuine anarchist. However it happened, he had become a victim
+of absinthe, one of many with whom I was acquainted, although I never
+met any so far sunk as he. He was into his fourth glass, and had
+ordered two more when he began to speak.
+
+'Here's to us,' he cried, with something like a civilised smile on his
+gaunt face. 'You're not offended at what I said in the meeting, I
+hope?'
+
+'Oh, no,' I answered.
+
+'That's right. You see, I once belonged to the Secret Service, and if
+my chief was there today, we would soon find ourselves in a cool
+dungeon. We couldn't trip up Eugène Valmont.'
+
+At these words, spoken with sincerity, I sat up in my chair, and I am
+sure such an expression of enjoyment came into my face that if I had
+not instantly suppressed it, I might have betrayed myself.
+
+'Who was Eugène Valmont?' I asked, in a tone of assumed indifference.
+
+Mixing his fifth glass he nodded sagely.
+
+'You wouldn't ask that question if you'd been in Paris a dozen years
+ago. He was the Government's chief detective, and he knew more of
+anarchists, yes, and of Apaches, too, than either you or I do. He had
+more brains in his little finger than that whole lot babbling there
+tonight. But the Government being a fool, as all governments are,
+dismissed him, and because I was his assistant, they dismissed me as
+well. They got rid of all his staff. Valmont disappeared. If I could
+have found him, I wouldn't be sitting here with you tonight; but he
+was right to disappear. The Government did all they could against us
+who had been his friends, and I for one came through starvation, and
+was near throwing myself in the Seine, which sometimes I wish I had
+done. Here, garçon, another absinthe. But by-and-by I came to like the
+gutter, and here I am. I'd rather have the gutter and absinthe than
+the Luxembourg without it. I've had my revenge on the Government many
+times since, for I knew their ways, and often have I circumvented the
+police. That's why they respect me among the anarchists. Do you know
+how I joined? I knew all their passwords, and walked right into one of
+their meetings, alone and in rags.
+
+'"Here am I," I said; "Adolph Simard, late second assistant to Eugène
+Valmont, chief detective to the French Government."
+
+'There were twenty weapons covering me at once, but I laughed.
+
+'"I'm starving," I cried, "and I want something to eat, and more
+especially something to drink. In return for that I'll show you every
+rat-hole you've got. Lift the president's chair, and there's a
+trap-door that leads to the Rue Blanc. I'm one of you, and I'll tell
+you the tricks of the police."
+
+'Such was my initiation, and from that moment the police began to pick
+their spies out of the Seine, and now they leave us alone. Even
+Valmont himself could do nothing against the anarchists since I have
+joined them.'
+
+Oh, the incredible self-conceit of human nature! Here was this ruffian
+proclaiming the limitations of Valmont, who half an hour before had
+shaken his hand within the innermost circle of his order! Yet my heart
+warmed towards the wretch who had remembered me and my exploits.
+
+It now became my anxious and difficult task to lure Simard away from
+this café and its absinthe. Glass after glass of the poison had
+brought him up almost to his former intellectual level, but now it
+was shoving him rapidly down the hill again. I must know where his
+room was situated, yet if I waited much longer the man would be in a
+state of drunken imbecility which would not only render it impossible
+for him to guide me to his room, but likely cause both of us to be
+arrested by the police. I tried persuasion, and he laughed at me; I
+tried threats, whereat he scowled and cursed me as a renegade from
+England. At last the liquor overpowered him, and his head sunk on the
+metal table and the dark blue cap fell to the floor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was in despair, but now received a lesson which taught me that if a
+man leaves a city, even for a short time, he falls out of touch with
+its ways. I called the waiter, and said to him,--
+
+'Do you know my friend here?'
+
+'I do not know his name,' replied the garçon, 'but I have seen him
+many times at this café. He is usually in this state when he has
+money.'
+
+'Do you know where he lives? He promised to take me with him, and I am
+a stranger in Paris.'
+
+'Have no discontent, monsieur. Rest tranquil; I will intervene.'
+
+With this he stepped across the pavement in front of the café, into
+the street, and gave utterance to a low, peculiar whistle. The café
+was now nearly deserted, for the hour was very late, or, rather, very
+early. When the waiter returned I whispered to him in some anxiety,--
+
+'Not the police, surely?'
+
+'But no!' he cried in scorn; 'certainly not the police.'
+
+He went on unconcernedly taking in the empty chairs and tables. A few
+minutes later there swaggered up to the café two of the most
+disreputable, low-browed scoundrels I had ever seen, each wearing a
+dark-blue cap, with a glazed peak over the eyes; caps exactly similar
+to the one which lay in front of Simard. The band of Apaches which now
+permeates all Paris has risen since my time, and Simard had been
+mistaken an hour before in asserting that Valmont was familiar with
+their haunts. The present Chief of Police in Paris and some of his
+predecessors confess there is a difficulty in dealing with these
+picked assassins, but I should very much like to take a hand in the
+game on the side of law and order. However, that is not to be;
+therefore, the Apaches increase and prosper.
+
+The two vagabonds roughly smote Simard's cap on his prone head, and as
+roughly raised him to his feet.
+
+'He is a friend of mine,' I interposed, 'and promised to take me home
+with him.'
+
+'Good! Follow us,' said one of them; and now I passed through the
+morning streets of Paris behind three cut-throats, yet knew that I was
+safer than if broad daylight was in the thoroughfare, with a meridian
+sun shining down upon us. I was doubly safe, being in no fear of harm
+from midnight prowlers, and equally free from danger of arrest by the
+police. Every officer we met avoided us, and casually stepped to the
+other side of the street. We turned down a narrow lane, then through a
+still narrower one, which terminated at a courtyard. Entering a tall
+building, we climbed up five flights of stairs to a landing, where one
+of the scouts kicked open a door, into a room so miserable that there
+was not even a lock to protect its poverty. Here they allowed the
+insensible Simard to drop with a crash on the floor, thus they left us
+alone without even an adieu. The Apaches take care of their own--after
+a fashion.
+
+I struck a match, and found part of a bougie stuck in the mouth of an
+absinthe bottle, resting on a rough deal table. Lighting the bougie, I
+surveyed the horrible apartment. A heap of rags lay in a corner, and
+this was evidently Simard's bed. I hauled him to it, and there he lay
+unconscious, himself a bundle of rags. I found one chair, or, rather,
+stool, for it had no back. I drew the table against the lockless door,
+blew out the light, sat on the stool, resting my arms on the table,
+and my head on my arms, and slept peacefully till long after daybreak.
+
+Simard awoke in the worst possible humour. He poured forth a great
+variety of abusive epithets at me. To make himself still more
+agreeable, he turned back the rags on which he had slept, and brought
+to the light a round, black object, like a small cannon-ball, which he
+informed me was the picric bomb that was to scatter destruction among
+my English friends, for whom he expressed the greatest possible
+loathing and contempt. Then sitting up, he began playing with this
+infernal machine, knowing, as well as I, that if he allowed it to drop
+that was the end of us two.
+
+I shrugged my shoulders at this display, and affected a nonchalance I
+was far from feeling, but finally put an end to his dangerous
+amusement by telling him that if he came out with me I would pay for
+his breakfast, and give him a drink of absinthe.
+
+The next few days were the most anxious of my life. Never before had I
+lived on terms of intimacy with a picric bomb, that most deadly and
+uncertain of all explosive agencies. I speedily found that Simard was
+so absinthe-soaked I could do nothing with him. He could not be bribed
+or cajoled or persuaded or threatened. Once, indeed, when he talked
+with drunken affection of Eugène Valmont, I conceived a wild notion of
+declaring myself to him; but a moment's reflection showed the absolute
+uselessness of this course. It was not one Simard with whom I had to
+deal, but half a dozen or more. There was Simard, sober, half sober,
+quarter sober, drunk, half drunk, quarter drunk, or wholly drunk. Any
+bargain I might make with the one Simard would not be kept by any of
+the other six. The only safe Simard was Simard insensible through
+over-indulgence. I had resolved to get Simard insensibly drunk on the
+morning of the procession, but my plans were upset at a meeting of the
+anarchists, which luckily took place on an evening shortly after my
+arrival, and this gave me time to mature the plan which was actually
+carried out. Each member of the anarchists' club knew of Simard's
+slavery to absinthe, and fears were expressed that he might prove
+incapable on the day of the procession, too late for a substitute to
+take his place. It was, therefore, proposed that one or two others
+should be stationed along the route of the procession with bombs ready
+if Simard failed. This I strenuously opposed, and guaranteed that
+Simard would be ready to launch his missile. I met with little
+difficulty in persuading the company to agree, because, after all,
+every man among them feared he might be one of those selected, which
+choice was practically a sentence of death. I guaranteed that the bomb
+would be thrown, and this apparently was taken to mean that if Simard
+did not do the deed, I would.
+
+This danger over, I next took the measurements, and estimated the
+weight, of the picric bomb. I then sought out a most amiable and
+expert pyrotechnist, a capable workman of genius, who with his own
+hand makes those dramatic firework arrangements which you sometimes
+see in Paris. As Eugène Valmont, I had rendered a great service to
+this man, and he was not likely to have forgotten it. During one of
+the anarchist scares a stupid policeman had arrested him, and when I
+intervened the man was just on the verge of being committed for life.
+France trembled in one of her panics, or, rather, Paris did, and
+demanded victims. This blameless little workman had indeed contributed
+with both material and advice, but any fool might have seen that he
+had done this innocently. His assistance had been invoked and secured
+under the pretence that his clients were promoting an amateur firework
+display, which was true enough, but the display cost the lives of
+three men, and intentionally so. I cheered up the citizen in the
+moment of his utmost despair, and brought such proof of his innocence
+to the knowledge of those above me that he was most reluctantly
+acquitted. To this man I now went with my measurement of the bomb and
+the estimate of its weight.
+
+'Sir,' said I, 'do you remember Eugène Valmont?'
+
+'Am I ever likely to forget him?' he replied, with a fervour that
+pleased me.
+
+'He has sent me to you, and implores you to aid me, and that aid will
+wipe out the debt you owe him.'
+
+'Willingly, willingly,' cried the artisan, 'so long as it has nothing
+to do with the anarchists or the making of bombs.'
+
+'It has to do exactly with those two things. I wish you to make an
+innocent bomb which will prevent an anarchist outrage.'
+
+At this the little man drew back, and his face became pale.
+
+'It is impossible,' he protested; 'I have had enough of innocent
+bombs. No, no, and in any case how can I be sure you come from Eugène
+Valmont? No, monsieur, I am not to be trapped the second time.'
+
+At this I related rapidly all that Valmont had done for him, and even
+repeated Valmont's most intimate conversation with him. The man was
+nonplussed, but remained firm.
+
+'I dare not do it,' he said.
+
+We were alone in his back shop. I walked to the door and thrust in the
+bolt; then, after a moment's pause, turned round, stretched forth my
+right hand dramatically, and cried,--'Behold, Eugène Valmont!'
+
+My friend staggered against the wall in his amazement, and I continued
+in solemn tones,--'Eugène Valmont, who by this removal of his disguise
+places his life in your hands as your life was in his. Now, monsieur,
+what will you do?'
+
+He replied,--'Monsieur Valmont, I shall do whatever you ask. If I
+refused a moment ago, it was because I thought there was now in France
+no Eugène Valmont to rectify my mistake if I made one.'
+
+I resumed my disguise, and told him I wished an innocent substitute
+for this picric bomb, and he at once suggested an earthenware globe,
+which would weigh the same as the bomb, and which could be coloured to
+resemble it exactly.
+
+'And now, Monsieur Valmont, do you wish smoke to issue from this
+imitation bomb?'
+
+'Yes,' I said, 'in such quantity as you can compress within it.'
+
+'It is easily done,' he cried, with the enthusiasm of a true French
+artist. 'And may I place within some little design of my own which
+will astonish your friends the English, and delight my friends the
+French?'
+
+'Monsieur,' said I, 'I am in your hands. I trust the project entirely
+to your skill,' and thus it came about that four days later I
+substituted the bogus globe for the real one, and, unseen, dropped the
+picric bomb from one of the bridges into the Seine.
+
+On the morning of the procession I was compelled to allow Simard
+several drinks of absinthe to bring him up to a point where he could
+be depended on, otherwise his anxiety and determination to fling the
+bomb, his frenzy against all government, made it certain that he would
+betray both of us before the fateful moment came. My only fear was
+that I could not stop him drinking when once he began, but somehow our
+days of close companionship, loathsome as they were to me, seemed to
+have had the effect of building up again the influence I held over him
+in former days, and his yielding more or less to my wishes appeared to
+be quite unconscious on his part.
+
+The procession was composed entirely of carriages, each containing
+four persons--two Englishmen sat on the back seats, with two Frenchmen
+in front of them. A thick crowd lined each side of the thoroughfare,
+cheering vociferously. Right into the middle of the procession Simard
+launched his bomb. There was no crash of explosion. The missile simply
+went to pieces as if it were an earthenware jar, and there arose a
+dense column of very white smoke. In the immediate vicinity the
+cheering stopped at once, and the sinister word 'bomb' passed from lip
+to lip in awed whispers. As the throwing had been unnoticed in the
+midst of the commotion, I held Simard firmly by the wrist, determined
+he should not draw attention to himself by his panic-stricken desire
+for immediate flight.
+
+'Stand still, you fool!' I hissed into his ear and he obeyed
+trembling.
+
+The pair of horses in front of which the bomb fell rose for a moment
+on their hind legs, and showed signs of bolting, but the coachman held
+them firmly, and uplifted his hand so that the procession behind him
+came to a momentary pause. No one in the carriages moved a muscle,
+then suddenly the tension was broken by a great and simultaneous
+cheer. Wondering at this I turned my eyes from the frightened horses
+to the column of pale smoke in front of us, and saw that in some
+manner it had resolved itself into a gigantic calla lily, pure white,
+while from the base of this sprung the lilies of France, delicately
+tinted. Of course, this could not have happened if there had been the
+least wind, but the air was so still that the vibration of the
+cheering caused the huge lily to tremble gently as it stood there
+marvellously poised; the lily of peace, surrounded by the lilies of
+France! That was the design, and if you ask me how it was done, I can
+only refer you to my pyrotechnist, and say that whatever a Frenchman
+attempts to do he will accomplish artistically.
+
+And now these imperturbable English, who had been seated immobile when
+they thought a bomb was thrown, stood up in their carriages to get a
+better view of this aerial phenomenon, cheering and waving their hats.
+The lily gradually thinned and dissolved in little patches of cloud
+that floated away above our heads.
+
+'I cannot stay here longer,' groaned Simard, quaking, his nerves, like
+himself, in rags. 'I see the ghosts of those I have killed floating
+around me.'
+
+'Come on, then, but do not hurry.'
+
+There was no difficulty in getting him to London, but it was absinthe,
+absinthe, all the way, and when we reached Charing Cross, I was
+compelled to help him, partly insensible, into a cab. I took him
+direct to Imperial Flats, and up into my own set of chambers, where I
+opened my strong room, and flung him inside to sleep off his
+intoxication, and subsist on bread and water when he became sober.
+
+I attended that night a meeting of the anarchists, and detailed
+accurately the story of our escape from France. I knew we had been
+watched, and so skipped no detail. I reported that I had taken Simard
+directly to my compatriot's flat; to Eugène Valmont, the man who had
+given me employment, and who had promised to do what he could for
+Simard, beginning by trying to break him of the absinthe habit, as he
+was now a physical wreck through over-indulgence in that stimulant.
+
+It was curious to note the discussion which took place a few nights
+afterwards regarding the failure of the picric bomb. Scientists among
+us said that the bomb had been made too long; that a chemical reaction
+had taken place which destroyed its power. A few superstitious ones
+saw a miracle in what had happened, and they forthwith left our
+organisation. Then again, things were made easier by the fact that the
+man who constructed the bomb, evidently terror-stricken at what he had
+done, disappeared the day before the procession, and has never since
+been heard of. The majority of the anarchists believed he had made a
+bogus bomb, and had fled to escape their vengeance rather than to
+evade the justice of the law.
+
+Simard will need no purgatory in the next world. I kept him on bread
+and water for a month in my strong room, and at first he demanded
+absinthe with threats, then grovelled, begging and praying for it.
+After that a period of depression and despair ensued, but finally his
+naturally strong constitution conquered, and began to build itself up
+again. I took him from his prison one midnight, and gave him a bed in
+my Soho room, taking care in bringing him away that he would never
+recognise the place where he had been incarcerated. In my dealings
+with him I had always been that old man, Paul Ducharme. Next morning I
+said to him:--'You spoke of Eugène Valmont. I have learned that he
+lives in London, and I advise you to call upon him. Perhaps he can get
+you something to do.'
+
+Simard was overjoyed, and two hours later, as Eugène Valmont, I
+received him in my flat, and made him my assistant on the spot. From
+that time forward, Paul Ducharme, language teacher, disappeared from
+the earth, and Simard abandoned his two A's--anarchy and absinthe.
+
+
+
+
+3. _The Clue of the Silver Spoons_
+
+
+When the card was brought in to me, I looked upon it with some
+misgiving, for I scented a commercial transaction, and, although such
+cases are lucrative enough, nevertheless I, Eugène Valmont, formerly
+high in the service of the French Government, do not care to be
+connected with them. They usually pertain to sordid business affairs,
+presenting little that is of interest to a man who, in his time, has
+dealt with subtle questions of diplomacy upon which the welfare of
+nations sometimes turned.
+
+The name of Bentham Gibbes is familiar to everyone, connected as it is
+with the much-advertised pickles, whose glaring announcements in crude
+crimson and green strike the eye throughout Great Britain, and shock
+the artistic sense wherever seen. Me! I have never tasted them, and
+shall not so long as a French restaurant remains open in London. But I
+doubt not they are as pronounced to the palate as their advertisement
+is distressing to the eye. If then, this gross pickle manufacturer
+expected me to track down those who were infringing upon the recipes
+for making his so-called sauces, chutneys, and the like, he would find
+himself mistaken, for I was now in a position to pick and choose my
+cases, and a case of pickles did not allure me. 'Beware of
+imitations,' said the advertisement; 'none genuine without a facsimile
+of the signature of Bentham Gibbes.' Ah, well, not for me were either
+the pickles or the tracking of imitators. A forged cheque! yes, if you
+like, but the forged signature of Mr. Gibbes on a pickle bottle was out
+of my line. Nevertheless, I said to Armand:--
+
+'Show the gentleman in,' and he did so.
+
+To my astonishment there entered a young man, quite correctly dressed
+in the dark frock-coat, faultless waistcoat and trousers that
+proclaimed a Bond Street tailor. When he spoke his voice and language
+were those of a gentleman.
+
+'Monsieur Valmont?' he inquired.
+
+'At your service,' I replied, bowing and waving my hand as Armand
+placed a chair for him, and withdrew.
+
+'I am a barrister with chambers in the Temple,' began Mr. Gibbes, 'and
+for some days a matter has been troubling me about which I have now
+come to seek your advice, your name having been suggested by a friend
+in whom I confided.'
+
+'Am I acquainted with him?' I asked.
+
+'I think not,' replied Mr. Gibbes; 'he also is a barrister with
+chambers in the same building as my own. Lionel Dacre is his name.'
+
+'I never heard of him.'
+
+'Very likely not. Nevertheless, he recommended you as a man who could
+keep his own counsel, and if you take up this case I desire the utmost
+secrecy preserved, whatever may be the outcome.'
+
+I bowed, but made no protestation. Secrecy is a matter of course with
+me.
+
+The Englishman paused for a few moments as if he expected fervent
+assurances; then went on with no trace of disappointment on his
+countenance at not receiving them.
+
+'On the night of the twenty-third, I gave a little dinner to six
+friends of mine in my own rooms. I may say that so far as I am aware
+they are all gentlemen of unimpeachable character. On the night of the
+dinner I was detained later than I expected at a reception, and in
+driving to the Temple was still further delayed by a block of traffic
+in Piccadilly, so that when I arrived at my chambers there was barely
+time for me to dress and receive my guests. My man Johnson had
+everything laid out ready for me in my dressing-room, and as I passed
+through to it I hurriedly flung off the coat I was wearing and
+carelessly left it hanging over the back of a chair in the
+dining-room, where neither Johnson nor myself noticed it until my
+attention was called to it after the dinner was over, and everyone
+rather jolly with wine.
+
+'This coat contains an inside pocket. Usually any frock-coat I wear at
+an afternoon reception has not an inside pocket, but I had been rather
+on the rush all day.
+
+'My father is a manufacturer whose name may be familiar to you, and I
+am on the directors' board of his company. On this occasion I took a
+cab from the city to the reception I spoke of, and had not time to go
+and change at my rooms. The reception was a somewhat bohemian affair,
+extremely interesting, of course, but not too particular as to
+costume, so I went as I was. In this inside pocket rested a thin
+package, composed of two pieces of cardboard, and between them rested
+five twenty-pound Bank of England notes, folded lengthwise, held in
+place by an elastic rubber band. I had thrown the coat across the
+chair-back in such a way that the inside pocket was exposed, leaving
+the ends of the notes plainly recognisable.
+
+'Over the coffee and cigars one of my guests laughingly called
+attention to what he termed my vulgar display of wealth, and Johnson,
+in some confusion at having neglected to put away the coat, now picked
+it up, and took it to the reception-room where the wraps of my guests
+lay about promiscuously. He should, of course, have hung it up in my
+wardrobe, but he said afterwards he thought it belonged to the guest
+who had spoken. You see, Johnson was in my dressing-room when I threw
+my coat on the chair in the corner while making my way thither, and I
+suppose he had not noticed the coat in the hurry of arriving guests,
+otherwise he would have put it where it belonged. After everybody had
+gone Johnson came to me and said the coat was there, but the package
+was missing, nor has any trace of it been found since that night.'
+
+'The dinner was fetched in from outside, I suppose?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'How many waiters served it?'
+
+'Two. They are men who have often been in my employ on similar
+occasions, but, apart from that, they had left my chambers before the
+incident of the coat happened.'
+
+'Neither of them went into the reception-room, I take it?'
+
+'No. I am certain that not even suspicion can attach to either of the
+waiters.'
+
+'Your man Johnson--?'
+
+'Has been with me for years. He could easily have stolen much more
+than the hundred pounds if he had wished to do so, but I have never
+known him to take a penny that did not belong to him.'
+
+'Will you favour me with the names of your guests, Mr. Gibbes?'
+
+'Viscount Stern sat at my right hand, and at my left Lord Templemere;
+Sir John Sanclere next to him, and Angus McKeller next to Sanclere.
+After Viscount Stern was Lionel Dacre, and at his right, Vincent
+Innis.'
+
+On a sheet of paper I had written the names of the guests, and noted
+their places at the table.
+
+'Which guest drew your attention to the money?'
+
+'Lionel Dacre.'
+
+'Is there a window looking out from the reception-room?'
+
+'Two of them.'
+
+'Were they fastened on the night of the dinner party?'
+
+'I could not be sure; very likely Johnson would know. You are hinting
+at the possibility of a thief coming in through a reception-room
+window while we were somewhat noisy over our wine. I think such a
+solution highly improbable. My rooms are on the third floor, and a
+thief would scarcely venture to make an entrance when he could not but
+know there was a company being entertained. Besides this, the coat was
+there less than an hour, and it appears to me that whoever stole those
+notes knew where they were.'
+
+'That seems reasonable,' I had to admit. 'Have you spoken to any one
+of your loss?';
+
+'To no one but Dacre, who recommended me to see you. Oh, yes, and to
+Johnson, of course.'
+
+I could not help noting that this was the fourth or fifth time Dacre's
+name had come up during our conversation.
+
+'What of Dacre?' I asked.
+
+'Oh, well, you see, he occupies chambers in the same building on the
+ground floor. He is a very good fellow, and we are by way of being
+firm friends. Then it was he who had called attention to the money, so
+I thought he should know the sequel.'
+
+'How did he take your news?'
+
+'Now that you call attention to the fact, he seemed slightly troubled.
+I should like to say, however, that you must not be misled by that.
+Lionel Dacre could no more steal than he could lie.'
+
+'Did he show any surprise when you mentioned the theft?'
+
+Bentham Gibbes paused a moment before replying, knitting his brows in
+thought.
+
+'No,' he said at last; 'and, come to think of it, it appeared as if he
+had been expecting my announcement.'
+
+'Doesn't that strike you as rather strange, Mr. Gibbes?'
+
+'Really my mind is in such a whirl, I don't know what to think. But
+it's perfectly absurd to suspect Dacre. If you knew the man you would
+understand what I mean. He comes of an excellent family, and he
+is--oh! he is Lionel Dacre, and when you have said that you have made
+any suspicion absurd.'
+
+'I suppose you caused the rooms to be thoroughly searched. The packet
+didn't drop out and remain unnoticed in some corner?'
+
+'No; Johnson and myself examined every inch of the premises.'
+
+'Have you the numbers of the notes?'
+
+'Yes; I got them from the Bank next morning. Payment was stopped, and
+so far not one of the five has been presented. Of course, one or more
+may have been cashed at some shop, but none have been offered to any
+of the banks.'
+
+'A twenty-pound note is not accepted without scrutiny, so the chances
+are the thief may find some difficulty in disposing of them.'
+
+'As I told you, I don't mind the loss of the money at all. It is the
+uncertainty, the uneasiness caused by the incident which troubles me.
+You will comprehend how little I care about the notes when I say that
+if you are good enough to interest yourself in this case, I shall be
+disappointed if your fee does not exceed the amount I have lost.'
+
+Mr. Gibbes rose as he said this, and I accompanied him to the door
+assuring him that I should do my best to solve the mystery. Whether he
+sprang from pickles or not, I realised he was a polished and generous
+gentleman, who estimated the services of a professional expert like
+myself at their true value.
+
+I shall not set down the details of my researches during the following
+few days, because the trend of them must be gone over in the account
+of that remarkable interview in which I took part somewhat later.
+Suffice it to say that an examination of the rooms and a close
+cross-questioning of Johnson satisfied me he and the two waiters were
+innocent. I became certain no thief had made his way through the
+window, and finally I arrived at the conclusion that the notes were
+stolen by one of the guests. Further investigation convinced me that
+the thief was no other than Lionel Dacre, the only one of the six in
+pressing need of money at this time. I caused Dacre to be shadowed,
+and during one of his absences made the acquaintance of his man
+Hopper, a surly, impolite brute, who accepted my golden sovereign
+quickly enough, but gave me little in exchange for it. While I
+conversed with him, there arrived in the passage where we were talking
+together a huge case of champagne, bearing one of the best-known names
+in the trade, and branded as being of the vintage of '78. Now I knew
+that the product of Camelot Frères is not bought as cheaply as British
+beer, and I also had learned that two short weeks before Mr. Lionel
+Dacre was at his wits' end for money. Yet he was still the same
+briefless barrister he had ever been.
+
+On the morning after my unsatisfactory conversation with his man
+Hopper, I was astonished to receive the following note, written on a
+dainty correspondence card:--
+
+                                    '3 and 4 Vellum Buildings,
+                                             'Inner Temple, E.C.
+
+     'Mr. Lionel Dacre presents his compliments to Monsieur Eugène
+     Valmont, and would be obliged if Monsieur Valmont could make
+     it convenient to call upon him in his chambers tomorrow
+     morning at eleven.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Had the young man become aware that he was being shadowed, or had the
+surly servant informed him of the inquiries made? I was soon to know.
+I called punctually at eleven next morning, and was received with
+charming urbanity by Mr. Dacre himself. The taciturn Hopper had
+evidently been sent away for the occasion.
+
+'My dear Monsieur Valmont, I am delighted to meet you,' began the
+young man with more of effusiveness than I had ever noticed in an
+Englishman before, although his very next words supplied an
+explanation that did not occur to me until afterwards as somewhat
+far-fetched. 'I believe we are by way of being countrymen, and,
+therefore, although the hour is early, I hope you will allow me to
+offer you some of this bottled sunshine of the year '78 from _la belle
+France_, to whose prosperity and honour we shall drink together. For
+such a toast any hour is propitious,' and to my amazement he brought
+forth from the case I had seen arrive two days before, a bottle of
+that superb Camelot Frères '78.
+
+'Now,' said I to myself, 'it is going to be difficult to keep a clear
+head if the aroma of this nectar rises to the brain. But tempting as
+is the cup, I shall drink sparingly, and hope he may not be so
+judicious.'
+
+Sensitive, I already experienced the charm of his personality, and
+well understood the friendship Mr. Bentham Gibbes felt for him. But I
+saw the trap spread before me. He expected, under the influence of
+champagne and courtesy, to extract a promise from me which I must find
+myself unable to give.
+
+'Sir, you interest me by claiming kinship with France. I had
+understood that you belonged to one of the oldest families of
+England.'
+
+'Ah, England!' he cried, with an expressive gesture of outspreading
+hands truly Parisian in its significance. 'The trunk belongs to
+England, of course, but the root--ah! the root--Monsieur Valmont,
+penetrated the soil from which this wine of the gods has been drawn.'
+
+Then filling my glass and his own he cried:--
+
+'To France, which my family left in the year 1066!'
+
+I could not help laughing at his fervent ejaculation.
+
+'1066! With William the Conqueror! That is a long time ago, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'In years perhaps; in feelings but a day. My forefathers came over to
+steal, and, lord! how well they accomplished it. They stole the whole
+country--something like a theft, say I--under that prince of robbers
+whom you have well named the Conqueror. In our secret hearts we all
+admire a great thief, and if not a great one, then an expert one, who
+covers his tracks so perfectly that the hounds of justice are baffled
+in attempting to follow them. Now even you, Monsieur Valmont (I can
+see you are the most generous of men, with a lively sympathy found to
+perfection only in France), even you must suffer a pang of regret when
+you lay a thief by the heels who has done his task deftly.'
+
+'I fear, Mr. Dacre, you credit me with a magnanimity to which I dare
+not lay claim. The criminal is a danger to society.'
+
+'True, true, you are in the right, Monsieur Valmont Still, admit there
+are cases that would touch you tenderly. For example, a man,
+ordinarily honest; a great need; a sudden opportunity. He takes that
+of which another has abundance, and he, nothing. What then, Monsieur
+Valmont? Is the man to be sent to perdition for a momentary weakness?'
+
+His words astonished me. Was I on the verge of hearing a confession?
+It almost amounted to that already.
+
+'Mr. Dacre,' I said, 'I cannot enter into the subtleties you pursue. My
+duty is to find the criminal.'
+
+'Again I say you are in the right, Monsieur Valmont, and I am
+enchanted to find so sensible a head on French shoulders. Although you
+are a more recent arrival, if I may say so, than myself, you
+nevertheless already give utterance to sentiments which do honour to
+England. It is your duty to hunt down the criminal. Very well. In that
+I think I can aid you, and thus have taken the liberty of requesting
+your attendance here this morning. Let me fill your glass again,
+Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'No more, I beg of you, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'What, do you think the receiver is as bad as the thief?'
+
+I was so taken aback by this remark that I suppose my face showed the
+amazement within me. But the young man merely laughed with apparently
+free-hearted enjoyment, poured some wine into his own glass, and
+tossed it off. Not knowing what to say, I changed the current of
+conversation.
+
+'Mr. Gibbes said you had been kind enough to recommend me to his
+attention. May I ask how you came to hear of me?'
+
+'Ah! who has not heard of the renowned Monsieur Valmont,' and as he
+said this, for the first time, there began to grow a suspicion in my
+mind that he was chaffing me, as it is called in England--a procedure
+which I cannot endure. Indeed, if this gentleman practised such a
+barbarism in my own country he would find himself with a duel on his
+hands before he had gone far. However, the next instant his voice
+resumed its original fascination, and I listened to it as to some
+delicious melody.
+
+'I need only mention my cousin, Lady Gladys Dacre, and you will at
+once understand why I recommended you to my friend. The case of Lady
+Gladys, you will remember, required a delicate touch which is not
+always to be had in this land of England, except when those who
+possess the gift do us the honour to sojourn with us.'
+
+I noticed that my glass was again filled, and bowing an acknowledgment
+of his compliment, I indulged in another sip of the delicious wine. I
+sighed, for I began to realise it was going to be very difficult for
+me, in spite of my disclaimer, to tell this man's friend he had stolen
+the money. All this time he had been sitting on the edge of the table,
+while I occupied a chair at its end. He sat there in careless fashion,
+swinging a foot to and fro. Now he sprang to the floor, and drew up a
+chair, placing on the table a blank sheet of paper. Then he took from
+the mantelshelf a packet of letters, and I was astonished to see they
+were held together by two bits of cardboard and a rubber band similar
+to the combination that had contained the folded bank notes. With
+great nonchalance he slipped off the rubber band, threw it and the
+pieces of cardboard on the table before me, leaving the documents
+loose to his hand.
+
+'Now, Monsieur Valmont,' he cried jauntily, 'you have been occupied
+for several days on this case, the case of my dear friend Bentham
+Gibbes, who is one of the best fellows in the world.'
+
+'He said the same of you, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'I am gratified to hear it. Would you mind letting me know to what
+point your researches have led you?'
+
+'They have led me in a direction rather than to a point.'
+
+'Ah! In the direction of a man, of course?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'Who is he?'
+
+'Will you pardon me if I decline to answer this question at the
+present moment?'
+
+'That means you are not sure.'
+
+'It may mean, Mr. Dacre, that I am employed by Mr. Gibbes, and do not
+feel at liberty to disclose the results of my quest without his
+permission.'
+
+'But Mr. Bentham Gibbes and I are entirely at one in this matter.
+Perhaps you are aware that I am the only person with whom he has
+discussed the case beside yourself.'
+
+'That is undoubtedly true, Mr. Dacre; still, you see the difficulty of
+my position.'
+
+'Yes, I do, and so shall press you no further. But I also have been
+studying the problem in a purely amateurish way, of course. You will
+perhaps express no disinclination to learn whether or not my
+deductions agree with yours.'
+
+'None in the least. I should be very glad to know the conclusion at
+which you have arrived. May I ask if you suspect any one in
+particular?'
+
+'Yes, I do.'
+
+'Will you name him?'
+
+'No; I shall copy the admirable reticence you yourself have shown. And
+now let us attack this mystery in a sane and businesslike manner. You
+have already examined the room. Well, here is a rough sketch of it.
+There is the table; in this corner stood the chair on which the coat
+was flung. Here sat Gibbes at the head of the table. Those on the
+left-hand side had their backs to the chair. I, being on the centre to
+the right, saw the chair, the coat, and the notes, and called
+attention to them. Now our first duty is to find a motive. If it were
+a murder, our motive might be hatred, revenge, robbery--what you like.
+As it is simply the stealing of money, the man must have been either a
+born thief or else some hitherto innocent person pressed to the crime
+by great necessity. Do you agree with me, Monsieur Valmont?'
+
+'Perfectly. You follow exactly the line of my own reasoning.'
+
+'Very well. It is unlikely that a born thief was one of Mr. Gibbes's
+guests. Therefore we are reduced to look for a man under the spur of
+necessity; a man who has no money of his own but who must raise a
+certain amount, let us say, by a certain date. If we can find such a
+man in that company, do you not agree with me that he is likely to be
+the thief?'
+
+'Yes, I do.'
+
+'Then let us start our process of elimination. Out goes Viscount
+Stern, a lucky individual with twenty thousand acres of land, and God
+only knows what income. I mark off the name of Lord Templemere, one of
+His Majesty's judges, entirely above suspicion. Next, Sir John
+Sanclere; he also is rich, but Vincent Innis is still richer, so the
+pencil obliterates both names. Now we arrive at Angus McKeller, an
+author of some note, as you are well aware, deriving a good income
+from his books and a better one from his plays; a canny Scot, so we
+may rub his name from our paper and our memory. How do my erasures
+correspond with yours, Monsieur Valmont?'
+
+'They correspond exactly, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'I am flattered to hear it. There remains one name untouched, Mr
+Lionel Dacre, the descendant, as I have said, of robbers.'
+
+'I have not said so, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'Ah! my dear Valmont, the politeness of your country asserts itself.
+Let us not be deluded, but follow our inquiry wherever it leads. I
+suspect Lionel Dacre. What do you know of his circumstances before the
+dinner of the twenty-third?'
+
+As I made no reply he looked up at me with his frank, boyish face
+illumined by a winning smile.
+
+'You know nothing of his circumstances?' he asked.
+
+'It grieves me to state that I do. Mr. Lionel Dacre was penniless on
+the night of the dinner.'
+
+'Oh, don't exaggerate, Monsieur Valmont,' cried Dacre with a gesture
+of pathetic protest; 'his pocket held one sixpence, two pennies, and a
+halfpenny. How came you to suspect he was penniless?'
+
+'I knew he ordered a case of champagne from the London representative
+of Camelot Frères, and was refused unless he paid the money down.'
+
+'Quite right, and then when you were talking to Hopper you saw that
+case of champagne delivered. Excellent! excellent! Monsieur Valmont.
+But will a man steal, think you, even to supply himself with so
+delicious a wine as this we have been tasting? And, by the way,
+forgive my neglect, allow me to fill your glass, Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'Not another drop, if you will excuse me, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'Ah, yes, champagne should not be mixed with evidence. When we have
+finished, perhaps. What further proof have you discovered, monsieur?'
+
+'I hold proof that Mr. Dacre was threatened with bankruptcy, if, on the
+twenty-fourth, he did not pay a bill of seventy-eight pounds that had
+been long outstanding. I hold proof that this was paid, not on the
+twenty-fourth, but on the twenty-sixth. Mr. Dacre had gone to the
+solicitor and assured him he would pay the money on that date,
+whereupon he was given two days' grace.'
+
+'Ah, well, he was entitled to three, you know, in law. Yes, there,
+Monsieur Valmont, you touch the fatal point. The threat of bankruptcy
+will drive a man in Dacre's position to almost any crime. Bankruptcy
+to a barrister means ruin. It means a career blighted; it means a life
+buried, with little chance of resurrection. I see, you grasp the
+supreme importance of that bit of evidence. The case of champagne is
+as nothing compared with it, and this reminds me that in the crisis
+now upon us I shall take another sip, with your permission. Sure you
+won't join me?'
+
+'Not at this juncture, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'I envy your moderation. Here's to the success of our search, Monsieur
+Valmont.'
+
+I felt sorry for the gay young fellow as with smiling face he drank
+the champagne.
+
+'Now, Monsieur,' he went on, 'I am amazed to learn how much you have
+discovered. Really, I think tradespeople, solicitors, and all such
+should keep better guard on their tongues than they do. Nevertheless,
+these documents at my elbow, which I expected would surprise you, are
+merely the letters and receipts. Here is the communication from the
+solicitor threatening me with bankruptcy; here is his receipt dated
+the twenty-sixth; here is the refusal of the wine merchant, and here
+is his receipt for the money. Here are smaller bills liquidated. With
+my pencil we will add them up. Seventy-eight pounds--the principal
+debt--bulks large. We add the smaller items and it reaches a total of
+ninety-three pounds seven shillings and fourpence. Let us now examine
+my purse. Here is a five-pound note; there is a golden sovereign. I
+now count out and place on the table twelve and sixpence in silver and
+two pence in coppers. The purse thus becomes empty. Let us add the
+silver and copper to the amount on the paper. Do my eyes deceive me,
+or is the sum exactly a hundred pounds? There is your money fully
+accounted for.'
+
+'Pardon me, Mr. Dacre,' I said, 'but I observe a sovereign resting on
+the mantelpiece.'
+
+Dacre threw back his head and laughed with greater heartiness than I
+had yet known him to indulge in during our short acquaintance.
+
+'By Jove,' he cried, 'you've got me there. I'd forgotten entirely
+about that pound on the mantelpiece, which belongs to you.'
+
+'To me? Impossible!'
+
+'It does, and cannot interfere in the least with our century
+calculation. That is the sovereign you gave to my man Hopper, who,
+knowing me to be hard-pressed, took it and shamefacedly presented it
+to me, that I might enjoy the spending of it. Hopper belongs to our
+family, or the family belongs to him. I am never sure which. You must
+have missed in him the deferential bearing of a man-servant in Paris,
+yet he is true gold, like the sovereign you bestowed upon him, and he
+bestowed upon me. Now here, Monsieur, is the evidence of the theft,
+together with the rubber band and two pieces of cardboard. Ask my
+friend Gibbes to examine them minutely. They are all at your
+disposition, Monsieur, and thus you learn how much easier it is to
+deal with the master than with the servant. All the gold you possess
+would not have wrung these incriminating documents from old Hopper. I
+was compelled to send him away to the West End an hour ago, fearing
+that in his brutal British way he might assault you if he got an
+inkling of your mission.'
+
+'Mr. Dacre,' said I slowly, 'you have thoroughly convinced me--'
+
+'I thought I would,' he interrupted with a laugh.
+
+'--that you did _not_ take the money.'
+
+'Oho, this is a change of wind, surely. Many a man has been hanged on
+a chain of circumstantial evidence much weaker than this which I have
+exhibited to you. Don't you see the subtlety of my action? Ninety-nine
+persons in a hundred would say: "No man could be such a fool as to
+put Valmont on his own track, and then place in Valmont's hands such
+striking evidence." But there comes in my craftiness. Of course, the
+rock you run up against will be Gibbes's incredulity. The first
+question he will ask you may be this: "Why did not Dacre come and
+borrow the money from me?" Now there you find a certain weakness in
+your chain of evidence. I knew perfectly well that Gibbes would lend
+me the money, and he knew perfectly well that if I were pressed to the
+wall I should ask him.'
+
+'Mr. Dacre,' said I, 'you have been playing with me. I should resent
+that with most men, but whether it is your own genial manner or the
+effect of this excellent champagne, or both together, I forgive you.
+But I am convinced of another thing. You know who took the money.'
+
+'I don't know, but I suspect.'
+
+'Will you tell me whom you suspect?'
+
+'That would not be fair, but I shall now take the liberty of filling
+your glass with champagne.'
+
+'I am your guest, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'Admirably answered, monsieur,' he replied, pouring out the wine, 'and
+now I offer you a clue. Find out all about the story of the silver
+spoons.'
+
+'The story of the silver spoons! What silver spoons?'
+
+'Ah! That is the point. Step out of the Temple into Fleet Street,
+seize the first man you meet by the shoulder, and ask him to tell you
+about the silver spoons. There are but two men and two spoons
+concerned. When you learn who those two men are, you will know that
+one of them did not take the money, and I give you my assurance that
+the other did.'
+
+'You speak in mystery, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'But certainly, for I am speaking to Monsieur Eugène Valmont.'
+
+'I echo your words, sir. Admirably answered. You put me on my mettle,
+and I flatter myself that I see your kindly drift. You wish me to
+solve the mystery of this stolen money. Sir, you-do me honour, and I
+drink to your health.'
+
+'To yours, monsieur,' said Lionel Dacre, and thus we drank and parted.
+
+On leaving Mr. Dacre I took a hansom to a café in Regent Street, which
+is a passable imitation of similar places of refreshment in Paris.
+There, calling for a cup of black coffee, I sat down to think. The
+clue of the silver spoons! He had laughingly suggested that I should
+take by the shoulders the first man I met, and ask him what the story
+of the silver spoons was. This course naturally struck me as absurd,
+and he doubtless intended it to seem absurd. Nevertheless, it
+contained a hint. I must ask somebody, and that the right person, to
+tell me the tale of the silver spoons.
+
+Under the influence of the black coffee I reasoned it out in this way.
+On the night of the twenty-third one of the six guests there present
+stole a hundred pounds, but Dacre had said that an actor in the silver
+spoon episode was the actual thief. That person, then, must have been
+one of Mr. Gibbes's guests at the dinner of the twenty-third. Probably
+two of the guests were the participators in the silver spoon comedy,
+but, be that as it may, it followed that one at least of the men
+around Mr. Gibbes's table knew the episode of the silver spoons.
+Perhaps Bentham Gibbes himself was cognisant of it. It followed,
+therefore, that the easiest plan was to question each of the men who
+partook of that dinner. Yet if only one knew about the spoons, that
+one must also have some idea that these spoons formed the clue which
+attached him to the crime of the twenty-third, in which case he was
+little likely to divulge what he knew to an entire stranger.
+
+Of course, I might go to Dacre himself and demand the story of the
+silver spoons, but this would be a confession of failure on my part,
+and I rather dreaded Lionel Dacre's hearty laughter when I admitted
+that the mystery was too much for me. Besides this I was very well
+aware of the young man's kindly intentions towards me. He wished me to
+unravel the coil myself, and so I determined not to go to him except
+as a last resource.
+
+I resolved to begin with Mr. Gibbes, and, finishing my coffee, I got
+again into a hansom, and drove back to the Temple. I found Bentham
+Gibbes in his room, and after greeting me, his first inquiry was about
+the case.
+
+'How are you getting on?' he asked.
+
+'I think I'm getting on fairly well,' I replied, 'and expect to finish
+in a day or two, if you will kindly tell me the story of the silver
+spoons.'
+
+'The silver spoons?' he echoed, quite evidently not understanding me.
+
+'There happened an incident in which two men were engaged, and this
+incident related to a pair of silver spoons. I want to get the
+particulars of that.' 'I haven't the slightest idea what you are
+talking about,' replied Gibbes, thoroughly bewildered. 'You will need
+to be more definite, I fear, if you are to get any help from me.'
+
+'I cannot be more definite, because I have already told you all I
+know.'
+
+'What bearing has all this on our own case?'
+
+'I was informed that if I got hold of the clue of the silver spoons I
+should be in a fair way of settling our case.'
+
+'Who told you that?'
+
+'Mr. Lionel Dacre.'
+
+'Oh, does Dacre refer to his own conjuring?'
+
+'I don't know, I'm sure. What was his conjuring?'
+
+'A very clever trick he did one night at dinner here about two months
+ago.'
+
+'Had it anything to do with silver spoons?'
+
+'Well, it was silver spoons or silver forks, or something of that
+kind. I had entirely forgotten the incident. So far as I recollect at
+the moment there was a sleight-of-hand man of great expertness in one
+of the music halls, and the talk turned upon him. Then Dacre said the
+tricks he did were easy, and holding up a spoon or a fork, I don't
+remember which, he professed his ability to make it disappear before
+our eyes, to be found afterwards in the clothing of some one there
+present. Several offered to bet that he could do nothing of the kind,
+but he said he would bet with no one but Innis, who sat opposite him.
+Innis, with some reluctance, accepted the bet, and then Dacre, with a
+great show of the usual conjurer's gesticulations, spread forth his
+empty hands, and said we should find the spoon in Innis's pocket, and
+there, sure enough, it was. It seemed a proper sleight-of-hand trick,
+but we were never able to get him to repeat it.'
+
+'Thank you very much, Mr. Gibbes; I think I see daylight now.'
+
+'If you do you are cleverer than I by a long chalk,' cried Bentham
+Gibbes as I took my departure.
+
+I went directly downstairs, and knocked at Mr. Dacre's door once more.
+He opened the door himself, his man not yet having returned.
+
+'Ah, monsieur,' he cried, 'back already? You don't mean to tell me you
+have so soon got to the bottom of the silver spoon entanglement?'
+
+'I think I have, Mr. Dacre. You were sitting at dinner opposite Mr
+Vincent Innis. You saw him conceal a silver spoon in his pocket. You
+probably waited for some time to understand what he meant by this, and
+as he did not return the spoon to its place, you proposed a conjuring
+trick, made the bet with him, and thus the spoon was returned to the
+table.'
+
+'Excellent! excellent, monsieur! that is very nearly what occurred,
+except that I acted at once. I had had experiences with Mr. Vincent
+Innis before. Never did he enter these rooms of mine without my
+missing some little trinket after he was gone. Although Mr. Innis is a
+very rich person, I am not a man of many possessions, so if anything
+is taken, I meet little difficulty in coming to a knowledge of my
+loss. Of course, I never mentioned these abstractions to him. They
+were all trivial, as I have said, and so far as the silver spoon was
+concerned, it was of no great value either. But I thought the bet and
+the recovery of the spoon would teach him a lesson; it apparently has
+not done so. On the night of the twenty-third he sat at my right hand,
+as you will see by consulting your diagram of the table and the
+guests. I asked him a question twice, to which he did not reply, and
+looking at him I was startled by the expression in his eyes. They were
+fixed on a distant corner of the room, and following his gaze I saw
+what he was staring at with such hypnotising concentration. So
+absorbed was he in contemplation of the packet there so plainly
+exposed, now my attention was turned to it, that he seemed to be
+entirely oblivious of what was going on around him. I roused him from
+his trance by jocularly calling Gibbes's attention to the display of
+money. I expected in this way to save Innis from committing the act
+which he seemingly did commit. Imagine then the dilemma in which I was
+placed when Gibbes confided to me the morning after what had occurred
+the night before. I was positive Innis had taken the money, yet I
+possessed no proof of it. I could not tell Gibbes, and I dare not
+speak to Innis. Of course, monsieur, you do not need to be told that
+Innis is not a thief in the ordinary sense of the word. He has no need
+to steal, and yet apparently cannot help doing so. I am sure that no
+attempt has been made to pass those notes. They are doubtless resting
+securely in his house at Kensington. He is, in fact, a kleptomaniac,
+or a maniac of some sort. And now, monsieur, was my hint regarding the
+silver spoons of any value to you?'
+
+'Of the most infinite value, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'Then let me make another suggestion. I leave it entirely to your
+bravery; a bravery which, I confess, I do not myself possess. Will
+you take a hansom, drive to Mr. Innis's house on the Cromwell Road,
+confront him quietly, and ask for the return of the packet? I am
+anxious to know what will happen. If he hands it to you, as I expect
+he will, then you must tell Mr. Gibbes the whole story.'
+
+'Mr. Dacre, your suggestion shall be immediately acted upon, and I
+thank you for your compliment to my courage.'
+
+I found that Mr. Innis inhabited a very grand house. After a time he
+entered the study on the ground floor, to which I had been conducted.
+He held my card in his hand, and was looking at it with some surprise.
+
+'I think I have not the pleasure of knowing you, Monsieur Valmont,' he
+said, courteously enough.
+
+'No. I ventured to call on a matter of business. I was once
+investigator for the French Government, and now am doing private
+detective work here in London.'
+
+'Ah! And how is that supposed to interest me? There is nothing that I
+wish investigated. I did not send for you, did I?'
+
+'No, Mr. Innis, I merely took the liberty of calling to ask you to let
+me have the package you took from Mr. Bentham Gibbes's frock-coat
+pocket on the night of the twenty-third.'
+
+'He wishes it returned, does he?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+Mr. Innis calmly walked to a desk, which he unlocked and opened,
+displaying a veritable museum of trinkets of one sort and another.
+Pulling out a small drawer he took from it the packet containing the
+five twenty-pound notes. Apparently it had never been opened. With a
+smile he handed it to me.
+
+'You will make my apologies to Mr. Gibbes for not returning it before.
+Tell him I have been unusually busy of late.'
+
+'I shall not fail to do so,' said I, with a bow.
+
+'Thanks so much. Good-morning, Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'Good-morning, Mr. Innis,'
+
+And so I returned the packet to Mr. Bentham Gibbes, who pulled the
+notes from between their pasteboard protection, and begged me to
+accept them.
+
+
+
+
+4. _Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune_
+
+
+The name of the late Lord Chizelrigg never comes to my mind without
+instantly suggesting that of Mr. T.A. Edison. I never saw the late Lord
+Chizelrigg, and I have met Mr. Edison only twice in my life, yet the
+two men are linked in my memory, and it was a remark the latter once
+made that in great measure enabled me to solve the mystery which the
+former had wrapped round his actions.
+
+There is no memorandum at hand to tell me the year in which those two
+meetings with Edison took place. I received a note from the Italian
+Ambassador in Paris requesting me to wait upon him at the Embassy. I
+learned that on the next day a deputation was to set out from the
+Embassy to one of the chief hotels, there to make a call in state upon
+the great American inventor, and formally present to him various
+insignia accompanying certain honours which the King of Italy had
+conferred upon him. As many Italian nobles of high rank had been
+invited, and as these dignitaries would not only be robed in the
+costumes pertaining to their orders, but in many cases would wear
+jewels of almost inestimable value, my presence was desired in the
+belief that I might perhaps be able to ward off any attempt on the
+part of the deft-handed gentry who might possibly make an effort to
+gain these treasures, and I may add, with perhaps some little
+self-gratification, no _contretemps_ occurred.
+
+Mr. Edison, of course, had long before received notification of the
+hour at which the deputation would wait upon him, but when we entered
+the large parlour assigned to the inventor, it was evident to me at a
+glance that the celebrated man had forgotten all about the function.
+He stood by a bare table, from which the cloth had been jerked and
+flung into a corner, and upon that table were placed several bits of
+black and greasy machinery--cog wheels, pulleys, bolts, etc. These
+seemingly belonged to a French workman who stood on the other side of
+the table, with one of the parts in his grimy hand. Edison's own hands
+were not too clean, for he had palpably been examining the material,
+and conversing with the workman, who wore the ordinary long blouse of
+an iron craftsman in a small way. I judged him to be a man with a
+little shop of his own in some back street, who did odd jobs of
+engineering, assisted perhaps by a skilled helper or two, and a few
+apprentices. Edison looked sternly towards the door as the solemn
+procession filed in, and there was a trace of annoyance on his face at
+the interruption, mixed with a shade of perplexity as to what this
+gorgeous display all meant. The Italian is as ceremonious as the
+Spaniard where a function is concerned, and the official who held the
+ornate box which contained the jewellery resting on a velvet cushion,
+stepped slowly forward, and came to a stand in front of the bewildered
+American. Then the Ambassador, in sonorous voice, spoke some gracious
+words regarding the friendship existing between the United States and
+Italy, expressed a wish that their rivalry should ever take the form
+of benefits conferred upon the human race, and instanced the honoured
+recipient as the most notable example the world had yet produced of a
+man bestowing blessings upon all nations in the arts of peace. The
+eloquent Ambassador concluded by saying that, at the command of his
+Royal master, it was both his duty and his pleasure to present, and so
+forth and so forth.
+
+Mr. Edison, visibly ill at ease, nevertheless made a suitable reply in
+the fewest possible words, and the _étalage_ being thus at an end, the
+noblemen, headed by their Ambassador, slowly retired, myself forming
+the tail of the procession. Inwardly I deeply sympathised with the
+French workman who thus unexpectedly found himself confronted by so
+much magnificence. He cast one wild look about him, but saw that his
+retreat was cut off unless he displaced some of these gorgeous
+grandees. He tried then to shrink into himself, and finally stood
+helpless like one paralysed. In spite of Republican institutions,
+there is deep down in every Frenchman's heart a respect and awe for
+official pageants, sumptuously staged and costumed as this one was.
+But he likes to view it from afar, and supported by his fellows, not
+thrust incongruously into the midst of things, as was the case with
+this panic-stricken engineer. As I passed out, I cast a glance over my
+shoulder at the humble artisan content with a profit of a few francs a
+day, and at the millionaire inventor opposite him, Edison's face,
+which during the address had been cold and impassive, reminding me
+vividly of a bust of Napoleon, was now all aglow with enthusiasm as he
+turned to his humble visitor. He cried joyfully to the workman:--
+
+'A minute's demonstration is worth an hour's explanation. I'll call
+round tomorrow at your shop, about ten o'clock, and show you how to
+make the thing work.'
+
+I lingered in the hall until the Frenchman came out, then, introducing
+myself to him, asked the privilege of visiting his shop next day at
+ten. This was accorded with that courtesy which you will always find
+among the industrial classes of France, and next day I had the
+pleasure of meeting Mr. Edison. During our conversation I complimented
+him on his invention of the incandescent electric light, and this was
+the reply that has ever remained in my memory:--
+
+'It was not an invention, but a discovery. We knew what we wanted; a
+carbonised tissue, which would withstand the electric current in a
+vacuum for, say, a thousand hours. If no such tissue existed, then the
+incandescent light, as we know it, was not possible. My assistants
+started out to find this tissue, and we simply carbonised everything
+we could lay our hands on, and ran the current through it in a vacuum.
+At last we struck the right thing, as we were bound to do if we kept
+on long enough, and if the thing existed. Patience and hard work will
+overcome any obstacle.'
+
+This belief has been of great assistance to me in my profession. I
+know the idea is prevalent that a detective arrives at his solutions
+in a dramatic way through following clues invisible to the ordinary
+man. This doubtless frequently happens, but, as a general thing, the
+patience and hard work which Mr. Edison commends is a much safer guide.
+Very often the following of excellent clues had led me to disaster, as
+was the case with my unfortunate attempt to solve the mystery of the
+five hundred diamonds.
+
+As I was saying, I never think of the late Lord Chizelrigg without
+remembering Mr. Edison at the same time, and yet the two were very
+dissimilar. I suppose Lord Chizelrigg was the most useless man that
+ever lived, while Edison is the opposite.
+
+One day my servant brought in to me a card on which was engraved 'Lord
+Chizelrigg.'
+
+'Show his lordship in,' I said, and there appeared a young man of
+perhaps twenty-four or twenty-five, well dressed, and of most charming
+manners, who, nevertheless, began his interview by asking a question
+such as had never before been addressed to me, and which, if put to a
+solicitor, or other professional man, would have been answered with
+some indignation. Indeed, I believe it is a written or unwritten law
+of the legal profession that the acceptance of such a proposal as
+Lord Chizelrigg made to me, would, if proved, result in the disgrace
+and ruin of the lawyer.
+
+'Monsieur Valmont,' began Lord Chizelrigg, 'do you ever take up cases
+on speculation?'
+
+'On speculation, sir? I do not think I understand you.'
+
+His lordship blushed like a girl, and stammered slightly as he
+attempted an explanation.
+
+'What I mean is, do you accept a case on a contingent fee? That is to
+say, monsieur--er--well, not to put too fine a point upon it, no
+results, no pay.'
+
+I replied somewhat severely:--
+
+'Such an offer has never been made to me, and I may say at once that I
+should be compelled to decline it were I favoured with the
+opportunity. In the cases submitted to me, I devote my time and
+attention to their solution. I try to deserve success, but I cannot
+command it, and as in the interim I must live, I am reluctantly
+compelled to make a charge for my time, at least. I believe the doctor
+sends in his bill, though the patient dies.'
+
+The young man laughed uneasily, and seemed almost too embarrassed to
+proceed, but finally he said:--
+
+'Your illustration strikes home with greater accuracy than probably
+you imagined when you uttered it. I have just paid my last penny to
+the physician who attended my late uncle, Lord Chizelrigg, who died
+six months ago. I am fully aware that the suggestion I made may seem
+like a reflection upon your skill, or rather, as implying a doubt
+regarding it. But I should be grieved, monsieur, if you fell into such
+an error. I could have come here and commissioned you to undertake
+some elucidation of the strange situation in which I find myself, and
+I make no doubt you would have accepted the task if your numerous
+engagements had permitted. Then, if you failed, I should have been
+unable to pay you, for I am practically bankrupt. My whole desire,
+therefore, was to make an honest beginning, and to let you know
+exactly how I stand. If you succeed, I shall be a rich man; if you do
+not succeed, I shall be what I am now, penniless. Have I made it plain
+now why I began with a question which you had every right to resent?'
+
+'Perfectly plain, my lord, and your candour does you credit.'
+
+I was very much taken with the unassuming manners of the young man,
+and his evident desire to accept no service under false pretences.
+When I had finished my sentence the pauper nobleman rose to his feet,
+and bowed.
+
+'I am very much your debtor, monsieur, for your courtesy in receiving
+me, and can only beg pardon for occupying your time on a futile quest.
+I wish you good-morning, monsieur.'
+
+'One moment, my lord,' I rejoined, waving him to his chair again.
+'Although I am unprepared to accept a commission on the terms you
+suggest, I may, nevertheless, be able to offer a hint or two that will
+prove of service to you. I think I remember the announcement of Lord
+Chizelrigg's death. He was somewhat eccentric, was he not?'
+
+'Eccentric?' said the young man, with a slight laugh, seating himself
+again--'well, _rather_!'
+
+'I vaguely remember that he was accredited with the possession of
+something like twenty thousand acres of land?'
+
+'Twenty-seven thousand, as a matter of fact,' replied my visitor.
+
+'Have you fallen heir to the lands as well as to the title?'
+
+'Oh, yes; the estate was entailed. The old gentleman could not divert
+it from me if he would, and I rather suspect that fact must have been
+the cause of some worry to him.'
+
+'But surely, my lord, a man who owns, as one might say, a principality
+in this wealthy realm of England, cannot be penniless?'
+
+Again the young man laughed.
+
+'Well, no,' he replied, thrusting his hand in his pocket and bringing
+to light a few brown coppers, and a white silver piece. 'I possess
+enough money to buy some food tonight, but not enough to dine at the
+Hotel Cecil. You see, it is like this. I belong to a somewhat ancient
+family, various members of whom went the pace, and mortgaged their
+acres up to the hilt. I could not raise a further penny on my estates
+were I to try my hardest, because at the time the money was lent, land
+was much more valuable than it is today. Agricultural depression, and
+all that sort of thing, have, if I may put it so, left me a good many
+thousands worse off than if I had no land at all. Besides this, during
+my late uncle's life, Parliament, on his behalf, intervened once or
+twice, allowing him in the first place to cut valuable timber, and in
+the second place to sell the pictures of Chizelrigg Chase at
+Christie's for figures which make one's mouth water.'
+
+'And what became of the money?' I asked, whereupon once more this
+genial nobleman laughed. 'That is exactly what I came up in the lift
+to learn if Monsieur Valmont could discover.'
+
+'My lord, you interest me,' I said, quite truly, with an uneasy
+apprehension that I should take up his case after all, for I liked the
+young man already. His lack of pretence appealed to me, and that
+sympathy which is so universal among my countrymen enveloped him, as I
+may say, quite independent of my own will.
+
+'My uncle,' went on Lord Chizelrigg, 'was somewhat of an anomaly in
+our family. He must have been a reversal to a very, very ancient type;
+a type of which we have no record. He was as miserly as his
+forefathers were prodigal. When he came into the title and estate some
+twenty years ago, he dismissed the whole retinue of servants, and,
+indeed, was defendant in several cases at law where retainers of our
+family brought suit against him for wrongful dismissal, or dismissal
+without a penny compensation in lieu of notice. I am pleased to say he
+lost all his cases, and when he pleaded poverty, got permission to
+sell a certain number of heirlooms, enabling him to make compensation,
+and giving him something on which to live. These heirlooms at auction
+sold so unexpectedly well, that my uncle acquired a taste, as it were,
+of what might be done. He could always prove that the rents went to
+the mortgagees, and that he had nothing on which to exist, so on
+several occasions he obtained permission from the courts to cut timber
+and sell pictures, until he denuded the estate and made an empty barn
+of the old manor house. He lived like any labourer, occupying himself
+sometimes as a carpenter, sometimes as a blacksmith; indeed, he made a
+blacksmith's shop of the library, one of the most noble rooms in
+Britain, containing thousands of valuable books which again and again
+he applied for permission to sell, but this privilege was never
+granted to him. I find on coming into the property that my uncle quite
+persistently evaded the law, and depleted this superb collection, book
+by book, surreptitiously through dealers in London. This, of course,
+would have got him into deep trouble if it had been discovered before
+his death, but now the valuable volumes are gone, and there is no
+redress. Many of them are doubtless in America, or in museums and
+collections of Europe.'
+
+'You wish me to trace them, perhaps?' I interpolated.
+
+'Oh, no; they are past praying for. The old man made tens of thousands
+by the sale of the timber, and other thousands by disposing of the
+pictures. The house is denuded of its fine old furniture, which was
+immensely valuable, and then the books, as I have said, must have
+brought in the revenue of a prince, if he got anything like their
+value, and you may be sure he was shrewd enough to know their worth.
+Since the last refusal of the courts to allow him further relief, as
+he termed it, which was some seven years ago, he had quite evidently
+been disposing of books and furniture by a private sale, in defiance
+of the law. At that time I was under age, but my guardians opposed his
+application to the courts, and demanded an account of the moneys
+already in his hands. The judges upheld the opposition of my
+guardians, and refused to allow a further spoliation of the estate,
+but they did not grant the accounting my guardians asked, because the
+proceeds of the former sales were entirely at the disposal of my
+uncle, and were sanctioned by the law to permit him to live as
+befitted his station. If he lived meagrely instead of lavishly, as my
+guardians contended, that, the judges said, was his affair, and there
+the matter ended.
+
+'My uncle took a violent dislike to me on account of this opposition
+to his last application, although, of course, I had nothing whatever
+to do with the matter. He lived like a hermit, mostly in the library,
+and was waited upon by an old man and his wife, and these three were
+the only inhabitants of a mansion that could comfortably house a
+hundred. He visited nobody, and would allow no one to approach
+Chizelrigg Chase. In order that all who had the misfortune to have
+dealing with him should continue to endure trouble after his death, he
+left what might be called a will, but which rather may be termed a
+letter to me. Here is a copy of it.
+
+     '"MY DEAR TOM,--You will find your fortune between a couple
+     of sheets of paper in the library.
+
+     '"Your affectionate uncle,
+         '"REGINALD MORAN, EARL OF CHIZELRIGG."'
+
+'I should doubt if that were a legal will,' said I.
+
+'It doesn't need to be,' replied the young man with a smile. 'I am
+next-of-kin, and heir to everything he possessed, although, of course,
+he might have given his money elsewhere if he had chosen to do so. Why
+he did not bequeath it to some institution, I do not know. He knew no
+man personally except his own servants, whom he misused and starved,
+but, as he told them, he misused and starved himself, so they had no
+cause to grumble. He said he was treating them like one of the family.
+I suppose he thought it would cause me more worry and anxiety if he
+concealed the money, and put me on the wrong scent, which I am
+convinced he has done, than to leave it openly to any person or
+charity.'
+
+'I need not ask if you have searched the library?'
+
+'Searched it? Why, there never was such a search since the world
+began!'
+
+'Possibly you put the task into incompetent hands?'
+
+'You are hinting, Monsieur Valmont, that I engaged others until my
+money was gone, then came to you with a speculative proposal. Let me
+assure you such is not the case. Incompetent hands, I grant you, but
+the hands were my own. For the past six months I have lived
+practically as my uncle lived. I have rummaged that library from floor
+to ceiling. It was left in a frightful state, littered with old
+newspapers, accounts, and what-not. Then, of course, there were the
+books remaining in the library, still a formidable collection.'
+
+'Was your uncle a religious man?'
+
+'I could not say. I surmise not. You see, I was unacquainted with him,
+and never saw him until after his death. I fancy he was not religious,
+otherwise he could not have acted as he did. Still, he proved himself
+a man of such twisted mentality that anything is possible.'
+
+'I knew a case once where an heir who expected a large sum of money
+was bequeathed a family Bible, which he threw into the fire, learning
+afterwards, to his dismay, that it contained many thousands of pounds
+in Bank of England notes, the object of the devisor being to induce
+the legatee to read the good Book or suffer through the neglect of
+it.'
+
+'I have searched the Scriptures,' said the youthful Earl with a laugh,
+'but the benefit has been moral rather than material.'
+
+'Is there any chance that your uncle has deposited his wealth in a
+bank, and has written a cheque for the amount, leaving it between two
+leaves of a book?'
+
+'Anything is possible, monsieur, but I think that highly improbable. I
+have gone through every tome, page by page, and I suspect very few of
+the volumes have been opened for the last twenty years.'
+
+'How much money do you estimate he accumulated?'
+
+'He must have cleared more than a hundred thousand pounds, but
+speaking of banking it, I would like to say that my uncle evinced a
+deep distrust of banks, and never drew a cheque in his life so far as
+I am aware. All accounts were paid in gold by this old steward, who
+first brought the receipted bill in to my uncle, and then received the
+exact amount, after having left the room, and waited until he was rung
+for, so that he might not learn the repository from which my uncle
+drew his store. I believe if the money is ever found it will be in
+gold, and I am very sure that this will was written, if we may call it
+a will, to put us on the wrong scent.'
+
+'Have you had the library cleared out?'
+
+'Oh, no, it is practically as my uncle left it. I realised that if I
+were to call in help, it would be well that the newcomer found it
+undisturbed.'
+
+'You were quite right, my lord. You say you examined all the papers?'
+
+'Yes; so far as that is concerned, the room has been very fairly gone
+over, but nothing that was in it the day my uncle died has been
+removed, not even his anvil.'
+
+'His anvil?'
+
+'Yes; I told you he made a blacksmith's shop, as well as bedroom, of
+the library. It is a huge room, with a great fireplace at one end
+which formed an excellent forge. He and the steward built the forge in
+the eastern fireplace of brick and clay, with their own hands, and
+erected there a second-hand blacksmith's bellows.'
+
+'What work did he do at his forge?'
+
+'Oh, anything that was required about the place. He seems to have been
+a very expert ironworker. He would never buy a new implement for the
+garden or the house so long as he could get one second-hand, and he
+never bought anything second-hand while at his forge he might repair
+what was already in use. He kept an old cob, on which he used to ride
+through the park, and he always put the shoes on this cob himself, the
+steward informs me, so he must have understood the use of blacksmith's
+tools. He made a carpenter's shop of the chief drawing-room and
+erected a bench there. I think a very useful mechanic was spoiled when
+my uncle became an earl.'
+
+'You have been living at the Chase since your uncle died?'
+
+'If you call it living, yes. The old steward and his wife have been
+looking after me, as they looked after my uncle, and, seeing me day
+after day, coatless, and covered with dust, I imagine they think me a
+second edition of the old man.'
+
+'Does the steward know the money is missing?'
+
+'No; no one knows it but myself. This will was left on the anvil, in
+an envelope addressed to me.'
+
+'Your statement is exceedingly clear, Lord Chizelrigg, but I confess I
+don't see much daylight through it. Is there a pleasant country around
+Chizelrigg Chase?'
+
+'Very; especially at this season of the year. In autumn and winter the
+house is a little draughty. It needs several thousand pounds to put it
+in repair.'
+
+'Draughts do not matter in the summer. I have been long enough in
+England not to share the fear of my countrymen for a _courant d'air._
+Is there a spare bed in the manor house, or shall I take down a cot
+with me, or let us say a hammock?'
+
+'Really,' stammered the earl, blushing again, 'you must not think I
+detailed all these circumstances in order to influence you to take up
+what may be a hopeless case. I, of course, am deeply interested, and,
+therefore, somewhat prone to be carried away when I begin a recital of
+my uncle's eccentricities. If I receive your permission, I will call
+on you again in a month or two. To tell you the truth, I borrowed a
+little money from the old steward, and visited London to see my legal
+advisers, hoping that in the circumstances I may get permission to
+sell something that will keep me from starvation. When I spoke of the
+house being denuded, I meant relatively, of course. There are still a
+good many antiquities which would doubtless bring me in a comfortable
+sum of money. I have been borne up by the belief that I should find my
+uncle's gold. Lately, I have been beset by a suspicion that the old
+gentleman thought the library the only valuable asset left, and for
+this reason wrote his note, thinking I would be afraid to sell
+anything from that room. The old rascal must have made a pot of money
+out of those shelves. The catalogue shows that there was a copy of the
+first book printed in England by Caxton, and several priceless
+Shakespeares, as well as many other volumes that a collector would
+give a small fortune for. All these are gone. I think when I show this
+to be the case, the authorities cannot refuse me the right to sell
+something, and, if I get this permission, I shall at once call upon
+you.'
+
+'Nonsense, Lord Chizelrigg. Put your application in motion, if you
+like. Meanwhile I beg of you to look upon me as a more substantial
+banker than your old steward. Let us enjoy a good dinner together at
+the Cecil tonight, if you will do me the honour to be my guest.
+Tomorrow we can leave for Chizelrigg Chase. How far is it?'
+
+'About three hours,' replied the young man, becoming as red as a new
+Queen Anne villa. 'Really, Monsieur Valmont, you overwhelm me with
+your kindness, but nevertheless I accept your generous offer.'
+
+'Then that's settled. What's the name of the old steward?'
+
+'Higgins.'
+
+'You are certain he has no knowledge of the hiding-place of this
+treasure?'
+
+'Oh, quite sure. My uncle was not a man to make a confidant of anyone,
+least of all an old babbler like Higgins.'
+
+'Well, I should like to be introduced to Higgins as a benighted
+foreigner. That will make him despise me and treat me like a child.'
+
+'Oh, I say,' protested the earl, 'I should have thought you'd lived
+long enough in England to have got out of the notion that we do not
+appreciate the foreigner. Indeed, we are the only nation in the world
+that extends a cordial welcome to him, rich or poor.'
+
+'_Certainement_, my lord, I should be deeply disappointed did you not
+take me at my proper valuation, but I cherish no delusions regarding
+the contempt with which Higgins will regard me. He will look upon me
+as a sort of simpleton to whom the Lord had been unkind by not making
+England my native land. Now, Higgins must be led to believe that I am
+in his own class; that is, a servant of yours. Higgins and I will
+gossip over the fire together, should these spring evenings prove
+chilly, and before two or three weeks are past I shall have learned a
+great deal about your uncle that you never dreamed of. Higgins will
+talk more freely with a fellow-servant than with his master, however
+much he may respect that master, and then, as I am a foreigner, he
+will babble down to my comprehension, and I shall get details that he
+never would think of giving to a fellow-countryman.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The young earl's modesty in such description of his home as he had
+given me, left me totally unprepared for the grandeur of the mansion,
+one corner of which he inhabited. It is such a place as you read of in
+romances of the Middle Ages; not a pinnacled or turreted French
+château of that period, but a beautiful and substantial stone manor
+house of a ruddy colour, whose warm hue seemed to add a softness to
+the severity of its architecture. It is built round an outer and an
+inner courtyard and could house a thousand, rather than the hundred
+with which its owner had accredited it. There are many stone-mullioned
+windows, and one at the end of the library might well have graced a
+cathedral. This superb residence occupies the centre of a heavily
+timbered park, and from the lodge at the gates we drove at least a
+mile and a half under the grandest avenue of old oaks I have ever
+seen. It seemed incredible that the owner of all this should actually
+lack the ready money to pay his fare to town!
+
+Old Higgins met us at the station with a somewhat rickety cart, to
+which was attached the ancient cob that the late earl used to shoe. We
+entered a noble hall, which probably looked the larger because of the
+entire absence of any kind of furniture, unless two complete suits of
+venerable armour which stood on either hand might be considered as
+furnishing. I laughed aloud when the door was shut, and the sound
+echoed like the merriment of ghosts from the dim timbered roof above
+me.
+
+'What are you laughing at?' asked the earl.
+
+'I am laughing to see you put your modern tall hat on that mediaeval
+helmet.'
+
+'Oh, that's it! Well, put yours on the other. I mean no disrespect to
+the ancestor who wore this suit, but we are short of the harmless,
+necessary hat-rack, so I put my topper on the antique helmet, and
+thrust the umbrella (if I have one) in behind here, and down one of
+his legs. Since I came in possession, a very crafty-looking dealer
+from London visited me, and attempted to sound me regarding the sale
+of these suits of armour. I gathered he would give enough money to
+keep me in new suits, London made, for the rest of my life, but when I
+endeavoured to find out if he had had commercial dealings with my
+prophetic uncle, he became frightened and bolted. I imagine that if I
+had possessed presence of mind enough to have lured him into one of
+our most uncomfortable dungeons, I might have learned where some of
+the family treasures went to. Come up these stairs, Monsieur Valmont,
+and I will show you your room.'
+
+We had lunched on the train coming down, so after a wash in my own
+room I proceeded at once to inspect the library. It proved, indeed, a
+most noble apartment, and it had been scandalously used by the old
+reprobate, its late tenant. There were two huge fireplaces, one in the
+middle of the north wall and the other at the eastern end. In the
+latter had been erected a rude brick forge, and beside the forge hung
+a great black bellows, smoky with usage. On a wooden block lay the
+anvil, and around it rested and rusted several hammers, large and
+small. At the western end was a glorious window filled with ancient
+stained glass, which, as I have said, might have adorned a cathedral.
+Extensive as the collection of books was, the great size of this
+chamber made it necessary that only the outside wall should be covered
+with book cases, and even these were divided by tall windows. The
+opposite wall was blank, with the exception of a picture here and
+there, and these pictures offered a further insult to the room, for
+they were cheap prints, mostly coloured lithographs that had appeared
+in Christmas numbers of London weekly journals, encased in
+poverty-stricken frames, hanging from nails ruthlessly driven in above
+them. The floor was covered with a litter of papers, in some places
+knee-deep, and in the corner farthest from the forge still stood the
+bed on which the ancient miser had died.
+
+'Looks like a stable, doesn't it?' commented the earl, when I had
+finished my inspection. 'I am sure the old boy simply filled it up
+with this rubbish to give me the trouble of examining it. Higgins
+tells me that up to within a month before he died the room was
+reasonably clear of all this muck. Of course it had to be, or the
+place would have caught fire from the sparks of the forge. The old man
+made Higgins gather all the papers he could find anywhere about the
+place, ancient accounts, newspapers, and what not, even to the brown
+wrapping paper you see, in which parcels came, and commanded him to
+strew the floor with this litter, because, as he complained, Higgins's
+boots on the boards made too much noise, and Higgins, who is not in
+the least of an inquiring mind, accepted this explanation as entirely
+meeting the case.'
+
+Higgins proved to be a garrulous old fellow, who needed no urging to
+talk about the late earl; indeed, it was almost impossible to deflect
+his conversation into any other channel. Twenty years' intimacy with
+the eccentric nobleman had largely obliterated that sense of deference
+with which an English servant usually approaches his master. An
+English underling's idea of nobility is the man who never by any
+possibility works with his hands. The fact that Lord Chizelrigg had
+toiled at the carpenter's bench; had mixed cement in the drawing-room;
+had caused the anvil to ring out till midnight, aroused no admiration
+in Higgins's mind. In addition to this, the ancient nobleman had been
+penuriously strict in his examination of accounts, exacting the
+uttermost farthing, so the humble servitor regarded his memory with
+supreme contempt. I realised before the drive was finished from the
+station to Chizelrigg Chase that there was little use of introducing
+me to Higgins as a foreigner and a fellow-servant. I found myself
+completely unable to understand what the old fellow said. His dialect,
+was as unknown to me as the Choctaw language would have been, and the
+young earl was compelled to act as interpreter on the occasions when
+we set this garrulous talking-machine going.
+
+The new Earl of Chizelrigg, with the enthusiasm of a boy, proclaimed
+himself my pupil and assistant, and said he would do whatever he was
+told. His thorough and fruitless search of the library had convinced
+him that the old man was merely chaffing him, as he put it, by leaving
+such a letter as he had written. His lordship was certain that the
+money had been hidden somewhere else; probably buried under one of the
+trees in the park. Of course this was possible, and represented the
+usual method by which a stupid person conceals treasure, yet I did not
+think it probable. All conversations with Higgins showed the earl to
+have been an extremely suspicious man; suspicious of banks, suspicious
+even of Bank of England notes, suspicious of every person on earth,
+not omitting Higgins himself. Therefore, as I told his nephew, the
+miser would never allow the fortune out of his sight and immediate
+reach.
+
+From the first the oddity of the forge and anvil being placed in his
+bedroom struck me as peculiar, and I said to the young man,--
+
+'I'll stake my reputation that forge or anvil, or both, contain the
+secret. You see, the old gentleman worked sometimes till midnight, for
+Higgins could hear his hammering. If he used hard coal on the forge
+the fire would last through the night, and being in continual terror
+of thieves, as Higgins says, barricading the castle every evening
+before dark as if it were a fortress, he was bound to place the
+treasure in the most unlikely spot for a thief to get at it. Now, the
+coal fire smouldered all night long, and if the gold was in the forge
+underneath the embers, it would be extremely difficult to get at. A
+robber rummaging in the dark would burn his fingers in more senses
+than one. Then, as his lordship kept no less than four loaded
+revolvers under his pillow, all he had to do, if a thief entered his
+room was to allow the search to go on until the thief started at the
+forge, then doubtless, as he had the range with reasonable accuracy
+night or day, he might sit up in bed and blaze away with revolver
+after revolver. There were twenty-eight shots that could be fired in
+about double as many seconds, so you see the robber stood little
+chance in the face of such a fusillade. I propose that we dismantle
+the forge.'
+
+Lord Chizelrigg was much taken by my reasoning, and one morning early
+we cut down the big bellows, tore it open, found it empty, then took
+brick after brick from the forge with a crowbar, for the old man had
+builded better than he knew with Portland cement. In fact, when we
+cleared away the rubbish between the bricks and the core of the
+furnace we came upon one cube of cement which was as hard as granite.
+With the aid of Higgins, and a set of rollers and levers, we managed
+to get this block out into the park, and attempted to crush it with
+the sledge-hammers belonging to the forge, in which we were entirely
+unsuccessful. The more it resisted our efforts, the more certain we
+became that the coins would be found within it. As this would not be
+treasure-trove in the sense that the Government might make a claim
+upon it, there was no particular necessity for secrecy, so we had up a
+man from the mines near by with drills and dynamite, who speedily
+shattered the block into a million pieces, more or less. Alas! there
+was no trace in its debris of 'pay dirt,' as the western miner puts
+it. While the dynamite expert was on the spot, we induced him to
+shatter the anvil as well as the block of cement, and then the
+workman, doubtless thinking the new earl was as insane as the old one
+had been, shouldered his tools, and went back to his mine.
+
+The earl reverted to his former opinion that the gold was concealed in
+the park, while I held even more firmly to my own belief that the
+fortune rested in the library.
+
+'It is obvious,' I said to him, 'that if the treasure is buried
+outside, someone must have dug the hole. A man so timorous and so
+reticent as your uncle would allow no one to do this but himself.
+Higgins maintained the other evening that all picks and spades were
+safely locked up by himself each night in the tool-house. The mansion
+itself was barricaded with such exceeding care that it would have been
+difficult for your uncle to get outside even if he wished to do so.
+Then such a man as your uncle is described to have been would
+continually desire ocular demonstration that his savings were intact,
+which would be practically impossible if the gold had found a grave in
+the park. I propose now that we abandon violence and dynamite, and
+proceed to an intellectual search of the library.'
+
+'Very well,' replied the young earl, 'but as I have already searched
+the library very thoroughly, your use of the word "intellectual",
+Monsieur Valmont, is not in accord with your customary politeness.
+However, I am with you. 'Tis for you to command, and me to obey.'
+
+'Pardon me, my lord,' I said, 'I used the word "intellectual" in
+contradistinction to the word "dynamite". It had no reference to your
+former search. I merely propose that we now abandon the use of
+chemical reaction, and employ the much greater force of mental
+activity. Did you notice any writing on the margins of the newspapers
+you examined?'
+
+'No, I did not.'
+
+'Is it possible that there may have been some communication on the
+white border of a newspaper?'
+
+'It is, of course, possible.'
+
+'Then will you set yourself to the task of glancing over the margin of
+every newspaper, piling them away in another room when your scrutiny
+of each is complete? Do not destroy anything, but we must clear out
+the library completely. I am interested in the accounts, and will
+examine them.'
+
+It was exasperatingly tedious work, but after several days my
+assistant reported every margin scanned without result, while I had
+collected each bill and memorandum, classifying them according to
+date. I could not get rid of a suspicion that the contrary old beast
+had written instructions for the finding of the treasure on the back
+of some account, or on the fly-leaf of a book, and as I looked at the
+thousands of volumes still left in the library, the prospect of such a
+patient and minute search appalled me. But I remembered Edison's words
+to the effect that if a thing exist, search, exhaustive enough, will
+find it. From the mass of accounts I selected several; the rest I
+placed in another room, alongside the heap of the earl's newspapers.
+
+'Now,' said I to my helper, 'if it please you, we will have Higgins
+in, as I wish some explanation of these accounts.'
+
+'Perhaps I can assist you,' suggested his lordship drawing up a chair
+opposite the table on which I had spread the statements. 'I have lived
+here for six months, and know as much about things as Higgins does. He
+is so difficult to stop when once he begins to talk. What is the first
+account you wish further light upon?'
+
+'To go back thirteen years I find that your uncle bought a second-hand
+safe in Sheffield. Here is the bill. I consider it necessary to find
+that safe.'
+
+'Pray forgive me, Monsieur Valmont,' cried the young man, springing to
+his feet and laughing; 'so heavy an article as a safe should not slip
+readily from a man's memory, but it did from mine. The safe is empty,
+and I gave no more thought to it.'
+
+Saying this the earl went to one of the bookcases that stood against
+the wall, pulled it round as if it were a door, books and all, and
+displayed the front of an iron safe, the door of which he also drew
+open, exhibiting the usual empty interior of such a receptacle.
+
+'I came on this,' he said, 'when I took down all these volumes. It
+appears that there was once a secret door leading from the library
+into an outside room, which has long since disappeared; the walls are
+very thick. My uncle doubtless caused this door to be taken off its
+hinges, and the safe placed in the aperture, the rest of which he then
+bricked up.'
+
+'Quite so,' said I, endeavouring to conceal my disappointment. 'As
+this strong box was bought second-hand and not made to order, I
+suppose there can be no secret crannies in it?'
+
+'It looks like a common or garden safe,' reported my assistant, 'but
+we'll have it out if you say so.'
+
+'Not just now,' I replied; 'we've had enough of dynamiting to make us
+feel like housebreakers already.'
+
+'I agree with you. What's the next item on the programme?'
+
+'Your uncle's mania for buying things at second-hand was broken in
+three instances so far as I have been able to learn from a scrutiny of
+these accounts. About four years ago he purchased a new book from
+Denny and Co., the well-known booksellers of the Strand. Denny and Co.
+deal only in new books. Is there any comparatively new volume in the
+library?'
+
+'Not one.'
+
+'Are you sure of that?'
+
+'Oh, quite; I searched all the literature in the house. What is the
+name of the volume he bought?'
+
+'That I cannot decipher. The initial letter looks like "M", but the rest
+is a mere wavy line. I see, however, that it cost twelve-and-sixpence,
+while the cost of carriage by parcel post was sixpence, which shows it
+weighed something under four pounds. This, with the price of the book,
+induces me to think that it was a scientific work, printed on heavy
+paper and illustrated.'
+
+'I know nothing of it,' said the earl.
+
+'The third account is for wallpaper; twenty-seven rolls of an
+expensive wallpaper, and twenty-seven rolls of a cheap paper, the
+latter being just half the price of the former. This wallpaper seems
+to have been supplied by a tradesman in the station road in the
+village of Chizelrigg.'
+
+'There's your wallpaper,' cried the youth, waving his hand; 'he was
+going to paper the whole house, Higgins told me, but got tired after
+he had finished the library, which took him nearly a year to
+accomplish, for he worked at it very intermittently, mixing the paste
+in the boudoir, a pailful at a time as he needed it. It was a
+scandalous thing to do, for underneath the paper is the most exquisite
+oak panelling, very plain, but very rich in colour.'
+
+I rose and examined the paper on the wall. It was dark brown, and
+answered the description of the expensive paper on the bill.
+
+'What became of the cheap paper?' I asked.
+
+'I don't know.'
+
+'I think,' said I, 'we are on the track of the mystery. I believe that
+paper covers a sliding panel or concealed door.'
+
+'It is very likely,' replied the earl. 'I intended to have the paper
+off, but I had no money to pay a workman, and I am not so industrious
+as was my uncle. What is your remaining account?'
+
+'The last also pertains to paper, but comes from a firm in Budge Row,
+London, E.C. He has had, it seems, a thousand sheets of it, and it
+appears to have been frightfully expensive. This bill is also
+illegible, but I take it a thousand sheets were supplied, although of
+course it may have been a thousand quires, which would be a little
+more reasonable for the price charged, or a thousand reams, which
+would be exceedingly cheap.'
+
+'I don't know anything about that. Let's turn on Higgins.'
+
+Higgins knew nothing of this last order of paper either. The wallpaper
+mystery he at once cleared up. Apparently the old earl had discovered
+by experiment that the heavy, expensive wallpaper would not stick to
+the glossy panelling, so he had purchased a cheaper paper, and had
+pasted that on first. Higgins said he had gone all over the panelling
+with a yellowish-white paper, and after that was dry, he pasted over
+it the more expensive rolls.
+
+'But,' I objected, 'the two papers were bought and delivered at the
+same time; therefore, he could not have found by experiment that the
+heavy paper would not stick.'
+
+'I don't think there is much in that,' commented the earl; 'the heavy
+paper may have been bought first, and found to be unsuitable, and then
+the coarse, cheap paper bought afterwards. The bill merely shows that
+the account was sent in on that date. Indeed, as the village of
+Chizelrigg is but a few miles away, it would have been quite possible
+for my uncle to have bought the heavy paper in the morning, tried it,
+and in the afternoon sent for the commoner lot; but in any case, the
+bill would not have been presented until months after the order, and
+the two purchases were thus lumped together.'
+
+I was forced to confess that this seemed reasonable.
+
+Now, about the book ordered from Denny's. Did Higgins remember
+anything regarding it? It came four years ago.
+
+Ah, yes, Higgins did; he remembered it very well indeed. He had come
+in one morning with the earl's tea, and the old man was sitting up in
+bed reading his volume with such interest that he was unaware of
+Higgins's knock, and Higgins himself, being a little hard of hearing,
+took for granted the command to enter. The earl hastily thrust the
+book under the pillow, alongside the revolvers, and rated Higgins in a
+most cruel way for entering the room before getting permission to do
+so. He had never seen the earl so angry before, and he laid it all to
+this book. It was after the book had come that the forge had been
+erected and the anvil bought. Higgins never saw the book again, but
+one morning, six months before the earl died, Higgins, in raking out
+the cinders of the forge, found what he supposed was a portion of the
+book's cover. He believed his master had burnt the volume.
+
+Having dismissed Higgins, I said to the earl,--
+
+'The first thing to be done is to enclose this bill to Denny and Co.,
+booksellers, Strand. Tell them you have lost the volume, and ask them
+to send another. There is likely someone in the shop who can decipher
+the illegible writing. I am certain the book will give us a clue. Now,
+I shall write to Braun and Sons, Budge Row. This is evidently a French
+company; in fact, the name as connected with paper-making runs in my
+mind, although I cannot at this moment place it. I shall ask them the
+use of this paper that they furnished to the late earl.'
+
+This was done accordingly, and now, as we thought, until the answers
+came, we were two men out of work. Yet the next morning, I am pleased
+to say, and I have always rather plumed myself on the fact, I solved
+the mystery before replies were received from London. Of course, both
+the book and the answer of the paper agents, by putting two and two
+together, would have given us the key.
+
+After breakfast, I strolled somewhat aimlessly into the library, whose
+floor was now strewn merely with brown wrapping paper, bits of string,
+and all that. As I shuffled among this with my feet, as if tossing
+aside dead autumn leaves in a forest path, my attention was suddenly
+drawn to several squares of paper, unwrinkled, and never used for
+wrapping. These sheets seemed to me strangely familiar. I picked one
+of them up, and at once the significance of the name Braun and Sons
+occurred to me. They are paper makers in France, who produce a smooth,
+very tough sheet, which, dear as it is, proves infinitely cheap
+compared with the fine vellum it deposed in a certain branch of
+industry. In Paris, years before, these sheets had given me the
+knowledge of how a gang of thieves disposed of their gold without
+melting it. The paper was used instead of vellum in the rougher
+processes of manufacturing gold-leaf. It stood the constant beating of
+the hammer nearly as well as the vellum, and here at once there
+flashed on me the secret of the old man's midnight anvil work. He was
+transforming his sovereigns into gold-leaf, which must have been of a
+rude, thick kind, because to produce the gold-leaf of commerce he
+still needed the vellum as well as a 'clutch' and other machinery, of
+which we had found no trace.
+
+'My lord,' I called to my assistant; he was at the other end of the
+room; 'I wish to test a theory on the anvil of your own fresh common
+sense.'
+
+'Hammer away,' replied the earl, approaching me with his usual
+good-natured, jocular expression.
+
+'I eliminate the safe from our investigations because it was purchased
+thirteen years ago, but the buying of the book, of wall covering, of
+this tough paper from France, all group themselves into a set of
+incidents occurring within the same month as the purchase of the anvil
+and the building of the forge; therefore, I think they are related to
+one another. Here are some sheets of paper he got from Budge Row. Have
+you ever seen anything like it? Try to tear this sample.'
+
+'It's reasonably tough,' admitted his lordship, fruitlessly
+endeavouring to rip it apart.
+
+'Yes. It was made in France, and is used in gold beating. Your uncle
+beat his sovereigns into gold-leaf. You will find that the book from
+Denny's is a volume on gold beating, and now as I remember that
+scribbled word which I could not make out, I think the title of the
+volume is "Metallurgy". It contains, no doubt, a chapter on the
+manufacture of gold-leaf.'
+
+'I believe you,' said the earl; 'but I don't see that the discovery
+sets us any further forward. We're now looking for gold-leaf instead
+of sovereigns.'
+
+'Let's examine this wallpaper,' said I.
+
+I placed my knife under a corner of it at the floor, and quite easily
+ripped off a large section. As Higgins had said, the brown paper was
+on top, and the coarse, light-coloured paper underneath. But even that
+came away from the oak panelling as easily as though it hung there
+from habit, and not because of paste.
+
+'Feel the weight of that,' I cried, handing him the sheet I had torn
+from the wall.
+
+'By Jove!' said the earl, in a voice almost of awe.
+
+I took it from him, and laid it, face downwards, on the wooden table,
+threw a little water on the back, and with a knife scraped away the
+porous white paper. Instantly there gleamed up at us the baleful
+yellow of the gold. I shrugged my shoulders and spread out my hands.
+The Earl of Chizelrigg laughed aloud and very heartily.
+
+'You see how it is,' I cried. 'The old man first covered the entire
+wall with this whitish paper. He heated his sovereigns at the forge
+and beat them out on the anvil, then completed the process rudely
+between the sheets of this paper from France. Probably he pasted the
+gold to the wall as soon as he shut himself in for the night, and
+covered it over with the more expensive paper before Higgins entered
+in the morning.'
+
+We found afterwards, however, that he had actually fastened the thick
+sheets of gold to the wall with carpet tacks.
+
+His lordship netted a trifle over a hundred and twenty-three thousand
+pounds through my discovery, and I am pleased to pay tribute to the
+young man's generosity by saying that his voluntary settlement made my
+bank account swell stout as a City alderman.
+
+
+
+
+5. _The Absent-Minded Coterie_
+
+
+Some years ago I enjoyed the unique experience of pursuing a man for
+one crime, and getting evidence against him of another. He was
+innocent of the misdemeanour, the proof of which I sought, but was
+guilty of another most serious offence, yet he and his confederates
+escaped scot-free in circumstances which I now purpose to relate.
+
+You may remember that in Rudyard Kipling's story, _Bedalia
+Herodsfoot_, the unfortunate woman's husband ran the risk of being
+arrested as a simple drunkard, at a moment when the blood of murder
+was upon his boots. The case of Ralph Summertrees was rather the
+reverse of this. The English authorities were trying to fasten upon
+him a crime almost as important as murder, while I was collecting
+evidence which proved him guilty of an action much more momentous than
+that of drunkenness.
+
+The English authorities have always been good enough, when they
+recognise my existence at all, to look down upon me with amused
+condescension. If today you ask Spenser Hale, of Scotland Yard, what
+he thinks of Eugène Valmont, that complacent man will put on the
+superior smile which so well becomes him, and if you are a very
+intimate friend of his, he may draw down the lid of his right eye, as
+he replies,--
+
+'Oh, yes, a very decent fellow, Valmont, but he's a Frenchman,' as if,
+that said, there was no need of further inquiry.
+
+Myself, I like the English detective very much, and if I were to be in
+a _mêlée_ tomorrow, there is no man I would rather find beside me than
+Spenser Hale. In any situation where a fist that can fell an ox is
+desirable, my friend Hale is a useful companion, but for
+intellectuality, mental acumen, finesse--ah, well! I am the most
+modest of men, and will say nothing.
+
+It would amuse you to see this giant come into my room during an
+evening, on the bluff pretence that he wishes to smoke a pipe with me.
+There is the same difference between this good-natured giant and
+myself as exists between that strong black pipe of his and my delicate
+cigarette, which I smoke feverishly when he is present, to protect
+myself from the fumes of his terrible tobacco. I look with delight
+upon the huge man, who, with an air of the utmost good humour, and a
+twinkle in his eye as he thinks he is twisting me about his finger,
+vainly endeavours to obtain a hint regarding whatever case is
+perplexing him at that moment. I baffle him with the ease that an
+active greyhound eludes the pursuit of a heavy mastiff, then at last I
+say to him with a laugh,--
+
+'Come _mon ami_ Hale, tell me all about it, and I will help you if I
+can.'
+
+Once or twice at the beginning he shook his massive head, and replied
+the secret was not his. The last time he did this I assured him that
+what he said was quite correct, and then I related full particulars of
+the situation in which he found himself, excepting the names, for
+these he had not mentioned. I had pieced together his perplexity from
+scraps of conversation in his half-hour's fishing for my advice,
+which, of course, he could have had for the plain asking. Since that
+time he has not come to me except with cases he feels at liberty to
+reveal, and one or two complications I have happily been enabled to
+unravel for him.
+
+But, staunch as Spenser Hale holds the belief that no detective
+service on earth can excel that centring in Scotland Yard, there is
+one department of activity in which even he confesses that Frenchmen
+are his masters, although he somewhat grudgingly qualifies his
+admission by adding that we in France are constantly allowed to do
+what is prohibited in England. I refer to the minute search of a house
+during the owner's absence. If you read that excellent story, entitled
+_The Purloined Letter_, by Edgar Allan Poe, you will find a record of
+the kind of thing I mean, which is better than any description I, who
+have so often taken part in such a search, can set down.
+
+Now, these people among whom I live are proud of their phrase, 'The
+Englishman's house is his castle,' and into that castle even a
+policeman cannot penetrate without a legal warrant. This may be all
+very well in theory, but if you are compelled to march up to a man's
+house, blowing a trumpet, and rattling a snare drum, you need not be
+disappointed if you fail to find what you are in search of when all
+the legal restrictions are complied with. Of course, the English are a
+very excellent people, a fact to which I am always proud to bear
+testimony, but it must be admitted that for cold common sense the
+French are very much their superiors. In Paris, if I wish to obtain an
+incriminating document, I do not send the possessor a _carte postale_
+to inform him of my desire, and in this procedure the French people
+sanely acquiesce. I have known men who, when they go out to spend an
+evening on the boulevards, toss their bunch of keys to the concierge,
+saying,--
+
+'If you hear the police rummaging about while I'm away, pray assist
+them, with an expression of my distinguished consideration.'
+
+I remember while I was chief detective in the service of the French
+Government being requested to call at a certain hour at the private
+hotel of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was during the time that
+Bismarck meditated a second attack upon my country, and I am happy to
+say that I was then instrumental in supplying the Secret Bureau with
+documents which mollified that iron man's purpose, a fact which I
+think entitled me to my country's gratitude, not that I ever even
+hinted such a claim when a succeeding ministry forgot my services. The
+memory of a republic, as has been said by a greater man than I, is
+short. However, all that has nothing to do with the incident I am
+about to relate. I merely mention the crisis to excuse a momentary
+forgetfulness on my part which in any other country might have been
+followed by serious results to myself. But in France--ah, we
+understand those things, and nothing happened.
+
+I am the last person in the world to give myself away, as they say in
+the great West. I am usually the calm, collected Eugène Valmont whom
+nothing can perturb, but this was a time of great tension, and I had
+become absorbed. I was alone with the minister in his private house,
+and one of the papers he desired was in his bureau at the Ministry for
+Foreign Affairs; at least, he thought so, and said,--
+
+'Ah, it is in my desk at the bureau. How annoying! I must send for
+it!'
+
+'No, Excellency,' I cried, springing up in a self-oblivion the most
+complete, 'it is here.' Touching the spring of a secret drawer, I
+opened it, and taking out the document he wished, handed it to him.
+
+It was not until I met his searching look, and saw the faint smile on
+his lips that I realised what I had done.
+
+'Valmont,' he said quietly, 'on whose behalf did you search my house?'
+
+'Excellency,' I replied in tones no less agreeable than his own,
+'tonight at your orders I pay a domiciliary visit to the mansion of
+Baron Dumoulaine, who stands high in the estimation of the President
+of the French Republic. If either of those distinguished gentlemen
+should learn of my informal call and should ask me in whose interests
+I made the domiciliary visit, what is it you wish that I should
+reply?'
+
+'You should reply, Valmont, that you did it in the interests of the
+Secret Service.'
+
+'I shall not fail to do so, Excellency, and in answer to your question
+just now, I had the honour of searching this mansion in the interests
+of the Secret Service of France.'
+
+The Minister for Foreign Affairs laughed; a hearty laugh that
+expressed no resentment.
+
+'I merely wished to compliment you, Valmont, on the efficiency of your
+search, and the excellence of your memory. This is indeed the document
+which I thought was left in my office.'
+
+I wonder what Lord Lansdowne would say if Spenser Hale showed an equal
+familiarity with his private papers! But now that we have returned to
+our good friend Hale, we must not keep him waiting any longer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I well remember the November day when I first heard of the Summertrees
+case, because there hung over London a fog so thick that two or three
+times I lost my way, and no cab was to be had at any price. The few
+cabmen then in the streets were leading their animals slowly along,
+making for their stables. It was one of those depressing London days
+which filled me with ennui and a yearning for my own clear city of
+Paris, where, if we are ever visited by a slight mist, it is at least
+clean, white vapour, and not this horrible London mixture saturated
+with suffocating carbon. The fog was too thick for any passer to read
+the contents bills of the newspapers plastered on the pavement, and as
+there were probably no races that day the newsboys were shouting what
+they considered the next most important event--the election of an
+American President. I bought a paper and thrust it into my pocket. It
+was late when I reached my flat, and, after dining there, which was an
+unusual thing for me to do, I put on my slippers, took an easy-chair
+before the fire, and began to read my evening journal. I was
+distressed to learn that the eloquent Mr. Bryan had been defeated. I
+knew little about the silver question, but the man's oratorical powers
+had appealed to me, and my sympathy was aroused because he owned many
+silver mines, and yet the price of the metal was so low that
+apparently he could not make a living through the operation of them.
+But, of course, the cry that he was a plutocrat, and a reputed
+millionaire over and over again, was bound to defeat him in a
+democracy where the average voter is exceedingly poor and not
+comfortably well-to-do as is the case with our peasants in France. I
+always took great interest in the affairs of the huge republic to the
+west, having been at some pains to inform myself accurately regarding
+its politics, and although, as my readers know, I seldom quote
+anything complimentary that is said of me, nevertheless, an American
+client of mine once admitted that he never knew the true inwardness--I
+think that was the phrase he used--of American politics until he heard
+me discourse upon them. But then, he added, he had been a very busy
+man all his life.
+
+I had allowed my paper to slip to the floor, for in very truth the fog
+was penetrating even into my flat, and it was becoming difficult to
+read, notwithstanding the electric light. My man came in, and
+announced that Mr. Spenser Hale wished to see me, and, indeed, any
+night, but especially when there is rain or fog outside, I am more
+pleased to talk with a friend than to read a newspaper.
+
+'_Mon Dieu_, my dear Monsieur Hale, it is a brave man you are to
+venture out in such a fog as is abroad tonight.'
+
+'Ah, Monsieur Valmont,' said Hale with pride, 'you cannot raise a fog
+like this in Paris!'
+
+'No. There you are supreme,' I admitted, rising and saluting my
+visitor, then offering him a chair.
+
+'I see you are reading the latest news,' he said, indicating my
+newspaper, 'I am very glad that man Bryan is defeated. Now we shall
+have better times.'
+
+I waved my hand as I took my chair again. I will discuss many things
+with Spenser Hale, but not American politics; he does not understand
+them. It is a common defect of the English to suffer complete
+ignorance regarding the internal affairs of other countries.
+
+'It is surely an important thing that brought you out on such a night
+as this. The fog must be very thick in Scotland Yard.'
+
+This delicate shaft of fancy completely missed him, and he answered
+stolidly,--
+
+'It's thick all over London, and, indeed, throughout most of England.'
+
+'Yes, it is,' I agreed, but he did not see that either.
+
+Still a moment later he made a remark which, if it had come from some
+people I know, might have indicated a glimmer of comprehension.
+
+'You are a very, very clever man, Monsieur Valmont, so all I need say
+is that the question which brought me here is the same as that on
+which the American election was fought. Now, to a countryman, I should
+be compelled to give further explanation, but to you, monsieur, that
+will not be necessary.'
+
+There are times when I dislike the crafty smile and partial closing of
+the eyes which always distinguishes Spenser Hale when he places on the
+table a problem which he expects will baffle me. If I said he never
+did baffle me, I would be wrong, of course, for sometimes the utter
+simplicity of the puzzles which trouble him leads me into an intricate
+involution entirely unnecessary in the circumstances.
+
+I pressed my fingertips together, and gazed for a few moments at the
+ceiling. Hale had lit his black pipe, and my silent servant placed at
+his elbow the whisky and soda, then tiptoed out of the room. As the
+door closed my eyes came from the ceiling to the level of Hale's
+expansive countenance.
+
+'Have they eluded you?' I asked quietly.
+
+'Who?'
+
+'The coiners.'
+
+Hale's pipe dropped from his jaw, but he managed to catch it before it
+reached the floor. Then he took a gulp from the tumbler.
+
+'That was just a lucky shot,' he said.
+
+'_Parfaitement_,' I replied carelessly.
+
+'Now, own up, Valmont, wasn't it?'
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. A man cannot contradict a guest in his own
+house.
+
+'Oh, stow that!' cried Hale impolitely. He is a trifle prone to strong
+and even slangy expressions when puzzled. 'Tell me how you guessed
+it.'
+
+'It is very simple, _mon ami_. The question on which the American
+election was fought is the price of silver, which is so low that it
+has ruined Mr. Bryan, and threatens to ruin all the farmers of the west
+who possess silver mines on their farms. Silver troubled America, ergo
+silver troubles Scotland Yard.
+
+'Very well, the natural inference is that someone has stolen bars of
+silver. But such a theft happened three months ago, when the metal
+was being unloaded from a German steamer at Southampton, and my dear
+friend Spenser Hale ran down the thieves very cleverly as they were
+trying to dissolve the marks off the bars with acid. Now crimes do not
+run in series, like the numbers in roulette at Monte Carlo. The
+thieves are men of brains. They say to themselves, "What chance is
+there successfully to steal bars of silver while Mr. Hale is at
+Scotland Yard?" Eh, my good friend?'
+
+'Really, Valmont,' said Hale, taking another sip, 'sometimes you
+almost persuade me that you have reasoning powers.'
+
+'Thanks, comrade. Then it is not a _theft_ of silver we have now to
+deal with. But the American election was fought on the _price_ of
+silver. If silver had been high in cost, there would have been no
+silver question. So the crime that is bothering you arises through the
+low price of silver, and this suggests that it must be a case of
+illicit coinage, for there the low price of the metal comes in. You
+have, perhaps, found a more subtle illegitimate act going forward than
+heretofore. Someone is making your shillings and your half-crowns from
+real silver, instead of from baser metal, and yet there is a large
+profit which has not hitherto been possible through the high price of
+silver. With the old conditions you were familiar, but this new
+element sets at nought all your previous formulae. That is how I
+reasoned the matter out.'
+
+'Well, Valmont, you have hit it. I'll say that for you; you have hit
+it. There is a gang of expert coiners who are putting out real silver
+money, and making a clear shilling on the half-crown. We can find no
+trace of the coiners, but we know the man who is shoving the stuff.'
+
+'That ought to be sufficient,' I suggested.
+
+'Yes, it should, but it hasn't proved so up to date. Now I came
+tonight to see if you would do one of your French tricks for us, right
+on the quiet.'
+
+'What French trick, Monsieur Spenser Hale?' I inquired with some
+asperity, forgetting for the moment that the man invariably became
+impolite when he grew excited.
+
+'No offence intended,' said this blundering officer, who really is a
+good-natured fellow, but always puts his foot in it, and then
+apologises. 'I want someone to go through a man's house without a
+search warrant, spot the evidence, let me know, and then we'll rush
+the place before he has time to hide his tracks.'
+
+'Who is this man, and where does he live?'
+
+'His name is Ralph Summertrees, and he lives in a very natty little
+bijou residence, as the advertisements call it, situated in no less a
+fashionable street than Park Lane.'
+
+'I see. What has aroused your suspicions against him?'
+
+'Well, you know, that's an expensive district to live in; it takes a
+bit of money to do the trick. This Summertrees has no ostensible
+business, yet every Friday he goes to the United Capital Bank in
+Piccadilly, and deposits a bag of swag, usually all silver coin.'
+
+'Yes, and this money?'
+
+'This money, so far as we can learn, contains a good many of these new
+pieces which never saw the British Mint.'
+
+'It's not all the new coinage, then?'
+
+'Oh, no, he's a bit too artful for that. You see, a man can go round
+London, his pockets filled with new coinage five-shilling pieces, buy
+this, that, and the other, and come home with his change in legitimate
+coins of the realm--half-crowns, florins, shillings, sixpences, and
+all that.'
+
+'I see. Then why don't you nab him one day when his pockets are
+stuffed with illegitimate five-shilling pieces?'
+
+'That could be done, of course, and I've thought of it, but you see,
+we want to land the whole gang. Once we arrested him, without knowing
+where the money came from, the real coiners would take flight.'
+
+'How do you know he is not the real coiner himself?'
+
+Now poor Hale is as easy to read as a book. He hesitated before
+answering this question, and looked confused as a culprit caught in
+some dishonest act.
+
+'You need not be afraid to tell me,' I said soothingly after a pause.
+'You have had one of your men in Mr. Summertrees' house, and so learned
+that he is not the coiner. But your man has not succeeded in getting
+you evidence to incriminate other people.'
+
+'You've about hit it again, Monsieur Valmont. One of my men has been
+Summertrees' butler for two weeks, but, as you say, he has found no
+evidence.'
+
+'Is he still butler?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Now tell me how far you have got. You know that Summertrees deposits
+a bag of coin every Friday in the Piccadilly bank, and I suppose the
+bank has allowed you to examine one or two of the bags.'
+
+'Yes, sir, they have, but, you see, banks are very difficult to treat
+with. They don't like detectives bothering round, and whilst they do
+not stand out against the law, still they never answer any more
+questions than they're asked, and Mr. Summertrees has been a good
+customer at the United Capital for many years.'
+
+'Haven't you found out where the money comes from?'
+
+'Yes, we have; it is brought there night after night by a man who
+looks like a respectable city clerk, and he puts it into a large safe,
+of which he holds the key, this safe being on the ground floor, in the
+dining-room.'
+
+'Haven't you followed the clerk?'
+
+'Yes. He sleeps in the Park Lane house every night, and goes up in the
+morning to an old curiosity shop in Tottenham Court Road, where he
+stays all day, returning with his bag of money in the evening.'
+
+'Why don't you arrest and question him?'
+
+'Well, Monsieur Valmont, there is just the same objection to his
+arrest as to that of Summertrees himself. We could easily arrest both,
+but we have not the slightest evidence against either of them, and
+then, although we put the go-betweens in clink, the worst criminals of
+the lot would escape.'
+
+'Nothing suspicious about the old curiosity shop?'
+
+'No. It appears to be perfectly regular.'
+
+'This game has been going on under your noses for how long?'
+
+'For about six weeks.'
+
+'Is Summertrees a married man?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Are there any women servants in the house?'
+
+'No, except that three charwomen come in every morning to do up the
+rooms.'
+
+'Of what is his household comprised?'
+
+'There is the butler, then the valet, and last, the French cook.'
+
+'Ah,' cried I, 'the French cook! This case interests me. So
+Summertrees has succeeded in completely disconcerting your man? Has he
+prevented him going from top to bottom of the house?'
+
+'Oh no, he has rather assisted him than otherwise. On one occasion he
+went to the safe, took out the money, had Podgers--that's my chap's
+name--help him to count it, and then actually sent Podgers to the bank
+with the bag of coin.'
+
+'And Podgers has been all over the place?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Saw no signs of a coining establishment?'
+
+'No. It is absolutely impossible that any coining can be done there.
+Besides, as I tell you, that respectable clerk brings him the money.'
+
+'I suppose you want me to take Podgers' position?'
+
+'Well, Monsieur Valmont, to tell you the truth, I would rather you
+didn't. Podgers has done everything a man can do, but I thought if you
+got into the house, Podgers assisting, you might go through it night
+after night at your leisure.'
+
+'I see. That's just a little dangerous in England. I think I should
+prefer to assure myself the legitimate standing of being the amiable
+Podgers' successor. You say that Summertrees has no business?'
+
+'Well, sir, not what you might call a business. He is by the way of
+being an author, but I don't count that any business.'
+
+'Oh, an author, is he? When does he do his writing?'
+
+'He locks himself up most of the day in his study.'
+
+'Does he come out for lunch?'
+
+'No; he lights a little spirit lamp inside, Podgers tells me, and
+makes himself a cup of coffee, which he takes with a sandwich or two.'
+
+'That's rather frugal fare for Park Lane.'
+
+'Yes, Monsieur Valmont, it is, but he makes it up in the evening, when
+he has a long dinner with all them foreign kickshaws you people like,
+done by his French cook.'
+
+'Sensible man! Well, Hale, I see I shall look forward with pleasure to
+making the acquaintance of Mr. Summertrees. Is there any restriction on
+the going and coming of your man Podgers?'
+
+'None in the least. He can get away either night or day.'
+
+'Very good, friend Hale, bring him here tomorrow, as soon as our
+author locks himself up in his study, or rather, I should say, as soon
+as the respectable clerk leaves for Tottenham Court Road, which I
+should guess, as you put it, is about half an hour after his master
+turns the key of the room in which he writes.'
+
+'You are quite right in that guess, Valmont. How did you hit it?'
+
+'Merely a surmise, Hale. There is a good deal of oddity about that
+Park Lane house, so it doesn't surprise me in the least that the
+master gets to work earlier in the morning than the man. I have also
+a suspicion that Ralph Summertrees knows perfectly well what the
+estimable Podgers is there for.'
+
+'What makes you think that?'
+
+'I can give no reason except that my opinion of the acuteness of
+Summertrees has been gradually rising all the while you were speaking,
+and at the same time my estimate of Podgers' craft has been as
+steadily declining. However, bring the man here tomorrow, that I may
+ask him a few questions.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next day, about eleven o'clock, the ponderous Podgers, hat in hand,
+followed his chief into my room. His broad, impassive, immobile smooth
+face gave him rather more the air of a genuine butler than I had
+expected, and this appearance, of course, was enhanced by his livery.
+His replies to my questions were those of a well-trained servant who
+will not say too much unless it is made worth his while. All in all,
+Podgers exceeded my expectations, and really my friend Hale had some
+justification for regarding him, as he evidently did, a triumph in his
+line.
+
+'Sit down, Mr. Hale, and you, Podgers.'
+
+The man disregarded my invitation, standing like a statue until his
+chief made a motion; then he dropped into a chair. The English are
+great on discipline.
+
+'Now, Mr. Hale, I must first congratulate you on the make-up of
+Podgers. It is excellent. You depend less on artificial assistance
+than we do in France, and in that I think you are right.'
+
+'Oh, we know a bit over here, Monsieur Valmont,' said Hale, with
+pardonable pride.
+
+'Now then, Podgers, I want to ask you about this clerk. What time does
+he arrive in the evening?'
+
+'At prompt six, sir.'
+
+'Does he ring, or let himself in with a latchkey?'
+
+'With a latchkey, sir.'
+
+'How does he carry the money?'
+
+'In a little locked leather satchel, sir, flung over his shoulder.'
+
+'Does he go direct to the dining-room?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Have you seen him unlock the safe and put in the money?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Does the safe unlock with a word or a key?'
+
+'With a key, sir. It's one of the old-fashioned kind.'
+
+'Then the clerk unlocks his leather money bag?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'That's three keys used within as many minutes. Are they separate or
+in a bunch?'
+
+'In a bunch, sir.'
+
+'Did you ever see your master with this bunch of keys?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'You saw him open the safe once, I am told?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Did he use a separate key, or one of a bunch?'
+
+Podgers slowly scratched his head, then said,--
+
+'I don't just remember, sir.'
+
+'Ah, Podgers, you are neglecting the big things in that house. Sure
+you can't remember?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'Once the money is in and the safe locked up, what does the clerk do?'
+
+'Goes to his room, sir.'
+
+'Where is this room?'
+
+'On the third floor, sir.'
+
+'Where do you sleep?'
+
+'On the fourth floor with the rest of the servants, sir.'
+
+'Where does the master sleep?'
+
+'On the second floor, adjoining his study.'
+
+'The house consists of four stories and a basement, does it?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'I have somehow arrived at the suspicion that it is a very narrow
+house. Is that true?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Does the clerk ever dine with your master?'
+
+'No, sir. The clerk don't eat in the house at all, sir.'
+
+'Does he go away before breakfast?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'No one takes breakfast to his room?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'What time does he leave the house?'
+
+'At ten o'clock, sir.'
+
+'When is breakfast served?'
+
+'At nine o'clock, sir.'
+
+'At what hour does your master retire to his study?'
+
+'At half-past nine, sir.'
+
+'Locks the door on the inside?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Never rings for anything during the day?'
+
+'Not that I know of, sir.'
+
+'What sort of a man is he?'
+
+Here Podgers was on familiar ground, and he rattled off a description
+minute in every particular.
+
+'What I meant was, Podgers, is he silent, or talkative, or does he get
+angry? Does he seem furtive, suspicious, anxious, terrorised, calm,
+excitable, or what?'
+
+'Well, sir, he is by way of being very quiet, never has much to say
+for himself; never saw him angry, or excited.'
+
+'Now, Podgers, you've been at Park Lane for a fortnight or more. You
+are a sharp, alert, observant man. What happens there that strikes you
+as unusual?'
+
+'Well, I can't exactly say, sir,' replied Podgers, looking rather
+helplessly from his chief to myself, and back again.
+
+'Your professional duties have often compelled you to enact the part
+of butler before, otherwise you wouldn't do it so well. Isn't that the
+case.'
+
+Podgers did not reply, but glanced at his chief. This was evidently a
+question pertaining to the service, which a subordinate was not
+allowed to answer. However, Hale said at once,--
+
+'Certainly. Podgers has been in dozens of places.'
+
+'Well, Podgers, just call to mind some of the other households where
+you have been employed, and tell me any particulars in which Mr
+Summertrees' establishment differs from them.'
+
+Podgers pondered a long time.
+
+'Well, sir, he do stick to writing pretty close.'
+
+'Ah, that's his profession, you see, Podgers. Hard at it from
+half-past nine till towards seven, I imagine?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Anything else, Podgers? No matter how trivial.'
+
+'Well, sir, he's fond of reading too; leastways, he's fond of
+newspapers.'
+
+'When does he read?'
+
+'I've never seen him read 'em, sir; indeed, so far as I can tell, I
+never knew the papers to be opened, but he takes them all in, sir.'
+
+'What, all the morning papers?'
+
+'Yes, sir, and all the evening papers too.'
+
+'Where are the morning papers placed?'
+
+'On the table in his study, sir.'
+
+'And the evening papers?'
+
+'Well, sir, when the evening papers come, the study is locked. They
+are put on a side table in the dining-room, and he takes them upstairs
+with him to his study.'
+
+'This has happened every day since you've been there?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'You reported that very striking fact to your chief, of course?'
+
+'No, sir, I don't think I did,' said Podgers, confused.
+
+'You should have done so. Mr. Hale would have known how to make the
+most of a point so vital.'
+
+'Oh, come now, Valmont,' interrupted Hale, 'you're chaffing us. Plenty
+of people take in all the papers!'
+
+'I think not. Even clubs and hotels subscribe to the leading journals
+only. You said _all_, I think, Podgers?'
+
+'Well, _nearly_ all, sir.'
+
+'But which is it? There's a vast difference.'
+
+'He takes a good many, sir.'
+
+'How many?'
+
+'I don't just know, sir.'
+
+'That's easily found out, Valmont,' cried Hale, with some impatience,
+'if you think it really important.'
+
+'I think it so important that I'm going back with Podgers myself. You
+can take me into the house, I suppose, when you return?'
+
+'Oh, yes, sir.'
+
+'Coming back to these newspapers for a moment, Podgers. What is done
+with them?'
+
+'They are sold to the ragman, sir, once a week.'
+
+'Who takes them from the study?'
+
+'I do, sir.'
+
+'Do they appear to have been read very carefully?'
+
+'Well, no, sir; leastways, some of them seem never to have been
+opened, or else folded up very carefully again.'
+
+'Did you notice that extracts have been clipped from any of them?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'Does Mr. Summertrees keep a scrapbook?'
+
+'Not that I know of, sir.'
+
+'Oh, the case is perfectly plain,' said I, leaning back in my chair,
+and regarding the puzzled Hale with that cherubic expression of
+self-satisfaction which I know is so annoying to him.
+
+'_What's_ perfectly plain?' he demanded, more gruffly perhaps than
+etiquette would have sanctioned.
+
+'Summertrees is no coiner, nor is he linked with any band of coiners.'
+
+'What is he, then?'
+
+'Ah, that opens another avenue of enquiry. For all I know to the
+contrary, he may be the most honest of men. On the surface it would
+appear that he is a reasonably industrious tradesman in Tottenham
+Court Road, who is anxious that there should be no visible connection
+between a plebian employment and so aristocratic a residence as that
+in Park Lane.'
+
+At this point Spenser Hale gave expression to one of those rare
+flashes of reason which are always an astonishment to his friends.
+
+'That is nonsense, Monsieur Valmont,' he said, 'the man who is ashamed
+of the connection between his business and his house is one who is
+trying to get into Society, or else the women of his family are trying
+it, as is usually the case. Now Summertrees has no family. He himself
+goes nowhere, gives no entertainments, and accepts no invitations. He
+belongs to no club, therefore to say that he is ashamed of his
+connection with the Tottenham Court Road shop is absurd. He is
+concealing the connection for some other reason that will bear looking
+into.'
+
+'My dear Hale, the goddess of Wisdom herself could not have made a
+more sensible series of remarks. Now, _mon ami_, do you want my
+assistance, or have you enough to go on with?'
+
+'Enough to go on with? We have nothing more than we had when I called
+on you last night.'
+
+'Last night, my dear Hale, you supposed this man was in league with
+coiners. Today you know he is not.'
+
+'I know you _say_ he is not.'
+
+I shrugged my shoulders, and raised my eyebrows, smiling at him.
+
+'It is the same thing, Monsieur Hale.'
+
+'Well, of all the conceited--' and the good Hale could get no further.
+
+'If you wish my assistance, it is yours.'
+
+'Very good. Not to put too fine a point upon it, I do.'
+
+'In that case, my dear Podgers, you will return to the residence of
+our friend Summertrees, and get together for me in a bundle all of
+yesterday's morning and evening papers, that were delivered to the
+house. Can you do that, or are they mixed up in a heap in the coal
+cellar?'
+
+'I can do it, sir. I have instructions to place each day's papers in a
+pile by itself in case they should be wanted again. There is always
+one week's supply in the cellar, and we sell the papers of the week
+before to the rag men.'
+
+'Excellent. Well, take the risk of abstracting one day's journals, and
+have them ready for me. I will call upon you at half-past three
+o'clock exactly, and then I want you to take me upstairs to the
+clerk's bedroom in the third story, which I suppose is not locked
+during the daytime?'
+
+'No, sir, it is not.'
+
+With this the patient Podgers took his departure. Spenser Hale rose
+when his assistant left.
+
+'Anything further I can do?' he asked.
+
+'Yes; give me the address of the shop in Tottenham Court Road. Do you
+happen to have about you one of those new five-shilling pieces which
+you believe to be illegally coined?'
+
+He opened his pocket-book, took out the bit of white metal, and handed
+it to me.
+
+'I'm going to pass this off before evening,' I said, putting it in my
+pocket, 'and I hope none of your men will arrest me.'
+
+'That's all right,' laughed Hale as he took his leave.
+
+At half-past three Podgers was waiting for me, and opened the front
+door as I came up the steps, thus saving me the necessity of ringing.
+The house seemed strangely quiet. The French cook was evidently down
+in the basement, and we had probably all the upper part to ourselves,
+unless Summertrees was in his study, which I doubted. Podgers led me
+directly upstairs to the clerk's room on the third floor, walking on
+tiptoe, with an elephantine air of silence and secrecy combined, which
+struck me as unnecessary.
+
+'I will make an examination of this room,' I said. 'Kindly wait for me
+down by the door of the study.'
+
+The bedroom proved to be of respectable size when one considers the
+smallness of the house. The bed was all nicely made up, and there were
+two chairs in the room, but the usual washstand and swing-mirror were
+not visible. However, seeing a curtain at the farther end of the room,
+I drew it aside, and found, as I expected, a fixed lavatory in an
+alcove of perhaps four feet deep by five in width. As the room was
+about fifteen feet wide, this left two-thirds of the space unaccounted
+for. A moment later, I opened a door which exhibited a closet filled
+with clothes hanging on hooks. This left a space of five feet between
+the clothes closet and the lavatory. I thought at first that the
+entrance to the secret stairway must have issued from the lavatory,
+but examining the boards closely, although they sounded hollow to the
+knuckles, they were quite evidently plain matchboarding, and not a
+concealed door. The entrance to the stairway, therefore, must issue
+from the clothes closet. The right hand wall proved similar to the
+matchboarding of the lavatory as far as the casual eye or touch was
+concerned, but I saw at once it was a door. The latch turned out to be
+somewhat ingeniously operated by one of the hooks which held a pair of
+old trousers. I found that the hook, if pressed upward, allowed the
+door to swing outward, over the stairhead. Descending to the second
+floor, a similar latch let me in to a similar clothes closet in the
+room beneath. The two rooms were identical in size, one directly above
+the other, the only difference being that the lower room door gave
+into the study, instead of into the hall, as was the case with the
+upper chamber.
+
+The study was extremely neat, either not much used, or the abode of a
+very methodical man. There was nothing on the table except a pile of
+that morning's papers. I walked to the farther end, turned the key in
+the lock, and came out upon the astonished Podgers.
+
+'Well, I'm blowed!' exclaimed he.
+
+'Quite so,' I rejoined, 'you've been tiptoeing past an empty room for
+the last two weeks. Now, if you'll come with me, Podgers, I'll show
+you how the trick is done.'
+
+When he entered the study, I locked the door once more, and led the
+assumed butler, still tiptoeing through force of habit, up the stair
+into the top bedroom, and so out again, leaving everything exactly as
+we found it. We went down the main stair to the front hall, and there
+Podgers had my parcel of papers all neatly wrapped up. This bundle I
+carried to my flat, gave one of my assistants some instructions, and
+left him at work on the papers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I took a cab to the foot of Tottenham Court Road, and walked up that
+street till I came to J. Simpson's old curiosity shop. After gazing at
+the well-filled windows for some time, I stepped aside, having
+selected a little iron crucifix displayed behind the pane; the work of
+some ancient craftsman.
+
+I knew at once from Podgers's description that I was waited upon by
+the veritable respectable clerk who brought the bag of money each
+night to Park Lane, and who I was certain was no other than Ralph
+Summertrees himself.
+
+There was nothing in his manner differing from that of any other quiet
+salesman. The price of the crucifix proved to be seven-and-six, and I
+threw down a sovereign to pay for it.
+
+'Do you mind the change being all in silver, sir?' he asked, and I
+answered without any eagerness, although the question aroused a
+suspicion that had begun to be allayed,--
+
+'Not in the least.'
+
+He gave me half-a-crown, three two-shilling pieces, and four separate
+shillings, all the coins being well-worn silver of the realm, the
+undoubted inartistic product of the reputable British Mint. This
+seemed to dispose of the theory that he was palming off illegitimate
+money. He asked me if I were interested in any particular branch of
+antiquity, and I replied that my curiosity was merely general, and
+exceedingly amateurish, whereupon he invited me to look around. This I
+proceeded to do, while he resumed the addressing and stamping of some
+wrapped-up pamphlets which I surmised to be copies of his catalogue.
+
+He made no attempt either to watch me or to press his wares upon me. I
+selected at random a little ink-stand, and asked its price. It was two
+shillings, he said, whereupon I produced my fraudulent five-shilling
+piece. He took it, gave me the change without comment, and the last
+doubt about his connection with coiners flickered from my mind.
+
+At this moment a young man came in, who, I saw at once, was not a
+customer. He walked briskly to the farther end of the shop, and
+disappeared behind a partition which had one pane of glass in it that
+gave an outlook towards the front door.
+
+'Excuse me a moment,' said the shopkeeper, and he followed the young
+man into the private office.
+
+As I examined the curious heterogeneous collection of things for sale,
+I heard the clink of coins being poured out on the lid of a desk or an
+uncovered table, and the murmur of voices floated out to me. I was now
+near the entrance of the shop, and by a sleight-of-hand trick, keeping
+the corner of my eye on the glass pane of the private office, I
+removed the key of the front door without a sound, and took an
+impression of it in wax, returning the key to its place unobserved. At
+this moment another young man came in, and walked straight past me
+into the private office. I heard him say,--
+
+'Oh, I beg pardon, Mr. Simpson. How are you, Rogers?'
+
+'Hallo, Macpherson,' saluted Rogers, who then came out, bidding
+good-night to Mr. Simpson, and departed whistling down the street, but
+not before he had repeated his phrase to another young man entering,
+to whom he gave the name of Tyrrel.
+
+I noted these three names in my mind. Two others came in together, but
+I was compelled to content myself with memorising their features, for
+I did not learn their names. These men were evidently collectors, for
+I heard the rattle of money in every case; yet here was a small shop,
+doing apparently very little business, for I had been within it for
+more than half an hour, and yet remained the only customer. If credit
+were given, one collector would certainly have been sufficient, yet
+five had come in, and had poured their contributions into the pile
+Summertrees was to take home with him that night.
+
+I determined to secure one of the pamphlets which the man had been
+addressing. They were piled on a shelf behind the counter, but I had
+no difficulty in reaching across and taking the one on top, which I
+slipped into my pocket. When the fifth young man went down the street
+Summertrees himself emerged, and this time he carried in his hand the
+well-filled locked leather satchel, with the straps dangling. It was
+now approaching half-past five, and I saw he was eager to close up and
+get away.
+
+'Anything else you fancy, sir?' he asked me.
+
+'No, or rather yes and no. You have a very interesting collection
+here, but it's getting so dark I can hardly see.'
+
+'I close at half-past five, sir.'
+
+'Ah, in that case,' I said, consulting my watch, 'I shall be pleased
+to call some other time.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' replied Summertrees quietly, and with that I took my
+leave.
+
+From the corner of an alley on the other side of the street I saw him
+put up the shutters with his own hands, then he emerged with overcoat
+on, and the money satchel slung across his shoulder. He locked the
+door, tested it with his knuckles, and walked down the street,
+carrying under one arm the pamphlets he had been addressing. I
+followed him some distance, saw him drop the pamphlets into the box at
+the first post office he passed, and walk rapidly towards his house in
+Park Lane.
+
+When I returned to my flat and called in my assistant, he said,--
+
+'After putting to one side the regular advertisements of pills, soap,
+and what not, here is the only one common to all the newspapers,
+morning and evening alike. The advertisements are not identical, sir,
+but they have two points of similarity, or perhaps I should say three.
+They all profess to furnish a cure for absent-mindedness; they all ask
+that the applicant's chief hobby shall be stated, and they all bear
+the same address: Dr. Willoughby, in Tottenham Court Road.'
+
+'Thank you,' said I, as he placed the scissored advertisements before
+me.
+
+I read several of the announcements. They were all small, and perhaps
+that is why I had never noticed one of them in the newspapers, for
+certainly they were odd enough. Some asked for lists of absent-minded
+men, with the hobbies of each, and for these lists, prizes of from one
+shilling to six were offered. In other clippings Dr. Willoughby
+professed to be able to cure absent-mindedness. There were no fees, and
+no treatment, but a pamphlet would be sent, which, if it did not benefit
+the receiver, could do no harm. The doctor was unable to meet patients
+personally, nor could he enter into correspondence with them. The
+address was the same as that of the old curiosity shop in Tottenham
+Court Road. At this juncture I pulled the pamphlet from my pocket, and
+saw it was entitled _Christian Science and Absent-Mindedness_, by Dr.
+Stamford Willoughby, and at the end of the article was the statement
+contained in the advertisements, that Dr Willoughby would neither see
+patients nor hold any correspondence with them.
+
+I drew a sheet of paper towards me, wrote to Dr. Willoughby alleging
+that I was a very absent-minded man, and would be glad of his
+pamphlet, adding that my special hobby was the collecting of first
+editions. I then signed myself, 'Alport Webster, Imperial Flats,
+London, W.'
+
+I may here explain that it is often necessary for me to see people
+under some other name than the well-known appellation of Eugène
+Valmont. There are two doors to my flat, and on one of these is
+painted, 'Eugène Valmont'; on the other there is a receptacle, into
+which can be slipped a sliding panel bearing any _nom de guerre_ I
+choose. The same device is arranged on the ground floor, where the
+names of all the occupants of the building appear on the right-hand
+wall.
+
+I sealed, addressed, and stamped my letter, then told my man to put
+out the name of Alport Webster, and if I did not happen to be in when
+anyone called upon that mythical person, he was to make an appointment
+for me.
+
+It was nearly six o'clock next afternoon when the card of Angus
+Macpherson was brought in to Mr. Alport Webster. I recognised the young
+man at once as the second who had entered the little shop carrying his
+tribute to Mr. Simpson the day before. He held three volumes under his
+arm, and spoke in such a pleasant, insinuating sort of way, that I
+knew at once he was an adept in his profession of canvasser.
+
+'Will you be seated, Mr. Macpherson? In what can I serve you?'
+
+He placed the three volumes, backs upward, on my table.
+
+'Are you interested at all in first editions, Mr. Webster?'
+
+'It is the one thing I am interested in,' I replied; 'but
+unfortunately they often run into a lot of money.'
+
+'That is true,' said Macpherson sympathetically, 'and I have here
+three books, one of which is an exemplification of what you say. This
+one costs a hundred pounds. The last copy that was sold by auction in
+London brought a hundred and twenty-three pounds. This next one is
+forty pounds, and the third ten pounds. At these prices I am certain
+you could not duplicate three such treasures in any book shop in
+Britain.'
+
+I examined them critically, and saw at once that what he said was
+true. He was still standing on the opposite side of the table.
+
+'Please take a chair, Mr. Macpherson. Do you mean to say you go round
+London with a hundred and fifty pounds worth of goods under your arm
+in this careless way?'
+
+The young man laughed.
+
+'I run very little risk, Mr. Webster. I don't suppose anyone I meet
+imagines for a moment there is more under my arm than perhaps a trio
+of volumes I have picked up in the fourpenny box to take home with
+me.'
+
+I lingered over the volume for which he asked a hundred pounds, then
+said, looking across at him:--
+
+'How came you to be possessed of this book, for instance?'
+
+He turned upon me a fine, open countenance, and answered without
+hesitation in the frankest possible manner,--
+
+'I am not in actual possession of it, Mr. Webster. I am by way of being
+a connoisseur in rare and valuable books myself, although, of course,
+I have little money with which to indulge in the collection of them. I
+am acquainted, however, with the lovers of desirable books in
+different quarters of London. These three volumes, for instance, are
+from the library of a private gentleman in the West End. I have sold
+many books to him, and he knows I am trustworthy. He wishes to dispose
+of them at something under their real value, and has kindly allowed me
+to conduct the negotiation. I make it my business to find out those
+who are interested in rare books, and by such trading I add
+considerably to my income.'
+
+'How, for instance, did you learn that I was a bibliophile?'
+
+Mr. Macpherson laughed genially.
+
+'Well, Mr. Webster, I must confess that I chanced it. I do that very
+often. I take a flat like this, and send in my card to the name on the
+door. If I am invited in, I ask the occupant the question I asked you
+just now: "Are you interested in rare editions?" If he says no, I
+simply beg pardon and retire. If he says yes, then I show my wares.'
+
+'I see,' said I, nodding. What a glib young liar he was, with that
+innocent face of his, and yet my next question brought forth the
+truth.
+
+'As this is the first time you have called upon me, Mr. Macpherson,
+you have no objection to my making some further inquiry, I suppose.
+Would you mind telling me the name of the owner of these books in the
+West End?'
+
+'His name is Mr. Ralph Summertrees, of Park Lane.'
+
+'Of Park Lane? Ah, indeed.'
+
+'I shall be glad to leave the books with you, Mr. Webster, and if you
+care to make an appointment with Mr. Summertrees, I am sure he will not
+object to say a word in my favour.'
+
+'Oh, I do not in the least doubt it, and should not think of troubling
+the gentleman.'
+
+'I was going to tell you,' went on the young man, 'that I have a
+friend, a capitalist, who, in a way, is my supporter; for, as I said,
+I have little money of my own. I find it is often inconvenient for
+people to pay down any considerable sum. When, however, I strike a
+bargain, my capitalist buys the book, and I make an arrangement with
+my customer to pay a certain amount each week, and so even a large
+purchase is not felt, as I make the instalments small enough to suit
+my client.'
+
+'You are employed during the day, I take it?'
+
+'Yes, I am a clerk in the City.'
+
+Again we were in the blissful realms of fiction!
+
+'Suppose I take this book at ten pounds, what instalment should I have
+to pay each week?'
+
+'Oh, what you like, sir. Would five shillings be too much?'
+
+'I think not.'
+
+'Very well, sir, if you pay me five shillings now, I will leave the
+book with you, and shall have pleasure in calling this day week for
+the next instalment.'
+
+I put my hand into my pocket, and drew out two half-crowns, which I
+passed over to him.
+
+'Do I need to sign any form or undertaking to pay the rest?'
+
+The young man laughed cordially.
+
+'Oh, no, sir, there is no formality necessary. You see, sir, this is
+largely a labour of love with me, although I don't deny I have my eye
+on the future. I am getting together what I hope will be a very
+valuable connection with gentlemen like yourself who are fond of
+books, and I trust some day that I may be able to resign my place with
+the insurance company and set up a choice little business of my own,
+where my knowledge of values in literature will prove useful.'
+
+And then, after making a note in a little book he took from his
+pocket, he bade me a most graceful good-bye and departed, leaving me
+cogitating over what it all meant.
+
+Next morning two articles were handed to me. The first came by post
+and was a pamphlet on _Christian Science and Absent-Mindedness_,
+exactly similar to the one I had taken away from the old curiosity
+shop; the second was a small key made from my wax impression that
+would fit the front door of the same shop--a key fashioned by an
+excellent anarchist friend of mine in an obscure street near Holborn.
+
+That night at ten o'clock I was inside the old curiosity shop, with a
+small storage battery in my pocket, and a little electric glow-lamp at
+my buttonhole, a most useful instrument for either burglar or
+detective.
+
+I had expected to find the books of the establishment in a safe,
+which, if it was similar to the one in Park Lane, I was prepared to
+open with the false keys in my possession or to take an impression of
+the keyhole and trust to my anarchist friend for the rest. But to my
+amazement I discovered all the papers pertaining to the concern in a
+desk which was not even locked. The books, three in number, were the
+ordinary day book, journal, and ledger referring to the shop;
+book-keeping of the older fashion; but in a portfolio lay half a dozen
+foolscap sheets, headed 'Mr. Rogers's List', 'Mr. Macpherson's', 'Mr
+Tyrrel's', the names I had already learned, and three others. These
+lists contained in the first column, names; in the second column,
+addresses; in the third, sums of money; and then in the small, square
+places following were amounts ranging from two-and-sixpence to a
+pound. At the bottom of Mr. Macpherson's list was the name Alport
+Webster, Imperial Flats, £10; then in the small, square place, five
+shillings. These six sheets, each headed by a canvasser's name, were
+evidently the record of current collections, and the innocence of the
+whole thing was so apparent that if it were not for my fixed rule
+never to believe that I am at the bottom of any case until I have come
+on something suspicious, I would have gone out empty-handed as I came
+in.
+
+The six sheets were loose in a thin portfolio, but standing on a shelf
+above the desk were a number of fat volumes, one of which I took down,
+and saw that it contained similar lists running back several years. I
+noticed on Mr. Macpherson's current list the name of Lord Semptam, an
+eccentric old nobleman whom I knew slightly. Then turning to the list
+immediately before the current one the name was still there; I traced
+it back through list after list until I found the first entry, which
+was no less than three years previous, and there Lord Semptam was down
+for a piece of furniture costing fifty pounds, and on that account he
+had paid a pound a week for more than three years, totalling a hundred
+and seventy pounds at the least, and instantly the glorious simplicity
+of the scheme dawned upon me, and I became so interested in the
+swindle that I lit the gas, fearing my little lamp would be exhausted
+before my investigation ended, for it promised to be a long one.
+
+In several instances the intended victim proved shrewder than old
+Simpson had counted upon, and the word 'Settled' had been written on
+the line carrying the name when the exact number of instalments was
+paid. But as these shrewd persons dropped out, others took their
+places, and Simpson's dependence on their absent-mindedness seemed to
+be justified in nine cases out of ten. His collectors were collecting
+long after the debt had been paid. In Lord Semptam's case, the payment
+had evidently become chronic, and the old man was giving away his
+pound a week to the suave Macpherson two years after his debt had been
+liquidated.
+
+From the big volume I detached the loose leaf, dated 1893, which
+recorded Lord Semptam's purchase of a carved table for fifty pounds,
+and on which he had been paying a pound a week from that time to the
+date of which I am writing, which was November, 1896. This single
+document taken from the file of three years previous, was not likely
+to be missed, as would have been the case if I had selected a current
+sheet. I nevertheless made a copy of the names and addresses of
+Macpherson's present clients; then, carefully placing everything
+exactly as I had found it, I extinguished the gas, and went out of the
+shop, locking the door behind me. With the 1893 sheet in my pocket I
+resolved to prepare a pleasant little surprise for my suave friend
+Macpherson when he called to get his next instalment of five
+shillings.
+
+Late as was the hour when I reached Trafalgar Square, I could not
+deprive myself of the felicity of calling on Mr. Spenser Hale, who I
+knew was then on duty. He never appeared at his best during office
+hours, because officialism stiffened his stalwart frame. Mentally he
+was impressed with the importance of his position, and added to this
+he was not then allowed to smoke his big, black pipe and terrible
+tobacco. He received me with the curtness I had been taught to expect
+when I inflicted myself upon him at his office. He greeted me abruptly
+with,--
+
+'I say, Valmont, how long do you expect to be on this job?'
+
+'What job?' I asked mildly.
+
+'Oh, you know what I mean: the Summertrees affair.'
+
+'Oh, _that_!' I exclaimed, with surprise. 'The Summertrees case is
+already completed, of course. If I had known you were in a hurry, I
+should have finished up everything yesterday, but as you and Podgers,
+and I don't know how many more, have been at it sixteen or seventeen
+days, if not longer, I thought I might venture to take as many hours,
+as I am working entirely alone. You said nothing about haste, you
+know.'
+
+'Oh, come now, Valmont, that's a bit thick. Do you mean to say you
+have already got evidence against the man?'
+
+'Evidence absolute and complete.'
+
+'Then who are the coiners?'
+
+'My most estimable friend, how often have I told you not to jump at
+conclusions? I informed you when you first spoke to me about the
+matter that Summertrees was neither a coiner nor a confederate of
+coiners. I secured evidence sufficient to convict him of quite another
+offence, which is probably unique in the annals of crime. I have
+penetrated the mystery of the shop, and discovered the reason for all
+those suspicious actions which quite properly set you on his trail.
+Now I wish you to come to my flat next Wednesday night at a quarter to
+six, prepared to make an arrest.'
+
+'I must know who I am to arrest, and on what counts.'
+
+'Quite so, _mon ami_ Hale; I did not say you were to make an arrest,
+but merely warned you to be prepared. If you have time now to listen
+to the disclosures, I am quite at your service. I promise you there
+are some original features in the case. If, however, the present
+moment is inopportune, drop in on me at your convenience, previously
+telephoning so that you may know whether I am there or not, and thus
+your valuable time will not be expended purposelessly.'
+
+With this I presented to him my most courteous bow, and although his
+mystified expression hinted a suspicion that he thought I was chaffing
+him, as he would call it, official dignity dissolved somewhat, and he
+intimated his desire to hear all about it then and there. I had
+succeeded in arousing my friend Hale's curiosity. He listened to the
+evidence with perplexed brow, and at last ejaculated he would be
+blessed.
+
+'This young man,' I said, in conclusion, 'will call upon me at six on
+Wednesday afternoon, to receive his second five shillings. I propose
+that you, in your uniform, shall be seated there with me to receive
+him, and I am anxious to study Mr. Macpherson's countenance when he
+realises he has walked in to confront a policeman. If you will then
+allow me to cross-examine him for a few moments, not after the manner
+of Scotland Yard, with a warning lest he incriminate himself, but in
+the free and easy fashion we adopt in Paris, I shall afterwards turn
+the case over to you to be dealt with at your discretion.'
+
+'You have a wonderful flow of language, Monsieur Valmont,' was the
+officer's tribute to me. 'I shall be on hand at a quarter to six on
+Wednesday.'
+
+'Meanwhile,' said I, 'kindly say nothing of this to anyone. We must
+arrange a complete surprise for Macpherson. That is essential. Please
+make no move in the matter at all until Wednesday night.'
+
+Spenser Hale, much impressed, nodded acquiescence, and I took a polite
+leave of him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The question of lighting is an important one in a room such as mine,
+and electricity offers a good deal of scope to the ingenious. Of this
+fact I have taken full advantage. I can manipulate the lighting of my
+room so that any particular spot is bathed in brilliancy, while the
+rest of the space remains in comparative gloom, and I arranged the
+lamps so that the full force of their rays impinged against the door
+that Wednesday evening, while I sat on one side of the table in
+semi-darkness and Hale sat on the other, with a light beating down on
+him from above which gave him the odd, sculptured look of a living
+statue of Justice, stern and triumphant. Anyone entering the room
+would first be dazzled by the light, and next would see the gigantic
+form of Hale in the full uniform of his order.
+
+When Angus Macpherson was shown into this room he was quite visibly
+taken aback, and paused abruptly on the threshold, his gaze riveted on
+the huge policeman. I think his first purpose was to turn and run, but
+the door closed behind him, and he doubtless heard, as we all did,
+the sound of the bolt being thrust in its place, thus locking him in.
+
+'I--I beg your pardon,' he stammered, 'I expected to meet Mr. Webster.'
+
+As he said this, I pressed the button under my table, and was
+instantly enshrouded with light. A sickly smile overspread the
+countenance of Macpherson as he caught sight of me, and he made a very
+creditable attempt to carry off the situation with nonchalance.
+
+'Oh, there you are, Mr. Webster; I did not notice you at first.'
+
+It was a tense moment. I spoke slowly and impressively.
+
+'Sir, perhaps you are not unacquainted with the name of Eugène
+Valmont.'
+
+He replied brazenly,--
+
+'I am sorry to say, sir, I never heard of the gentleman before.'
+
+At this came a most inopportune 'Haw-haw' from that blockhead Spenser
+Hale, completely spoiling the dramatic situation I had elaborated with
+such thought and care. It is little wonder the English possess no
+drama, for they show scant appreciation of the sensational moments in
+life.
+
+'Haw-haw,' brayed Spenser Hale, and at once reduced the emotional
+atmosphere to a fog of commonplace. However, what is a man to do? He
+must handle the tools with which it pleases Providence to provide him.
+I ignored Hale's untimely laughter.
+
+'Sit down, sir,' I said to Macpherson, and he obeyed.
+
+'You have called on Lord Semptam this week,' I continued sternly.
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'And collected a pound from him?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'In October, 1893, you sold Lord Semptam a carved antique table for
+fifty pounds?'
+
+'Quite right, sir.'
+
+'When you were here last week you gave me Ralph Summertrees as the
+name of a gentleman living in Park Lane. You knew at the time that
+this man was your employer?'
+
+Macpherson was now looking fixedly at me, and on this occasion made no
+reply. I went on calmly:--
+
+'You also knew that Summertrees, of Park Lane, was identical with
+Simpson, of Tottenham Court Road?'
+
+'Well, sir,' said Macpherson, 'I don't exactly see what you're
+driving at, but it's quite usual for a man to carry on a business
+under an assumed name. There is nothing illegal about that.'
+
+'We will come to the illegality in a moment, Mr. Macpherson. You, and
+Rogers, and Tyrrel, and three others, are confederates of this man
+Simpson.'
+
+'We are in his employ; yes, sir, but no more confederates than clerks
+usually are.'
+
+'I think, Mr. Macpherson, I have said enough to show you that the game
+is, what you call, up. You are now in the presence of Mr. Spenser Hale,
+from Scotland Yard, who is waiting to hear your confession.'
+
+Here the stupid Hale broke in with his--
+
+'And remember, sir, that anything you say will be--'
+
+'Excuse me, Mr. Hale,' I interrupted hastily, 'I shall turn over the
+case to you in a very few moments, but I ask you to remember our
+compact, and to leave it for the present entirely in my hands. Now, Mr
+Macpherson, I want your confession, and I want it at once.'
+
+'Confession? Confederates?' protested Macpherson with admirably
+simulated surprise. 'I must say you use extraordinary terms,
+Mr--Mr--What did you say the name was?'
+
+'Haw-haw,' roared Hale. 'His name is Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'I implore you, Mr. Hale, to leave this man to me for a very few
+moments. Now, Macpherson, what have you to say in your defence?'
+
+'Where nothing criminal has been alleged, Monsieur Valmont, I see no
+necessity for defence. If you wish me to admit that somehow you have
+acquired a number of details regarding our business, I am perfectly
+willing to do so, and to subscribe to their accuracy. If you will be
+good enough to let me know of what you complain, I shall endeavour to
+make the point clear to you if I can. There has evidently been some
+misapprehension, but for the life of me, without further explanation,
+I am as much in a fog as I was on my way coming here, for it is
+getting a little thick outside.'
+
+Macpherson certainly was conducting himself with great discretion, and
+presented, quite unconsciously, a much more diplomatic figure than my
+friend, Spenser Hale, sitting stiffly opposite me. His tone was one of
+mild expostulation, mitigated by the intimation that all
+misunderstanding speedily would be cleared away. To outward view he
+offered a perfect picture of innocence, neither protesting too much
+nor too little. I had, however, another surprise in store for him, a
+trump card, as it were, and I played it down on the table.
+
+'There!' I cried with vim, 'have you ever seen that sheet before?'
+
+He glanced at it without offering to take it in his hand.
+
+'Oh, yes,' he said, 'that has been abstracted from our file. It is
+what I call my visiting list.'
+
+'Come, come, sir,' I cried sternly, 'you refuse to confess, but I warn
+you we know all about it. You never heard of Dr. Willoughby, I
+suppose?'
+
+'Yes, he is the author of the silly pamphlet on Christian Science.'
+
+'You are in the right, Mr. Macpherson; on Christian Science and
+Absent-Mindedness.'
+
+'Possibly. I haven't read it for a long while.'
+
+'Have you ever met this learned doctor, Mr. Macpherson?'
+
+'Oh, yes. Dr. Willoughby is the pen-name of Mr. Summertrees. He believes
+in Christian Science and that sort of thing, and writes about it.'
+
+'Ah, really. We are getting your confession bit by bit, Mr. Macpherson.
+I think it would be better to be quite frank with us.'
+
+'I was just going to make the same suggestion to you, Monsieur
+Valmont. If you will tell me in a few words exactly what is your
+charge against either Mr. Summertrees or myself, I will know then what
+to say.'
+
+'We charge you, sir, with obtaining money under false pretences, which
+is a crime that has landed more than one distinguished financier in
+prison.'
+
+Spenser Hale shook his fat forefinger at me, and said,--
+
+'Tut, tut, Valmont; we mustn't threaten, we mustn't threaten, you
+know;' but I went on without heeding him.
+
+'Take for instance, Lord Semptam. You sold him a table for fifty
+pounds, on the instalment plan. He was to pay a pound a week, and in
+less than a year the debt was liquidated. But he is an absent-minded
+man, as all your clients are. That is why you came to me. I had
+answered the bogus Willoughby's advertisement. And so you kept on
+collecting and collecting for something more than three years. Now do
+you understand the charge?'
+
+Mr. Macpherson's head during this accusation was held slightly inclined
+to one side. At first his face was clouded by the most clever
+imitation of anxious concentration of mind I had ever seen, and this
+was gradually cleared away by the dawn of awakening perception. When I
+had finished, an ingratiating smile hovered about his lips.
+
+'Really, you know,' he said, 'that is rather a capital scheme. The
+absent-minded league, as one might call them. Most ingenious.
+Summertrees, if he had any sense of humour, which he hasn't, would be
+rather taken by the idea that his innocent fad for Christian Science
+had led him to be suspected of obtaining money under false pretences.
+But, really, there are no pretensions about the matter at all. As I
+understand it, I simply call and receive the money through the
+forgetfulness of the persons on my list, but where I think you would
+have both Summertrees and myself, if there was anything in your
+audacious theory, would be an indictment for conspiracy. Still, I
+quite see how the mistake arises. You have jumped to the conclusion
+that we sold nothing to Lord Semptam except that carved table three
+years ago. I have pleasure in pointing out to you that his lordship is
+a frequent customer of ours, and has had many things from us at one
+time or another. Sometimes he is in our debt; sometimes we are in his.
+We keep a sort of running contract with him by which he pays us a
+pound a week. He and several other customers deal on the same plan,
+and in return for an income that we can count upon, they get the first
+offer of anything in which they are supposed to be interested. As I
+have told you, we call these sheets in the office our visiting lists,
+but to make the visiting lists complete you need what we term our
+encyclopaedia. We call it that because it is in so many volumes; a
+volume for each year, running back I don't know how long. You will
+notice little figures here from time to time above the amount stated
+on this visiting list. These figures refer to the page of the
+encyclopaedia for the current year, and on that page is noted the new
+sale, and the amount of it, as it might be set down, say, in a
+ledger.'
+
+'That is a very entertaining explanation, Mr. Macpherson. I suppose
+this encyclopaedia, as you call it, is in the shop at Tottenham Court
+Road?'
+
+'Oh, no, sir. Each volume of the encyclopaedia is self-locking. These
+books contain the real secret of our business, and they are kept in
+the safe at Mr. Summertrees' house in Park Lane. Take Lord Semptam's
+account, for instance. You will find in faint figures under a certain
+date, 102. If you turn to page 102 of the encyclopaedia for that year,
+you will then see a list of what Lord Semptam has bought, and the
+prices he was charged for them. It is really a very simple matter. If
+you will allow me to use your telephone for a moment, I will ask Mr
+Summertrees, who has not yet begun dinner, to bring with him here the
+volume for 1893, and, within a quarter of an hour, you will be
+perfectly satisfied that everything is quite legitimate.'
+
+I confess that the young man's naturalness and confidence staggered
+me, the more so as I saw by the sarcastic smile on Hale's lips that he
+did not believe a single word spoken. A portable telephone stood on
+the table, and as Macpherson finished his explanation, he reached over
+and drew it towards him. Then Spenser Hale interfered.
+
+'Excuse _me_,' he said, 'I'll do the telephoning. What is the call
+number of Mr. Summertrees?'
+
+'140 Hyde Park.'
+
+Hale at once called up Central, and presently was answered from Park
+Lane. We heard him say,--
+
+'Is this the residence of Mr. Summertrees? Oh, is that you, Podgers? Is
+Mr. Summertrees in? Very well. This is Hale. I am in Valmont's
+flat--Imperial Flats--you know. Yes, where you went with me the other
+day. Very well, go to Mr. Summertrees, and say to him that Mr
+Macpherson wants the encyclopaedia for 1893. Do you get that? Yes,
+encyclopaedia. Oh, he'll understand what it is. Mr. Macpherson. No,
+don't mention my name at all. Just say Mr. Macpherson wants the
+encyclopaedia for the year 1893, and that you are to bring it. Yes,
+you may tell him that Mr. Macpherson is at Imperial Flats, but don't
+mention my name at all. Exactly. As soon as he gives you the book, get
+into a cab, and come here as quickly as possible with it. If
+Summertrees doesn't want to let the book go, then tell him to come
+with you. If he won't do that, place him under arrest, and bring both
+him and the book here. All right. Be as quick as you can; we're
+waiting.'
+
+Macpherson made no protest against Hale's use of the telephone; he
+merely sat back in his chair with a resigned expression on his face
+which, if painted on canvas, might have been entitled 'The Falsely
+Accused.' When Hale rang off, Macpherson said,--
+
+'Of course you know your own business best, but if your man arrests
+Summertrees, he will make you the laughing-stock of London. There is
+such a thing as unjustifiable arrest, as well as getting money under
+false pretences, and Mr. Summertrees is not the man to forgive an
+insult. And then, if you will allow me to say so, the more I think
+over your absent-minded theory, the more absolutely grotesque it
+seems, and if the case ever gets into the newspapers, I am sure, Mr
+Hale, you'll experience an uncomfortable half-hour with your chiefs at
+Scotland Yard.'
+
+'I'll take the risk of that, thank you,' said Hale stubbornly.
+
+'Am I to consider myself under arrest?' inquired the young man.
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'Then, if you will pardon me, I shall withdraw. Mr. Summertrees will
+show you everything you wish to see in his books, and can explain his
+business much more capably than I, because he knows more about it;
+therefore, gentlemen, I bid you good-night.'
+
+'No you don't. Not just yet awhile,' exclaimed Hale, rising to his
+feet simultaneously with the young man.
+
+'Then I _am_ under arrest,' protested Macpherson.
+
+'You're not going to leave this room until Podgers brings that book.'
+
+'Oh, very well,' and he sat down again.
+
+And now, as talking is dry work, I set out something to drink, a box
+of cigars, and a box of cigarettes. Hale mixed his favourite brew, but
+Macpherson, shunning the wine of his country, contented himself with a
+glass of plain mineral water, and lit a cigarette. Then he awoke my
+high regard by saying pleasantly as if nothing had happened,--
+
+'While we are waiting, Monsieur Valmont, may I remind you that you owe
+me five shillings?'
+
+I laughed, took the coin from my pocket, and paid him, whereupon he
+thanked me.
+
+'Are you connected with Scotland Yard, Monsieur Valmont?' asked
+Macpherson, with the air of a man trying to make conversation to
+bridge over a tedious interval; but before I could reply, Hale blurted
+out,--
+
+'Not likely!'
+
+'You have no official standing as a detective, then, Monsieur
+Valmont?'
+
+'None whatever,' I replied quickly, thus getting in my oar ahead of
+Hale.
+
+'This is a loss to our country,' pursued this admirable young man,
+with evident sincerity.
+
+I began to see I could make a good deal of so clever a fellow if he
+came under my tuition.
+
+'The blunders of our police', he went on, 'are something deplorable.
+If they would but take lessons in strategy, say, from France, their
+unpleasant duties would be so much more acceptably performed, with
+much less discomfort to their victims.'
+
+'France,' snorted Hale in derision, 'why, they call a man guilty there
+until he's proven innocent.'
+
+'Yes, Mr. Hale, and the same seems to be the case in Imperial Flats.
+You have quite made up your mind that Mr. Summertrees is guilty, and
+will not be content until he proves his innocence. I venture to
+predict that you will hear from him before long in a manner that may
+astonish you.'
+
+Hale grunted and looked at his watch. The minutes passed very slowly
+as we sat there smoking, and at last even I began to get uneasy.
+Macpherson, seeing our anxiety, said that when he came in the fog was
+almost as thick as it had been the week before, and that there might
+be some difficulty in getting a cab. Just as he was speaking the door
+was unlocked from the outside, and Podgers entered, bearing a thick
+volume in his hand. This he gave to his superior, who turned over its
+pages in amazement, and then looked at the back, crying,--
+
+'_Encyclopaedia of Sport_, 1893! What sort of a joke is this,
+Mr. Macpherson?'
+
+There was a pained look on Mr. Macpherson's face as he reached forward
+and took the book. He said with a sigh,--
+
+'If you had allowed me to telephone, Mr. Hale, I should have made it
+perfectly plain to Summertrees what was wanted. I might have known
+this mistake was liable to occur. There is an increasing demand for
+out-of-date books of sport, and no doubt Mr. Summertrees thought this
+was what I meant. There is nothing for it but to send your man back to
+Park Lane and tell Mr. Summertrees that what we want is the locked
+volume of accounts for 1893, which we call the encyclopaedia. Allow me
+to write an order that will bring it. Oh, I'll show you what I have
+written before your man takes it,' he said, as Hale stood ready to
+look over his shoulder.
+
+On my notepaper he dashed off a request such as he had outlined, and
+handed it to Hale, who read it and gave it to Podgers.
+
+'Take that to Summertrees, and get back as quickly as possible. Have
+you a cab at the door?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Is it foggy outside?'
+
+'Not so much, sir, as it was an hour ago. No difficulty about the
+traffic now, sir.'
+
+'Very well, get back as soon as you can.'
+
+Podgers saluted, and left with the book under his arm. Again the door
+was locked, and again we sat smoking in silence until the stillness
+was broken by the tinkle of the telephone. Hale put the receiver to
+his ear.
+
+'Yes, this is the Imperial Flats. Yes. Valmont. Oh, yes; Macpherson is
+here. What? Out of what? Can't hear you. Out of print. What, the
+encyclopaedia's out of print? Who is that speaking? Dr. Willoughby;
+thanks.'
+
+Macpherson rose as if he would go to the telephone, but instead (and
+he acted so quietly that I did not notice what he was doing until the
+thing was done), he picked up the sheet which he called his visiting
+list, and walking quite without haste, held it in the glowing coals of
+the fireplace until it disappeared in a flash of flame up the chimney.
+I sprang to my feet indignant, but too late to make even a motion
+outwards saving the sheet. Macpherson regarded us both with that
+self-deprecatory smile which had several times lighted up his face.
+
+'How dared you burn that sheet?' I demanded.
+
+'Because, Monsieur Valmont, it did not belong to you; because you do
+not belong to Scotland Yard; because you stole it; because you had no
+right to it; and because you have no official standing in this
+country. If it had been in Mr. Hale's possession I should not have
+dared, as you put it, to destroy the sheet, but as this sheet was
+abstracted from my master's premises by you, an entirely unauthorised
+person, whom he would have been justified in shooting dead if he had
+found you housebreaking and you had resisted him on his discovery, I
+took the liberty of destroying the document. I have always held that
+these sheets should not have been kept, for, as has been the case, if
+they fell under the scrutiny of so intelligent a person as Eugène
+Valmont, improper inferences might have been drawn. Mr. Summertrees,
+however, persisted in keeping them, but made this concession, that if
+I ever telegraphed him or telephoned him the word "Encyclopaedia", he
+would at once burn these records, and he, on his part, was to
+telegraph or telephone to me "The _Encyclopaedia_ is out of print,"
+whereupon I would know that he had succeeded.
+
+'Now, gentlemen, open this door, which will save me the trouble of
+forcing it. Either put me formally under arrest, or cease to restrict
+my liberty. I am very much obliged to Mr. Hale for telephoning, and I
+have made no protest to so gallant a host as Monsieur Valmont is,
+because of the locked door. However, the farce is now terminated. The
+proceedings I have sat through were entirely illegal, and if you will
+pardon me, Mr. Hale, they have been a little too French to go down here
+in old England, or to make a report in the newspapers that would be
+quite satisfactory to your chiefs. I demand either my formal arrest,
+or the unlocking of that door.'
+
+In silence I pressed a button, and my man threw open the door.
+Macpherson walked to the threshold, paused, and looked back at Spenser
+Hale, who sat there silent as a sphinx.
+
+'Good-evening, Mr. Hale.'
+
+There being no reply, he turned to me with the same ingratiating
+smile,--
+
+'Good-evening, Monsieur Eugène Valmont,' he said, 'I shall give myself
+the pleasure of calling next Wednesday at six for my five shillings.'
+
+
+
+
+6. _The Ghost with the Club-Foot_
+
+
+Celebrated critics have written with scorn of what they call 'the long
+arm of coincidence' in fiction. Coincidence is supposed to be the
+device of a novelist who does not possess ingenuity enough to
+construct a book without it. In France our incomparable writers pay no
+attention to this, because they are gifted with a keener insight into
+real life than is the case with the British. The superb Charles
+Dickens, possibly as well known in France as he is wherever the
+English language is read, and who loved French soil and the French
+people, probably probed deeper into the intricacies of human character
+than any other novelist of modern times, and if you read his works,
+you will see that he continually makes use of coincidence. The
+experience that has come to me throughout my own strange and varied
+career convinces me that coincidence happens in real life with
+exceeding frequency, and this fact is especially borne in upon me when
+I set out to relate my conflict with the Rantremly ghost, which
+wrought startling changes upon the lives of two people, one an
+objectionable, domineering man, and the other a humble and crushed
+woman. Of course, there was a third person, and the consequences that
+came to him were the most striking of all, as you will learn if you do
+me the honour to read this account of the episode.
+
+So far as coincidence is concerned, there was first the arrival of the
+newspaper clipping, then the coming of Sophia Brooks, and when that
+much-injured woman left my flat I wrote down this sentence on a sheet
+of paper:--
+
+'Before the week is out, I predict that Lord Rantremly himself will
+call to see me.'
+
+Next day my servant brought in the card of Lord Rantremly.
+
+I must begin with the visit of Sophia Brooks, for though that comes
+second, yet I had paid no attention in particular to the newspaper
+clipping until the lady told her story. My man brought me a
+typewritten sheet of paper on which were inscribed the words:--
+
+'Sophia Brooks, Typewriting and Translating Office, First Floor, No. 51
+Beaumont Street, Strand, London, W.C.'
+
+I said to my servant,--
+
+'Tell the lady as kindly as possible that I have no typewriting work
+to give out, and that, in fact, I keep a stenographer and typewriting
+machine on the premises.'
+
+A few moments later my man returned, and said the lady wished to see
+me, not about typewriting, but regarding a case in which she hoped to
+interest me. I was still in some hesitation about admitting her, for
+my transactions had now risen to a higher plane than when I was new to
+London. My expenses were naturally very heavy, and it was not possible
+for me, in justice to myself, to waste time in commissions from the
+poor, which even if they resulted successfully meant little money
+added to my banking account, and often nothing at all, because the
+client was unable to pay. As I remarked before, I possess a heart the
+most tender, and therefore must greatly to my grief, steel myself
+against the enlisting of my sympathy, which, alas! has frequently led
+to my financial loss. Still, sometimes the apparently poor are
+involved in matters of extreme importance, and England is so eccentric
+a country that one may find himself at fault if he closes his door too
+harshly. Indeed, ever since my servant, in the utmost good faith,
+threw downstairs the persistent and tattered beggar-man, who he
+learned later to his sorrow was actually his Grace the Duke of
+Ventnor, I have always cautioned my subordinates not to judge too
+hastily from appearances.
+
+'Show the lady in,' I said, and there came to me, hesitating,
+backward, abashed, a middle-aged woman, dressed with distressing
+plainness, when one thinks of the charming costumes to be seen on a
+Parisian boulevard. Her subdued manner was that of one to whom the
+world had been cruel. I rose, bowed profoundly, and placed a chair at
+her disposal, with the air I should have used if my caller had been a
+Royal Princess. I claim no credit for this; it is of my nature. There
+you behold Eugène Valmont. My visitor was a woman. _Voilà!_
+
+'Madam,' I said politely, 'in what may I have the pleasure of serving
+you?'
+
+The poor woman seemed for the moment confused, and was, I feared, on
+the verge of tears, but at last she spoke, and said,--
+
+'Perhaps you have read in the newspapers of the tragedy at Rantremly
+Castle?'
+
+'The name, madam, remains in my memory, associated elusively with some
+hint of seriousness. Will you pardon me a moment?' and a vague thought
+that I had seen the castle mentioned either in a newspaper, or a
+clipping from one, caused me to pick up the latest bunch which had
+come from my agent. I am imbued with no vanity at all; still it is
+amusing to note what the newspapers say of one, and therefore I have
+subscribed to a clipping agency. In fact, I indulge in two
+subscriptions--one personal; the other calling for any pronouncement
+pertaining to the differences between England and France; for it is my
+determination yet to write a book on the comparative characteristics
+of the two people. I hold a theory that the English people are utterly
+incomprehensible to the rest of humanity, and this will be duly set
+out in my forthcoming volume.
+
+I speedily found the clipping I was in search of. It proved to be a
+letter to the _Times_, and was headed: 'Proposed Destruction of
+Rantremly Castle'. The letter went on to say that this edifice was one
+of the most noted examples of Norman architecture in the north of
+England; that Charles II had hidden there for some days after his
+disastrous defeat at Worcester. Part of the castle had been battered
+down by Cromwell, and later it again proved the refuge of a Stuart
+when the Pretender made it a temporary place of concealment. The new
+Lord Rantremly, it seemed, had determined to demolish this ancient
+stronghold, so interesting architecturally and historically, and to
+build with its stones a modern residence. Against this act of
+vandalism the writer strongly protested, and suggested that England
+should acquire the power which France constantly exerts, in making an
+historical monument of an edifice so interwoven with the fortunes of
+the country.
+
+'Well, madam,' I said, 'all this extract alludes to is the coming
+demolition of Rantremly Castle. Is that the tragedy of which you
+speak?'
+
+'Oh no,' she exclaimed; 'I mean the death of the eleventh Lord
+Rantremly about six weeks ago. For ten years Lord Rantremly lived
+practically alone in the castle. Servants would not remain there
+because the place was haunted, and well it may be, for a terrible
+family the Rantremlys have been, and a cruel, as I shall be able to
+tell you. Up to a month and a half ago Lord Rantremly was waited on by
+a butler older than himself, and if possible, more wicked. One morning
+this old butler came up the stairs from the kitchen, with Lord
+Rantremly's breakfast on a silver tray, as was his custom. His
+lordship always partook of breakfast in his own room. It is not known
+how the accident happened, as the old servant was going up the stairs
+instead of coming down, but the steps are very smooth and slippery,
+and without a carpet; at any rate, he seems to have fallen from the
+top to the bottom, and lay there with a broken neck. Lord Rantremly,
+who was very deaf, seemingly did not hear the crash, and it is
+supposed that after ringing and ringing in vain, and doubtless working
+himself into a violent fit of temper--alas! too frequent an
+occurrence--the old nobleman got out of bed, and walked barefooted
+down the stair, coming at last upon the body of his ancient servant.
+There the man who arrived every morning to light the fires found them,
+the servant dead, and Lord Rantremly helpless from an attack of
+paralysis. The physicians say that only his eyes seemed alive, and
+they were filled with a great fear, and indeed that is not to be
+wondered at, after his wicked, wicked life. His right hand was but
+partially disabled, and with that he tried to scribble something which
+proved indecipherable. And so he died, and those who attended him at
+his last moments say that if ever a soul had a taste of future
+punishment before it left this earth, it was the soul of Lord
+Rantremly as it shone through those terror-stricken eyes.'
+
+Here the woman stopped, with a catch in her breath, as if the fear of
+that grim death-bed had communicated itself to her. I interjected
+calmness into an emotional situation by remarking in a commonplace
+tone,--'And it is the present Lord Rantremly who proposes to destroy
+the Castle, I suppose?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Is he the son of the late lord?'
+
+'No; he is a distant relative. The branch of the family to which he
+belongs has been engaged in commerce, and, I believe, its members are
+very wealthy.'
+
+'Well, madam, no doubt this is all extremely interesting, and rather
+gruesome. In what way are you concerned in these occurrences?'
+
+'Ten years ago I replied to an advertisement, there being required one
+who knew shorthand, who possessed a typewriting machine and a
+knowledge of French, to act as secretary to a nobleman. I was at that
+time twenty-three years old, and for two years had been trying to earn
+my living in London through the typing of manuscript. But I was making
+a hard struggle of it, so I applied for this position and got it.
+There are in the library of Rantremly Castle many documents relating
+to the Stuart exile in France. His lordship wished these documents
+sorted and catalogued, as well as copies taken of each. Many of the
+letters were in the French language, and these I was required to
+translate and type. It was a sombre place of residence, but the salary
+was good, and I saw before me work enough to keep me busy for years.
+Besides this, the task was extremely congenial, and I became absorbed
+in it, being young and romantically inclined. Here I seemed to live in
+the midst of these wonderful intrigues of long ago. Documents passed
+through my hands whose very possession at one period meant capital
+danger, bringing up even now visions of block, axe, and masked
+headsman. It seemed strange to me that so sinister a man as Lord
+Rantremly, who, I had heard, cared for nothing but drink and gambling,
+should have desired to promote this historical research, and, indeed,
+I soon found he felt nothing but contempt for it. However, he had
+undertaken it at the instance of his only son, then a young man of my
+own age, at Oxford University.
+
+'Lord Rantremly at that time was sixty-five years old. His countenance
+was dark, harsh, and imperious, and his language brutal. He indulged
+in frightful outbursts of temper, but he paid so well for service that
+there was no lack of it, as there has been since the ghost appeared
+some years ago. He was very tall, and of commanding appearance, but
+had a deformity in the shape of a club-foot, and walked with the
+halting step of those so afflicted. There were at that time servants
+in plenty at the castle, for although a tradition existed that the
+ghost of the founder of the house trod certain rooms, this ghost, it
+was said, never demonstrated its presence when the living
+representative of the family was a man with a club-foot. Tradition
+further affirmed that if this club-footed ghost allowed its halting
+footsteps to be heard while the reigning lord possessed a similar
+deformity, the conjunction foreshadowed the passing of title and
+estates to a stranger. The ghost haunted the castle only when it was
+occupied by a descendant whose two feet were normal. It seems that the
+founder of the house was a club-footed man, and this disagreeable
+peculiarity often missed one generation, and sometimes two, while at
+other times both father and son had club-feet, as was the case with
+the late Lord Rantremly and the young man at Oxford. I am not a
+believer in the supernatural, of course, but nevertheless it is
+strange that within the past few years everyone residing in the castle
+has heard the club-footed ghost, and now title and estates descend to
+a family that were utter strangers to the Rantremlys.'
+
+'Well, madam, this also sounds most alluring, and were my time not
+taken up with affairs more material than those to which you allude, I
+should be content to listen all day, but as it is--' I spread my hands
+and shrugged my shoulders.
+
+The woman with a deep sigh said,--
+
+'I am sorry to have taken so long, but I wished you to understand the
+situation, and now I will come direct to the heart of the case. I
+worked alone in the library, as I told you, much interested in what I
+was doing. The chaplain, a great friend of Lord Rantremly's son, and,
+indeed, a former tutor of his, assisted me with the documents that
+were in Latin, and a friendship sprang up between us. He was an
+elderly man, and extremely unworldly. Lord Rantremly never concealed
+his scorn of this clergyman, but did not interfere with him because of
+the son.
+
+'My work went on very pleasantly up to the time that Reginald, the
+heir of his lordship, came down from Oxford. Then began the happiest
+days of a life that has been otherwise full of hardships and distress.
+Reginald was as different as possible from his father. In one respect
+only did he bear any resemblance to that terrible old man, and this
+resemblance was the deformity of a club-foot, a blemish which one soon
+forgot when one came to know the gentle and high-minded nature of the
+young man. As I have said, it was at his instance that Lord Rantremly
+had engaged me to set in order those historical papers. Reginald
+became enthusiastic at the progress I had made, and thus the young
+nobleman, the chaplain, and myself continued our work together with
+ever-increasing enthusiasm.
+
+'To cut short a recital which must be trying to your patience, but
+which is necessary if you are to understand the situation, I may say
+that our companionship resulted in a proposal of marriage to me, which
+I, foolishly, perhaps, and selfishly, it may be, accepted. Reginald
+knew that his father would never consent, but we enlisted the sympathy
+of the chaplain, and he, mild, unworldly man, married us one day in
+the consecrated chapel of the castle.
+
+'As I have told you, the house at that time contained many servants,
+and I think, without being sure, that the butler, whom I feared even
+more than Lord Rantremly himself, got some inkling of what was going
+forward. But, be that as it may, he and his lordship entered the
+chapel just as the ceremony was finished, and there followed an
+agonising scene. His lordship flung the ancient chaplain from his
+place, and when Reginald attempted to interfere, the maddened nobleman
+struck his son full in the face with his clenched fist, and my husband
+lay as one dead on the stone floor of the chapel. By this time the
+butler had locked the doors, and had rudely torn the vestments from
+the aged, half-insensible clergyman, and with these tied him hand and
+foot. All this took place in a very few moments, and I stood there as
+one paralysed, unable either to speak or scream, not that screaming
+would have done me any good in that horrible place of thick walls. The
+butler produced a key, and unlocked a small, private door at the side
+of the chapel which led from the apartments of his lordship to the
+family pew. Then taking my husband by feet and shoulders, Lord
+Rantremly and the butler carried him out, locking the door, and
+leaving the clergyman and me prisoners in the chapel. The reverend old
+gentleman took no notice of me. He seemed to be dazed, and when at
+last I found my voice and addressed him, he merely murmured over and
+over texts of Scripture pertaining to the marriage service.
+
+'In a short time I heard the key turn again in the lock of the private
+door, and the butler entered alone. He unloosened the bands around the
+clergyman's knees, escorted him out, and once more locked the door
+behind him. A third time that terrible servant came back, grasped me
+roughly by the wrist, and without a word dragged me with him, along a
+narrow passage, up a stair, and finally to the main hall, and so to my
+lord's private study, which adjoined his bedroom, and there on a table
+I found my typewriting machine brought up from the library.
+
+'I have but the most confused recollection of what took place. I am
+not a courageous woman, and was in mortal terror both of Lord
+Rantremly and his attendant. His lordship was pacing up and down the
+room, and, when I came in, used the most unseemly language to me; then
+ordered me to write at his dictation, swearing that if I did not do
+exactly as he told me, he would finish his son, as he put it. I sat
+down at the machine, and he dictated a letter to himself, demanding
+two thousand pounds to be paid to me, otherwise I should claim that I
+was the wife of his son, secretly married. This, placing pen and ink
+before me, he compelled me to sign, and when I had done so, pleading
+to be allowed to see my husband, if only for a moment, I thought he
+was going to strike me, for he shook his fist in my face, and used
+words which were appalling to hear. That was the last I ever saw of
+Lord Rantremly, my husband, the clergyman, or the butler. I was at
+once sent off to London with my belongings, the butler himself buying
+my ticket, and flinging a handful of sovereigns into my lap as the
+train moved out.'
+
+Here the woman stopped, buried her face in her hands, and began to
+weep.
+
+'Have you done nothing about this for the past ten years?'
+
+She shook her head.
+
+'What could I do?' she gasped. 'I had little money, and no friends.
+Who would believe my story? Besides this, Lord Rantremly retained
+possession of a letter, signed by myself, that would convict me of
+attempted blackmail, while the butler would swear to anything against
+me.'
+
+'You have no marriage certificate, of course?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'What has become of the clergyman?'
+
+'I do not know.'
+
+'And what of Lord Rantremly's son?'
+
+'It was announced that he had gone on a voyage to Australia for his
+health in a sailing ship, which was wrecked on the African coast, and
+everyone on board lost.'
+
+'What is your own theory?'
+
+'Oh, my husband was killed by the blow given him in the chapel.'
+
+'Madam, that does not seem credible. A blow from the fist seldom
+kills.'
+
+'But he fell backwards, and his head struck the sharp stone steps at
+the foot of the altar. I know my husband was dead when the butler and
+his father carried him out.'
+
+'You think the clergyman was also murdered?'
+
+'I am sure of it. Both master and servant were capable of any crime or
+cruelty.'
+
+'You received no letters from the young man?'
+
+'No. You see, during our short friendship we were constantly together,
+and there was no need of correspondence.'
+
+'Well, madam, what do you expect of me?'
+
+'I hoped you would investigate, and find perhaps where Reginald and
+the clergyman are buried. I realise that I have no proof, but in that
+way my strange story will be corroborated.'
+
+I leaned back in my chair and looked at her. Truth to tell, I only
+partially credited her story myself, and yet I was positive she
+believed every word of it. Ten years brooding on a fancied injustice
+by a woman living alone, and doubtless often in dire poverty, had
+mixed together the actual and the imaginary until now, what had
+possibly been an aimless flirtation on the part of the young man,
+unexpectedly discovered by the father, had formed itself into the
+tragedy which she had told me.
+
+'Would it not be well,' I suggested, 'to lay the facts before the
+present Lord Rantremly?'
+
+'I have done so,' she answered simply.
+
+'With what result?'
+
+'His lordship said my story was preposterous. In examining the late
+lord's private papers, he discovered the letter which I typed and
+signed. He said very coldly that the fact that I had waited until
+everyone who could corroborate or deny my story was dead, united with
+the improbability of the narrative itself, would very likely consign
+me to prison if I made public a statement so incredible.'
+
+'Well, you know, madam, I think his lordship is right.'
+
+'He offered me an annuity of fifty pounds, which I refused.'
+
+'In that refusal, madam, I think you are wrong. If you take my advice,
+you will accept the annuity.'
+
+The woman rose slowly to her feet.
+
+'It is not money I am after,' she said, 'although, God knows, I have
+often been in sore need of it. But I am the Countess of Rantremly, and
+I wish my right to that name acknowledged. My character has been under
+an impalpable shadow for ten years. On several occasions mysterious
+hints have reached me that in some manner I left the castle under a
+cloud. If Lord Rantremly will destroy the letter which I was compelled
+to write under duress, and if he will give me written acknowledgment
+that there was nothing to be alleged against me during my stay in the
+castle, he may enjoy his money in peace for all of me. I want none of
+it.'
+
+'Have you asked him to do this?'
+
+'Yes. He refuses to give up or destroy the letter, although I told him
+in what circumstances it had been written. But, desiring to be fair,
+he said he would allow me a pound a week for life, entirely through
+his own generosity.'
+
+'And this you refused?'
+
+'Yes, I refused.'
+
+'Madam, I regret to say that I cannot see my way to do anything with
+regard to what I admit is very unjust usage. We have absolutely
+nothing to go upon except your unsupported word. Lord Rantremly was
+perfectly right when he said no one would credit your story. I could
+not go down to Rantremly Castle and make investigations there. I
+should have no right upon the premises at all, and would get into
+instant trouble as an interfering trespasser. I beg you to heed my
+advice, and accept the annuity.'
+
+Sophia Brooks, with that mild obstinacy of which I had received
+indications during her recital, slowly shook her head.
+
+'You have been very kind to listen for so long,' she said, and then,
+with a curt 'Good-day!' turned and left the room. On the sheet of
+paper underneath her address, I wrote this prophecy: 'Before the week
+is out, I predict that Lord Rantremly himself will call to see me.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning, at almost the same hour that Miss Brooks had arrived the
+day before, the Earl of Rantremly's card was brought in to me.
+
+His lordship proved to be an abrupt, ill-mannered, dapper business
+man; purse-proud, I should call him, as there was every reason he
+should be, for he had earned his own fortune. He was doubtless equally
+proud of his new title, which he was trying to live up to, assuming
+now and then a haughty, domineering attitude, and again relapsing into
+the keen, incisive manner of the man of affairs; shrewd financial
+sense waging a constant struggle with the glamour of an ancient name.
+I am sure he would have shone to better advantage either as a
+financier or as a nobleman, but the combination was too much for him.
+I formed an instinctive dislike to the man, which probably would not
+have happened had he been wearing the title for twenty years, or had I
+met him as a business man, with no thought of the aristocratic honour
+awaiting him. There seemed nothing in common between him and the
+former holder of the title. He had keen, ferrety eyes, a sharp
+financial nose, a thin-lipped line of mouth which indicated little of
+human kindness. He was short of stature, but he did not possess the
+club-foot, which was one advantage. He seated himself before I had
+time to offer him a chair, and kept on his hat in my presence, which
+he would not have done if he had either been a genuine nobleman or a
+courteous business man.
+
+'I am Lord Rantremly,' he announced pompously, which announcement was
+quite unnecessary, because I held his card in my hand.
+
+'Quite so, my lord. And you have come to learn whether or no I can lay
+the ghost in that old castle to the north which bears your name?'
+
+'Well, I'm blessed!' cried his lordship, agape. 'How could you guess
+that?'
+
+'Oh, it is not a guess, but rather a choice of two objects, either of
+which might bring you to my rooms. I chose the first motive because I
+thought you might prefer to arrange the second problem with your
+solicitor, and he doubtless told you that Miss Sophia Brooks's claim
+was absurd; that you were quite right in refusing to give up or
+destroy the typewritten letter she had signed ten years ago, and that
+it was weakness on your part, without consulting him, to offer her an
+annuity of fifty-two pounds a year.'
+
+Long before this harangue was finished, which I uttered in an easy and
+nonchalant tone of voice, as if reciting something that everybody
+knew, his lordship stood on his feet again, staring at me like a man
+thunderstruck. This gave me the opportunity of exercising that
+politeness which his abrupt entrance and demeanour had forestalled. I
+rose, and bowing, said,--
+
+'I pray you to be seated, my lord.'
+
+He dropped into the chair, rather than sat down in it.
+
+'And now,' I continued, with the utmost suavity, stretching forth my
+hand, 'may I place your hat on this shelf out of the way, where it
+will not incommode you during our discourse?'
+
+Like a man in a dream, he took his hat from his head, and passively
+handed it to me, and after placing it in safety I resumed my chair
+with the comfortable feeling that his lordship and I were much nearer
+a plane of equality than when he entered the room.
+
+'How about the ghost with a club-foot, my lord?' said I genially. 'May
+I take it that in the City, that sensible, commercial portion of
+London, no spirits are believed in except those sold over the bars?'
+
+'If you mean,' began his lordship, struggling to reach his dignity
+once more, 'if you mean to ask if there is any man fool enough to
+place credit in the story of a ghost, I answer no. I am a practical
+man, sir. I now possess in the north property representing, in farming
+lands, in shooting rights, and what not, a locked-up capital of many
+a thousand pounds. As you seem to know everything, sir, perhaps you
+are aware that I propose to build a modern mansion on the estate.'
+
+'Yes; I saw the letter in the _Times_.'
+
+'Very well, sir. It has come to a fine pass if, in this country of law
+and the rights of property, a man may not do what he pleases with his
+own.'
+
+'I think, my lord, cases may be cited where the decisions of your
+courts have shown a man may not do what he likes with his own.
+Nevertheless, I am quite certain that if you level Rantremly Castle
+with the ground, and build a modern mansion in its place, the law will
+not hinder you.'
+
+'I should hope not, sir, I should hope not,' said his lordship
+gruffly. 'Nevertheless, I am not one who wishes to ride roughshod over
+public opinion.
+
+'I am chairman of several companies which depend more or less on
+popular favour for success. I deplore unnecessary antagonism.
+Technically, I might assert my right to destroy this ancient
+stronghold tomorrow if I wished to do so, and if that right were
+seriously disputed, I should, of course, stand firm. But it is not
+seriously disputed. The British nation, sir, is too sensible a people
+to object to the removal of an antiquated structure that has long
+outlived its usefulness, and the erection of a mansion replete with
+all modern improvements would be a distinct addition to the country,
+sir. A few impertinent busybodies protest against the demolition of
+Rantremly Castle, but that is all.'
+
+'Ah, then you _do_ intend to destroy it?' I rejoined, and it is
+possible that a touch of regret was manifest in my tones.
+
+'Not just at present; not until this vulgar clamour has had time to
+subside. Nevertheless, as a business man, I am forced to recognise
+that a large amount of unproductive capital is locked up in that
+property.'
+
+'And why is it locked up?'
+
+'Because of an absurd belief that the place is haunted. I could let it
+tomorrow at a good figure, if it were not for that rumour.'
+
+'But surely sensible men do not pay any attention to such a rumour.'
+
+'Sensible men may not, but sensible men are often married to silly
+women, and the women object. It is only the other day that I was in
+negotiation with Bates, of Bates, Sturgeon and Bates, a very wealthy
+man, quite able and willing to pay the price I demanded. He cared
+nothing about the alleged ghost, but his family absolutely refused to
+have anything to do with the place, and so the arrangement fell
+through.'
+
+'What is your theory regarding this ghost, my lord?'
+
+He answered me with some impatience.
+
+'How can a sane man hold a theory about a ghost? I can, however,
+advance a theory regarding the noises heard in the castle. For years
+that place has been the resort of questionable characters.'
+
+'I understand the Rantremly family is a very old one,' I commented
+innocently, but his lordship did not notice the innuendo.
+
+'Yes, we are an old family,' he went on with great complacency. 'The
+castle, as perhaps you are aware, is a huge, ramshackle place,
+honeycombed underneath with cellars. I dare say in the old days some
+of these cellars and caves were the resort of smugglers, and the
+receptacle of their contraband wares, doubtless with the full
+knowledge of my ancestors, who, I regret to admit, as a business man,
+were not too particular in their respect for law. I make no doubt that
+the castle is now the refuge of a number of dangerous characters, who,
+knowing the legends of the place, frighten away fools by impersonating
+ghosts.'
+
+'You wish me to uncover their retreat, then?'
+
+'Precisely.'
+
+'Could I get accommodation in the castle itself?'
+
+'Lord bless you, no! Nor within two miles of it. You might secure bed
+and board at the porter's lodge, perhaps, or in the village, which is
+three miles distant.'
+
+'I should prefer to live in the castle night and day, until the
+mystery is solved.'
+
+'Ah, you are a practical man. That is a very sensible resolution. But
+you can persuade no one in that neighbourhood to bear you company. You
+would need to take some person down with you from London, and the
+chances are, that person will not stay long.'
+
+'Perhaps, my lord, if you used your influence, the chief of police in
+the village might allow a constable to bear me company. I do not mind
+roughing it in the least, but I should like someone to prepare my
+meals, and to be on hand in case of a struggle, should your surmise
+concerning the ghost prove correct.'
+
+'I regret to inform you,' said his lordship, 'that the police in that
+barbarous district are as superstitious as the peasantry. I, myself,
+told the chief constable my theory, and for six weeks he has been
+trying to run down the miscreants, who, I am sure, are making a
+rendezvous of the castle. Would you believe it, sir, that the
+constabulary, after a few nights' experience in the castle, threatened
+to resign in a body if they were placed on duty at Rantremly? They
+said they heard groans and shrieks, and the measured beat of a
+club-foot on the oaken floors. Perfectly absurd, of course, but there
+you are! Why, I cannot even get a charwoman or labourer to clear up
+the evidences of the tragedy which took place there six weeks ago. The
+beds are untouched, the broken china and the silver tray lie today at
+the foot of the stairway, and everything remains just as it was when
+the inquest took place.'
+
+'Very well, my lord, the case presents many difficulties, and so,
+speaking as one business man to another, you will understand that my
+compensation must be correspondingly great.'
+
+All the assumed dignity which straightened up this man whenever I
+addressed him as 'my lord', instantly fell from him when I enunciated
+the word 'compensation'. His eyes narrowed, and all the native
+shrewdness of an adept skinflint appeared in his face. I shall do him
+the justice to say that he drove the very best bargain he could with
+me, and I, on my part, very deftly concealed from him the fact that I
+was so much interested in the affair that I should have gone down to
+Rantremly for nothing rather than forgo the privilege of ransacking
+Rantremly Castle.
+
+When the new earl had taken his departure, walking to the door with
+the haughty air of a nobleman, then bowing to me with the affability
+of a business man, I left my flat, took a cab, and speedily found
+myself climbing the stair to the first floor of 51 Beaumont Street,
+Strand. As I paused at the door on which were painted the words, 'S.
+Brooks, Stenography, Typewriting, Translation', I heard the rapid
+click-click of a machine inside. Knocking at the door the writing
+ceased, and I was bidden to enter. The room was but meagrely
+furnished, and showed scant signs of prosperity. On a small
+side-table, clean, but uncovered, the breakfast dishes, washed, but
+not yet put away, stood, and the kettle on the hob by the dying fire
+led me to infer that the typewriting woman was her own cook. I
+suspected that the awkward-looking sofa which partly occupied one side
+of the room, concealed a bed. By the lone front window stood the
+typewriting machine on a small stand, and in front of it sat the woman
+who had visited me the morning before. She was now gazing at me,
+probably hoping I was a customer, for there was no recognition in her
+eyes.
+
+'Good-morning, Lady Rantremly,' was my greeting, which caused her to
+spring immediately to her feet, with a little exclamation of surprise.
+
+'Oh,' she said at last, 'you are Monsieur Valmont. Excuse me that I am
+so stupid. Will you take a chair?'
+
+'Thank you, madam. It is I who should ask to be excused for so
+unceremonious a morning call. I have come to ask you a question. Can
+you cook?'
+
+The lady looked at me with some surprise, mingled perhaps with so much
+of indignation as such a mild person could assume. She did not reply,
+but, glancing at the kettle, and then turning towards the breakfast
+dishes on the table by the wall, a slow flush of colour suffused her
+wan cheeks.
+
+'My lady,' I said at last, as the silence became embarrassing, 'you
+must pardon the impulse of a foreigner who finds himself constantly
+brought into conflict with prejudices which he fails to understand.
+You are perhaps offended at my question. The last person of whom I
+made that inquiry was the young and beautiful Madame la Comtesse de
+Valérie-Moberanne, who enthusiastically clapped her hands with delight
+at the compliment, and replied impulsively,--
+
+'"Oh, Monsieur Valmont, let me compose for you an omelette which will
+prove a dream," and she did. One should not forget that Louis XVIII
+himself cooked the _truffes à la purée d'ortolans_ that caused the Duc
+d'Escars, who partook of the royal dish, to die of an indigestion.
+Cooking is a noble, yes, a regal art. I am a Frenchman, my lady, and,
+like all my countrymen, regard the occupation of a cuisinière as
+infinitely superior to the manipulation of that machine, which is your
+profession, or the science of investigation, which is mine.'
+
+'Sir,' she said, quite unmollified by my harangue, speaking with a
+lofty pride which somehow seemed much more natural than that so
+intermittently assumed by my recent visitor, 'Sir, have you come to
+offer me a situation as cook?'
+
+'Yes, madam, at Rantremly Castle.'
+
+'You are going there?' she demanded, almost breathlessly.
+
+'Yes, madam, I leave on the ten o'clock train tomorrow morning. I am
+commissioned by Lord Rantremly to investigate the supposed presence of
+the ghost in that mouldering dwelling. I am allowed to bring with me
+whatever assistants I require, and am assured that no one in the
+neighbourhood can be retained who dare sleep in the castle. You know
+the place very well, having lived there, so I shall be glad of your
+assistance if you will come. If there is any person whom you can
+trust, and who is not afraid of ghosts, I shall be delighted to escort
+you both to Rantremly Castle tomorrow.'
+
+'There is an old woman,' she said, 'who comes here to clear up my
+room, and do whatever I wish done. She is so deaf that she will hear
+no ghosts, and besides, monsieur, she can cook.'
+
+I laughed in acknowledgment of this last sly hit at me, as the English
+say.
+
+'That will do excellently,' I replied, rising, and placing a ten-pound
+note before her. 'I suggest, madam, that you purchase with this
+anything you may need. My man has instructions to send by passenger
+train a huge case of provisions, which should arrive there before us.
+If you could make it convenient to meet me at Euston Station about a
+quarter of an hour before the train leaves, we may be able to discover
+all you wish to know regarding the mystery of Rantremly Castle.'
+
+Sophia Brooks accepted the money without demur, and thanked me. I
+could see that her thin hands were trembling with excitement as she
+put the crackling banknote into her purse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Darkness was coming on next evening before we were installed in the
+grim building, which at first sight seemed more like a fortress than a
+residence. I had telegraphed from London to order a wagonette for us,
+and in this vehicle we drove to the police station, where I presented
+the written order from Lord Rantremly for the keys of the castle. The
+chief constable himself, a stolid, taciturn person, exhibited,
+nevertheless, some interest in my mission, and he was good enough to
+take the fourth seat in the wagonette, and accompany us through the
+park to the castle, returning in that conveyance to the village as
+nightfall approached, and I could not but notice that this grave
+official betrayed some uneasiness to get off before dusk had
+completely set in. Silent as he was, I soon learned that he entirely
+disbelieved Lord Rantremly's theory that the castle harboured
+dangerous characters, yet so great was his inherent respect for the
+nobility that I could not induce him to dispute with any decisiveness
+his lordship's conjecture. It was plain to be seen, however, that the
+chief constable believed implicitly in the club-footed ghost. I asked
+him to return the next morning, as I should spend the night in
+investigation, and might possibly have some questions to ask him,
+questions which none but the chief constable could answer. The good
+man promised, and left us rather hurriedly, the driver of the
+wagonette galloping his horse down the long, sombre avenue towards the
+village outside the gates.
+
+I found Sophia Brooks but a doleful companion, and of very little
+assistance that evening. She seemed overcome by her remembrances. She
+had visited the library where her former work was done, doubtless the
+scene of her brief love episode, and she returned with red eyes and
+trembling chin, telling me haltingly that the great tome from which
+she was working ten years ago, and which had been left open on the
+solid library table, was still there exactly as she had placed it
+before being forced to abandon her work. For a decade apparently no
+one had entered that library. I could not but sympathise with the poor
+lady, thus revisiting, almost herself like a ghost, the haunted arena
+of her short happiness. But though she proved so dismal a companion,
+the old woman who came with her was a treasure. Having lived all her
+life in some semi-slum near the Strand, and having rarely experienced
+more than a summer's-day glimpse of the country, the long journey had
+delighted her, and now this rambling old castle in the midst of the
+forest seemed to realise all the dreams which a perusal of halfpenny
+fiction had engendered in her imagination. She lit a fire, and cooked
+for us a very creditable supper, bustling about the place, singing to
+herself in a high key.
+
+Shortly after supper Sophia Brooks, exhausted as much by her emotions
+and memories as by her long journey of that day, retired to rest.
+After being left to myself I smoked some cigarettes, and finished a
+bottle of superb claret which stood at my elbow. A few hours before I
+had undoubtedly fallen in the estimation of the stolid constable when,
+instead of asking him questions regarding the tragedy, I had inquired
+the position of the wine cellar, and obtained possession of the key
+that opened its portal. The sight of bin after bin of dust-laden,
+cobwebbed bottles, did more than anything else to reconcile me to my
+lonely vigil. There were some notable vintages represented in that
+dismal cavern.
+
+It was perhaps half-past ten or eleven o'clock when I began my
+investigations. I had taken the precaution to provide myself with half
+a dozen so-called electric torches before I left London. These give
+illumination for twenty or thirty hours steadily, and much longer if
+the flash is used only now and then. The torch is a thick tube,
+perhaps a foot and a half long, with a bull's-eye of glass at one end.
+By pressing a spring the electric rays project like the illumination
+of an engine's headlight. A release of the spring causes instant
+darkness. I have found this invention useful in that it concentrates
+the light on any particular spot desired, leaving all the surroundings
+in gloom, so that the mind is not distracted, even unconsciously, by
+the eye beholding more than is necessary at the moment. One pours a
+white light over any particular substance as water is poured from the
+nozzle of a hose.
+
+The great house was almost painfully silent. I took one of these
+torches, and went to the foot of the grand staircase where the wicked
+butler had met his death. There, as his lordship had said, lay the
+silver tray, and nearby a silver jug, a pair of spoons, a knife and
+fork, and scattered all around the fragments of broken plates, cups,
+and saucers. With an exclamation of surprise at the stupidity of the
+researchers who had preceded me, I ran up the stair two steps at a
+time, turned to the right, and along the corridor until I came to the
+room occupied by the late earl. The coverings of the bed lay turned
+down just as they were when his lordship sprang to the floor,
+doubtless, in spite of his deafness, having heard faintly the fatal
+crash at the foot of the stairs. A great oaken chest stood at the head
+of the bed, perhaps six inches from the wall. Leaning against this
+chest at the edge of the bed inclined a small, round table, and the
+cover of the table had slipped from its sloping surface until it
+partly concealed the chest lid. I mounted on this carven box of old
+black oak and directed the rays of electric light into the chasm
+between it and the wall. Then I laughed aloud, and was somewhat
+startled to hear another laugh directly behind me. I jumped down on
+the floor again, and swung round my torch like a searchlight on a
+battleship at sea. There was no human presence in that chamber except
+myself. Of course, after my first moment of surprise, I realised that
+the laugh was but an echo of my own. The old walls of the old house
+were like sounding-boards. The place resembled an ancient fiddle,
+still tremulous with the music that had been played on it. It was easy
+to understand how a superstitious population came to believe in its
+being haunted; in fact, I found by experiment that if one trod quickly
+along the uncovered floor of the corridor, and stopped suddenly, one
+seemed to hear the sound of steps still going on.
+
+I now returned to the stair head, and examined the bare polished
+boards with most gratifying results. Amazed at having learnt so much
+in such a short time, I took from my pocket the paper on which the
+dying nobleman had attempted to write with his half-paralysed hand.
+The chief constable had given the document to me, and I sat on the
+stair head, spread it out on the floor and scrutinised it. It was all
+but meaningless. Apparently two words and the initial letter of a
+third had been attempted. Now, however grotesque a piece of writing
+may be, you can sometimes decipher it by holding it at various angles,
+as those puzzles are solved which remain a mystery when gazed at
+direct. By partially closing the eyes you frequently catch the intent,
+as in those pictures where a human figure is concealed among the
+outlines of trees and leaves. I held the paper at arm's length, and
+with the electric light gleaming upon it, examined it at all angles,
+with eyes wide open, and eyes half closed. At last, inclining it away
+from me, I saw that the words were intended to mean, 'The Secret'. The
+secret, of course, was what he was trying to impart, but he had
+apparently got no further than the title of it. Deeply absorbed in my
+investigation, I was never more startled in my life than to hear in
+the stillness down the corridor the gasped words, '_Oh, God!_'
+
+I swept round my light, and saw leaning against the wall, in an almost
+fainting condition, Sophia Brooks, her eyes staring like those of a
+demented person, and her face white as any ghost's could have been.
+Wrapped round her was a dressing-gown. I sprang to my feet.
+
+'What are you doing there?' I cried.
+
+'Oh, is that you, Monsieur Valmont? Thank God, thank God! I thought I
+was going insane. I saw a hand, a bodiless hand, holding a white sheet
+of paper.'
+
+'The hand was far from bodiless, madam, for it belonged to me. But why
+are you here? It must be near midnight.'
+
+'It _is_ midnight,' answered the woman; 'I came here because I heard
+my husband call me three times distinctly, "Sophia, Sophia, Sophia!"
+just like that.'
+
+'Nonsense, madam,' I said, with an asperity I seldom use where the
+fair sex is concerned; but I began to see that this hysterical
+creature was going to be in the way during a research that called for
+coolness and calmness. I was sorry I had invited her to come.
+'Nonsense, madam, you have been dreaming.'
+
+'Indeed, Monsieur Valmont, I have not. I have not even been asleep,
+and I heard the words quite plainly. You must not think I am either
+mad or superstitious.'
+
+I thought she was both, and next moment she gave further evidence of
+it, running suddenly forward, and clutching me by the arm.
+
+'Listen! listen!' she whispered. 'You hear nothing?'
+
+'Nonsense!' I cried again, almost roughly for my patience was at an
+end, and I wished to go on with my inquiry undisturbed.
+
+'Hist, hist!' she whispered; 'listen!' holding up her finger. We both
+stood like statues, and suddenly I felt that curious creeping of the
+scalp which shows that even the most civilised among us have not yet
+eliminated superstitious fear. In the tense silence I heard someone
+slowly coming up the stair; I heard the halting step of a lame man. In
+the tension of the moment I had allowed the light to go out; now
+recovering myself, I pressed the spring, and waved its rays backward
+and forward down the stairway. The space was entirely empty, yet the
+hesitating footsteps approached us, up and up. I could almost have
+sworn on which step they last struck. At this interesting moment
+Sophia Brooks uttered a piercing shriek and collapsed into my arms,
+sending the electric torch rattling down the steps, and leaving us in
+impenetrable darkness. Really, I profess myself to be a gallant man,
+but there are situations which have a tendency to cause annoyance. I
+carried the limp creature cautiously down the stairs, fearing the fate
+of the butler, and at last got her into the dining-room, where I lit a
+candle, which gave a light less brilliant, perhaps, but more steady
+than my torch. I dashed some water in her face, and brought her to her
+senses, then uncorking another bottle of wine, I bade her drink a
+glassful, which she did.
+
+'What was it?' she whispered.
+
+'Madam, I do not know. Very possibly the club-footed ghost of
+Rantremly.'
+
+'Do you believe in ghosts, Monsieur Valmont?'
+
+'Last night I did not, but at this hour I believe in only one thing,
+which is that it is time everyone was asleep.'
+
+She rose to her feet at this, and with a tremulous little laugh
+apologised for her terror, but I assured her that for the moment there
+were two panic-stricken persons at the stair head. Taking the candle,
+and recovering my electric torch, which luckily was uninjured by its
+roll down the incline the butler had taken, I escorted the lady to the
+door of her room, and bade her good-night, or rather, good-morning.
+
+The rising sun dissipated a slight veil of mist which hung over the
+park, and also dissolved, so far as I was concerned, the phantoms
+which my imagination had conjured up at midnight. It was about
+half-past ten when the chief constable arrived. I flatter myself I put
+some life into that unimaginative man before I was done with him.
+
+'What made you think that the butler was mounting the stair when he
+fell?'
+
+'He was going up with my lord's breakfast,' replied the chief.
+
+'Then did it not occur to you that if such were the case, the silver
+pitcher would not have been empty, and, besides the broken dishes,
+there would have been the rolls, butter, toast, or what not, strewn
+about the floor?'
+
+The chief constable opened his eyes.
+
+'There was no one else for him to bring breakfast to,' he objected.
+
+'That is where you are very much mistaken. Bring me the boots the
+butler wore.'
+
+'He did not wear boots, sir. He wore a pair of cloth slippers.'
+
+'Do you know where they are?'
+
+'Yes; they are in the boot closet.'
+
+'Very well, bring them out, examine their soles, and sticking in one
+of them you will find a short sliver of pointed oak.'
+
+The constable, looking slightly more stupefied than ever, brought the
+slippers, and I heard him ejaculate: 'Well, I'm blowed!' as he
+approached me. He handed me the slippers soles upward, and there, as I
+have stated, was the fragment of oak, which I pulled out.
+
+'Now, if you take this piece of oak to the top of the stair, you will
+see that it fits exactly a slight interstice at the edge of one of the
+planks. It is as well to keep one's eyes open, constable, when
+investigating a case like this.'
+
+'Well, I'm blowed!' he said again, as we walked up the stair
+together.
+
+I showed him that the sliver taken from the slipper fitted exactly the
+interstice I had indicated.
+
+'Now,' said I to him, 'the butler was not going up the stairs, but was
+coming down. When he fell headlong he must have made a fearful
+clatter. Shuffling along with his burden, his slipper was impaled by
+this sliver, and the butler's hands being full, he could not save
+himself, but went head foremost down the stair. The startling point,
+however, is the fact that he was _not_ carrying my lord's breakfast to
+him, or taking it away from him, but that there is someone else in the
+castle for whom he was caterer. Who is that person?'
+
+'I'm blessed if I know,' said the constable, 'but I think you are
+wrong there. He may not have been carrying up the breakfast, but he
+certainly was taking away the tray, as is shown by the empty dishes,
+which you have just a moment ago pointed out.'
+
+'No, constable; when his lordship heard the crash, and sprang
+impulsively from his bed, he upset the little table on which had been
+placed his own tray; it shot over the oaken chest at the head of the
+bed, and if you look between it and the wall you will find tray,
+dishes, and the remnants of a breakfast.'
+
+'Well, I'm blessed!' exclaimed the chief constable once again.
+
+'The main point of all this,' I went on calmly, 'is not the disaster
+to the butler, nor even the shock to his lordship, but the fact that
+the tray the serving man carried brought food to a prisoner, who
+probably for six weeks has been without anything to eat.'
+
+'Then,' said the constable, 'he is a dead man.'
+
+'I find it easier,' said I, 'to believe in a living man than in a dead
+man's ghost. I think I heard his footsteps at midnight, and they
+seemed to me the footsteps of a person very nearly exhausted.
+Therefore, constable, I have awaited your arrival with some
+impatience. The words his late lordship endeavoured to write on the
+paper were "The Secret". I am sure that the hieroglyphics with which
+he ended his effort stood for the letter "R", and if he finished his
+sentence, it would have stood: "The secret room". Now, constable, it
+is a matter of legend that a secret room exists in this castle. Do you
+know where it is?'
+
+'No one knows where the secret room is, or the way to enter it, except
+the Lords of Rantremly.'
+
+'Well, I can assure you that the Lord of Rantremly who lives in London
+knows nothing about it. I have been up and about since daylight,
+taking some rough measurements by stepping off distances. I surmise
+that the secret room is to the left of this stairway. Probably a whole
+suite of rooms exists, for there is certainly a stair coinciding with
+this one, and up that stair at midnight I heard a club-footed man
+ascend. Either that, or the ghost that has frightened you all, and, as
+I have said, I believe in the man.'
+
+Here the official made the first sensible remark I had yet heard him
+utter:--
+
+'If the walls are so thick that a prisoner's cry has not been heard,
+how could you hear his footsteps, which make much less noise?'
+
+'That is very well put, constable, and when the same thing occurred to
+me earlier this morning, I began to study the architecture of this
+castle. In the first place, the entrance hall is double as wide at the
+big doors as it is near the stairway. If you stand with your back to
+the front door you will at once wonder why the builders made this
+curious and unnecessary right angle, narrowing the farther part of the
+hall to half its width. Then, as you gaze at the stair, and see that
+marvellous carved oak newel post standing like a monumental column,
+you guess, if you have any imagination, that the stairway, like the
+hall, was once double as wide as it is now. We are seeing only half of
+it, and doubtless we shall find a similar newel post within the hidden
+room. You must remember, constable, that these secret apartments are
+no small added chambers. Twice they have sheltered a king.'
+
+The constable's head bent low at the mention of royalty. I saw that
+his insular prejudice against me and my methods was vanishing, and
+that he had come to look upon me with greater respect than was shown
+at first.
+
+'The walls need not be thick to be impenetrable to sound. Two courses
+of brick, and a space between filled with deafening would do it. The
+secret apartment has been cut off from the rest of the house since the
+castle was built, and was not designed by the original architect. The
+partition was probably built in a hurry to fulfil a pressing need, and
+it was constructed straight up the middle of the stair, leaving the
+stout planks intact, each step passing thus, as it were, through the
+wall. Now, when a man walks up the secret stairway, his footsteps
+reverberate until one would swear that some unseen person was treading
+the visible boards on the outside.'
+
+'By Jove!' said the constable, in an awed tone of voice.
+
+'Now, officer, I have here a pickaxe and a crowbar. I propose that we
+settle the question at once.'
+
+But to this proposal the constable demurred.
+
+'You surely would not break the wall without permission from his
+lordship in London?'
+
+'Constable, I suspect there is no Lord Rantremly in London, and that
+we will find a very emaciated but genuine Lord Rantremly within ten
+feet of us. I need not tell you that if you are instrumental in his
+immediate rescue without the exercise of too much red tape, your
+interests will not suffer because you the more speedily brought food
+and drink to the lord paramount of your district.'
+
+'Right you are,' cried the constable, with an enthusiasm for which I
+was not prepared. 'Where shall we begin?'
+
+'Oh, anywhere; this wall is all false from the entrance hall to some
+point up here. Still, as the butler was carrying the meal upstairs I
+think we shall save time if we begin on the landing.'
+
+I found the constable's brawn much superior to his brain. He worked
+like a sansculotte on a barricade. When we had torn down part of the
+old oak panelling, which it seemed such a pity to mutilate with axe
+and crowbar, we came upon a brick wall, that quickly gave way before
+the strength of the constable. Then we pulled out some substance like
+matting, and found a second brick wall, beyond which was a further
+shell of panelling. The hole we made revealed nothing but darkness
+inside, and although we shouted, there was no answer. At last, when we
+had hewn it large enough for a man to enter, I took with me an
+electric torch, and stepped inside, the constable following, with
+crowbar still in hand. I learned, as I had surmised, that we were in
+the upper hall of a staircase nearly as wide as the one on the
+outside. A flash of the light showed a door corresponding with the
+fireplace of the upper landing, and this door not being locked, we
+entered a large room, rather dimly lighted by strongly barred windows
+that gave into a blind courtyard, of which there had been no
+indication heretofore, either outside or inside the castle. Broken
+glass crunched under our feet, and I saw that the floor was strewn
+with wine bottles whose necks had been snapped off to save the pulling
+of the cork. On a mattress at the farther end of the room lay a man
+with gray hair, and shaggy, unkempt iron-gray beard. He seemed either
+asleep or dead, but when I turned my electric light full on his face
+he proved to be still alive, for he rubbed his eyes languidly, and
+groaned, rather than spoke:--
+
+'Is that you at last, you beast of a butler? Bring me something to
+eat, in Heaven's name!'
+
+I shook him wider awake. He seemed to be drowsed with drink, and was
+fearfully emaciated. When I got him on his feet, I noticed then the
+deformity that characterised one of them. We assisted him through the
+aperture, and down into the dining-room, where he cried out
+continually for something to eat, but when we placed food before him,
+he could scarcely touch it. He became more like a human being when he
+had drunk two glasses of wine, and I saw at once he was not as old as
+his gray hair seemed to indicate. There was a haunted look in his
+eyes, and he watched the door as if apprehensive.
+
+'Where is that butler?' he asked at last.
+
+'Dead,' I replied.
+
+'Did I kill him?'
+
+'No; he fell down the stairway and broke his neck.'
+
+The man laughed harshly.
+
+'Where is my father?'
+
+'Who is your father?'
+
+'Lord Rantremly.'
+
+'He is dead also.'
+
+'How came he to die?'
+
+'He died from a stroke of paralysis on the morning the butler was
+killed.'
+
+The rescued man made no comment on this, but turned and ate a little
+more of his food. Then he said to me:--
+
+'Do you know a girl named Sophia Brooks?'
+
+'Yes. For ten years she thought you dead.'
+
+'Ten years! Good God, do you mean to say I've been in there only ten
+years? Why, I'm an old man. I must be sixty at least.'
+
+'No; you're not much over thirty.'
+
+'Is Sophia--' He stopped, and the haunted look came into his eyes
+again.
+
+'No. She is all right, and she is here.'
+
+'Here?'
+
+'Somewhere in the grounds. I sent her and the servant out for a walk,
+and told them not to return till luncheon time, as the constable and I
+had something to do, and did not wish to be interrupted.'
+
+The man ran his hand through his long tangled beard.
+
+'I should like to be trimmed up a bit before I see Sophia,' he said.
+
+'I can do that for you, my lord,' cried the constable.
+
+'My lord?' echoed the man. 'Oh, yes, I understand. You are a
+policeman, are you not?'
+
+'Yes, my lord, chief constable.'
+
+'Then I shall give myself up to you. I killed the butler.'
+
+'Oh, impossible, my lord!'
+
+'No, it isn't. The beast, as I called him, was getting old, and one
+morning he forgot to close the door behind him. I followed him
+stealthily out, and at the head of the stair planted my foot in the
+small of his back, which sent him headlong. There was an infernal
+crash. I did not mean to kill the brute, but merely to escape, and
+just as I was about to run down the stairway, I was appalled to see my
+father looking like--looking like--well, I won't attempt to say what
+he looked like; but all my old fear of him returned. As he strode
+towards me, along the corridor, I was in such terror that I jumped
+through the secret door and slammed it shut.'
+
+'Where is the secret door?' I asked.
+
+'The secret door is that fireplace. The whole fireplace moves inward
+if you push aside the carved ornament at the left-hand corner.'
+
+'Is it a dummy fireplace, then?'
+
+'No, you may build a fire in it, and the smoke will escape up the
+chimney. But I killed the butler, constable, though not intending it,
+I swear.'
+
+And now the constable shone forth like the real rough diamond he was.
+
+'My lord, we'll say nothing about that. Legally you didn't do it. You
+see, there's been an inquest on the butler and the jury brought in the
+verdict, "Death by accident, through stumbling from the top of the
+stair." You can't go behind a coroner's inquest, my lord.'
+
+'Indeed,' said his lordship, with the first laugh in which he had
+indulged for many a year. 'I don't want to go behind anything,
+constable, I've been behind that accursed chimney too long to wish any
+further imprisonment.'
+
+
+
+
+7. _The Liberation of Wyoming Ed_
+
+
+A man should present the whole truth to his doctor, his lawyer, or his
+detective. If a doctor is to cure, he must be given the full
+confidence of the patient; if a lawyer is to win a case he needs to
+know what tells against his client as well as the points in his
+favour; if a secret agent is to solve a mystery all the cards should
+be put on the table. Those who half trust a professional man need not
+be disappointed when results prove unsatisfactory.
+
+A partial confidence reposed in me led to the liberation of a
+dangerous criminal, caused me to associate with a robber much against
+my own inclination, and brought me within danger of the law. Of
+course, I never pretend to possess that absolute confidence in the law
+which seems to be the birthright of every Englishman. I have lived too
+intimately among the machinery of the law, and have seen too many of
+its ghastly mistakes, to hold it in that blind esteem which appears to
+be prevalent in the British Isles.
+
+There is a doggerel couplet which typifies this spirit better than
+anything I can write, and it runs:--
+
+    No rogue e'er felt the halter draw,
+    With a good opinion of the law.
+
+Those lines exemplify the trend of British thought in this direction.
+If you question a verdict of their courts you are a rogue, and that
+ends the matter. And yet when an Englishman undertakes to circumvent
+the law, there is no other man on earth who will go to greater
+lengths. An amazing people! Never understandable by the sane of other
+countries.
+
+It was entirely my own fault that I became involved in affairs which
+were almost indefensible and wholly illegal.
+
+My client first tried to bribe me into compliance with his wishes,
+which bribe I sternly refused. Then he partially broke down and, quite
+unconsciously as I take it, made an appeal to the heart--a strange
+thing for an Englishman to do. My kind heart has ever been my most
+vulnerable point. We French are sentimentalists. France has before now
+staked its very existence for an ideal, while other countries fight
+for continents, cash, or commerce. You cannot pierce me with a lance
+of gold, but wave a wand of sympathy, and I am yours.
+
+There waited upon me in my flat a man who gave his name as Douglas
+Sanderson, which may or may not have been his legitimate title. This
+was a question into which I never probed, and at the moment of writing
+am as ignorant of his true cognomen, if that was not it, as on the
+morning he first met me. He was an elderly man of natural dignity and
+sobriety, slow in speech, almost sombre in dress. His costume was not
+quite that of a professional man, and not quite that of a gentleman. I
+at once recognised the order to which he belonged, and a most
+difficult class it is to deal with. He was the confidential servant or
+steward of some ancient and probably noble family, embodying in
+himself all the faults and virtues, each a trifle accentuated, of the
+line he served, and to which, in order to produce him and his like,
+his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had doubtless been
+attached. It is frequently the case that the honour of the house he
+serves is more dear to him than it is to the representative of that
+house. Such a man is almost always the repository of family secrets; a
+repository whose inviolability gold cannot affect, threats sway, or
+cajolery influence.
+
+I knew, when I looked at him, that practically I was looking at his
+master, for I have known many cases where even the personal appearance
+of the two was almost identical, which may have given rise to the
+English phrase, 'Like master, like man.' The servant was a little more
+haughty, a little less kind, a little more exclusive, a little less
+confidential, a little more condescending, a little less human, a
+little more Tory, and altogether a little less pleasant and easy
+person to deal with.
+
+'Sir,' he began, when I had waved him to a seat, 'I am a very rich
+man, and can afford to pay well for the commission I request you to
+undertake. To ask you to name your own terms may seem unbusinesslike,
+so I may say at the outset I am not a business man. The service I
+shall ask will involve the utmost secrecy, and for that I am willing
+to pay. It may expose you to risk of limb or liberty, and for that I
+am willing to pay. It will probably necessitate the expenditure of a
+large sum of money; that sum is at your disposal.'
+
+Here he paused; he had spoken slowly and impressively, with a touch of
+arrogance in his tone which aroused to his prejudice, the
+combativeness latent in my nature. However, at this juncture I merely
+bowed my head, and replied in accents almost as supercilious as his
+own:--
+
+'The task must either be unworthy or unwelcome. In mentioning first
+the compensation, you are inverting the natural order of things. You
+should state at the outset what you expect me to do, then, if I accept
+the commission, it is time to discuss the details of expenditure.'
+
+Either he had not looked for such a reply, or was loath to open his
+budget, for he remained a few moments with eyes bent upon the floor,
+and lips compressed in silence. At last he went on, without change of
+inflection, without any diminution of that air of condescension, which
+had so exasperated me in the beginning, and which was preparing a
+downfall for himself that would rudely shake the cold dignity which
+encompassed him like a cloak:--
+
+'It is difficult for a father to confide in a complete stranger the
+vagaries of a beloved son, and before doing so you must pledge your
+word that my communication will be regarded as strictly confidential.'
+
+'_Cela va sans dire_.'
+
+'I do not understand French,' said Mr. Sanderson severely, as if the
+use of the phrase were an insult to him.
+
+I replied nonchalantly,--
+
+'It means, as a matter of course; that goes without saying. Whatever
+you care to tell me about your son will be mentioned to no one. Pray
+proceed, without further circumlocution, for my time is valuable.'
+
+'My son was always a little wild and impatient of control. Although
+everything he could wish was at his disposal here at home, he chose to
+visit America, where he fell into bad company. I assure you there is
+no real harm in the boy, but he became implicated with others, and has
+suffered severely for his recklessness. For five years he has been an
+inmate of a prison in the West. He was known and convicted under the
+name of Wyoming Ed.'
+
+'What was his crime?'
+
+'His alleged crime was the stopping, and robbing, of a railway train.'
+
+'For how long was he sentenced?'
+
+'He was sentenced for life.'
+
+'What do you wish me to do?'
+
+'Every appeal has been made to the governor of the State in an
+endeavour to obtain a pardon. These appeals have failed. I am informed
+that if money enough is expended it may be possible to arrange my
+son's escape.'
+
+'In other words, you wish me to bribe the officials of the jail?'
+
+'I assure you the lad is innocent.'
+
+For the first time a quiver of human emotion came into the old man's
+voice.
+
+'Then, if you can prove that, why not apply for a new trial?'
+
+'Unfortunately, the circumstances of the case, of his arrest on the
+train itself, the number of witnesses against him, give me no hope
+that a new trial would end in a different verdict, even if a new trial
+could be obtained, which I am informed is not possible. Every legal
+means tending to his liberation has already been tried.'
+
+'I see. And now you are determined to adopt illegal means? I refuse to
+have anything to do with the malpractice you propose. You objected to
+a phrase in French, Mr. Sanderson, perhaps one in Latin will please you
+better. It is "_Veritas praevalebit_," which means, "Truth will
+prevail." I shall set your mind entirely at rest regarding your son.
+Your son at this moment occupies a humble, if honourable, position in
+the great house from which you came, and he hopes in time worthily to
+fill his father's shoes, as you have filled the shoes of your father.
+You are not a rich man, but a servant. Your son never was in America,
+and never will go there. It is your master's son, the heir to great
+English estates, who became the Wyoming Ed of the Western prison. Even
+from what you say, I do not in the least doubt he was justly
+convicted, and you may go back to your master and tell him so. You
+came here to conceal the shameful secret of a wealthy and noble house;
+you may return knowing that secret has been revealed, and that the
+circumstances in which you so solemnly bound me to secrecy never
+existed. Sir, that is the penalty of lying.'
+
+The old man's contempt for me had been something to be felt, so
+palpable was it. The armour of icy reserve had been so complete that
+actually I had expected to see him rise with undiminished hauteur, and
+leave the room, disdaining further parley with one who had insulted
+him. Doubtless that is the way in which his master would have acted,
+but even in the underling I was unprepared for the instantaneous
+crumbling of this monument of pomp and pride. A few moments after I
+began to speak in terms as severe as his own, his trembling hands
+grasped the arms of the chair in which he sat, and his ever-widening
+eyes, which came to regard me with something like superstitious dread
+as I went on, showed me I had launched my random arrow straight at the
+bull's-eye of fact. His face grew mottled and green rather than pale.
+When at last I accused him of lying, he arose slowly, shaking like a
+man with a palsy, but, unable to support himself erect, sank
+helplessly back into his chair again. His head fell forward to the
+table before him, and he sobbed aloud.
+
+'God help me!' he cried, 'it is not my own secret I am trying to
+guard.'
+
+I sprang to the door, and turned the key in the lock so that by no
+chance might we be interrupted; then, going to the sideboard, I poured
+him out a liqueur glass full of the finest Cognac ever imported from
+south of the Loire, and tapping him on the shoulder, said brusquely:--
+
+'Here, drink this. The case is no worse than it was half an hour ago.
+I shall not betray the secret.'
+
+He tossed off the brandy, and with some effort regained his
+self-control.
+
+'I have done my errand badly,' he wailed. 'I don't know what I have
+said that has led you to so accurate a statement of the real
+situation, but I have been a blundering fool. God forgive me, when so
+much depended on my making no mistake.'
+
+'Don't let that trouble you,' I replied; 'nothing you said gave me the
+slightest clue.'
+
+'You called me a liar,' he continued, 'and that is a hard word from
+one man to another, but I would not lie for myself, and when I do it
+for one I revere and respect, my only regret is that I have done it
+without avail.'
+
+'My dear sir,' I assured him, 'the fault is not with yourself at all.
+You were simply attempting the impossible. Stripped and bare, your
+proposal amounts to this. I am to betake myself to the United States,
+and there commit a crime, or a series of crimes, in bribing sworn
+officials to turn traitor to their duty and permit a convict to
+escape.'
+
+'You put it very harshly, sir. You must admit that, especially in new
+countries, there is lawlessness within the law as well as outside of
+it. The real criminals in the robbery of the railway train escaped; my
+young master, poor fellow, was caught. His father, one of the proudest
+men in England, has grown prematurely old under the burden of this
+terrible dishonour. He is broken-hearted, and a dying man, yet he
+presents an impassive front to the world, with all the ancient courage
+of his race. My young master is an only son, and failing his
+appearance, should his father die, title and estate will pass to
+strangers. Our helplessness in this situation adds to its horror. We
+dare not make any public move. My old master is one with such
+influence among the governing class of this country, of which he has
+long been a member, that the average Englishman, if his name were
+mentioned, would think his power limitless. Yet that power he dare not
+exert to save his own son from a felon's life and death. However much
+he or another may suffer, publicity must be avoided, and this is a
+secret which cannot safely be shared with more than those who know it
+now.'
+
+'How many know it?'
+
+'In this country, three persons. In an American prison, one.'
+
+'Have you kept up communication with the young man?'
+
+'Oh, yes.'
+
+'Direct?'
+
+'No; through a third person. My young master has implored his father
+not to write to him direct.'
+
+'This go-between, as we may call him, is the third person in the
+secret? Who is he?'
+
+'That I dare not tell you!'
+
+'Mr. Sanderson, it would be much better for your master and his son
+that you should be more open with me. These half-confidences are
+misleading. Has the son made any suggestion regarding his release?'
+
+'Oh yes, but not the suggestion I have put before you. His latest
+letter was to the effect that within six months or so there is to be
+an election for governor. He proposes that a large sum of money shall
+be used to influence this election so that a man pledged to pardon him
+may sit in the governor's chair.'
+
+'I see. And this sum of money is to be paid to the third person you
+referred to?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'May I take it that this third person is the one to whom various sums
+have been paid during the last five years in order to bribe the
+governor to pardon the young man?'
+
+Sanderson hesitated a moment before answering; in fact, he appeared so
+torn between inclination and duty; anxious to give me whatever
+information I deemed necessary, yet hemmed in by the instructions
+with which his master had limited him, that at last I waved my hand
+and said:--
+
+'You need not reply, Mr. Sanderson. That third party is the crux of the
+situation. I strongly suspect him of blackmail. If you would but name
+him, and allow me to lure him to these rooms, I possess a little
+private prison of my own into which I could thrust him, and I venture
+to say that before he had passed a week in darkness, on bread and
+water, we should have the truth about this business.'
+
+Look you now the illogical nature of an Englishman! Poor old
+Sanderson, who had come to me with a proposal to break the law of
+America, seemed horror-stricken when I airily suggested the immuring
+of a man in a dungeon here in England. He gazed at me in amazement,
+then cast his eyes furtively about him, as if afraid a trap door would
+drop beneath him, and land him in my private _oubliette_.
+
+'Do not be alarmed, Mr. Sanderson, you are perfectly safe. You are
+beginning at the wrong end of this business, and it seems to me five
+years of contributions to this third party without any result might
+have opened the eyes of even the most influential nobleman in England,
+not to mention those of his faithful servant.'
+
+'Indeed, sir,' said Sanderson, 'I must confess to you that I have long
+had a suspicion of this third person, but my master has clung to him
+as his only hope, and if this third person were interfered with, I may
+tell you that he has deposited in London at some place unknown to us,
+a full history of the case, and if it should happen that he disappears
+for more than a week at a time, this record will be brought to light.'
+
+'My dear Mr. Sanderson, that device is as old as Noah and his ark. I
+should chance that. Let me lay this fellow by the heels, and I will
+guarantee that no publicity follows.'
+
+Sanderson sadly shook his head.
+
+'Everything might happen as you say, sir, but all that would put us no
+further forward. The only point is the liberation of my young master.
+It is possible that the person unmentioned, whom we may call Number
+Three, has been cheating us throughout, but that is a matter of no
+consequence.'
+
+'Pardon me, but I think it is. Suppose your young master here, and at
+liberty. This Number Three would continue to maintain the power over
+him which he seems to have held over his father for the last five
+years.'
+
+'I think we can prevent that, sir, if my plan is carried out.'
+
+'The scheme for bribing the American officials is yours, then?'
+
+'Yes, sir, and I may say I am taking a great deal upon myself in
+coming to you. I am, in fact, disobeying the implied commands of my
+master, but I have seen him pay money, and very large sums of money,
+to this Number Three for the last five years and nothing has come of
+it. My master is an unsuspicious man, who has seen little of the real
+world, and thinks everyone as honest as himself.'
+
+'Well, that may be, Mr. Sanderson, but permit me to suggest that the
+one who proposes a scheme of bribery, and, to put it mildly, an
+evasion of the law, shows some knowledge of the lower levels of this
+world, and is not quite in a position to plume himself on his own
+honesty.'
+
+'I am coming to that, Mr. Valmont. My master knows nothing whatever of
+my plan. He has given me the huge sum of money demanded by Number
+Three, and he supposes that amount has been already paid over. As a
+matter of fact, it has not been paid over, and will not be until my
+suggestion has been carried out, and failed. In fact, I am about to
+use this money, all of it if necessary, if you will undertake the
+commission. I have paid Number Three his usual monthly allowance, and
+will continue to do so. I have told him my master has his proposal
+under consideration; that there are still six months to come and go
+upon, and that my master is not one who decides in a hurry.'
+
+'Number Three says there is an election in six months for governor.
+What is the name of the state?'
+
+Sanderson informed me. I walked to my book-case, and took down a
+current American Year Book, consulted it, and returned to the table.
+
+'There is no election in that State, Mr. Sanderson, for eighteen
+months. Number Three is simply a blackmailer, as I have suspected.'
+
+'Quite so, sir,' replied Sanderson, taking a newspaper from his
+pocket. 'I read in this paper an account of a man immured in a Spanish
+dungeon. His friends arranged it with the officials in this way: The
+prisoner was certified to have died, and his body was turned over to
+his relatives. Now, if that could be done in America, it would serve
+two purposes. It would be the easiest way to get my young master out
+of the jail. It would remain a matter of record that he had died,
+therefore there could be no search for him, as would be the case if he
+simply escaped. If you were so good as to undertake this task you
+might perhaps see my young master in his cell, and ask him to write to
+this Number Three with whom he is in constant communication, telling
+him he was very ill. Then you could arrange with the prison doctor
+that this person was informed of my young master's death.'
+
+'Very well, we can try that, but a blackmailer is not so easily thrown
+off the scent. Once he has tasted blood he is a human man-eating
+tiger. But still, there is always my private dungeon in the
+background, and if your plan for silencing him fails, I guarantee that
+my more drastic and equally illegal method will be a success.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It will be seen that my scruples concerning the acceptance of this
+commission, and my first dislike for the old man had both faded away
+during the conversation which I have set down in the preceding
+chapter. I saw him under the stress of deep emotion, and latterly
+began to realise the tremendous chances he was taking in contravening
+the will of his imperious master. If the large sum of money was long
+withheld from the blackmailer, Douglas Sanderson ran the risk of
+Number Three opening up communication direct with his master.
+Investigation would show that the old servant had come perilously near
+laying himself open to a charge of breach of trust, and even of
+defalcation with regard to the money, and all this danger he was
+heroically incurring for the unselfish purpose of serving the
+interests of his employer. During our long interview old Sanderson
+gradually became a hero in my eyes, and entirely in opposition to the
+resolution I had made at the beginning, I accepted his commission at
+the end of it.
+
+Nevertheless, my American experiences are those of which I am least
+proud, and all I care to say upon the subject is that my expedition
+proved completely successful. The late convict was my companion on the
+_Arontic_, the first steamship sailing for England after we reached
+New York from the west. Of course I knew that two or three years
+roughing it in mining camps and on ranches, followed by five years in
+prison, must have produced a radical effect not only on the character,
+but also in the personal appearance of a man who had undergone these
+privations. Nevertheless, making due allowance for all this, I could
+not but fear that the ancient English family, of which this young man
+was the hope and pride, would be exceedingly disappointed with him. In
+spite of the change which grooming and the wearing of a civilised
+costume made, Wyoming Ed still looked much more the criminal than the
+gentleman. I considered myself in honour bound not to make any
+inquiries of the young man regarding his parentage. Of course, if I
+had wished to possess myself of the secret, I had but to touch a
+button under the table when Sanderson left my rooms in the Imperial
+Flats, which would have caused him to be shadowed and run to earth. I
+may also add that the ex-prisoner volunteered no particulars about
+himself or his family. Only once on board ship did he attempt to
+obtain some information from me as we walked up and down the deck
+together.
+
+'You are acting for someone else, I suppose?' he said.
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'For someone in England?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'He put up the money, did he?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+There was a pause, during which we took two or three turns in silence.
+
+'Of course, there's no secret about it,' he said at last. 'I expected
+help from the other side, but Colonel Jim has been so mighty long
+about it, I was afraid he'd forgotten me.'
+
+'Who is Colonel Jim?'
+
+'Colonel Jim Baxter. Wasn't it him gave you the money?'
+
+'I never heard of the man before.'
+
+'Then who put up the coin?'
+
+'Douglas Sanderson,' I replied, looking at him sidewise as I mentioned
+the name. It had apparently no effect upon him. He wrinkled his brow
+for a moment, then said:--
+
+'Well, if you never heard of Baxter, I never heard of Sanderson.'
+
+This led me to suspect that Douglas Sanderson did not give me his own
+name, and doubtless the address with which he had furnished me was
+merely temporary. I did not cable to him from America regarding the
+success of the expedition, because I could not be certain it was a
+success until I was safely on English ground, and not even then, to
+tell the truth. Anyhow, I wished to leave no trail behind me, but the
+moment the _Arontic_ reached Liverpool, I telegraphed Sanderson to
+meet us that evening at my flat.
+
+He was waiting for me when Wyoming Ed and I entered together. The old
+man was quite evidently in a state of nervous tension. He had been
+walking up and down the room with hands clenched behind his back, and
+now stood at the end farthest from the door as he heard us approach,
+with his hands still clasped behind his back, and an expression of
+deep anxiety upon his rugged face. All the electric lamps were turned
+on, and the room was bright as day.
+
+'Have you not brought him with you?' he cried.
+
+'Brought him with me?' I echoed. 'Here is Wyoming Ed!'
+
+The old man glared at him for a moment or two stupefied, then
+moaned:--
+
+'Oh, my God, my God, that is not the man!'
+
+I turned to my short-haired fellow traveller.
+
+'You told me you were Wyoming Ed!'
+
+He laughed uneasily.
+
+'Well, in a manner of speaking, so I have been for the last five
+years, but I wasn't Wyoming Ed before that. Say, old man, are you
+acting for Colonel Jim Baxter?'
+
+Sanderson, on whom a dozen years seemed to have fallen since we
+entered the room, appeared unable to speak, and merely shook his head
+in a hopeless sort of way.
+
+'I say, boys,' ejaculated the ex-convict, with an uneasy laugh,
+half-comic, half-bewildered, 'this is a sort of mix-up, isn't it? I
+wish Colonel Jim was here to explain. I say, Boss,' he cried suddenly,
+turning sharp on me, 'this here misfit's not my fault. I didn't change
+the children in the cradle. You don't intend to send me back to that
+hell-hole, do you?'
+
+'No,' I said, 'not if you tell the truth. Sit down.'
+
+The late prisoner seated himself in a chair as close to the door as
+possible, hitching a little nearer as he sat down. His face had taken
+on a sharp, crafty aspect like that of a trapped rat.
+
+'You are perfectly safe,' I assured him. 'Sit over here by the table.
+Even if you bolted through that door, you couldn't get out of this
+flat. Mr. Sanderson, take a chair.'
+
+The old man sank despondently into the one nearest at hand. I pressed
+a button, and when my servant entered, I said to him:--
+
+'Bring some Cognac and Scotch whisky, glasses, and two syphons of
+soda.'
+
+'You haven't got any Kentucky or Canadian?' asked the prisoner,
+moistening his lips. The jail whiteness in his face was now
+accentuated by the pallor of fear, and the haunted look of the escaped
+convict glimmered from his eyes. In spite of the comfort I had
+attempted to bestow upon him, he knew that he had been rescued in
+mistake for another, and for the first time since he left prison
+realised he was among strangers, and not among friends. In his trouble
+he turned to the beverage of his native continent.
+
+'Bring a bottle of Canadian whisky,' I said to the servant, who
+disappeared, and shortly returned with what I had ordered. I locked
+the door after him, and put the key in my pocket.
+
+'What am I to call you?' I asked the ex-convict.
+
+With a forced laugh he said; 'You can call me Jack for short.'
+
+'Very well, Jack, help yourself,' and he poured out a very liberal
+glass of the Dominion liquor, refusing to dilute it with soda.
+Sanderson took Scotch, and I helped myself to a _petit verre_ of
+brandy.
+
+'Now, Jack,' I began, 'I may tell you plainly that if I wished to send
+you back to prison, I could not do so without incriminating myself.
+You are legally dead, and you have now a chance to begin life anew, an
+opportunity of which I hope you will take advantage. If you were to
+apply three weeks from today at the prison doors, they would not dare
+admit you. You are dead. Does that console you?'
+
+'Well, squire, you can bet your bottom dollar I never thought I'd be
+pleased to hear I was dead, but I'm glad if it's all fixed as you say,
+and you can bet your last pair of boots I'm going to keep out of the
+jug in future if I can.'
+
+'That's right. Now, I can promise that if you answer all my questions
+truthfully, you shall be given money enough to afford you a new
+beginning in life.'
+
+'Good enough,' said Jack briefly.
+
+'You were known in prison as Wyoming Ed?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'If that was not your name, why did you use it?'
+
+'Because Colonel Jim, on the train, asked me to do that. He said it
+would give him a pull in England to get me free.'
+
+'Did you know Wyoming Ed?'
+
+'Yes, sir, he was one of us three that held up the train.'
+
+'What became of him?'
+
+'He was shot dead.'
+
+'By one of the passengers?'
+
+There was silence, during which the old man groaned, and bowed his
+head. Jack was studying the floor. Then he looked up at me and said:--
+
+'You don't expect me to give a pal away, do you?'
+
+'As that pal has given you away for the last five years, it seems to
+me you need not show very much consideration for him.'
+
+'I'm not so sure he did.'
+
+'I am; but never mind that point. Colonel Jim Baxter shot Wyoming Ed
+and killed him. Why?'
+
+'See here, my friend, you're going a little too fast. I didn't say
+that.'
+
+He reached somewhat defiantly for the bottle from Canada.
+
+'Pardon me,' I said, rising quietly, and taking possession of the
+bottle myself, 'it grieves me more than I can say to restrict my
+hospitality. I have never done such a thing in my life before, but
+this is not a drinking bout; it is a very serious conference. The
+whisky you have already taken has given you a bogus courage, and a
+false view of things. Are you going to tell me the truth, or are you
+not?'
+
+Jack pondered on this for a while, then he said:--
+
+'Well, sir, I'm perfectly willing to tell you the truth as far as it
+concerns myself, but I don't want to rat on a friend.'
+
+'As I have said, he isn't your friend. He told you to take the name of
+Wyoming Ed, so that he might blackmail the father of Wyoming Ed. He
+has done so for the last five years, living in luxury here in London,
+and not moving a finger to help you. In fact, nothing would appal him
+more than to learn that you are now in this country. By this time he
+has probably received the news from the prison doctor that you are
+dead, and so thinks himself safe for ever.'
+
+'If you can prove that to me--' said Jack.
+
+'I can and will,' I interrupted; then, turning to Sanderson, I
+demanded:--
+
+'When are you to meet this man next?'
+
+'Tonight, at nine o'clock,' he answered. 'His monthly payment is due,
+and he is clamouring for the large sum I told you of.'
+
+'Where do you meet him? In London?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'At your master's town house?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Will you take us there, and place us where we can see him and he
+can't see us?'
+
+'Yes. I trust to your honour, Mr. Valmont. A closed carriage will call
+for me at eight, and you can accompany me. Still, after all, Mr
+Valmont, we have no assurance that he is the same person this young
+man refers to.'
+
+'I am certain he is. He does not go under the name of Colonel Jim
+Baxter, I suppose?'
+
+'No.'
+
+The convict had been looking from one to the other of us during this
+colloquy. Suddenly he drew his chair up closer to the table.
+
+'Look here,' he said, 'you fellows are square, I can see that, and
+after all's said and done, you're the man that got me out of clink.
+Now, I half suspicion you're right about Colonel Jim, but, anyhow,
+I'll tell you exactly what happened. Colonel Jim was a Britisher, and
+I suppose that's why he and Wyoming Ed chummed together a good deal.
+We called Jim Baxter Colonel, but he never said he was a colonel or
+anything else. I was told he belonged to the British army, and that
+something happened in India so that he had to light out He never
+talked about himself, but he was a mighty taking fellow when he laid
+out to please anybody. We called him Colonel because he was so
+straight in the back, and walked as if he were on parade. When this
+young English tenderfoot came out, he and the Colonel got to be as
+thick as thieves, and the Colonel won a good deal of money from him at
+cards, but that didn't make any difference in their friendship. The
+Colonel most always won when he played cards, and perhaps that's what
+started the talk about why he left the British army. He was the
+luckiest beggar I ever knew in that line of business. We all met in
+the rush to the new goldfields, which didn't pan out worth a cent, and
+one after another of the fellows quit and went somewhere else. But
+Wyoming Ed, he held on, even after Colonel Jim wanted to quit. As long
+as there were plenty of fellows there, Colonel Jim never lacked money,
+although he didn't dig it out of the ground, but when the population
+thinned down to only a few of us, then we all struck hard times. Now,
+I knew Colonel Jim was going to hold up a train. He asked me if I
+would join him, and I said I would if there wasn't too many in the
+gang. I'd been into that business afore, and I knew there was no
+greater danger than to have a whole mob of fellows. Three men can hold
+up a train better than three dozen. Everybody's scared except the
+express messenger, and it's generally easy to settle him, for he
+stands where the light is, and we shoot from the dark. Well, I
+thought at first Wyoming Ed was on to the scheme, because when we were
+waiting in the cut to signal the train he talked about us going on
+with her to San Francisco, but I thought he was only joking. I guess
+that Colonel Jim imagined that when it came to the pinch, Ed wouldn't
+back out and leave us in the lurch: he knew Ed was as brave as a lion.
+In the cut, where the train would be on the up grade, the Colonel got
+his lantern ready, lit it, and wrapped a thin red silk handkerchief
+round it. The express was timed to pass up there about midnight, but
+it was near one o'clock when her headlight came in sight. We knew all
+the passengers would be in bed in the sleepers, and asleep in the
+smoking car and the day coach. We didn't intend to meddle with them.
+The Colonel had brought a stick or two of dynamite from the mines, and
+was going to blow open the safe in the express car, and climb out with
+whatever was inside.
+
+'The train stopped to the signal all right, and the Colonel fired a
+couple of shots just to let the engineer know we meant business. The
+engineer and fireman at once threw up their hands, then the Colonel
+turns to Ed, who was standing there like a man pole-axed, and says to
+him mighty sharp, just like if he was speaking to a regiment of
+soldiers:--
+
+'"You keep these two men covered. Come on, Jack!" he says to me, and
+then we steps up to the door of the express car, which the fellow
+inside had got locked and bolted. The Colonel fires his revolver in
+through the lock, then flung his shoulder agin the door, and it went
+in with a crash, which was followed instantly by another crash, for
+the little expressman was game right through. He had put out the
+lights and was blazing away at the open door. The Colonel sprang for
+cover inside the car, and wasn't touched, but one of the shots took me
+just above the knee, and broke my leg, so I went down in a heap. The
+minute the Colonel counted seven shots he was on to that express
+messenger like a tiger, and had him tied up in a hard knot before you
+could shake a stick. Then, quick as a wink he struck a match, and lit
+the lamp. Plucky as the express messenger was, he looked scared to
+death, and now, when Colonel Jim held a pistol to his head, he gave up
+the keys and told him how to open the safe. I had fallen back against
+the corner of the car, inside, and was groaning with Pain. Colonel Jim
+was scooping out the money from the shelves of the safe, and stuffing
+it into a sack.
+
+'"Are you hurt, Jack?" he cried.
+
+'"Yes, my leg's broke."
+
+'"Don't let that trouble you; we'll get you clear all right. Do you
+think you can ride your horse?"
+
+'"I don't believe it," said I. "I guess I'm done for," and I thought I
+was.
+
+'Colonel Jim never looked round, but he went through that safe in a
+way that'd make your hair curl, throwing aside the bulky packages
+after tearing them open, taking only cash, which he thrust into a bag
+he had with him, till he was loaded like a millionaire. Then suddenly
+he swore, for the train began to move.
+
+'"What is that fool Ed doing?" he shouted, rising to his feet.
+
+'At that minute Ed came in, pistol in each hand, and his face ablaze.
+
+'"Here, you cursed thief!" he cried, "I didn't come with you to rob a
+train!"
+
+'"Get outside, you fool!" roared Colonel Jim, "get outside and stop
+this train. Jack has got his leg broke. Don't come another step
+towards me, or I'll kill you!"
+
+'But Ed, he walked right on, Colonel Jim backing, then there was a
+shot that rang like cannon fire in the closed car, and Ed fell forward
+on his face. Colonel Jim turned him over, and I saw he had been hit
+square in the middle of the forehead. The train was now going at good
+speed, and we were already miles away from where our horses were tied.
+I never heard a man swear like Colonel Jim. He went through the
+pockets of Ed, and took a bundle of papers that was inside his coat,
+and this he stuffed away in his own clothes. Then he turned to me, and
+his voice was like a lamb.
+
+'"Jack, old man," he said, "I can't help you. They're going to nab
+you, but not for murder. The expressman there will be your witness. It
+isn't murder anyhow on my part, but self-defence. You saw he was
+coming at me when I warned him to keep away."
+
+'All this he said in a loud voice, for the expressman to hear, then he
+bent over to me and whispered:--
+
+'"I'll get the best lawyer I can for you, but I'm afraid they're bound
+to convict you, and if they do, I will spend every penny of this money
+to get you free. You call yourself Wyoming Ed at the trial. I've taken
+all this man's papers so that he can't be identified. And don't you
+worry if you're sentenced, for remember I'll be working night and day
+for you, and if money can get you out, you'll be got out, because
+these papers will help me to get the cash required. Ed's folks are
+rich in England, so they'll fork over to get you out if you pretend to
+be him." With that he bade me good-bye and jumped off the train.
+There, gentlemen, that's the whole story just as it happened, and
+that's why I thought it was Colonel Jim had sent you to get me free.'
+
+There was not the slightest doubt in my mind that the convict had told
+the exact truth, and that night, at nine o'clock, he identified Major
+Renn as the former Colonel Jim Baxter. Sanderson placed us in a
+gallery where we could see, but could not hear. The old man seemed
+determined that we should not know where we were, and took every
+precaution to keep us in the dark. I suppose he put us out of earshot,
+so that if the Major mentioned the name of the nobleman we should not
+be any the wiser. We remained in the gallery for some time after the
+major had left before Sanderson came to us again, carrying with him a
+packet.
+
+'The carriage is waiting at the door,' he said, 'and with your
+permission, Monsieur Valmont, I will accompany you to your flat.'
+
+I smiled at the old man's extreme caution, but he continued very
+gravely:--
+
+'It is not that, Monsieur Valmont. I wish to consult with you, and if
+you will accept it, I have another commission to offer.'
+
+'Well,' said I, 'I hope it is not so unsavoury as the last.' But to
+this the old man made no response.
+
+There was silence in the carriage as we drove back to my flat.
+Sanderson had taken the precaution of pulling down the blinds of the
+carriage, which he need not have troubled to do, for, as I have said,
+it would have been the simplest matter in the world for me to have
+discovered who his employer was, if I had desired to know. As a matter
+of fact, I do not know to this day whom he represented.
+
+Once more in my room with the electric light turned on, I was shocked
+and astonished to see the expression on Sanderson's face. It was the
+face of a man who would grimly commit murder and hang for it. If ever
+the thirst for vengeance was portrayed on a human countenance, it was
+on his that night. He spoke very quietly, laying down the packet
+before him on the table.
+
+'I think you will agree with me,' he said, 'that no punishment on
+earth is too severe for that creature calling himself Major Renn.'
+
+'I'm willing to shoot him dead in the streets of London tomorrow,'
+said the convict, 'if you give the word.'
+
+Sanderson went on implacably: 'He not only murdered the son, but for
+five years has kept the father in an agony of sorrow and apprehension,
+bleeding him of money all the time, which was the least of his crimes.
+Tomorrow I shall tell my master that his son has been dead these five
+years, and heavy as that blow must prove, it will be mitigated by the
+fact that his son died an honest and honourable man. I thank you for
+offering to kill this vile criminal. I intend that he shall die, but
+not so quickly or so mercifully.'
+
+Here he untied the packet, and took from it a photograph, which he
+handed to the convict.
+
+'Do you recognise that?'
+
+'Oh yes; that's Wyoming Ed as he appeared at the mine; as, indeed, he
+appeared when he was shot.'
+
+The photograph Sanderson then handed to me.
+
+'An article that I read about you in the paper, Monsieur Valmont, said
+you could impersonate anybody. Can you impersonate this young man?'
+
+'There's no difficulty in that,' I replied.
+
+'Then will you do this? I wish you two to dress in that fashion. I
+shall give you particulars of the haunts of Major Renn. I want you to
+meet him together and separately, as often as you can, until you drive
+him mad or to suicide. He believes you to be dead,' said Sanderson,
+addressing Jack. 'I am certain he has the news, by his manner tonight.
+He is extremely anxious to get the lump sum of money which I have been
+holding back from him. You may address him, for he will recognise your
+voice as well as your person, but Monsieur Valmont had better not
+speak, as then he might know it was not the voice of my poor young
+master. I suggest that you meet him first together, always at night.
+The rest I leave in your hands, Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+With that the old man rose and left us.
+
+Perhaps I should stop this narration here, for I have often wondered
+if practically I am guilty of manslaughter.
+
+We did not meet Major Renn together, but arranged that he should
+encounter Jack under one lamp-post, and me under the next. It was just
+after midnight, and the streets were practically deserted. The theatre
+crowds had gone, and the traffic was represented by the last 'buses,
+and a belated cab now and then. Major Renn came down the steps of his
+club, and under the first lamp-post, with the light shining full upon
+him, Jack the convict stepped forth.
+
+'Colonel Jim,' he said, 'Ed and I are waiting for you. There were
+three in that robbery, and one was a traitor. His dead comrades ask
+the traitor to join them.'
+
+The Major staggered back against the lamp-post, drew his hand across
+his brow, and muttered, Jack told me afterwards:--
+
+'I must stop drinking! I must stop drinking!'
+
+Then he pulled himself together, and walked rapidly towards the next
+lamp-post. I stood out square in front of him, but made no sound. He
+looked at me with distended eyes, while Jack shouted out in his
+boisterous voice, that had no doubt often echoed over the plain:--
+
+'Come on, Wyoming Ed, and never mind him. He must follow.'
+
+Then he gave a war whoop. The Major did not turn round, but continued
+to stare at me, breathing stertorously like a person with apoplexy. I
+slowly pushed back my hat, and on my brow he saw the red mark of a
+bullet hole. He threw up his hands and fell with a crash to the
+pavement.
+
+'Heart failure' was the verdict of the coroner's jury.
+
+
+
+
+8. _Lady Alicia's Emeralds_
+
+
+Many Englishmen, if you speak to them of me, indulge themselves in a
+detraction that I hope they will not mind my saying is rarely graced
+by the delicacy of innuendo with which some of my own countrymen
+attempt to diminish whatever merit I may possess. Mr. Spenser Hale, of
+Scotland Yard, whose lack of imagination I have so often endeavoured
+to amend, alas! without perceptible success, was good enough to say,
+after I had begun these reminiscences, which he read with affected
+scorn, that I was wise in setting down my successes, because the life
+of Methuselah himself would not be long enough to chronicle my
+failures, and the man to whom this was said replied that it was only
+my artfulness, a word of which these people are very fond; that I
+intended to use my successes as bait, issue a small pamphlet filled
+with them, and then record my failures in a thousand volumes, after
+the plan of a Chinese encyclopaedia, selling these to the public on
+the instalment plan.
+
+Ah, well; it is not for me to pass comment on such observations. Every
+profession is marred by its little jealousies, and why should the
+coterie of detection be exempt? I hope I may never follow an example
+so deleterious, and thus be tempted to express my contempt for the
+stupidity with which, as all persons know, the official detective
+system of England is imbued. I have had my failures, of course. Did I
+ever pretend to be otherwise than human? But what has been the cause
+of these failures? They have arisen through the conservatism of the
+English. When there is a mystery to be solved, the average Englishman
+almost invariably places it in the hands of the regular police. When
+these good people are utterly baffled; when their big boots have
+crushed out all evidences that the grounds may have had to offer to a
+discerning mind; when their clumsy hands have obliterated the clues
+which are everywhere around them, I am at last called in, and if I
+fail, they say:--
+
+'What could you expect; he is a Frenchman.'
+
+This was exactly what happened in the case of Lady Alicia's emeralds.
+For two months the regular police were not only befogged, but they
+blatantly sounded the alarm to every thief in Europe. All the
+pawnbrokers' shops of Great Britain were ransacked, as if a robber of
+so valuable a collection would be foolish enough to take it to a
+pawnbroker. Of course, the police say that they thought the thief
+would dismantle the cluster, and sell the gems separately. As to this
+necklace of emeralds, possessing as it does an historical value which
+is probably in excess of its intrinsic worth, what more natural than
+that the holder of it should open negotiations with its rightful
+owner, and thus make more money by quietly restoring it than by its
+dismemberment and sale piecemeal? But such a fuss was kicked up, such
+a furore created, that it is no wonder the receiver of the goods lay
+low, and said nothing. In vain were all ports giving access to the
+Continent watched; in vain were the police of France, Belgium, and
+Holland warned to look out for this treasure. Two valuable months were
+lost, and then the Marquis of Blair sent for me! I maintain that the
+case was hopeless from the moment I took it up.
+
+It may be asked why the Marquis of Blair allowed the regular police to
+blunder along for two precious months, but anyone who is acquainted
+with that nobleman will not wonder that he clung so long to a forlorn
+hope. Very few members of the House of Peers are richer than Lord
+Blair, and still fewer more penurious. He maintained that, as he paid
+his taxes, he was entitled to protection from theft; that it was the
+duty of the Government to restore the gems, and if this proved
+impossible, to make compensation for them. This theory is not
+acceptable in the English Courts, and while Scotland Yard did all it
+could during those two months, what but failure was to be expected
+from its limited mental equipment?
+
+When I arrived at the Manor of Blair, as his lordship's very ugly and
+somewhat modern mansion house is termed, I was instantly admitted to
+his presence. I had been summoned from London by a letter in his
+lordship's own hand, on which the postage was not paid. It was late in
+the afternoon when I arrived, and our first conference was what might
+be termed futile. It was take up entirely with haggling about terms,
+the marquis endeavouring to beat down the price of my services to a
+sum so insignificant that it would barely have paid my expenses from
+London to Blair and back. Such bargaining is intensely distasteful to
+me. When the marquis found all his offers declined with a politeness
+which left no opening for anger on his part, he endeavoured to induce
+me to take up the case on a commission contingent upon my recovery of
+the gems, and as I had declined this for the twentieth time, darkness
+had come on, and the gong rang for dinner. I dined alone in the _salle
+à manger_, which appeared to be set apart for those calling at the
+mansion on business, and the meagreness of the fare, together with the
+indifferent nature of the claret, strengthened my determination to
+return to London as early as possible next morning.
+
+When the repast was finished, the dignified servingman said gravely to
+me,--
+
+'The Lady Alicia asks if you will be good enough to give her a few
+moments in the drawing-room, sir.'
+
+I followed the man to the drawing-room, and found the young lady
+seated at the piano, on which she was strumming idly and
+absentmindedly, but with a touch, nevertheless, that indicated
+advanced excellence in the art of music. She was not dressed as one
+who had just risen from the dining table, but was somewhat grimly and
+commonly attired, looking more like a cottager's daughter than a
+member of the great country family. Her head was small, and crowned
+with a mass of jet black hair. My first impression on entering the
+large, rather dimly lighted room was unfavourable, but that vanished
+instantly under the charm of a manner so graceful and vivacious, that
+in a moment I seemed to be standing in a brilliant Parisian _salon_
+rather than in the sombre drawing-room of an English country house.
+Every poise of her dainty head; every gesture of those small, perfect
+hands; every modulated tone of the voice, whether sparkling with
+laughter or caressing in confidential speech, reminded me of the
+_grandes dames_ of my own land. It was strange to find this perfect
+human flower amidst the gloomy ugliness of a huge square house built
+in the time of the Georges; but I remembered now that the Blairs are
+the English equivalent of the de Bellairs of France, from which family
+sprang the fascinating Marquise de Bellairs, who adorned the Court of
+Louis XIV. Here, advancing towards me, was the very reincarnation of
+the lovely marquise, who gave lustre to this dull world nearly three
+hundred years ago. Ah, after all, what are the English but a conquered
+race! I often forget this, and I trust I never remind them of it, but
+it enables one to forgive them much. A vivid twentieth-century
+marquise was Lady Alicia, in all except attire. What a dream some of
+our Parisian dress artists could have made of her, and here she was
+immured in this dull English house in the high-necked costume of a
+labourer's wife. 'Welcome, Monsieur Valmont,' she cried, in French of
+almost faultless intonation. 'I am so glad you have arrived,' and she
+greeted me as if I were an old friend of the family. There was nothing
+of condescension in her manner; no display of her own affability,
+while at the same time teaching me my place, and the difference in our
+stations of life. I can stand the rudeness of the nobility, but I
+detest their condescension. No; Lady Alicia was a true de Bellairs,
+and in my confusion, bending over her slender hand, I said:--
+
+'Madame la Marquise, it is a privilege to extend to you my most
+respectful salutations.'
+
+She laughed at this quietly, with the melting laugh of the
+nightingale.
+
+'Monsieur, you mistake my title. Although my uncle is a marquis, I am
+but Lady Alicia.'
+
+'Your pardon, my lady. For the moment I was back in that scintillating
+Court which surrounded Louis le Grand.'
+
+'How flatteringly you introduce yourself, monsieur. In the gallery
+upstairs there is a painting of the Marquise de Bellairs, and when I
+show it to your tomorrow, you will then understand how charmingly you
+have pleased a vain woman by your reference to that beautiful lady.
+But I must not talk in this frivolous strain, monsieur. There is
+serious business to be considered, and I assure you I looked forward
+to your coming, monsieur, with the eagerness of Sister Anne in the
+tower of Bluebeard.'
+
+I fear my expression as I bowed to her must have betrayed my
+gratification at hearing these words, so confidentially uttered by
+lips so sweet, while the glance of her lovely eyes was even more
+eloquent than her words. Instantly I felt ashamed of my chaffering
+over terms with her uncle; instantly I forgot my resolution to depart
+on the morrow; instantly I resolved to be of what assistance I could
+to this dainty lady. Alas! the heart of Valmont is today as
+unprotected against the artillery of inspiring eyes as ever it was in
+his extreme youth.
+
+'This house,' she continued vivaciously, 'has been practically in a
+state of siege for two months. I could take none of my usual walks in
+the gardens, on the lawns, or through the park, without some clumsy
+policeman in uniform crashing his way through the bushes, or some
+detective in plain clothes accosting me and questioning me under the
+pretence that he was a stranger who had lost his way. The lack of all
+subtlety in our police is something deplorable. I am sure the real
+criminal might have passed through their hands a dozen times
+unmolested, while our poor innocent servants, and the strangers within
+our gates, were made to feel that the stern eye of the law was upon
+them night and day.'
+
+The face of the young lady was an entrancing picture of animated
+indignation as she gave utterance to this truism which her countrymen
+are so slow to appreciate. I experienced a glow of satisfaction.
+
+'Yes,' she went on, 'they sent down from London an army of stupid men,
+who have kept our household in a state of abject terror for eight long
+weeks, and where are the emeralds?'
+
+As she suddenly asked this question, in the most Parisian of accents,
+with a little outward spreading of the hand, a flash of the eye, and a
+toss of the head, the united effect was something indescribable
+through the limitations of the language I am compelled to use.
+
+'Well, monsieur, your arrival has put to flight this tiresome brigade,
+if, indeed, the word flight is not too airy a term to use towards a
+company so elephantine, and I assure you a sigh of relief has gone up
+from the whole household with the exception of my uncle. I said to him
+at dinner tonight: "If Monsieur Valmont had been induced to take an
+interest in the case at first, the jewels would have been in my
+possession long before tonight."'
+
+'Ah, my lady,' I protested, 'I fear you overrate my poor ability. It
+is quite true that if I had been called in on the night of the
+robbery, my chances of success would have been infinitely greater than
+they are now.'
+
+'Monsieur,' she cried, clasping her hands over her knees, and leaning
+towards me, hypnotising me with those starry eyes, 'Monsieur, I am
+perfectly confident that before a week is past you will restore the
+necklace, if such restoration be possible. I have said so from the
+first. Now, am I right in my conjecture, monsieur, that you come here
+alone; that you bring with you no train of followers and assistants?'
+
+'That is as you have stated it, my lady.'
+
+'I was sure of it. It is to be a contest of trained mentality in
+opposition to our two months' experience of brute force.'
+
+Never before had I felt such ambition to succeed, and a determination
+not to disappoint took full possession of me. Appreciation is a needed
+stimulant, and here it was offered to me in its most intoxicating
+form. Ah, Valmont, Valmont, will you never grow old! I am sure that
+at this moment, if I had been eighty, the same thrill of enthusiasm
+would have tingled to my fingers' ends. Leave the Manor of Blair in
+the morning? Not for the Bank of France!
+
+'Has my uncle acquainted you with particulars of the robbery?'
+
+'No, madame, we were talking of other things.'
+
+The lady leaned back in her low chair, partially closed her eyes, and
+breathed a deep sigh.
+
+'I can well imagine the subject of your conversation,' she said at
+last. 'The Marquis of Blair was endeavouring to impose usurer's terms
+upon you, while you, nobly scorning such mercenary considerations, had
+perhaps resolved to leave us at the earliest opportunity.'
+
+'I assure you, my lady, that if any such conclusion had been arrived
+at on my part, it vanished the moment I was privileged to set foot in
+this drawing-room.'
+
+'It is kind of you to say that, monsieur, but you must not allow your
+conversation with my uncle to prejudice you against him. He is an old
+man now, and, of course, has his fancies. You would think him
+mercenary, perhaps, and so he is; but then so, too, am I. Oh, yes, I
+am, monsieur, frightfully mercenary. To be mercenary, I believe, means
+to be fond of money. No one is fonder of money than I, except,
+perhaps, my uncle; but you see, monsieur, we occupy the two extremes.
+He is fond of money to hoard it; I am fond of money to spend it. I am
+fond of money for the things it will buy. I should like to scatter
+largesse as did my fair ancestress in France. I should love a manor
+house in the country, and a mansion in Mayfair. I could wish to make
+everyone around me happy if the expenditure of money would do it.'
+
+'That is a form of money-love, Lady Alicia, which will find a
+multitude of admirers.'
+
+The girl shook her head and laughed merrily.
+
+'I should so dislike to forfeit your esteem, Monsieur Valmont, and
+therefore I shall not reveal the depth of my cupidity. You will learn
+that probably from my uncle, and then you will understand my extreme
+anxiety for the recovery of these jewels.'
+
+'Are they very valuable?'
+
+'Oh, yes; the necklace consists of twenty stones, no one of which
+weighs less than an ounce. Altogether, I believe, they amount to two
+thousand four hundred or two thousand five hundred carats, and their
+intrinsic value is twenty pounds a carat at least. So you see that
+means nearly fifty thousand pounds, yet even this sum is trivial
+compared with what it involves. There is something like a million at
+stake, together with my coveted manor house in the country, and my
+equally coveted mansion in Mayfair. All this is within my grasp if I
+can but recover the emeralds.'
+
+The girl blushed prettily as she noticed how intently I regarded her
+while she evolved this tantalising mystery. I thought there was a
+trace of embarrassment in her laugh when she cried:--
+
+'Oh, what will you think of me when you understand the situation?
+Pray, pray do not judge me harshly. I assure you the position I aim at
+will be used for the good of others as well as for my own pleasure. If
+my uncle does not make a confidant of you, I must take my courage in
+both hands, and give you all the particulars, but not tonight. Of
+course, if one is to unravel such a snarl as that in which we find
+ourselves, he must be made aware of every particular, must he not?'
+
+'Certainly, my lady.'
+
+'Very well, Monsieur Valmont, I shall supply any deficiencies that
+occur in my uncle's conversation with you. There is one point on which
+I should like to warn you. Both my uncle and the police have made up
+their minds that a certain young man is the culprit. The police found
+several clues which apparently led in his direction, but they were
+unable to find enough to justify his arrest. At first I could have
+sworn he had nothing whatever to do with the matter, but lately I am
+not so sure. All I ask of you until we secure another opportunity of
+consulting together is to preserve an open mind. Please do not allow
+my uncle to prejudice you against him.'
+
+'What is the name of this young man?'
+
+'He is the Honourable John Haddon.'
+
+'The Honourable! Is he a person who could do so dishonourable an
+action?'
+
+The young lady shook her head.
+
+'I am almost sure he would not, and yet one never can tell. I think at
+the present moment there are one or two noble lords in prison, but
+their crimes have not been mere vulgar housebreaking.'
+
+'Am I to infer, Lady Alicia, that you are in possession of certain
+facts unknown either to your uncle or the police?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Pardon me, but do these facts tend to incriminate the young man?'
+Again the young lady leaned back in her chair, and gazed past me, a
+wrinkle of perplexity on her fair brow. Then she said very slowly:--
+
+'You will understand, Monsieur Valmont, how loath I am to speak
+against one who was formerly a friend. If he had been content to
+remain a friend, I am sure this incident, which has caused us all such
+worry and trouble, would never have happened. I do not wish to dwell
+on what my uncle will tell you was a very unpleasant episode, but the
+Honourable John Haddon is a poor man, and it is quite out of the
+question for one brought up as I have been to marry into poverty. He
+was very headstrong and reckless about the matter, and involved my
+uncle in a bitter quarrel while discussing it, much to my chagrin and
+disappointment. It is as necessary for him to marry wealth as it is
+for me to make a good match, but he could not be brought to see that.
+Oh, he is not at all a sensible young man, and my former friendship
+for him has ceased. Yet I should dislike very much to take any action
+that might harm him, therefore I have spoken to no one but you about
+the evidence that is in my hands, and this you must treat as entirely
+confidential, giving no hint to my uncle, who is already bitter enough
+against Mr. Haddon.'
+
+'Does this evidence convince you that he stole the necklace?'
+
+'No; I do not believe that he actually stole it, but I am persuaded he
+was an accessory after the fact--is that the legal term? Now, Monsieur
+Valmont, we will say no more tonight. If I talk any longer about this
+crisis, I shall not sleep, and I wish, assured of your help, to attack
+the situation with a very clear mind tomorrow.'
+
+When I retired to my room, I found that I, too, could not sleep,
+although I needed a clear mind to face the problem of tomorrow. It is
+difficult for me to describe accurately the effect this interview had
+upon my mind, but to use a bodily simile, I may say that it seemed as
+if I had indulged too freely in a subtle champagne which appeared
+exceedingly excellent at first, but from which the exhilaration had
+now departed. No man could have been more completely under a spell
+than I was when Lady Alicia's eyes first told me more than her lips
+revealed; but although I had challenged her right to the title
+'mercenary' when she applied it to herself, I could not but confess
+that her nonchalant recital regarding the friend who desired to be a
+lover jarred upon me. I found my sympathy extending itself to that
+unknown young man, on whom it appeared the shadow of suspicion already
+rested. I was confident that if he had actually taken the emeralds it
+was not at all from motives of cupidity. Indeed that was practically
+shown by the fact that Scotland Yard found itself unable to trace the
+jewels, which at least they might have done if the necklace had been
+sold either as a whole or dismembered. Of course, an emerald weighing
+an ounce is by no means unusual. The Hope emerald, for example, weighs
+six ounces, and the gem owned by the Duke of Devonshire measures two
+and a quarter inches through its greatest diameter. Nevertheless, such
+a constellation as the Blair emeralds was not to be disposed of very
+easily, and I surmised no attempt had been made either to sell them or
+to raise money upon them. Now that I had removed myself from the
+glamour of her presence, I began to suspect that the young lady, after
+all, although undoubtedly possessing the brilliancy of her jewels,
+retained also something of their hardness. There had been no
+expression of sympathy for the discarded friend; it was too evident,
+recalling what had latterly passed between us, that the young woman's
+sole desire, and a perfectly natural desire, was to recover her
+missing treasure. There was something behind all this which I could
+not comprehend, and I resolved in the morning to question the Marquis
+of Blair as shrewdly as he cared to allow. Failing him, I should
+cross-question the niece in a somewhat dryer light than that which had
+enshrouded me during this interesting evening. I care not who knows
+it, but I have been befooled more than once by a woman, but I
+determined that in clear daylight I should resist the hypnotising
+influence of those glorious eyes. _Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu_! how easy it is
+for me to make good resolutions when I am far from temptation!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was ten o'clock next morning when I was admitted to the study of
+the aged bachelor Marquis of Blair. His keen eyes looked through and
+through me as I seated myself before him.
+
+'Well!' he said shortly.
+
+'My lord,' I began deliberately, 'I know nothing more of the case than
+was furnished by the accounts I have read in the newspapers. Two
+months have elapsed since the robbery. Every day that passed made the
+detection of the criminal more difficult. I do not wish to waste
+either my time or your money on a forlorn hope. If, therefore, you
+will be good enough to place me in possession of all the facts known
+to you, I shall tell you at once whether or not I can take up the
+case.'
+
+'Do you wish me to give you the name of the criminal?' asked his
+lordship.
+
+'Is his name known to you?' I asked in return.
+
+'Yes. John Haddon stole the necklace.'
+
+'Did you give that name to the police?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Why didn't they arrest him?'
+
+'Because the evidence against him is so small, and the improbability
+of his having committed the crime is so great.'
+
+'What is the evidence against him?'
+
+His lordship spoke with the dry deliberation of an aged solicitor.
+
+'The robbery was committed on the night of October the fifth. All day
+there had been a heavy rain, and the grounds were wet. For reasons
+into which I do not care to enter, John Haddon was familiar with this
+house, and with our grounds. He was well known to my servants, and,
+unfortunately, popular with them, for he is an openhanded spendthrift.
+The estate of his elder brother, Lord Steffenham, adjoins my own to
+the west, and Lord Steffenham's house is three miles from where we
+sit. On the night of the fifth a ball was given in the mansion of Lord
+Steffenham, to which, of course, my niece and myself were invited, and
+which invitation we accepted. I had no quarrel with the elder brother.
+It was known to John Haddon that my niece intended to wear her
+necklace of emeralds. The robbery occurred at a time when most crimes
+of that nature are committed in country houses, namely, while we were
+at dinner, an hour during which the servants are almost invariably in
+the lower part of the house. In October the days are getting short.
+The night was exceptionally dark, for, although the rain had ceased,
+not a star was visible. The thief placed a ladder against the sill of
+one of the upper windows, opened it, and came in. He must have been
+perfectly familiar with the house, for there are evidences that he
+went direct to the boudoir where the jewel case had been carelessly
+left on my niece's dressing table when she came down to dinner. It had
+been taken from the strong room about an hour before. The box was
+locked, but, of course, that made no difference. The thief wrenched
+the lid off, breaking the lock, stole the necklace, and escaped by the
+way he came.'
+
+'Did he leave the window open, and the ladder in place?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Doesn't that strike you as very extraordinary?'
+
+'No. I do not assert that he is a professional burglar, who would take
+all the precautions against the discovery that might have been
+expected from one of the craft. Indeed, the man's carelessness in
+going straight across the country to his brother's house, and leaving
+footsteps in the soft earth, easily traceable almost to the very
+boundary fence, shows he is incapable of any serious thought.'
+
+'Is John Haddon rich?'
+
+'He hasn't a penny.'
+
+'Did you go to the ball that night?'
+
+'Yes, I had promised to go.'
+
+'Was John Haddon there?'
+
+'Yes; but he appeared late. He should have been present at the
+opening, and his brother was seriously annoyed by his absence. When he
+did come he acted in a wild and reckless manner, which gave the guests
+the impression that he had been drinking. Both my niece and myself
+were disgusted with his actions.'
+
+'Do you think your niece suspects him?'
+
+'She certainly did not at first, and was indignant when I told her,
+coming home from the ball, that her jewels were undoubtedly in
+Steffenham House, even though they were not round her neck, but
+latterly I think her opinion has changed.'
+
+'To go back a moment. Did any of your servants see him prowling about
+the place?'
+
+'They all say they didn't, but I myself saw him, just before dusk,
+coming across the fields towards this house, and next morning we found
+the same footprints both going and coming. It seems to me the
+circumstantial evidence is rather strong.'
+
+'It's a pity that no one but yourself saw him. What more evidence are
+the authorities waiting for?'
+
+'They are waiting until he attempts to dispose of the jewels.'
+
+'You think, then, he has not done so up to date?'
+
+'I think he will never do so.'
+
+'Then why did he steal them?'
+
+'To prevent the marriage of my niece with Jonas Carter, of Sheffield,
+to whom she is betrothed. They were to be married early in the New
+Year.'
+
+'My lord, you amaze me. If Mr. Carter and Lady Alicia are engaged, why
+should the theft of the jewels interfere with the ceremony?'
+
+'Mr. Jonas Carter is a most estimable man, who, however, does not move
+in our sphere of life. He is connected with the steel or cutlery
+industry, and is a person of great wealth, rising upwards of a
+million, with a large estate in Derbyshire, and a house fronting Hyde
+Park, in London. He is a very strict business man, and both my niece
+and myself agree that he is also an eligible man. I myself am rather
+strict in matters of business, and I must admit that Mr. Carter showed
+a very generous spirit in arranging the preliminaries of the
+engagement with me. When Alicia's father died he had run through all
+the money he himself possessed or could borrow from his friends.
+Although a man of noble birth, I never liked him. He was married to my
+only sister. The Blair emeralds, as perhaps you know, descend down the
+female line. They, therefore, came to my niece from her mother. My
+poor sister had long been disillusioned before death released her from
+the titled scamp she had married, and she very wisely placed the
+emeralds in my custody to be held in trust for her daughter. They
+constitute my niece's only fortune, and would produce, if offered in
+London today, probably seventy-five or a hundred thousand pounds,
+although actually they are not worth so much. Mr. Jonas Carter very
+amiably consented to receive my niece with a dowry of only fifty
+thousand pounds, and that money I offered to advance, if I was allowed
+to retain the jewels as security. This was arranged between Mr. Carter
+and myself.'
+
+'But surely Mr. Carter does not refuse to carry out his engagement
+because the jewels have been stolen?'
+
+'He does. Why should he not?'
+
+'Then surely you will advance the fifty thousand necessary?'
+
+'I will not. Why should I?'
+
+'Well, it seems to me,' said I, with a slight laugh, 'the young man
+has very definitely checkmated both of you.'
+
+'He has, until I have laid him by the heels, which I am determined to
+do if he were the brother of twenty Lord Steffenhams.'
+
+'Please answer one more question. Are you determined to put the young
+man in prison, or would you be content with the return of the emeralds
+intact?'
+
+'Of course I should prefer to put him in prison and get the emeralds
+too, but if there's no choice in the matter, I must content myself
+with the necklace.'
+
+'Very well, my lord, I will undertake the case.'
+
+This conference had detained us in the study till after eleven, and
+then, as it was a clear, crisp December morning, I went out through
+the gardens into the park, that I might walk along the well-kept
+private road and meditate upon my course of action, or, rather, think
+over what had been said, because I could not map my route until I had
+heard the secret which the Lady Alicia promised to impart. As at
+present instructed, it seemed to me the best way to go direct to the
+young man, show him as effectively as I could the danger in which he
+stood, and, if possible, persuade him to deliver up the necklace to
+me. As I strolled along under the grand old leafless trees, I suddenly
+heard my name called impulsively two or three times, and turning round
+saw the Lady Alicia running toward me. Her cheeks were bright with
+Nature's rouge, and her eyes sparkled more dazzlingly than any emerald
+that ever tempted man to wickedness.
+
+'Oh, Monsieur Valmont, I have been waiting for you, and you escaped
+me. Have you seen my uncle?'
+
+'Yes, I have been with him since ten o'clock.'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'Your ladyship, that is exactly the word with which he accosted me.'
+
+'Ah, you see an additional likeness between my uncle and myself this
+morning, then? Has he told you about Mr. Carter?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'So now you understand how important it is that I should regain
+possession of my property?'
+
+'Yes,' I said with a sigh; 'the house near Hyde Park and the great
+estate in Derbyshire.'
+
+She clapped her hands with glee, eyes and feet dancing in unison, as
+she capered along gaily beside me; a sort of skippety-hop,
+skippety-hop, sideways, keeping pace with my more stately step, as if
+she were a little girl of six instead of a young woman of twenty.
+
+'Not only that!' she cried, 'but one million pounds to spend! Oh,
+Monsieur Valmont, you know Paris, and yet you do not seem to
+comprehend what that plethora of money means!'
+
+'Well, madame, I have seen Paris, and I have seen a good deal of the
+world, but I am not so certain you will secure the million to spend.'
+
+'What!' she cried, stopping short, that little wrinkle which betokened
+temper appearing on her brow. 'Do you think we won't get the emeralds
+then?'
+
+'Oh, I am sure we will get the emeralds. I, Valmont, pledge you my
+word. But if Mr. Jonas Carter before marriage calls a halt upon the
+ceremony until your uncle places fifty thousand pounds upon the table,
+I confess I am very pessimistic about your obtaining control of the
+million afterwards.'
+
+All her vivacity instantaneously returned.
+
+'Pooh!' she cried, dancing round in front of me, and standing there
+directly in my path, so that I came to a stand. 'Pooh!' she repeated,
+snapping her fingers, with an inimitable gesture of that lovely hand.
+'Monsieur Valmont, I am disappointed in you. You are not nearly so
+nice as you were last evening. It is very uncomplimentary in you to
+intimate that when once I am married to Mr. Jonas I shall not wheedle
+from him all the money I want. Do not rest your eyes on the ground;
+look at me and answer!'
+
+I glanced up at her, and could not forbear laughing. The witchery of
+the wood was in that girl; yes, and a perceptible trace of the Gallic
+devil flickered in those enchanting eyes of hers. I could not help
+myself.
+
+'Ah, Madame la Marquise de Bellairs, how jauntily you would scatter
+despair in that susceptible Court of Louis!'
+
+'Ah, Monsieur Eugène de Valmont,' she cried, mimicking my tones, and
+imitating my manner with an exactitude that amazed me, 'you are once
+more my dear de Valmont of last night. I dreamed of you, I assure you
+I did, and now to find you in the morning, oh, so changed!' She
+clasped her little hands and inclined her head, while the sweet voice
+sank into a cadence of melancholy which seemed so genuine that the
+mocking ripple of a laugh immediately following was almost a shock to
+me. Where had this creature of the dull English countryside learnt all
+such frou-frou of gesture and tone?
+
+'Have you ever seen Sarah Bernhardt?' I asked.
+
+Now the average English woman would have inquired the genesis of so
+inconsequent a question, but Lady Alicia followed the trend of my
+thought, and answered at once as if my query had been quite
+expected:--
+
+'_Mais non_, monsieur. Sarah the Divine! Ah, she comes with my million
+a year and the house of Hyde Park. No, the only inhabitant of my real
+world whom I have yet seen is Monsieur Valmont, and he, alas! I find
+so changeable. But now, adieu frivolity, we must be serious,' and she
+walked sedately by my side.
+
+'Do you know where you are going, monsieur? You are going to church.
+Oh, do not look frightened, not to a service. I am decorating the
+church with holly, and you shall help me and get thorns in your poor
+fingers.'
+
+The private road, which up to this time had passed through a forest,
+now reached a secluded glade in which stood a very small, but
+exquisite, church, evidently centuries older than the mansion we had
+left. Beyond it were gray stone ruins, which Lady Alicia pointed out
+to me as remnants of the original mansion that had been built in the
+reign of the second Henry. The church, it was thought, formed the
+private chapel to the hall, and it had been kept in repair by the
+various lords of the manor.
+
+'Now hearken to the power of the poor, and learn how they may flout
+the proud marquis,' cried Lady Alicia gleefully; 'the poorest man in
+England may walk along this private road on Sunday to the church, and
+the proud marquis is powerless to prevent him. Of course, if the poor
+man prolongs his walk then is he in danger from the law of trespass.
+On weekdays, however, this is the most secluded spot on the estate,
+and I regret to say that my lordly uncle does not trouble it even on
+Sundays. I fear we are a degenerate race, Monsieur Valmont, for
+doubtless a fighting and deeply religious ancestor of mine built this
+church, and to think that when the useful masons cemented those stones
+together, Madame la Marquise de Bellairs or Lady Alicia were alike
+unthought of, and though three hundred years divide them this ancient
+chapel makes them seem, as one might say, contemporaries. Oh, Monsieur
+Valmont, what is the use of worrying about emeralds or anything else?
+As I look at this beautiful old church, even the house of Hyde Park
+appears as naught,' and to my amazement, the eyes that Lady Alicia
+turned upon me were wet.
+
+The front door was unlocked, and we walked into the church in silence.
+Around the pillars holly and ivy were twined. Great armfuls of the
+shrubs had been flung here and there along the walls in heaps, and a
+step-ladder stood in one of the aisles, showing that the decoration of
+the edifice was not yet complete. A subdued melancholy had settled
+down on my erstwhile vivacious companion, the inevitable reaction so
+characteristic of the artistic temperament, augmented doubtless by the
+solemnity of the place, around whose walls in brass and marble were
+sculptured memorials of her ancient race.
+
+'You promised,' I said at last, 'to tell me how you came to suspect--'
+
+'Not here, not here,' she whispered; then rising from the pew in which
+she had seated herself, she said:--
+
+'Let us go, I am in no mood for working this morning. I shall finish
+the decoration in the afternoon.'
+
+We came out into the cool and brilliant sunlight again, and as we
+turned homeward, her spirits immediately began to rise.
+
+'I am anxious to know,' I persisted, 'why you came to suspect a man
+whom at first you believed innocent.'
+
+'I am not sure but I believe him innocent now, although I am forced to
+the conclusion that he knows where the treasure is.'
+
+'What forces you to that conclusion, my lady?'
+
+'A letter I received from himself, in which he makes a proposal so
+extraordinary that I am almost disinclined to accede to it, even
+though it leads to the discovery of my necklace. However, I am
+determined to leave no means untried if I receive the support of my
+friend, Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'My lady,' said I, with a bow, 'it is but yours to command, mine to
+obey. What were the contents of that letter?'
+
+'Read it,' she replied, taking the folded sheet from her pocket, and
+handing it to me.
+
+She had been quite right in characterising the note as an
+extraordinary epistle. The Honourable John Haddon had the temerity to
+propose that she should go through a form of marriage with him in the
+old church we had just left. If she did that, he said, it would
+console him for the mad love he felt for her. The ceremony would have
+no binding force upon her whatever, and she might bring whom she
+pleased to perform it. If she knew no one that she could trust, he
+would invite an old college chum, and bring him to the church next
+morning at half-past seven o'clock. Even if an ordained clergyman
+performed the ceremony, it would not be legal unless it took place
+between the hours of eight in the morning, and three in the
+afternoon. If she consented to this, the emeralds were hers once more.
+
+'This is the proposal of a madman,' said I, as I handed back the
+letter.
+
+'Well,' she replied, with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, 'he has
+always said he was madly in love with me, and I quite believe it. Poor
+young man, if this mummery were to console him for the rest of his
+life, why should I not indulge him in it?'
+
+'Lady Alicia, surely you would not countenance the profaning of that
+lovely old edifice with a mock ceremonial? No man in his senses could
+suggest such a thing!'
+
+Once more her eyes were twinkling with merriment.
+
+'But the Honourable John Haddon, as I have told you, is not in his
+senses.'
+
+'Then why should you indulge him?'
+
+'Why? How can you ask such a question? Because of the emeralds. It is
+only a mad lark, after all, and no one need know of it. Oh, Monsieur
+Valmont,' she cried pleadingly, clasping her hands, and yet it seemed
+to me with an undercurrent of laughter in her beseeching tones, 'will
+you not enact for us the part of clergyman? I am sure if your face
+were as serious as it is at this moment, the robes of a priest would
+become you.'
+
+'Lady Alicia, you are incorrigible. I am somewhat of a man of the
+world, yet I should not dare to counterfeit the sacred office, and I
+hope you but jest. In fact, I am sure you do, my lady.'
+
+She turned away from me with a very pretty pout.
+
+'Monsieur Valmont, your knighthood is, after all, but surface deep.
+'Tis not mine to command, and yours to obey. Certainly I did but jest.
+John shall bring his own imitation clergyman with him.'
+
+'Are you going to meet him tomorrow?'
+
+'Certainly I am. I have promised. I must secure my necklace.'
+
+'You seem to place great confidence in the belief that he will produce
+it.'
+
+'If he fails to do so, then I play Monsieur Valmont as my trump card.
+But, monsieur, although you quite rightly refuse to comply with my
+first request, you will surely not reject my second. Please meet me
+tomorrow at the head of the avenue, promptly at a quarter-past seven,
+and escort me to the church.'
+
+For a moment the negative trembled on my tongue's end, but she turned
+those enchanting eyes upon me, and I was undone.
+
+'Very well,' I answered.
+
+She seized both my hands, like a little girl overjoyed at a promised
+excursion.
+
+'Oh, Monsieur Valmont, you are a darling! I feel as if I'd known you
+all my life. I am sure you will never regret having humoured me,' then
+added a moment later, 'if we get the emeralds.'
+
+'Ah,' said I, '_if_ we get the emeralds.'
+
+We were now within sight of the house, and she pointed out our
+rendezvous for the following day, and with that I bade her good-bye.
+
+It was shortly after seven o'clock next morning when I reached the
+meeting-place. The Lady Alicia was somewhat long in coming, but when
+she arrived her face was aglow with girlish delight at the solemn
+prank she was about to play.
+
+'You have not changed your mind?' I asked, after the morning's
+greetings.
+
+'Oh, no, Monsieur Valmont,' she replied, with a bright laugh. 'I am
+determined to recover those emeralds.'
+
+'We must hurry, Lady Alicia, or we will be too late.'
+
+'There is plenty of time,' she remarked calmly; and she proved to be
+right, because when we came in sight of the church, the clock pointed
+to the hour of half-past seven.
+
+'Now,' she said 'I shall wait here until you steal up to the church
+and look in through one of the windows that do not contain stained
+glass. I should not for the world arrive before Mr. Haddon and his
+friend are there.'
+
+I did as requested, and saw two young men standing together in the
+centre aisle, one in the full robes of a clergyman, the other in his
+ordinary dress, whom I took to be the Honourable John Haddon. His
+profile was toward me, and I must admit there was very little of the
+madman in his calm countenance. His was a well-cut face, clean shaven,
+and strikingly manly. In one of the pews was seated a woman--I learned
+afterwards she was Lady Alicia's maid, who had been instructed to come
+and go from the house by a footpath, while we had taken the longer
+road. I returned and escorted Lady Alicia to the church, and there was
+introduced to Mr. Haddon and his friend, the made-up divine. The
+ceremony was at once performed, and, man of the world as I professed
+myself to be, this enacting of private theatricals in a church grated
+upon me. When the maid and I were asked to sign the book as witnesses,
+I said:--
+
+'Surely this is carrying realism a little too far?'
+
+Mr. Haddon smiled, and replied:--
+
+'I am amazed to hear a Frenchman objecting to realism going to its
+full length, and speaking for myself, I should be delighted to see the
+autograph of the renowned Eugène Valmont,' and with that he proffered
+me the pen, whereupon I scrawled my signature. The maid had already
+signed, and disappeared. The reputed clergyman bowed us out of the
+church, standing in the porch to see us walk up the avenue.
+
+'Ed,' cried John Haddon, I'll be back within half an hour, and we'll
+attend to the clock. You won't mind waiting?'
+
+'Not in the least, dear boy. God bless you both,' and the tremor in
+his voice seemed to me carrying realism one step further still.
+
+The Lady Alicia, with downcast head, hurried us on until we were
+within the gloom of the forest, and then, ignoring me, she turned
+suddenly to the young man, and placed her two hands on his shoulders.
+
+'Oh, Jack, Jack!' she cried.
+
+He kissed her twice on the lips.
+
+'Jack, Monsieur Valmont insists on the emeralds.'
+
+The young man laughed. Her ladyship stood fronting him with her back
+towards me. Tenderly the young man unfastened something at the throat
+of that high-necked dress of hers, then there was a snap, and he drew
+out an amazing, dazzling, shimmering sheen of green, that seemed to
+turn the whole bleak December landscape verdant as with a touch of
+spring. The girl hid her rosy face against him, and over her shoulder,
+with a smile, he handed me the celebrated Blair emeralds.
+
+'There is the treasure, Valmont,' he cried, 'on condition that you do
+not molest the culprit.'
+
+'Or the accessory after the fact,' gurgled Lady Alicia in smothered
+tones, with a hand clasping together her high-necked dress at the
+throat.
+
+'We trust to your invention, Valmont, to deliver that necklace to
+uncle with a detective story that will thrill him to his very heart.'
+
+We heard the clock strike eight; then a second later smaller bells
+chimed a quarter-past, and another second after they tinkled the
+half-hour. 'Hallo!' cried Haddon, 'Ed has attended to the clock
+himself. What a good fellow he is.'
+
+'I looked at my watch; it was twenty-five minutes to nine.
+
+'Was the ceremony genuine then?' I asked.
+
+'Ah, Valmont,' said the young man, patting his wife affectionately on
+the shoulder, 'nothing on earth can be more genuine than that ceremony
+was.'
+
+And the volatile Lady Alicia snuggled closer to him.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX: TWO SHERLOCK HOLMES PARODIES
+
+
+1. The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs
+
+(With apologies to Dr. Conan Doyle, and his excellent book, 'A Study in
+Scarlet'.)
+
+
+I dropped in on my friend, Sherlaw Kombs, to hear what he had to say
+about the Pegram mystery, as it had come to be called in the
+newspapers. I found him playing the violin with a look of sweet peace
+and serenity on his face, which I never noticed on the countenances of
+those within hearing distance. I knew this expression of seraphic calm
+indicated that Kombs had been deeply annoyed about something. Such,
+indeed, proved to be the case, for one of the morning papers had
+contained an article eulogising the alertness and general competence
+of Scotland Yard. So great was Sherlaw Kombs's contempt for Scotland
+Yard that he never would visit Scotland during his vacations, nor
+would he ever admit that a Scotchman was fit for anything but export.
+
+He generously put away his violin, for he had a sincere liking for me,
+and greeted me with his usual kindness.
+
+'I have come,' I began, plunging at once into the matter on my mind,
+'to hear what you think of the great Pegram mystery.'
+
+'I haven't heard of it,' he said quietly, just as if all London were
+not talking of that very thing. Kombs was curiously ignorant on some
+subjects, and abnormally learned on others. I found, for instance,
+that political discussion with him was impossible, because he did not
+know who Salisbury and Gladstone were. This made his friendship a
+great boon.
+
+'The Pegram mystery has baffled even Gregory, of Scotland Yard.'
+
+'I can well believe it,' said my friend, calmly. 'Perpetual motion, or
+squaring the circle, would baffle Gregory. He's an infant, is
+Gregory.'
+
+This was one of the things I always liked about Kombs. There was no
+professional jealousy in him, such as characterises so many other men.
+
+He filled his pipe, threw himself into his deep-seated armchair,
+placed his feet on the mantel, and clasped his hands behind his head.
+
+'Tell me about it,' he said simply.
+
+'Old Barrie Kipson,' I began, 'was a stockbroker in the City. He lived
+in Pegram, and it was his custom to--'
+
+'COME IN!' shouted Kombs, without changing his position, but with a
+suddenness that startled me. I had heard no knock.
+
+'Excuse me,' said my friend, laughing, 'my invitation to enter was a
+trifle premature. I was really so interested in your recital that I
+spoke before I thought, which a detective should never do. The fact
+is, a man will be here in a moment who will tell me all about this
+crime, and so you will be spared further effort in that line.'
+
+'Ah, you have an appointment. In that case I will not intrude,' I
+said, rising.
+
+'Sit down; I have no appointment. I did not know until I spoke that he
+was coming.'
+
+I gazed at him in amazement. Accustomed as I was to his extraordinary
+talents, the man was a perpetual surprise to me. He continued to smoke
+quietly, but evidently enjoyed my consternation.
+
+'I see you are surprised. It is really too simple to talk about, but,
+from my position opposite the mirror, I can see the reflection of
+objects in the street. A man stopped, looked at one of my cards, and
+then glanced across the street. I recognised my card, because, as you
+know, they are all in scarlet. If, as you say, London is talking of
+this mystery, it naturally follows that _he_ will talk of it, and the
+chances are he wished to consult with me upon it. Anyone can see that,
+besides there is always--_Come in!_
+
+There was a rap at the door this time.
+
+A stranger entered. Sherlaw Kombs did not change his lounging
+attitude.
+
+'I wish to see Mr. Sherlaw Kombs, the detective,' said the stranger,
+coming within the range of the smoker's vision.
+
+'This is Mr. Kombs,' I remarked at last, as my friend smoked quietly,
+and seemed half-asleep.
+
+'Allow me to introduce myself,' continued the stranger, fumbling for a
+card.
+
+'There is no need. You are a journalist,' said Kombs.
+
+'Ah,' said the stranger, somewhat taken aback, 'you know me, then.'
+
+'Never saw or heard of you in my life before.'
+
+'Then how in the world--'
+
+'Nothing simpler. You write for an evening paper. You have written an
+article slating the book of a friend. He will feel badly about it, and
+you will condole with him. He will never know who stabbed him unless I
+tell him.'
+
+'The devil!' cried the journalist, sinking into a chair and mopping
+his brow, while his face became livid.
+
+'Yes,' drawled Kombs, 'it is a devil of a shame that such things are
+done. But what would you? as we say in France.'
+
+When the journalist had recovered his second wind he pulled himself
+together somewhat. 'Would you object to telling me how you know these
+particulars about a man you say you have never seen?'
+
+'I rarely talk about these things,' said Kombs with great composure.
+'But as the cultivation of the habit of observation may help you in
+your profession, and thus in a remote degree benefit me by making
+your paper less deadly dull, I will tell you. Your first and second
+fingers are smeared with ink, which shows that you write a great deal.
+This smeared class embraces two sub-classes, clerks or accountants,
+and journalists. Clerks have to be neat in their work. The ink smear
+is slight in their case. Your fingers are badly and carelessly
+smeared; therefore, you are a journalist. You have an evening paper in
+your pocket. Anyone might have any evening paper, but yours is a
+Special Edition, which will not be on the streets for half-an-hour
+yet. You must have obtained it before you left the office, and to do
+this you must be on the staff. A book notice is marked with a blue
+pencil. A journalist always despises every article in his own paper
+not written by himself; therefore, you wrote the article you have
+marked, and doubtless are about to send it to the author of the book
+referred to. Your paper makes a speciality of abusing all books not
+written by some member of its own staff. That the author is a friend
+of yours, I merely surmised. It is all a trivial example of ordinary
+observation.'
+
+'Really, Mr. Kombs, you are the most wonderful man on earth. You are
+the equal of Gregory, by Jove, you are.'
+
+A frown marred the brow of my friend as he placed his pipe on the
+sideboard and drew his self-cocking six-shooter.
+
+'Do you mean to insult me, sir?'
+
+'I do not--I--I assure you. You are fit to take charge of Scotland
+Yard tomorrow ----. I am in earnest, indeed I am, sir.'
+
+'Then heaven help you,' cried Kombs, slowly raising his right arm.
+
+I sprang between them.
+
+'Don't shoot!' I cried. 'You will spoil the carpet. Besides, Sherlaw,
+don't you see the man means well. He actually thinks it is a
+compliment!'
+
+'Perhaps you are right,' remarked the detective, flinging his revolver
+carelessly beside his pipe, much to the relief of the third party.
+Then, turning to the journalist, he said, with his customary bland
+courtesy--
+
+'You wanted to see me, I think you said. What can I do for you, Mr
+Wilber Scribbings?'
+
+The journalist started.
+
+'How do you know my name?' he gasped.
+
+Kombs waved his hand impatiently.
+
+'Look inside your hat if you doubt your own name.'
+
+I then noticed for the first time that the name was plainly to be seen
+inside the top-hat Scribbings held upside down in his hands.
+
+'You have heard, of course, of the Pegram mystery--'
+
+'Tush,' cried the detective; 'do not, I beg of you, call it a mystery.
+There is no such thing. Life would become more tolerable if there ever
+_was_ a mystery. Nothing is original. Everything has been done before.
+What about the Pegram affair?'
+
+'The Pegram--ah--case has baffled everyone. The _Evening Blade_ wishes
+you to investigate, so that it may publish the result. It will pay you
+well. Will you accept the commission?'
+
+'Possibly. Tell me about the case.'
+
+'I thought everybody knew the particulars. Mr. Barrie Kipson lived at
+Pegram. He carried a first-class season ticket between the terminus
+and that station. It was his custom to leave for Pegram on the 5.30
+train each evening. Some weeks ago, Mr. Kipson was brought down by the
+influenza. On his first visit to the City after his recovery, he drew
+something like £300 in notes, and left the office at his usual hour to
+catch the 5.30. He was never seen again alive, as far as the public
+have been able to learn. He was found at Brewster in a first-class
+compartment on the Scotch Express, which does not stop between London
+and Brewster. There was a bullet in his head, and his money was gone,
+pointing plainly to murder and robbery.'
+
+'And where is the mystery, might I ask?'
+
+'There are several unexplainable things about the case. First, how
+came he on the Scotch Express, which leaves at six, and does not stop
+at Pegram? Second, the ticket examiners at the terminus would have
+turned him out if he showed his season ticket; and all the tickets
+sold for the Scotch Express on the 21st are accounted for. Third, how
+could the murderer have escaped? Fourth, the passengers in the two
+compartments on each side of the one where the body was found heard no
+scuffle and no shot fired.'
+
+'Are you sure the Scotch Express on the 21st did not stop between
+London and Brewster?'
+
+'Now that you mention the fact, it did. It was stopped by signal just
+outside of Pegram. There was a few moments' pause, when the line was
+reported clear, and it went on again. This frequently happens, as
+there is a branch line beyond Pegram.'
+
+Mr. Sherlaw Kombs pondered for a few moments, smoking his pipe
+silently.
+
+'I presume you wish the solution in time for tomorrow's paper?'
+
+'Bless my soul, no. The editor thought if you evolved a theory in a
+month you would do well.'
+
+'My dear sir, I do not deal with theories, but with facts. If you can
+make it convenient to call here tomorrow at 8 a.m. I will give you the
+full particulars early enough for the first edition. There is no sense
+in taking up much time over so simple an affair as the Pegram case.
+Good afternoon, sir.'
+
+Mr. Scribbings was too much astonished to return the greeting. He left
+in a speechless condition, and I saw him go up the street with his hat
+still in his hand.
+
+Sherlaw Kombs relapsed into his old lounging attitude, with his hands
+clasped behind his head. The smoke came from his lips in quick puffs
+at first, then at longer intervals. I saw he was coming to a
+conclusion, so I said nothing.
+
+Finally he spoke in his most dreamy manner. 'I do not wish to seem to
+be rushing things at all, Whatson, but I am going out tonight on the
+Scotch Express. Would you care to accompany me?'
+
+'Bless me!' I cried, glancing at the clock, 'you haven't time, it is
+after five now.'
+
+'Ample time, Whatson--ample,' he murmured, without changing his
+position. 'I give myself a minute and a half to change slippers and
+dressing-gown for boots and coat, three seconds for hat, twenty-five
+seconds to the street, forty-two seconds waiting for a hansom, and
+then seven minutes at the terminus before the express starts. I shall
+be glad of your company.'
+
+I was only too happy to have the privilege of going with him. It was
+most interesting to watch the workings of so inscrutable a mind. As we
+drove under the lofty iron roof of the terminus I noticed a look of
+annoyance pass over his face.
+
+'We are fifteen seconds ahead of our time,' he remarked, looking at
+the big clock. 'I dislike having a miscalculation of that sort occur.'
+
+The great Scotch Express stood ready for its long journey. The
+detective tapped one of the guards on the shoulder.
+
+'You have heard of the so-called Pegram mystery, I presume?'
+
+'Certainly, sir. It happened on this very train, sir.'
+
+'Really? Is the same carriage still on the train?'
+
+'Well, yes, sir, it is,' replied the guard, lowering his voice, 'but
+of course, sir, we have to keep very quiet about it. People wouldn't
+travel in it, else, sir.'
+
+'Doubtless. Do you happen to know if anybody occupies the compartment
+in which the body was found?'
+
+'A lady and gentleman, sir; I put 'em in myself, sir.'
+
+'Would you further oblige me,' said the detective, deftly slipping
+half-a-sovereign into the hand of the guard, 'by going to the window
+and informing them in an offhand casual sort of way that the tragedy
+took place in that compartment?'
+
+'Certainly, sir.'
+
+We followed the guard, and the moment he had imparted his news there
+was a suppressed scream in the carriage. Instantly a lady came out,
+followed by a florid-faced gentleman, who scowled at the guard. We
+entered the now empty compartment, and Kombs said:
+
+'We would like to be alone here until we reach Brewster.'
+
+'I'll see to that, sir,' answered the guard, locking the door.
+
+When the official moved away, I asked my friend what he expected to
+find in the carriage that would cast any light on the case.
+
+'Nothing,' was his brief reply.
+
+'Then why do you come?'
+
+'Merely to corroborate the conclusions I have already arrived at.'
+
+'And might I ask what those conclusions are?'
+
+'Certainly,' replied the detective, with a touch of lassitude in his
+voice. 'I beg to call your attention, first, to the fact that this
+train stands between two platforms, and can be entered from either
+side. Any man familiar with the station for years would be aware of
+that fact. This shows how Mr. Kipson entered the train just before it
+started.'
+
+'But the door on this side is locked,' I objected, trying it.
+
+'Of course. But every season ticket-holder carries a key. This
+accounts for the guard not seeing him, and for the absence of a
+ticket. Now let me give you some information about the influenza. The
+patient's temperature rises several degrees above normal, and he has a
+fever. When the malady has run its course, the temperature falls to
+three-quarters of a degree below normal. These facts are unknown to
+you, I imagine, because you are a doctor.'
+
+I admitted such was the case.
+
+'Well, the consequence of this fall in temperature is that the
+convalescent's mind turns towards thoughts of suicide. Then is the
+time he should be watched by his friends. Then was the time Mr. Barrie
+Kipson's friends did _not_ watch him. You remember the 21st, of
+course. No? It was a most depressing day. Fog all around and mud under
+foot. Very good. He resolves on suicide. He wishes to be unidentified,
+if possible, but forgets his season ticket. My experience is that a
+man about to commit a crime always forgets something.'
+
+'But how do you account for the disappearance of the money?'
+
+'The money has nothing to do with the matter. If he was a deep man,
+and knew the stupidness of Scotland Yard, he probably sent the notes
+to an enemy. If not, they may have been given to a friend. Nothing is
+more calculated to prepare the mind for self-destruction than the
+prospect of a night ride on the Scotch express, and the view from the
+windows of the train as it passes through the northern part of London
+is particularly conducive to thoughts of annihilation.'
+
+'What became of the weapon?'
+
+'That is just the point on which I wish to satisfy myself. Excuse me
+for a moment.'
+
+Mr. Sherlaw Kombs drew down the window on the right hand side, and
+examined the top of the casing minutely with a magnifying glass.
+Presently he heaved a sigh of relief, and drew up the sash.
+
+'Just as I expected,' he remarked, speaking more to himself than to
+me. 'There is a slight dent on the top of the window-frame. It is of
+such a nature as to be made only by the trigger of a pistol falling
+from the nerveless hand of a suicide. He intended to throw the weapon
+far out of the window, but had not the strength. It might have fallen
+into the carriage. As a matter of fact, it bounced away from the line
+and lies among the grass about ten feet six inches from the outside
+rail. The only question that now remains is where the deed was
+committed, and the exact present position of the pistol reckoned in
+miles from London, but that, fortunately, is too simple to even need
+explanation.'
+
+'Great heavens, Sherlaw!' I cried. 'How can you call that simple? It
+seems to me impossible to compute.'
+
+We were now flying over Northern London, and the great detective
+leaned back with every sign of _ennui_, closing his eyes. At last he
+spoke wearily:
+
+'It is really too elementary, Whatson, but I am always willing to
+oblige a friend. I shall be relieved, however, when you are able to
+work out the ABC of detection for yourself, although I shall never
+object to helping you with the words of more than three syllables.
+Having made up his mind to commit suicide, Kipson naturally intended
+to do it before he reached Brewster, because tickets are again
+examined at that point. When the train began to stop at the signal
+near Pegram, he came to the false conclusion that it was stopping at
+Brewster. The fact that the shot was not heard is accounted for by the
+screech of the air-brake, added to the noise of the train. Probably
+the whistle was also sounding at the same moment. The train being a
+fast express would stop as near the signal as possible. The air-brake
+will stop a train in twice its own length. Call it three times in this
+case. Very well. At three times the length of this train from the
+signal-post towards London, deducting half the length of the train, as
+this carriage is in the middle, you will find the pistol.'
+
+'Wonderful!' I exclaimed.
+
+'Commonplace,' he murmured.
+
+At this moment the whistle sounded shrilly, and we felt the grind of
+the air-brakes.
+
+'The Pegram signal again,' cried Kombs, with something almost like
+enthusiasm. 'This is indeed luck. We will get out here, Whatson, and
+test the matter.'
+
+As the train stopped, we got out on the right-hand side of the line.
+The engine stood panting impatiently under the red light, which
+changed to green as I looked at it. As the train moved on with
+increasing speed, the detective counted the carriages, and noted down
+the number. It was now dark, with the thin crescent of the moon
+hanging in the western sky throwing a weird half-light on the shining
+metals. The rear lamps of the train disappeared around a curve, and
+the signal stood at baleful red again. The black magic of the lonesome
+night in that strange place impressed me, but the detective was a most
+practical man. He placed his back against the signal-post, and paced
+up the line with even strides, counting his steps. I walked along the
+permanent way beside him silently. At last he stopped, and took a
+tape-line from his pocket. He ran it out until the ten feet six inches
+were unrolled, scanning the figures in the wan light of the new moon.
+Giving me the end, he placed his knuckles on the metals, motioning me
+to proceed down the embankment. I stretched out the line, and then
+sank my hand in the damp grass to mark the spot.
+
+'Good God!' I cried, aghast, 'what is this?'
+
+'It is the pistol,' said Kombs quietly.
+
+It was!!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Journalistic London will not soon forget the sensation that was caused
+by the record of the investigations of Sherlaw Kombs, as printed at
+length in the next day's _Evening Blade_. Would that my story ended
+here. Alas! Kombs contemptuously turned over the pistol to Scotland
+Yard. The meddlesome officials, actuated, as I always hold, by
+jealousy, found the name of the seller upon it. They investigated. The
+seller testified that it had never been in the possession of Mr
+Kipson, as far as he knew. It was sold to a man whose description
+tallied with that of a criminal long watched by the police. He was
+arrested, and turned Queen's evidence in the hope of hanging his pal.
+It seemed that Mr. Kipson, who was a gloomy, taciturn man, and usually
+came home in a compartment by himself, thus escaping observation, had
+been murdered in the lane leading to his house. After robbing him, the
+miscreants turned their thoughts towards the disposal of the body--a
+subject that always occupies a first-class criminal mind before the
+deed is done. They agreed to place it on the line, and have it mangled
+by the Scotch Express, then nearly due. Before they got the body
+half-way up the embankment the express came along and stopped. The
+guard got out and walked along the other side to speak with the
+engineer. The thought of putting the body into an empty first-class
+carriage instantly occurred to the murderers. They opened the door
+with the deceased's key. It is supposed that the pistol dropped when
+they were hoisting the body in the carriage.
+
+The Queen's evidence dodge didn't work, and Scotland Yard ignobly
+insulted my friend Sherlaw Kombs by sending him a pass to see the
+villains hanged.
+
+
+
+
+2. The Adventure of the Second Swag
+
+
+The time was Christmas Eve, 1904. The place was an ancient, secluded
+manor house, built so far back in the last century as 1896. It stood
+at the head of a profound valley; a valley clothed in ferns waist
+deep, and sombrely guarded by ancient trees, the remnants of a
+primeval forest. From this mansion no other human habitation could be
+seen. The descending road which connected the king's highway with the
+stronghold was so sinuous and precipitate that more than once the grim
+baronet who owned it had upset his automobile in trying to negotiate
+the dangerous curves. The isolated situation and gloomy architecture
+of this venerable mansion must have impressed the most casual observer
+with the thought that here was the spot for the perpetration of dark
+deeds, were it not for the fact that the place was brilliantly
+illumined with electricity, while the silence was emphasised rather
+than disturbed by the monotonous, regular thud of an accumulator
+pumping the subtle fluid into a receptive dynamo situated in an
+outhouse to the east.
+
+The night was gloomy and lowering after a day of rain, but the very
+sombreness of the scene made the brilliant stained glass windows stand
+out like the radiant covers of a Christmas number. Such was the
+appearance presented by 'Undershaw', the home of Sir Arthur Conan
+Doyle, situated among the wilds of Hindhead, some forty or fifty miles
+from London. Is it any wonder that at a spot so remote from
+civilisation law should be set at defiance, and that the one lone
+policeman who perambulates the district should tremble as he passed
+the sinister gates of 'Undershaw'?
+
+In a large room of this manor house, furnished with a luxuriant
+elegance one would not have expected in a region so far from
+humanising influences, sat two men. One was a giant in stature, whose
+broad brow and smoothly shaven strong chin gave a look of
+determination to his countenance, which was further enhanced by the
+heavy black moustache which covered his upper lip. There was something
+of the dragoon in his upright and independent bearing. He had, in
+fact, taken part in more than one fiercely fought battle, and was a
+member of several military clubs; but it was plain to be seen that his
+ancestors had used war clubs, and had transmitted to him the physique
+of a Hercules. One did not need to glance at the Christmas number of
+the _Strand_, which he held in his hand, nor read the name printed
+there in large letters, to know that he was face to face with Sir
+Arthur Conan Doyle.
+
+His guest, an older man, yet still in the prime of life, whose beard
+was tinged with grey, was of less warlike bearing than the celebrated
+novelist, belonging, as he evidently did, to the civil and not the
+military section of life. He had about him the air of a prosperous man
+of affairs, shrewd, good-natured, conciliatory, and these two
+strongly contrasting personages are types of the men to whom England
+owes her greatness. The reader of the Christmas number will very
+probably feel disappointed when he finds, as he supposes, merely two
+old friends sitting amicably in a country house after dinner. There
+seems, to his jaded taste, no element of tragedy in such a situation.
+These two men appear comfortable enough, and respectable enough. It is
+true that there is whisky and soda at hand, and the box of cigars is
+open, yet there are latent possibilities of passion under the most
+placid natures, revealed only to writers of fiction in our halfpenny
+Press. Let the reader wait, therefore, till he sees these two men
+tried as by fire under a great temptation, and then let him say
+whether even the probity of Sir George Newnes comes scathless from the
+ordeal.
+
+'Have you brought the swag, Sir George?' asked the novelist, with some
+trace of anxiety in his voice.
+
+'Yes,' replied the great publisher; 'but before proceeding to the
+count would it not be wise to give orders that will insure our being
+left undisturbed?'
+
+'You are right,' replied Doyle, pressing an electric button.
+
+When the servant appeared he said: 'I am not at home to anyone. No
+matter who calls, or what excuse is given, you must permit none to
+approach this room.'
+
+When the servant had withdrawn, Doyle took the further precaution of
+thrusting in place one of the huge bolts which ornamented the massive
+oaken door studded with iron knobs. Sir George withdrew from the tail
+pocket of his dress coat two canvas bags, and, untying the strings,
+poured the rich red gold on the smooth table.
+
+'I think you will find that right,' he said; 'six thousand pounds in
+all.'
+
+The writer dragged his heavy chair nearer the table, and began to
+count the coins two by two, withdrawing each pair from the pile with
+his extended forefingers in the manner of one accustomed to deal with
+great treasure. For a time the silence was unbroken, save by the chink
+of gold, when suddenly a high-keyed voice outside penetrated even the
+stout oak of the huge door. The shrill exclamation seemed to touch a
+chord of remembrance in the mind of Sir George Newnes. Nervously he
+grasped the arms of his chair, sitting very bolt upright, muttering:--
+
+'Can it be he, of all persons, at this time, of all times?'
+
+Doyle glanced up with an expression of annoyance on his face,
+murmuring, to keep his memory green:--
+
+'A hundred and ten, a hundred and ten, a hundred and ten.'
+
+'Not at home?' cried the vibrant voice. 'Nonsense! Everybody is at
+home on Christmas Eve!'
+
+'_You_ don't seem to be,' he heard the servant reply.
+
+'Me? Oh, I have no home, merely rooms in Baker Street. I must see your
+master, and at once.'
+
+'Master left in his motor car half an hour ago to attend the county
+ball, given tonight, at the Royal Huts Hotel, seven miles away,'
+answered the servant, with that glib mastery of fiction which
+unconsciously comes to those who are members, even in a humble
+capacity, of a household devoted to the production of imaginative art.
+
+'Nonsense, I say again,' came the strident voice. 'It is true that the
+tracks of an automobile are on the ground in front of your door, but
+if you will notice the markings of the puncture-proof belt, you will
+see that the automobile is returning and not departing. It went to the
+station before the last shower to bring back a visitor, and since its
+arrival there has been no rain. That suit of armour in the hall
+spattered with mud shows it to be the casing the visitor wore. The
+blazonry upon it of a pair of scissors above an open book resting upon
+a printing press, indicates that the wearer is first of all an editor;
+second, a publisher; and third, a printer. The only baronet in England
+whose occupation corresponds with this heraldic device is Sir George
+Newnes.'
+
+'You forget Sir Alfred Harmsworth,' said the servant, whose hand held
+a copy of _Answers_.
+
+If the insistent visitor was taken aback by this unlooked-for
+rejoinder, his manner showed no trace of embarrassment, and he went on
+unabashed.
+
+'As the last shower began at ten minutes to six, Sir George must have
+arrived at Haslemere station on the 6.19 from Waterloo. He has had
+dinner, and at this moment is sitting comfortably with Sir Arthur
+Conan Doyle, doubtless in the front room, which I see is so
+brilliantly lighted. Now if you will kindly take in my card--'
+
+'But I tell you,' persisted the perplexed servant, 'that the master
+left in his motor car for the county ball at the Royal--'
+
+'Oh, I know, I know. There stands his suit of armour, too, newly
+blackleaded, whose coat of arms is a couchant typewriter on an
+automobile rampant.'
+
+'Great heavens!' cried Sir George, his eyes brightening with the light
+of unholy desire, 'you have material enough there, Doyle, for a story
+in our January number. What do you say?'
+
+A deep frown marred the smoothness of the novelist's brow.
+
+'I say,' he replied sternly, 'that this man has been sending
+threatening letters to me. I have had enough of his menaces.'
+
+'Then triply bolt the door,' advised Newnes, with a sigh of
+disappointment, leaning back in his chair.
+
+'Do you take me for a man who bolts when his enemy appears?' asked
+Doyle fiercely, rising to his feet. 'No, I will unbolt. He shall meet
+the Douglas in his hall!'
+
+'Better have him in the drawing-room, where it's warm,' suggested Sir
+George, with a smile, diplomatically desiring to pour oil on the
+troubled waters.
+
+The novelist, without reply, spread a copy of that evening's
+_Westminster Gazette_ over the pile of gold, strode to the door, threw
+it open, and said coldly:--
+
+'Show the gentleman in, please.'
+
+There entered to them a tall, self-possessed, calm man, with
+clean-shaven face, eagle eye, and inquisitive nose.
+
+Although the visit was most embarrassing at that particular juncture,
+the natural courtesy of the novelist restrained him from giving
+utterance to his resentment of the intrusion, and he proceeded to
+introduce the bidden to the unbidden guest as if each were equally
+welcome.
+
+'Mr. Sherlock Holmes, permit me to present to you Sir George--'
+
+'It is quite superfluous,' said the newcomer, in an even voice of
+exasperating tenor, 'for I perceive at once that one who wears a green
+waistcoat must be a Liberal of strong Home Rule opinions, or the
+editor of several publications wearing covers of emerald hue. The
+shamrock necktie, in addition to the waistcoat, indicates that the
+gentleman before me is both, and so I take it for granted that this is
+Sir George Newnes. How is your circulation, Sir George?'
+
+'Rapidly rising,' replied the editor.
+
+'I am glad of that,' asserted the intruder, suavely, 'and can assure
+you that the temperature outside is as rapidly falling.'
+
+The great detective spread his hands before the glowing electric fire,
+and rubbed them vigorously together.
+
+'I perceive through that evening paper the sum of six thousand pounds
+in gold.'
+
+Doyle interrupted him with some impatience.
+
+'You didn't see it _through_ the paper; you saw it _in_ the paper.
+Goodness knows, it's been mentioned in enough of the sheets.'
+
+'As I was about to remark,' went on Sherlock Holmes imperturbably, 'I
+am amazed that a man whose time is so valuable should waste it in
+counting the money. You are surely aware that a golden sovereign
+weighs 123.44 grains, therefore, if I were you, I should have up the
+kitchen scales, dump in the metal, and figure out the amount with a
+lead pencil. You brought the gold in two canvas bags, did you not, Sir
+George?'
+
+'In the name of all that's wonderful, how do you know that?' asked the
+astonished publisher.
+
+Sherlock Holmes, with a superior smile, casually waved his hand toward
+the two bags which still lay on the polished table.
+
+'Oh, I'm tired of this sort of thing,' said Doyle wearily, sitting
+down in the first chair that presented itself. 'Can't you be honest,
+even on Christmas Eve? You know the oracles of old did not try it on
+with each other.'
+
+'That is true,' said Sherlock Holmes. 'The fact is, I followed Sir
+George Newnes into the Capital and Counties Bank this afternoon, where
+he demanded six thousand pounds in gold; but when he learned this
+would weigh ninety-six pounds seven ounces avoirdupois weight, and
+that even troy weight would make the sum no lighter, he took two small
+bags of gold and the rest in Bank of England notes. I came from London
+on the same train with him, but he was off in the automobile before I
+could make myself known, and so I had to walk up. I was further
+delayed by taking the wrong turning on the top and finding myself at
+that charming spot in the neighbourhood where a sailor was murdered by
+two ruffians a century or so ago.'
+
+There was a note of warning in Doyle's voice when he said:--'Did that
+incident teach you no lesson? Did you not realise that you are in a
+dangerous locality?'
+
+'And likely to fall in with two ruffians?' asked Holmes, slightly
+elevating his eyebrows, while the same sweet smile hovered round his
+thin lips. 'No; the remembrance of the incident encouraged me. It was
+the man who had the money that was murdered. I brought no coin with
+me, although I expect to bear many away.'
+
+'Would you mind telling us, without further circumlocution, what
+brings you here so late at night?'
+
+Sherlock Holmes heaved a sigh, and mournfully shook his head very
+slowly.
+
+'After all the teaching I have bestowed upon you, Doyle, is it
+possible that you cannot deduct even so simple a thing as that? Why am
+I here? Because Sir George made a mistake about those bags. He was
+quite right in taking one of them to 'Undershaw', but he should have
+left the other at 221B, Baker Street. I call this little trip 'The
+Adventure of the Second Swag'. Here is the second swag on the table.
+The first swag you received long ago, and all I had for my share was
+some honeyed words of compliment in the stories you wrote. Now, it is
+truly said that soft words butter no parsnips, and, in this instance,
+they do not even turn away wrath. So far as the second swag is
+concerned, I have come to demand half of it.'
+
+'I am not so poor at deduction as you seem to imagine,' said Doyle,
+apparently nettled at the other's slighting reference to his powers.
+'I was well aware, when you came in, what your errand was. I deduced
+further that if you saw Sir George withdraw gold from the bank, you
+also followed him to Waterloo station.'
+
+'Quite right.'
+
+'When he purchased his ticket for Haslemere, you did the same.'
+
+'I did.'
+
+'When you arrived at Haslemere, you sent a telegram to your friend, Dr
+Watson, telling him of your whereabouts.'
+
+'You are wrong there; I ran after the motor car.'
+
+'You certainly sent a telegram from somewhere, to someone, or at least
+dropped a note in the post-box. There are signs, which I need not
+mention, that point irrevocably to such a conclusion.'
+
+The doomed man, ruined by his own self-complacency, merely smiled in
+his superior manner, not noticing the eager look with which Doyle
+awaited his answer.
+
+'Wrong entirely. I neither wrote any telegram, nor spoke any message,
+since I left London.'
+
+'Ah, no,' cried Doyle. 'I see where I went astray. You merely inquired
+the way to my house.'
+
+'I needed to make no inquiries. I followed the rear light of the
+automobile part way up the hill, and, when that disappeared, I turned
+to the right instead of the left, as there was no one out on such a
+night from whom I could make inquiry.'
+
+'My deductions, then, are beside the mark,' said Doyle hoarsely, in an
+accent which sent cold chills up and down the spine of his invited
+guest, but conveyed no intimation of his fate to the self-satisfied
+later arrival.
+
+'Of course they were,' said Holmes, with exasperating self-assurance.
+
+'Am I also wrong in deducting that you have had nothing to eat since
+you left London?'
+
+'No, you are quite right there.'
+
+'Well, oblige me by pressing that electric button.'
+
+Holmes did so with much eagerness, but, although the trio waited some
+minutes in silence, there was no response.
+
+'I deduct from that,' said Doyle, 'that the servants have gone to bed.
+After I have quite satisfied all your claims in the way of hunger for
+food and gold, I shall take you back in my motor car, unless you
+prefer to stay here the night.'
+
+'You are very kind,' said Sherlock Holmes.
+
+'Not at all,' replied Doyle. 'Just take that chair, draw it up to the
+table and we will divide the second swag.'
+
+The chair indicated differed from all others in the room. It was
+straight-backed, and its oaken arms were covered by two plates,
+apparently of German silver. When Holmes clutched it by the arms to
+drag it forward, he gave one half-articulate gasp, and plunged
+headlong to the floor, quivering. Sir George Newnes sprang up standing
+with a cry of alarm. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remained seated, a
+seraphic smile of infinite satisfaction playing about his lips.
+
+'Has he fainted?' cried Sir George.
+
+'No, merely electrocuted. A simple device the Sheriff of New York
+taught me when I was over there last.'
+
+'Merciful heavens! Cannot he be resuscitated?'
+
+'My dear Newnes,' said Doyle, with the air of one from whose shoulders
+a great weight is lifted, 'a man may fall into the chasm at the foot
+of the Reichenbach Fall and escape to record his adventures later, but
+when two thousand volts pass through the human frame, the person who
+owns that frame is dead.'
+
+'You don't mean to say you've murdered him?' asked Sir George, in an
+awed whisper.
+
+'Well, the term you use is harsh, still it rather accurately sums up
+the situation. To speak candidly, Sir George, I don't think they can
+indite us for anything more than manslaughter. You see, this is a
+little invention for the reception of burglars. Every night before the
+servants go to bed, they switch on the current to this chair. That's
+why I asked Holmes to press the button. I place a small table beside
+the chair, and put on it a bottle of wine, whisky and soda, and
+cigars. Then, if any burglar comes in, he invariably sits down in the
+chair to enjoy himself, and so you see, that piece of furniture is an
+effective method of reducing crime. The number of burglars I have
+turned over to the parish to be buried will prove that this taking off
+of Holmes was not premeditated by me. This incident, strictly
+speaking, is not murder, but manslaughter. We shouldn't get more than
+fourteen years apiece, and probably that would be cut down to seven on
+the ground that we had performed an act for the public benefit.'
+
+'Apiece!' cried Sir George. 'But what have I had to do with it?'
+
+'Everything, my dear sir, everything. As that babbling fool talked, I
+saw in your eye the gleam which betokens avarice for copy. Indeed, I
+think you mentioned the January number. You were therefore accessory
+before the fact. I simply had to slaughter the poor wretch.'
+
+Sir George sank back in his chair wellnigh breathless with horror.
+Publishers are humane men who rarely commit crimes; authors, however,
+are a hardened set who usually perpetrate a felony every time they
+issue a book. Doyle laughed easily.
+
+'I'm used to this sort of thing,' he said. 'Remember how I killed off
+the people in "The White Company". Now, if you will help me to get rid
+of the body, all may yet be well. You see, I learned from the
+misguided simpleton himself that nobody knows where he is today. He
+often disappears for weeks at a time, so there really is slight danger
+of detection. Will you lend a hand?'
+
+'I suppose I must,' cried the conscience-stricken man.
+
+Doyle at once threw off the lassitude which the coming of Sherlock
+Holmes had caused, and acted now with an energy which was
+characteristic of him. Going to an outhouse, he brought the motor car
+to the front door, then, picking up Holmes and followed by his
+trembling guest, he went outside and flung the body into the tonneau
+behind. He then threw a spade and a pick into the car, and covered
+everything up with a water-proof spread. Lighting the lamps, he bade
+his silent guest get up beside him, and so they started on their
+fateful journey, taking the road past the spot where the sailor had
+been murdered, and dashing down the long hill at fearful speed toward
+London.
+
+'Why do you take this direction?' asked Sir George. 'Wouldn't it be
+more advisable to go further into the country?'
+
+Doyle laughed harshly.
+
+'Haven't you a place on Wimbledon Common? Why not bury him in your
+garden?'
+
+'Merciful motors!' cried the horrified man. 'How can you propose such
+a thing? Talking of gardens, why not have buried him in your own,
+which was infinitely safer than going forward at this pace.'
+
+'Have no fear,' said Doyle reassuringly, 'we shall find him a suitable
+sepulchre without disturbing either of our gardens. I'll be in the
+centre of London within two hours.'
+
+Sir George stared in affright at the demon driver. The man had
+evidently gone mad. To London, of all places in the world. Surely that
+was the one spot on earth to avoid.
+
+'Stop the motor and let me off,' he cried. 'I'm going to wake up the
+nearest magistrate and confess.'
+
+'You'll do nothing of the sort,' said Doyle. 'Don't you see that no
+person on earth would suspect two criminals of making for London when
+they have the whole country before them? Haven't you read my stories?
+The moment a man commits a crime he tries to get as far away from
+London as possible. Every policeman knows that, therefore, two men
+coming into London are innocent strangers, according to Scotland
+Yard.'
+
+'But then we may be taken up for fast driving, and think of the
+terrible burden we carry.'
+
+'We're safe on the country roads, and I'll slow down when we reach the
+suburbs.'
+
+It was approaching three o'clock in the morning when a huge motor car
+turned out of Trafalgar Square, and went eastward along the Strand.
+The northern side of the Strand was up, as it usually is, and the
+motor, skilfully driven, glided past the piles of wood-paving blocks,
+great sombre kettles holding tar and the general _débris_ of a
+re-paving convulsion. Opposite Southampton Street, at the very spot so
+graphically illustrated by George C. Haité on the cover of the _Strand
+Magazine_, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stopped his motor. The Strand was
+deserted. He threw pick and shovel into the excavation, and curtly
+ordered his companion to take his choice of weapons. Sir George
+selected the pick, and Doyle vigorously plied the spade. In almost
+less time than it takes to tell it, a very respectable hole had been
+dug, and in it was placed the body of the popular private detective.
+Just as the last spadeful was shovelled in place the stern voice of a
+policeman awoke the silence, and caused Sir George to drop his pick
+from nerveless hands.
+
+'What are you two doing down there?'
+
+'That's all right, officer,' said Doyle glibly, as one who had
+foreseen every emergency. 'My friend here is controller of the Strand.
+When the Strand is up he is responsible, and it has the largest
+circulation in the--I mean it's up oftener than any other street in
+the world. We cannot inspect the work satisfactorily while traffic is
+on, and so we have been examining it in the night-time. I am his
+secretary; I do the writing, you know.'
+
+'Oh, I see,' replied the constable. 'Well, gentlemen, good morning to
+you, and merry Christmas.'
+
+'The same to you, constable. Just lend a hand, will you?'
+
+The officer of the law helped each of the men up to the level of the
+road.
+
+As Doyle drove away from the ill-omened spot he said:--
+
+'Thus have we disposed of poor Holmes in the busiest spot on earth,
+where no one will ever think of looking for him, and we've put him
+away without even a Christmas box around him. We have buried him for
+ever in the _Strand_.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont, by Robert Barr
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont, by Robert Barr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont
+
+Author: Robert Barr
+
+Release Date: September 25, 2006 [EBook #19369]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRIUMPHS OF EUGÈNE VALMONT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Sankar Viswanathan, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<p class="center"> The Attribution and the Table of Contents are not part of the original book.</p>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1><i>The Triumphs of <br />
+Eug&egrave;ne Valmont</i></h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>By</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>Robert Barr</h2>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+
+<table summary="Contents">
+<tr><td>1.</td><td><i><a href="#The_Mystery_of_the_Five_Hundred_Diamonds">The Mystery of the Five Hundred Diamonds</a></i></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td>2.</td><td><i><a href="#The_Siamese_Twin_of_a_Bomb-Thrower">The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower</a></i></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>3.</td><td><i><a href="#The_Clue_of_the_Silver_Spoons">The Clue of the Silver Spoons</a></i></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>4.</td><td><i><a href="#Lord_Chizelriggs_Missing_Fortune">Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune</a></i></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>5.</td><td><i><a href="#The_Absent-Minded_Coterie">The Absent-Minded Coterie</a></i></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>6.</td><td><i><a href="#The_Ghost_with_the_Club-Foot">The Ghost with the Club-Foot</a></i></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>7.</td><td><i><a href="#The_Liberation_of_Wyoming_Ed">The Liberation of Wyoming Ed</a></i></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>8.</td><td><i><a href="#Lady_Alicias_Emeralds">Lady Alicia's Emeralds</a></i></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td></tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="center" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="center" colspan="3"><a href="#APPENDIX_TWO_SHERLOCK_HOLMES_PARODIES">APPENDIX: TWO SHERLOCK HOLMES PARODIES</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td>1.</td><td><a href="#APPENDIX_TWO_SHERLOCK_HOLMES_PARODIES">The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>2.</td><td><a href="#The_Adventure_of_the_Second_Swag">The Adventure of the Second Swag</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="The_Mystery_of_the_Five_Hundred_Diamonds" id="The_Mystery_of_the_Five_Hundred_Diamonds"></a>1. <i>The Mystery of the Five Hundred Diamonds</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>When I say I am called Valmont, the name will convey no impression to
+the reader, one way or another. My occupation is that of private
+detective in London, but if you ask any policeman in Paris who Valmont
+was he will likely be able to tell you, unless he is a recent recruit.
+If you ask him where Valmont is now, he may not know, yet I have a
+good deal to do with the Parisian police.</p>
+
+<p>For a period of seven years I was chief detective to the Government of
+France, and if I am unable to prove myself a great crime hunter, it is
+because the record of my career is in the secret archives of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>I may admit at the outset that I have no grievances to air. The French
+Government considered itself justified in dismissing me, and it did
+so. In this action it was quite within its right, and I should be the
+last to dispute that right; but, on the other hand, I consider myself
+justified in publishing the following account of what actually
+occurred, especially as so many false rumours have been put abroad
+concerning the case. However, as I said at the beginning, I hold no
+grievance, because my worldly affairs are now much more prosperous
+than they were in Paris, my intimate knowledge of that city and the
+country of which it is the capital bringing to me many cases with
+which I have dealt more or less successfully since I established
+myself in London.</p>
+
+<p>Without further preliminary I shall at once plunge into an account of
+the case which riveted the attention of the whole world a little more
+than a decade ago.</p>
+
+<p>The year 1893 was a prosperous twelve months for France. The weather
+was good, the harvest excellent, and the wine of that vintage is
+celebrated to this day. Everyone was well off and reasonably happy, a
+marked contrast to the state of things a few years later, when
+dissension over the Dreyfus case rent the country in twain.</p>
+
+<p>Newspaper readers may remember that in 1893 the Government of France
+fell heir to an unexpected treasure which set the civilised world
+agog, especially those inhabitants of it who are interested in
+historical relics. This was the finding of the diamond necklace in
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> Ch&acirc;teau de Chaumont, where it had rested undiscovered for a
+century in a rubbish heap of an attic. I believe it has not been
+questioned that this was the veritable necklace which the court
+jeweller, Boehmer, hoped to sell to Marie Antoinette, although how it
+came to be in the Ch&acirc;teau de Chaumont no one has been able to form
+even a conjecture. For a hundred years it was supposed that the
+necklace had been broken up in London, and its half a thousand stones,
+great and small, sold separately. It has always seemed strange to me
+that the Countess de Lamotte-Valois, who was thought to have profited
+by the sale of these jewels, should not have abandoned France if she
+possessed money to leave that country, for exposure was inevitable if
+she remained. Indeed, the unfortunate woman was branded and
+imprisoned, and afterwards was dashed to death from the third storey
+of a London house, when, in the direst poverty, she sought escape from
+the consequences of the debts she had incurred.</p>
+
+<p>I am not superstitious in the least, yet this celebrated piece of
+treasure-trove seems actually to have exerted a malign influence over
+everyone who had the misfortune to be connected with it. Indeed, in a
+small way, I who write these words suffered dismissal and disgrace,
+though I caught but one glimpse of this dazzling scintillation of
+jewels. The jeweller who made the necklace met financial ruin; the
+Queen for whom it was constructed was beheaded; that high-born Prince
+Louis Ren&eacute; Edouard, Cardinal de Rohan, who purchased it, was flung
+into prison; the unfortunate Countess, who said she acted as
+go-between until the transfer was concluded, clung for five awful
+minutes to a London window-sill before dropping to her death to the
+flags below; and now, a hundred and eight years later, up comes this
+devil's display of fireworks to the light again!</p>
+
+<p>Droulliard, the working man who found the ancient box, seems to have
+prised it open, and ignorant though he was&mdash;he had probably never seen
+a diamond in his life before&mdash;realised that a fortune was in his
+grasp. The baleful glitter from the combination must have sent madness
+into his brain, working havoc therein as though the shafts of
+brightness were those mysterious rays which scientists have recently
+discovered. He might quite easily have walked through the main gate of
+the Ch&acirc;teau unsuspected and unquestioned with the diamonds concealed
+about his person, but instead of this he crept from the attic window
+on to the steep roof, slipped to the eaves, fell to the ground, and
+lay dead with a broken neck, while the necklace, intact, shimmered in
+the sunlight beside his body.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> No matter where these jewels had been
+found the Government would have insisted that they belonged to the
+Treasury of the Republic; but as the Ch&acirc;teau de Chaumont was a
+historical monument, and the property of France, there could be no
+question regarding the ownership of the necklace. The Government at
+once claimed it, and ordered it to be sent by a trustworthy military
+man to Paris. It was carried safely and delivered promptly to the
+authorities by Alfred Dreyfus, a young captain of artillery, to whom
+its custody had been entrusted.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of its fall from the tall tower neither case nor jewels were
+perceptibly damaged. The lock of the box had apparently been forced by
+Droulliard's hatchet, or perhaps by the clasp knife found on his body.
+On reaching the ground the lid had flown open, and the necklace was
+thrown out.</p>
+
+<p>I believe there was some discussion in the Cabinet regarding the fate
+of this ill-omened trophy, one section wishing it to be placed in a
+museum on account of its historical interest, another advocating the
+breaking up of the necklace and the selling of the diamonds for what
+they would fetch. But a third party maintained that the method to get
+the most money into the coffers of the country was to sell the
+necklace as it stood, for as the world now contains so many rich
+amateurs who collect undoubted rarities, regardless of expense, the
+historic associations of the jewelled collar would enhance the
+intrinsic value of the stones; and, this view prevailing, it was
+announced that the necklace would be sold by auction a month later in
+the rooms of Meyer, Renault and Co., in the Boulevard des Italiens,
+near the Bank of the Cr&eacute;dit-Lyonnais.</p>
+
+<p>This announcement elicited much comment from the newspapers of all
+countries, and it seemed that, from a financial point of view at
+least, the decision of the Government had been wise, for it speedily
+became evident that a notable coterie of wealthy buyers would be
+congregated in Paris on the thirteenth (unlucky day for me!) when the
+sale was to take place. But we of the inner circle were made aware of
+another result somewhat more disquieting, which was that the most
+expert criminals in the world were also gathering like vultures upon
+the fair city. The honour of France was at stake. Whoever bought that
+necklace must be assured of a safe conduct out of the country. We
+might view with equanimity whatever happened afterwards, but while he
+was a resident of France his life and property must not be endangered.
+Thus it came about that I was given full<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> authority to ensure that
+neither murder nor theft nor both combined should be committed while
+the purchaser of the necklace remained within our boundaries, and for
+this purpose the police resources of France were placed unreservedly
+at my disposal. If I failed there should be no one to blame but
+myself; consequently, as I have remarked before, I do not complain of
+my dismissal by the Government.</p>
+
+<p>The broken lock of the jewel-case had been very deftly repaired by an
+expert locksmith, who in executing his task was so unfortunate as to
+scratch a finger on the broken metal, whereupon blood poisoning set
+in, and although his life was saved, he was dismissed from the
+hospital with his right arm gone and his usefulness destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>When the jeweller Boehmer made the necklace he asked a hundred and
+sixty thousand pounds for it, but after years of disappointment he was
+content to sell it to Cardinal de Rohan for sixty-four thousand
+pounds, to be liquidated in three instalments, not one of which was
+ever paid. This latter amount was probably somewhere near the value of
+the five hundred and sixteen separate stones, one of which was of
+tremendous size, a very monarch of diamonds, holding its court among
+seventeen brilliants each as large as a filbert. This iridescent
+concentration of wealth was, as one might say, placed in my care, and
+I had to see to it that no harm came to the necklace or to its
+prospective owner until they were safely across the boundaries of
+France.</p>
+
+<p>The four weeks previous to the thirteenth proved a busy and anxious
+time for me. Thousands, most of whom were actuated by mere curiosity,
+wished to view the diamonds. We were compelled to discriminate, and
+sometimes discriminated against the wrong person, which caused
+unpleasantness. Three distinct attempts were made to rob the safe, but
+luckily these criminal efforts were frustrated, and so we came
+unscathed to the eventful thirteenth of the month.</p>
+
+<p>The sale was to begin at two o'clock, and on the morning of that day I
+took the somewhat tyrannical precaution of having the more dangerous
+of our own malefactors, and as many of the foreign thieves as I could
+trump up charges against, laid by the heels, yet I knew very well it
+was not these rascals I had most to fear, but the suave, well-groomed
+gentlemen, amply supplied with unimpeachable credentials, stopping at
+our fine hotels and living like princes. Many of these were foreigners
+against whom we could prove nothing, and whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> arrest might land us
+into temporary international difficulties. Nevertheless, I had each of
+them shadowed, and on the morning of the thirteenth if one of them had
+even disputed a cab fare I should have had him in prison half an hour
+later, and taken the consequences, but these gentlemen are very shrewd
+and do not commit mistakes.</p>
+
+<p>I made up a list of all the men in the world who were able or likely
+to purchase the necklace. Many of them would not be present in person
+at the auction rooms; their bidding would be done by agents. This
+simplified matters a good deal, for the agents kept me duly informed
+of their purposes, and, besides, an agent who handles treasure every
+week is an adept at the business, and does not need the protection
+which must surround an amateur, who in nine cases out of ten has but
+scant idea of the dangers that threaten him, beyond knowing that if he
+goes down a dark street in a dangerous quarter he is likely to be
+maltreated and robbed.</p>
+
+<p>There were no less than sixteen clients all told, whom we learned were
+to attend personally on the day of the sale, any one of whom might
+well have made the purchase. The Marquis of Warlingham and Lord Oxtead
+from England were well-known jewel fanciers, while at least half a
+dozen millionaires were expected from the United States, with a
+smattering from Germany, Austria, and Russia, and one each from Italy,
+Belgium, and Holland.</p>
+
+<p>Admission to the auction rooms was allowed by ticket only, to be
+applied for at least a week in advance, applications to be accompanied
+by satisfactory testimonials. It would possibly have surprised many of
+the rich men collected there to know that they sat cheek by jowl with
+some of the most noted thieves of England and America, but I allowed
+this for two reasons: first, I wished to keep these sharpers under my
+own eye until I knew who had bought the necklace; and, secondly, I was
+desirous that they should not know they were suspected.</p>
+
+<p>I stationed trusty men outside on the Boulevard des Italiens, each of
+whom knew by sight most of the probable purchasers of the necklace. It
+was arranged that when the sale was over I should walk out to the
+boulevard alongside the man who was the new owner of the diamonds, and
+from that moment until he quitted France my men were not to lose sight
+of him if he took personal custody of the stones, instead of doing the
+sensible and proper thing of having them insured and forwarded to his
+residence by some responsible transit company,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> or depositing them in
+the bank. In fact, I took every precaution that occurred to me. All
+police Paris was on the <i>qui vive</i>, and felt itself pitted against the
+scoundrelism of the world.</p>
+
+<p>For one reason or another it was nearly half-past two before the sale
+began. There had been considerable delay because of forged tickets,
+and, indeed, each order for admittance was so closely scrutinised that
+this in itself took a good deal more time than we anticipated. Every
+chair was occupied, and still a number of the visitors were compelled
+to stand. I stationed myself by the swinging doors at the entrance end
+of the hall, where I could command a view of the entire assemblage.
+Some of my men were placed with backs against the wall, whilst others
+were distributed amongst the chairs, all in plain clothes. During the
+sale the diamonds themselves were not displayed, but the box
+containing them rested in front of the auctioneer and three policemen
+in uniform stood guard on either side.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Very quietly the auctioneer began by saying that there was no need for
+him to expatiate on the notable character of the treasure he was
+privileged to offer for sale, and with this preliminary, he requested
+those present to bid. Someone offered twenty thousand francs, which
+was received with much laughter; then the bidding went steadily on
+until it reached nine hundred thousand francs, which I knew to be less
+than half the reserve the Government had placed upon the necklace. The
+contest advanced more slowly until the million and a half was touched,
+and there it hung fire for a time, while the auctioneer remarked that
+this sum did not equal that which the maker of the necklace had been
+finally forced to accept for it. After another pause he added that, as
+the reserve was not exceeded, the necklace would be withdrawn, and
+probably never again offered for sale. He therefore urged those who
+were holding back to make their bids now. At this the contest livened
+until the sum of two million three hundred thousand francs had been
+offered, and now I knew the necklace would be sold. Nearing the three
+million mark the competition thinned down to a few dealers from
+Hamburg and the Marquis of Warlingham, from England, when a voice that
+had not yet been heard in the auction room was lifted in a tone of
+some impatience:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">'One million dollars!'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was an instant hush, followed by the scribbling of pencils, as
+each person present reduced the sum to its equivalent in his own
+currency&mdash;pounds for the English, francs for the French, marks for the
+German, and so on. The aggressive tone and the clear-cut face of the
+bidder proclaimed him an American, not less than the financial
+denomination he had used. In a moment it was realised that his bid was
+a clear leap of more than two million francs, and a sigh went up from
+the audience as if this settled it, and the great sale was done.
+Nevertheless the auctioneer's hammer hovered over the lid of his desk,
+and he looked up and down the long line of faces turned towards him.
+He seemed reluctant to tap the board, but no one ventured to compete
+against this tremendous sum, and with a sharp click the mallet fell.</p>
+
+<p>'What name?' he asked, bending over towards the customer.</p>
+
+<p>'Cash,' replied the American; 'here's a cheque for the amount. I'll
+take the diamonds with me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your request is somewhat unusual,' protested the auctioneer mildly.</p>
+
+<p>'I know what you mean,' interrupted the American; 'you think the
+cheque may not be cashed. You will notice it is drawn on the
+Cr&eacute;dit-Lyonnais, which is practically next door. I must have the
+jewels with me. Send round your messenger with the cheque; it will
+take only a few minutes to find out whether or not the money is there
+to meet it. The necklace is mine, and I insist on having it.'</p>
+
+<p>The auctioneer with some demur handed the cheque to the representative
+of the French Government who was present, and this official himself
+went to the bank. There were some other things to be sold and the
+auctioneer endeavoured to go on through the list, but no one paid the
+slightest attention to him.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I was studying the countenance of the man who had made the
+astounding bid, when I should instead have adjusted my preparations to
+meet the new conditions now confronting me. Here was a man about whom
+we knew nothing whatever. I had come to the instant conclusion that he
+was a prince of criminals, and that a sinister design, not at that
+moment fathomed by me, was on foot to get possession of the jewels.
+The handing up of the cheque was clearly a trick of some sort, and I
+fully expected the official to return and say the draft was good. I
+determined to prevent this man from getting the jewel box until I knew
+more of his game. Quickly I removed from my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> place near the door to
+the auctioneer's desk, having two objects in view; first, to warn the
+auctioneer not to part with the treasure too easily; and, second, to
+study the suspected man at closer range. Of all evil-doers the
+American is most to be feared; he uses more ingenuity in the planning
+of his projects, and will take greater risks in carrying them out than
+any other malefactor on earth.</p>
+
+<p>From my new station I saw there were two men to deal with. The
+bidder's face was keen and intellectual; his hands refined, lady-like,
+clean and white, showing they were long divorced from manual labour,
+if indeed they had ever done any useful work. Coolness and
+imperturbability were his beyond a doubt. The companion who sat at his
+right was of an entirely different stamp. His hands were hairy and
+sun-tanned; his face bore the stamp of grim determination and
+unflinching bravery. I knew that these two types usually hunted in
+couples&mdash;the one to scheme, the other to execute, and they always
+formed a combination dangerous to encounter and difficult to
+circumvent.</p>
+
+<p>There was a buzz of conversation up and down the hall as these two men
+talked together in low tones. I knew now that I was face to face with
+the most hazardous problem of my life.</p>
+
+<p>I whispered to the auctioneer, who bent his head to listen. He knew
+very well who I was, of course.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not give up the necklace,' I began.</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>'I am under the orders of the official from the Ministry of the
+Interior. You must speak to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall not fail to do so,' I replied. 'Nevertheless, do not give up
+the box too readily.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am helpless,' he protested with another shrug. 'I obey the orders
+of the Government.'</p>
+
+<p>Seeing it was useless to parley further with the auctioneer, I set my
+wits to work to meet the new emergency. I felt convinced that the
+cheque would prove to be genuine, and that the fraud, wherever it lay,
+might not be disclosed in time to aid the authorities. My duty,
+therefore, was to make sure we lost sight neither of the buyer nor the
+thing bought. Of course I could not arrest the purchaser merely on
+suspicion; besides, it would make the Government the laughing-stock of
+the world if they sold a case of jewels and immediately placed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> the
+buyer in custody when they themselves had handed over his goods to
+him. Ridicule kills in France. A breath of laughter may blow a
+Government out of existence in Paris much more effectually than will a
+whiff of cannon smoke. My duty then was to give the Government full
+warning, and never lose sight of my man until he was clear of France;
+then my responsibility ended.</p>
+
+<p>I took aside one of my own men in plain clothes and said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'You have seen the American who has bought the necklace?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well. Go outside quietly, and station yourself there. He is
+likely to emerge presently with the jewels in his possession. You are
+not to lose sight of either the man or the casket. I shall follow him
+and be close behind him as he emerges, and you are to shadow us. If he
+parts with the case you must be ready at a sign from me to follow
+either the man or the jewels. Do you understand?' 'Yes, sir,' he
+answered, and left the room.</p>
+
+<p>It is ever the unforeseen that baffles us; it is easy to be wise after
+the event. I should have sent two men, and I have often thought since
+how admirable is the regulation of the Italian Government which sends
+out its policemen in pairs. Or I should have given my man power to
+call for help, but even as it was he did only half as well as I had a
+right to expect of him, and the blunder he committed by a moment's
+dull-witted hesitation&mdash;ah, well! there is no use of scolding. After
+all the result might have been the same.</p>
+
+<p>Just as my man disappeared between the two folding doors the official
+from the Ministry of the Interior entered. I intercepted him about
+half-way on his journey from the door to the auctioneer.</p>
+
+<p>'Possibly the cheque appears to be genuine,' I whispered to him.</p>
+
+<p>'But certainly,' he replied pompously. He was an individual greatly
+impressed with his own importance; a kind of character with which it
+is always difficult to deal. Afterwards the Government asserted that
+this official had warned me, and the utterances of an empty-headed ass
+dressed in a little brief authority, as the English poet says, were
+looked upon as the epitome of wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>'I advise you strongly not to hand over the necklace as has been
+requested,' I went on.</p>
+
+<p>'Why?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Because I am convinced the bidder is a criminal.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'If you have proof of that, arrest him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have no proof at the present moment, but I request you to delay the
+delivery of the goods.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is absurd,' he cried impatiently. 'The necklace is his, not
+ours. The money has already been transferred to the account of the
+Government; we cannot retain the five million francs, and refuse to
+hand over to him what he has bought with them,' and so the man left me
+standing there, nonplussed and anxious. The eyes of everyone in the
+room had been turned on us during our brief conversation, and now the
+official proceeded ostentatiously up the room with a grand air of
+importance; then, with a bow and a flourish of the hand, he said,
+dramatically,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'The jewels belong to Monsieur.'</p>
+
+<p>The two Americans rose simultaneously, the taller holding out his hand
+while the auctioneer passed to him the case he had apparently paid so
+highly for. The American nonchalantly opened the box and for the first
+time the electric radiance of the jewels burst upon that audience,
+each member of which craned his neck to behold it. It seemed to me a
+most reckless thing to do. He examined the jewels minutely for a few
+moments, then snapped the lid shut again, and calmly put the box in
+his outside pocket, and I could not help noticing that the light
+overcoat he wore possessed pockets made extraordinarily large, as if
+on purpose for this very case. And now this amazing man walked
+serenely down the room past miscreants who joyfully would have cut his
+throat for even the smallest diamond in that conglomeration; yet he
+did not take the trouble to put his hand on the pocket which contained
+the case, or in any way attempt to protect it. The assemblage seemed
+stricken dumb by his audacity. His friend followed closely at his
+heels, and the tall man disappeared through the folding doors. Not so
+the other. He turned quickly, and whipped two revolvers out of his
+pockets, which he presented at the astonished crowd. There had been a
+movement on the part of every one to leave the room, but the sight of
+these deadly weapons confronting them made each one shrink into his
+place again.</p>
+
+<p>The man with his back to the door spoke in a loud and domineering
+voice, asking the auctioneer to translate what he had to say into
+French and German; he spoke in English.</p>
+
+<p>'These here shiners are valuable; they belong to my friend who has
+just gone out. Casting no reflections on the generality of people in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+this room, there are, nevertheless, half a dozen "crooks" among us
+whom my friend wishes to avoid. Now, no honest man here will object to
+giving the buyer of that there trinket five clear minutes in which to
+get away. It's only the "crooks" that can kick. I ask these five
+minutes as a favour, but if they are not granted I am going to take
+them as a right. Any man who moves will get shot.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am an honest man,' I cried, 'and I object. I am chief detective of
+the French Government. Stand aside; the police will protect your
+friend.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hold on, my son,' warned the American, turning one weapon directly
+upon me, while the other held a sort of roving commission, pointing
+all over the room. 'My friend is from New York and he distrusts the
+police as much as he does the grafters. You may be twenty detectives,
+but if you move before that clock strikes three, I'll bring you down,
+and don't you forget it.'</p>
+
+<p>It is one thing to face death in a fierce struggle, but quite another
+to advance coldly upon it toward the muzzle of a pistol held so
+steadily that there could be no chance of escape. The gleam of
+determination in the man's eyes convinced me he meant what he said. I
+did not consider then, nor have I considered since, that the next five
+minutes, precious as they were, would be worth paying my life for.
+Apparently everyone else was of my opinion, for none moved hand or
+foot until the clock slowly struck three.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, gentlemen,' said the American, as he vanished between the
+spring-doors. When I say vanished, I mean that word and no other,
+because my men outside saw nothing of this individual then or later.
+He vanished as if he had never existed, and it was some hours before
+we found how this had been accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>I rushed out almost on his heels, as one might say, and hurriedly
+questioned my waiting men. They had all seen the tall American come
+out with the greatest leisure and stroll towards the west. As he was
+not the man any of them were looking for they paid no further
+attention to him, as, indeed, is the custom with our Parisian force.
+They have eyes for nothing but what they are sent to look for, and
+this trait has its drawbacks for their superiors.</p>
+
+<p>I ran up the boulevard, my whole thought intent on the diamonds and
+their owner. I knew my subordinate in command of the men inside the
+hall would look after the scoundrel with the pistols. A short distance
+up I found the stupid fellow I had sent out, standing in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> dazed
+manner at the corner of the Rue Michodi&egrave;re, gazing alternately down
+that short street and towards the Place de l'Op&eacute;ra. The very fact that
+he was there furnished proof that he had failed.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is the American?' I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>'He went down this street, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why are you standing here like a fool?'</p>
+
+<p>'I followed him this far, when a man came up the Rue Michodi&egrave;re, and
+without a word the American handed him the jewel-box, turning
+instantly down the street up which the other had come. The other
+jumped into a cab, and drove towards the Place de l'Op&eacute;ra.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what did you do? Stood here like a post, I suppose?'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't know what to do, sir. It all happened in a moment.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why didn't you follow the cab?'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't know which to follow, sir, and the cab was gone instantly
+while I watched the American.'</p>
+
+<p>'What was its number?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'You clod! Why didn't you call one of our men, whoever was nearest,
+and leave him to shadow the American while you followed the cab?'</p>
+
+<p>'I did shout to the nearest man, sir, but he said you told him to stay
+there and watch the English lord, and even before he had spoken both
+American and cabman were out of sight.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was the man to whom he gave the box an American also?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir, he was French.'</p>
+
+<p>'How do you know?'</p>
+
+<p>'By his appearance and the words he spoke.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you said he didn't speak.'</p>
+
+<p>'He did not speak to the American, sir, but he said to the cabman,
+"Drive to the Madeleine as quickly as you can."'</p>
+
+<p>'Describe the man.'</p>
+
+<p>'He was a head shorter than the American, wore a black beard and
+moustache rather neatly trimmed, and seemed to be a superior sort of
+artisan.'</p>
+
+<p>'You did not take the number of the cab. Should you know the cabman if
+you saw him again?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir, I think so.'</p>
+
+<p>Taking this fellow with me I returned to the now nearly empty auction
+room and there gathered all my men about me. Each in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> notebook
+took down particulars of the cabman and his passenger from the lips of
+my incompetent spy; next I dictated a full description of the two
+Americans, then scattered my men to the various railway stations of
+the lines leading out of Paris, with orders to make inquiries of the
+police on duty there, and to arrest one or more of the four persons
+described should they be so fortunate as to find any of them.</p>
+
+<p>I now learned how the rogue with the pistols vanished so completely as
+he did. My subordinate in the auction room had speedily solved the
+mystery. To the left of the main entrance of the auction room was a
+door that gave private access to the rear of the premises. As the
+attendant in charge confessed when questioned, he had been bribed by
+the American earlier in the day to leave this side door open and to
+allow the man to escape by the goods entrance. Thus the ruffian did
+not appear on the boulevard at all, and so had not been observed by
+any of my men.</p>
+
+<p>Taking my futile spy with me I returned to my own office, and sent an
+order throughout the city that every cabman who had been in the
+Boulevard des Italiens between half-past two and half-past three that
+afternoon, should report immediately to me. The examination of these
+men proved a very tedious business indeed, but whatever other
+countries may say of us, we French are patient, and if the haystack is
+searched long enough, the needle will be found. I did not discover the
+needle I was looking for, but I came upon one quite as important, if
+not more so.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly ten o'clock at night when a cabman answered my
+oft-repeated questions in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you take up a passenger a few minutes past three o'clock on the
+Boulevard des Italiens, near the Cr&eacute;dit-Lyonnais? Had he a short black
+beard? Did he carry a small box in his hand and order you to drive to
+the Madeleine?'</p>
+
+<p>The cabman seemed puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>'He wore a short black beard when he got out of the cab,' he replied.</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean by that?'</p>
+
+<p>'I drive a closed cab, sir. When he got in he was a smooth-faced
+gentleman; when he got out he wore a short black beard.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was he a Frenchman?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir; he was a foreigner, either English or American.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was he carrying a box?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'No, sir; he held in his hand a small leather bag.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where did he tell you to drive?'</p>
+
+<p>'He told me to follow the cab in front, which had just driven off very
+rapidly towards the Madeleine. In fact, I heard the man, such as you
+describe, order the other cabman to drive to the Madeleine. I had come
+alongside the curb when this man held up his hand for a cab, but the
+open cab cut in ahead of me. Just then my passenger stepped up and
+said in French, but with a foreign accent: "Follow that cab wherever
+it goes."'</p>
+
+<p>I turned with some indignation to my inefficient spy.</p>
+
+<p>'You told me,' I said, 'that the American had gone down a side street.
+Yet he evidently met a second man, obtained from him the handbag,
+turned back, and got into the closed cab directly behind you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir,' stammered the spy, 'I could not look in two directions at
+the same time. The American certainly went down the side street, but
+of course I watched the cab which contained the jewels.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you saw nothing of the closed cab right at your elbow?'</p>
+
+<p>'The boulevard was full of cabs, sir, and the pavement crowded with
+passers-by, as it always is at that hour of the day, and I have only
+two eyes in my head.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad to know you had that many, for I was beginning to think you
+were blind.'</p>
+
+<p>Although I said this, I knew in my heart it was useless to censure the
+poor wretch, for the fault was entirely my own in not sending two men,
+and in failing to guess the possibility of the jewels and their owner
+being separated. Besides, here was a clue to my hand at last, and no
+time must be lost in following it up. So I continued my interrogation
+of the cabman.</p>
+
+<p>'The other cab was an open vehicle, you say?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'You succeeded in following it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes, sir. At the Madeleine the man in front redirected the
+coachman, who turned to the left and drove to the Place de la
+Concorde, then up the Champs-Elys&eacute;es to the Arch and so down the
+Avenue de la Grande Arm&eacute;e, and the Avenue de Neuilly, to the Pont de
+Neuilly, where it came to a standstill. My fare got out, and I saw he
+now wore a short black beard, which he had evidently put on inside the
+cab. He gave me a ten-franc piece, which was very satisfactory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'And the fare you were following? What did he do?'</p>
+
+<p>'He also stepped out, paid the cabman, went down the bank of the river
+and got on board a steam launch that seemed to be waiting for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did he look behind, or appear to know that he was being followed?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'And your fare?'</p>
+
+<p>'He ran after the first man, and also went aboard the steam launch,
+which instantly started down the river.'</p>
+
+<p>'And that was the last you saw of them?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'At what time did you reach the Pont de Neuilly?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know, sir; I was compelled to drive rather fast, but the
+distance is seven to eight kilometres.'</p>
+
+<p>'You would do it under the hour?'</p>
+
+<p>'But certainly, under the hour.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you must have reached Neuilly bridge about four o'clock?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very likely, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>The plan of the tall American was now perfectly clear to me, and it
+comprised nothing that was contrary to law. He had evidently placed
+his luggage on board the steam launch in the morning. The handbag had
+contained various materials which would enable him to disguise
+himself, and this bag he had probably left in some shop down the side
+street, or else someone was waiting with it for him. The giving of the
+treasure to another man was not so risky as it had at first appeared,
+because he instantly followed that man, who was probably his
+confidential servant. Despite the windings of the river there was
+ample time for the launch to reach Havre before the American steamer
+sailed on Saturday morning. I surmised it was his intention to come
+alongside the steamer before she left her berth in Havre harbour, and
+thus transfer himself and his belongings unperceived by anyone on
+watch at the land side of the liner.</p>
+
+<p>All this, of course, was perfectly justifiable, and seemed, in truth,
+merely a well-laid scheme for escaping observation. His only danger of
+being tracked was when he got into the cab. Once away from the
+neighbourhood of the Boulevard des Italiens he was reasonably sure to
+evade pursuit, and the five minutes which his friend with the pistols
+had won for him afforded just the time he needed to get so far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> as the
+Place Madeleine, and after that everything was easy. Yet, if it had
+not been for those five minutes secured by coercion, I should not have
+found the slightest excuse for arresting him. But he was accessory
+after the act in that piece of illegality&mdash;in fact, it was absolutely
+certain that he had been accessory before the act, and guilty of
+conspiracy with the man who had presented firearms to the auctioneer's
+audience, and who had interfered with an officer in the discharge of
+his duty by threatening me and my men. So I was now legally in the
+right if I arrested every person on board that steam launch.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>With a map of the river before me I proceeded to make some
+calculations. It was now nearly ten o'clock at night. The launch had
+had six hours in which to travel at its utmost speed. It was doubtful
+if so small a vessel could make ten miles an hour, even with the
+current in its favour, which is rather sluggish because of the locks
+and the level country. Sixty miles would place her beyond Meulan,
+which is fifty-eight miles from the Pont Royal, and, of course, a
+lesser distance from the Pont de Neuilly. But the navigation of the
+river is difficult at all times, and almost impossible after dark.
+There were chances of the boat running aground, and then there was the
+inevitable delay at the locks. So I estimated that the launch could
+not yet have reached Meulan, which was less than twenty-five miles
+from Paris by rail. Looking up the timetable I saw there were still
+two trains to Meulan, the next at 10.25, which reached Meulan at
+11.40. I therefore had time to reach St. Lazare station, and accomplish
+some telegraphing before the train left.</p>
+
+<p>With three of my assistants I got into a cab and drove to the station.
+On arrival I sent one of my men to hold the train while I went into
+the telegraph office, cleared the wires, and got into communication
+with the lock master at Meulan. He replied that no steam launch had
+passed down since an hour before sunset. I then instructed him to
+allow the yacht to enter the lock, close the upper gate, let half of
+the water out, and hold the vessel there until I came. I also ordered
+the local Meulan police to send enough men to the lock to enforce this
+command. Lastly, I sent messages all along the river asking the police
+to report to me on the train the passage of the steam launch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The 10.25 is a slow train, stopping at every station. However, every
+drawback has its compensation, and these stoppages enabled me to
+receive and to send telegraphic messages. I was quite well aware that
+I might be on a fool's errand in going to Meulan. The yacht could have
+put about before it had steamed a mile, and so returned back to Paris.
+There had been no time to learn whether this was so or not if I was to
+catch the 10.25. Also, it might have landed its passengers anywhere
+along the river. I may say at once that neither of these two things
+happened, and my calculations regarding her movements were accurate to
+the letter. But a trap most carefully set may be prematurely sprung by
+inadvertence, or more often by the over-zeal of some stupid ass who
+fails to understand his instructions, or oversteps them if they are
+understood. I received a most annoying telegram from Denouval, a lock
+about thirteen miles above that of Meulan. The local policeman,
+arriving at the lock, found that the yacht had just cleared. The fool
+shouted to the captain to return, threatening him with all the pains
+and penalties of the law if he refused. The captain did refuse, rung
+on full speed ahead, and disappeared in the darkness. Through this
+well-meant blunder of an understrapper those on board the launch had
+received warning that we were on their track. I telegraphed to the
+lock-keeper at Denouval to allow no craft to pass toward Paris until
+further orders. We thus held the launch in a thirteen-mile stretch of
+water, but the night was pitch dark, and passengers might be landed on
+either bank with all France before them, over which to effect their
+escape in any direction.</p>
+
+<p>It was midnight when I reached the lock at Meulan, and, as was to be
+expected, nothing had been seen or heard of the launch. It gave me
+some satisfaction to telegraph to that dunderhead at Denouval to walk
+along the river bank to Meulan, and report if he learnt the launch's
+whereabouts. We took up our quarters in the lodgekeeper's house and
+waited. There was little sense in sending men to scour the country at
+this time of night, for the pursued were on the alert, and very
+unlikely to allow themselves to be caught if they had gone ashore. On
+the other hand, there was every chance that the captain would refuse
+to let them land, because he must know his vessel was in a trap from
+which it could not escape, and although the demand of the policeman at
+Denouval was quite unauthorised, nevertheless the captain could not
+know that, while he must be well aware of his danger in refusing to
+obey a command from the authorities. Even if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> he got away for the
+moment he must know that arrest was certain, and that his punishment
+would be severe. His only plea could be that he had not heard and
+understood the order to return. But this plea would be invalidated if
+he aided in the escape of two men, whom he must know were wanted by
+the police. I was therefore very confident that if his passengers
+asked to be set ashore, the captain would refuse when he had had time
+to think about his own danger. My estimate proved accurate, for
+towards one o'clock the lock-keeper came in and said the green and red
+lights of an approaching craft were visible, and as he spoke the yacht
+whistled for the opening of the lock. I stood by the lock-keeper while
+he opened the gates; my men and the local police were concealed on
+each side of the lock. The launch came slowly in, and as soon as it
+had done so I asked the captain to step ashore, which he did.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish a word with you,' I said. 'Follow me.'</p>
+
+<p>I took him into the lock-keeper's house and closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>'Where are you going?'</p>
+
+<p>'To Havre.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where did you come from?'</p>
+
+<p>'Paris.'</p>
+
+<p>'From what quay?'</p>
+
+<p>'From the Pont de Neuilly.'</p>
+
+<p>'When did you leave there?'</p>
+
+<p>'At five minutes to four o'clock this afternoon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yesterday afternoon, you mean?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yesterday afternoon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who engaged you to make this voyage?'</p>
+
+<p>'An American; I do not know his name.'</p>
+
+<p>'He paid you well, I suppose?'</p>
+
+<p>'He paid me what I asked.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you received the money?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'I may inform you, captain, that I am Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, chief detective
+of the French Government, and that all the police of France at this
+moment are under my control. I ask you, therefore, to be careful of
+your answers. You were ordered by a policeman at Denouval to return.
+Why did you not do so?'</p>
+
+<p>'The lock-keeper ordered me to return, but as he had no right to order
+me, I went on.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'You knew very well it was the police who ordered you, and you ignored
+the command. Again I ask you why you did so.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not know it was the police.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you would say that. You knew very well, but were paid to
+take the risk, and it is likely to cost you dear. You had two
+passengers aboard?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you put them ashore between here and Denouval?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir; but one of them went overboard, and we couldn't find him
+again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Which one?'</p>
+
+<p>'The short man.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then the American is still aboard?'</p>
+
+<p>'What American, sir?'</p>
+
+<p>'Captain, you must not trifle with me. The man who engaged you is
+still aboard?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no, sir; he has never been aboard.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean to tell me that the second man who came on your launch at
+the Pont de Neuilly is not the American who engaged you?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir; the American was a smooth-faced man; this man wore a black
+beard.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, a false beard.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not know that, sir. I understood from the American that I was
+to take but one passenger. One came aboard with a small box in his
+hand; the other with a small bag. Each declared himself to be the
+passenger in question. I did not know what to do, so I left Paris with
+both of them on board.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then the tall man with the black beard is still with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, captain, is there anything else you have to tell me? I think
+you will find it better in the end to make a clean breast of it.'</p>
+
+<p>The captain hesitated, turning his cap about in his hands for a few
+moments, then he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am not sure that the first passenger went overboard of his own
+accord. When the police hailed us at Denouval&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, you knew it was the police, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'I was afraid after I left it might have been. You see, when the
+bargain was made with me the American said that if I reached Havre at
+a certain time a thousand francs extra would be paid to me, so I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+anxious to get along as quickly as I could. I told him it was
+dangerous to navigate the Seine at night, but he paid me well for
+attempting it. After the policeman called to us at Denouval the man
+with the small box became very much excited, and asked me to put him
+ashore, which I refused to do. The tall man appeared to be watching
+him, never letting him get far away. When I heard the splash in the
+water I ran aft, and I saw the tall man putting the box which the
+other had held into his handbag, although I said nothing of it at the
+time. We cruised back and forward about the spot where the other man
+had gone overboard, but saw nothing more of him. Then I came on to
+Meulan, intending to give information about what I had seen. That is
+all I know of the matter, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was the man who had the jewels a Frenchman?'</p>
+
+<p>'What jewels, sir?'</p>
+
+<p>'The man with the small box.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes, sir; he was French.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have hinted that the foreigner threw him overboard. What grounds
+have you for such a belief if you did not see the struggle?'</p>
+
+<p>'The night is very dark, sir, and I did not see what happened. I was
+at the wheel in the forward part of the launch, with my back turned to
+these two. I heard a scream, then a splash. If the man had jumped
+overboard as the other said he did, he would not have screamed.
+Besides, as I told you, when I ran aft I saw the foreigner put the
+little box in his handbag, which he shut up quickly as if he did not
+wish me to notice.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very good, captain. If you have told the truth it will go easier with
+you in the investigation that is to follow.'</p>
+
+<p>I now turned the captain over to one of my men, and ordered in the
+foreigner with his bag and bogus black whiskers. Before questioning
+him I ordered him to open the handbag, which he did with evident
+reluctance. It was filled with false whiskers, false moustaches, and
+various bottles, but on top of them all lay the jewel case. I raised
+the lid and displayed that accursed necklace. I looked up at the man,
+who stood there calmly enough, saying nothing in spite of the
+overwhelming evidence against him.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you oblige me by removing your false beard?'</p>
+
+<p>He did so at once, throwing it into the open bag. I knew the moment I
+saw him that he was not the American, and thus my theory had broken
+down, in one very important part at least. Informing him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> who I was,
+and cautioning him to speak the truth, I asked how he came in
+possession of the jewels.</p>
+
+<p>'Am I under arrest?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'But certainly,' I replied.</p>
+
+<p>'Of what am I accused?'</p>
+
+<p>'You are accused, in the first place, of being in possession of
+property which does not belong to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I plead guilty to that. What in the second place?'</p>
+
+<p>'In the second place, you may find yourself accused of murder.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am innocent of the second charge. The man jumped overboard.'</p>
+
+<p>'If that is true, why did he scream as he went over?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because, too late to recover his balance, I seized this box and held
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'He was in rightful possession of the box; the owner gave it to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I admit that; I saw the owner give it to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why should he jump overboard?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know. He seemed to become panic-stricken when the police at
+the last lock ordered us to return. He implored the captain to put him
+ashore, and from that moment I watched him keenly, expecting that if
+we drew near to the land he would attempt to escape, as the captain
+had refused to beach the launch. He remained quiet for about half an
+hour, seated on a camp chair by the rail, with his eyes turned toward
+the shore, trying, as I imagined, to penetrate the darkness and
+estimate the distance. Then suddenly he sprung up and made his dash. I
+was prepared for this, and instantly caught the box from his hand. He
+gave a half turn, trying either to save himself or to retain the box;
+then with a scream went down shoulders first into the water. It all
+happened within a second after he leaped from his chair.'</p>
+
+<p>'You admit yourself, then, indirectly responsible for his drowning, at
+least?'</p>
+
+<p>'I see no reason to suppose that the man was drowned. If able to swim
+he could easily have reached the river bank. If unable to swim, why
+should he attempt it encumbered by the box?'</p>
+
+<p>'You believe he escaped, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think so.'</p>
+
+<p>'It will be lucky for you should that prove to be the case.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly.'</p>
+
+<p>'How did you come to be in the yacht at all?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> 'I shall give you a
+full account of the affair, concealing nothing. I am a private
+detective, with an office in London. I was certain that some attempt
+would be made, probably by the most expert criminals at large, to rob
+the possessor of this necklace. I came over to Paris, anticipating
+trouble, determined to keep an eye upon the jewel case if this proved
+possible. If the jewels were stolen the crime was bound to be one of
+the most celebrated in legal annals. I was present during the sale,
+and saw the buyer of the necklace. I followed the official who went to
+the bank, and thus learned that the money was behind the cheque. I
+then stopped outside and waited for the buyer to appear. He held the
+case in his hand.'</p>
+
+<p>'In his pocket, you mean?' I interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>'He had it in his hand when I saw him. Then the man who afterwards
+jumped overboard approached him, took the case without a word, held up
+his hand for a cab, and when an open vehicle approached the curb he
+stepped in, saying, "The Madeleine." I hailed a closed cab, instructed
+the cabman to follow the first, disguising myself with whiskers as
+near like those the man in front wore as I had in my collection.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why did you do that?'</p>
+
+<p>'As a detective you should know why I did it. I wished as nearly as
+possible to resemble the man in front, so that if necessity arose I
+could pretend that I was the person commissioned to carry the jewel
+case. As a matter of fact, the crisis arose when we came to the end of
+our cab journey. The captain did not know which was his true
+passenger, and so let us both remain aboard the launch. And now you
+have the whole story.'</p>
+
+<p>'An extremely improbable one, sir. Even by your own account you had no
+right to interfere in this business at all.'</p>
+
+<p>'I quite agree with you there,' he replied, with great nonchalance,
+taking a card from his pocket-book, which he handed to me.</p>
+
+<p>'That is my London address; you may make inquiries, and you will find
+I am exactly what I represent myself to be.'</p>
+
+<p>The first train for Paris left Meulan at eleven minutes past four in
+the morning. It was now a quarter after two. I left the captain, crew,
+and launch in charge of two of my men, with orders to proceed to Paris
+as soon as it was daylight. I, supported by the third man, waited at
+the station with our English prisoner, and reached Paris at half-past
+five in the morning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The English prisoner, though severely interrogated by the judge, stood
+by his story. Inquiry by the police in London proved that what he said
+of himself was true. His case, however, began to look very serious
+when two of the men from the launch asserted that they had seen him
+push the Frenchman overboard, and their statement could not be shaken.
+All our energies were bent for the next two weeks on trying to find
+something of the identity of the missing man, or to get any trace of
+the two Americans. If the tall American were alive, it seemed
+incredible that he should not have made application for the valuable
+property he had lost. All attempts to trace him by means of the cheque
+on the Cr&eacute;dit-Lyonnais proved futile. The bank pretended to give me
+every assistance, but I sometimes doubt if it actually did so. It had
+evidently been well paid for its services, and evinced no impetuous
+desire to betray so good a customer.</p>
+
+<p>We made inquiries about every missing man in Paris, but also without
+result.</p>
+
+<p>The case had excited much attention throughout the world, and
+doubtless was published in full in the American papers. The Englishman
+had been in custody three weeks when the chief of police in Paris
+received the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;On my arrival in New York by the English steamer
+<i>Lucania</i>, I was much amused to read in the papers accounts of the
+exploits of detectives, French and English. I am sorry that only one
+of them seems to be in prison; I think his French <i>confr&egrave;re</i> ought to
+be there also. I regret exceedingly, however, that there is the rumour
+of the death by drowning of my friend Martin Dubois, of 375 Rue aux
+Juifs, Rouen. If this is indeed the case he has met his death through
+the blunders of the police. Nevertheless, I wish you would communicate
+with his family at the address I have given, and assure them that I
+will make arrangements for their future support.</p>
+
+<p>'I beg to inform you that I am a manufacturer of imitation diamonds,
+and through extensive advertising succeeded in accumulating a fortune
+of many millions. I was in Europe when the necklace was found, and had
+in my possession over a thousand imitation diamonds of my own
+manufacture. It occurred to me that here was the opportunity of the
+most magnificent advertisement in the world. I saw the necklace,
+received its measurements, and also obtained photographs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> of it taken
+by the French Government. Then I set my expert friend Martin Dubois at
+work, and, with the artificial stones I gave him, he made an imitation
+necklace so closely resembling the original that you apparently do not
+know it is the unreal you have in your possession. I did not fear the
+villainy of the crooks as much as the blundering of the police, who
+would have protected me with brass-band vehemence if I could not elude
+them. I knew that the detectives would overlook the obvious, but would
+at once follow a clue if I provided one for them. Consequently, I laid
+my plans, just as you have discovered, and got Martin Dubois up from
+Rouen to carry the case I gave him down to Havre. I had had another
+box prepared and wrapped in brown paper, with my address in New York
+written thereon. The moment I emerged from the auction room, while my
+friend the cowboy was holding up the audience, I turned my face to the
+door, took out the genuine diamonds from the case and slipped it into
+the box I had prepared for mailing. Into the genuine case I put the
+bogus diamonds. After handing the box to Dubois, I turned down a side
+street, and then into another whose name I do not know, and there in a
+shop with sealing wax and string did up the real diamonds for posting.
+I labelled the package "Books", went to the nearest post office, paid
+letter postage, and handed it over unregistered as if it were of no
+particular value. After this I went to my rooms in the Grand Hotel
+where I had been staying under my own name for more than a month. Next
+morning I took train for London, and the day after sailed from
+Liverpool on the <i>Lucania</i>. I arrived before the <i>Gascoigne</i>, which
+sailed from Havre on Saturday, met my box at the Customs house, paid
+duty, and it now reposes in my safe. I intend to construct an
+imitation necklace which will be so like the genuine one that nobody
+can tell the two apart; then I shall come to Europe and exhibit the
+pair, for the publication of the truth of this matter will give me the
+greatest advertisement that ever was.</p>
+
+<p class="sig2">'Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="sig1">'<span class="smcap">John P Hazard.</span>'</p>
+
+<p>I at once communicated with Rouen and found Martin Dubois alive and
+well. His first words were:&mdash;'I swear I did not steal the jewels.'</p>
+
+<p>He had swum ashore, tramped to Rouen, and kept quiet in great fear
+while I was fruitlessly searching Paris for him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> It took Mr. Hazard
+longer to make his imitation necklace than he supposed, and several
+years later he booked his passage with the two necklaces on the
+ill-fated steamer <i>Burgoyne</i>, and now rests beside them at the bottom
+of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Full many a gem of purest ray serene,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="The_Siamese_Twin_of_a_Bomb-Thrower" id="The_Siamese_Twin_of_a_Bomb-Thrower"></a>2. <i>The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>The events previously related in 'The Mystery of the Five Hundred
+Diamonds' led to my dismissal by the French Government. It was not
+because I had arrested an innocent man; I had done that dozens of
+times before, with nothing said about it. It was not because I had
+followed a wrong clue, or because I had failed to solve the mystery of
+the five hundred diamonds. Every detective follows a wrong clue now
+and then, and every detective fails more often than he cares to admit.
+No. All these things would not have shaken my position, but the
+newspapers were so fortunate as to find something humorous in the
+case, and for weeks Paris rang with laughter over my exploits and my
+defeat. The fact that the chief French detective had placed the most
+celebrated English detective into prison, and that each of them were
+busily sleuth-hounding a bogus clue, deliberately flung across their
+path by an amateur, roused all France to great hilarity. The
+Government was furious. The Englishman was released and I was
+dismissed. Since the year 1893 I have been a resident of London.</p>
+
+<p>When a man is, as one might say, the guest of a country, it does not
+become him to criticise that country. I have studied this strange
+people with interest, and often with astonishment, and if I now set
+down some of the differences between the English and the French, I
+trust that no note of criticism of the former will appear, even when
+my sympathies are entirely with the latter. These differences have
+sunk deeply into my mind, because, during the first years of my stay
+in London my lack of understanding them was often a cause of my own
+failure when I thought I had success in hand. Many a time did I come
+to the verge of starvation in Soho, through not appreciating the
+peculiar trend of mind which causes an Englishman to do inexplicable
+things&mdash;that is, of course, from my Gallic standpoint.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, an arrested man is presumed to be innocent until he is
+proved guilty. In England, if a murderer is caught red-handed over his
+victim, he is held guiltless until the judge sentences him. In France
+we make no such foolish assumption, and although I admit that innocent
+men have sometimes been punished, my experience enables me to state
+very emphatically that this happens not nearly so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> often as the public
+imagines. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred an innocent man can at
+once prove his innocence without the least difficulty. I hold it is
+his duty towards the State to run the very slight risk of unjust
+imprisonment in order that obstacles may not be thrown in the way of
+the conviction of real criminals. But it is impossible to persuade an
+Englishman of this. <i>Mon Dieu!</i> I have tried it often enough.</p>
+
+<p>Never shall I forget the bitterness of my disappointment when I
+captured Felini, the Italian anarchist, in connection with the
+Greenwich Park murder. At this time&mdash;it gives me no shame to confess
+it&mdash;I was myself living in Soho, in a state of extreme poverty. Having
+been employed so long by the French Government, I had formed the
+absurd idea that the future depended on my getting, not exactly a
+similar connection with Scotland Yard, but at least a subordinate
+position on the police force which would enable me to prove my
+capabilities, and lead to promotion. I had no knowledge, at that time,
+of the immense income which awaited me entirely outside the Government
+circle. Whether it is contempt for the foreigner, as has often been
+stated, or that native stolidity which spells complacency, the British
+official of any class rarely thinks it worth his while to discover the
+real cause of things in France, or Germany, or Russia, but plods
+heavily on from one mistake to another. Take, for example, those
+periodical outbursts of hatred against England which appear in the
+Continental Press. They create a dangerous international situation,
+and more than once have brought Britain to the verge of a serious war.
+Britain sternly spends millions in defence and preparation, whereas,
+if she would place in my hand half a million pounds I would guarantee
+to cause Britannia to be proclaimed an angel with white wings in every
+European country.</p>
+
+<p>When I attempted to arrive at some connection with Scotland Yard, I
+was invariably asked for my credentials. When I proclaimed that I had
+been chief detective to the Republic of France, I could see that this
+announcement made a serious impression, but when I added that the
+Government of France had dismissed me without credentials,
+recommendation, or pension, official sympathy with officialism at once
+turned the tables against me. And here I may be pardoned for pointing
+out another portentous dissimilarity between the two lands which I
+think is not at all to the credit of my countrymen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I was summarily dismissed. You may say it was because I failed, and it
+is true that in the case of the Queen's necklace I had undoubtedly
+failed, but, on the other hand, I had followed unerringly the clue
+which lay in my path, and although the conclusion was not in
+accordance with the facts, it was in accordance with logic. No, I was
+not dismissed because I failed. I had failed on various occasions
+before, as might happen to any man in any profession. I was dismissed
+because I made France for the moment the laughing-stock of Europe and
+America. France dismissed me because France had been laughed at. No
+Frenchman can endure the turning of a joke against him, but the
+Englishman does not appear to care in the least. So far as failure is
+concerned, never had any man failed so egregiously as I did with
+Felini, a slippery criminal who possessed all the bravery of a
+Frenchman and all the subtlety of an Italian. Three times he was in my
+hands&mdash;twice in Paris, once in Marseilles&mdash;and each time he escaped
+me; yet I was not dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>When I say that Signor Felini was as brave as a Frenchman, perhaps I
+do him a little more than justice. He was desperately afraid of one
+man, and that man was myself. Our last interview in France he is not
+likely to forget, and although he eluded me, he took good care to get
+into England as fast as train and boat could carry him, and never
+again, while I was at the head of the French detective force, did he
+set foot on French soil. He was an educated villain, a graduate of the
+University of Turin, who spoke Spanish, French, and English as well as
+his own language, and this education made him all the more dangerous
+when he turned his talents to crime.</p>
+
+<p>Now, I knew Felini's handiwork, either in murder or in housebreaking,
+as well as I know my own signature on a piece of white paper, and as
+soon as I saw the body of the murdered man in Greenwich Park I was
+certain Felini was the murderer. The English authorities at that time
+looked upon me with a tolerant, good-natured contempt.</p>
+
+<p>Inspector Standish assumed the manner of a man placing at my disposal
+plenty of rope with which I might entangle myself. He appeared to
+think me excitable, and used soothing expressions as if I were a
+fractious child to be calmed, rather than a sane equal to be reasoned
+with. On many occasions I had the facts at my finger ends, while he
+remained in a state of most complacent ignorance, and though this
+attitude of lowering himself to deal gently with one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> whom he
+evidently looked upon as an irresponsible lunatic was most
+exasperating, I nevertheless claim great credit for having kept my
+temper with him. However, it turned out to be impossible for me to
+overcome his insular prejudice. He always supposed me to be a
+frivolous, volatile person, and so I was unable to prove myself of any
+value to him in his arduous duties.</p>
+
+<p>The Felini instance was my last endeavour to win his favour. Inspector
+Standish appeared in his most amiable mood when I was admitted to his
+presence, and this in spite of the fact that all London was ringing
+with the Greenwich Park tragedy, while the police possessed not the
+faintest idea regarding the crime or its perpetrator. I judged from
+Inspector Standish's benevolent smile that I was somewhat excited when
+I spoke to him, and perhaps used many gestures which seemed
+superfluous to a large man whom I should describe as immovable, and
+who spoke slowly, with no motion of the hand, as if his utterances
+were the condensed wisdom of the ages.</p>
+
+<p>'Inspector Standish,' I cried, 'is it within your power to arrest a
+man on suspicion?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course it is,' he replied; 'but we must harbour the suspicion
+before we make the arrest.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have confidence in me,' I exclaimed. 'The man who committed the
+Greenwich Park murder is an Italian named Felini.'</p>
+
+<p>I gave the address of the exact room in which he was to be found, with
+cautions regarding the elusive nature of this individual. I said that
+he had been three times in my custody, and those three times he had
+slipped through my fingers. I have since thought that Inspector
+Standish did not credit a word I had spoken.</p>
+
+<p>'What is your proof against this Italian?' asked the Inspector slowly.</p>
+
+<p>'The proof is on the body of the murdered man, but, nevertheless, if
+you suddenly confront Felini with me without giving him any hint of
+whom he is going to meet, you shall have the evidence from his own
+lips before he recovers from his surprise and fright.'</p>
+
+<p>Something of my confidence must have impressed the official, for the
+order of arrest was made. Now, during the absence of the constable
+sent to bring in Felini, I explained to the inspector fully the
+details of my plan. Practically he did not listen to me, for his head
+was bent over a writing-pad on which I thought he was taking down my
+remarks, but when I had finished he went on writing as before, so I
+saw I had flattered myself unnecessarily. More than two hours passed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+before the constable returned, bringing with him the trembling
+Italian. I swung round in front of him, and cried, in a menacing
+voice:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Felini! Regard me! You know Valmont too well to trifle with him! What
+have you to say of the murder in Greenwich Park?'</p>
+
+<p>I give you my word that the Italian collapsed, and would have fallen
+to the floor in a heap had not the constables upheld him with hands
+under each arm. His face became of a pasty whiteness, and he began to
+stammer his confession, when this incredible thing happened, which
+could not be believed in France. Inspector Standish held up his
+finger.</p>
+
+<p>'One moment,' he cautioned solemnly, 'remember that whatever you say
+will be used against you!'</p>
+
+<p>The quick, beady black eyes of the Italian shot from Standish to me,
+and from me to Standish. In an instant his alert mind grasped the
+situation. Metaphorically I had been waved aside. I was not there in
+any official capacity, and he saw in a moment with what an opaque
+intellect he had to deal. The Italian closed his mouth like a steel
+trap, and refused to utter a word. Shortly after he was liberated, as
+there was no evidence against him. When at last complete proof was in
+the tardy hands of the British authorities, the agile Felini was safe
+in the Apennine mountains, and today is serving a life sentence in
+Italy for the assassination of a senator whose name I have forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Is it any wonder that I threw up my hands in despair at finding myself
+amongst such a people. But this was in the early days, and now that I
+have greater experience of the English, many of my first opinions have
+been modified.</p>
+
+<p>I mention all this to explain why, in a private capacity, I often did
+what no English official would dare to do. A people who will send a
+policeman, without even a pistol to protect him, to arrest a desperate
+criminal in the most dangerous quarter of London, cannot be
+comprehended by any native of France, Italy, Spain, or Germany. When I
+began to succeed as a private detective in London, and had accumulated
+money enough for my project, I determined not to be hampered by this
+unexplainable softness of the English toward an accused person. I
+therefore reconstructed my flat, and placed in the centre of it a dark
+room strong as any Bastille cell. It was twelve feet square, and
+contained no furniture except a number of shelves, a lavatory in one
+corner, and a pallet on the floor. It was ventilated by two flues<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+from the centre of the ceiling, in one of which operated an electric
+fan, which, when the room was occupied, sent the foul air up that
+flue, and drew down fresh air through the other. The entrance to this
+cell opened out from my bedroom, and the most minute inspection would
+have failed to reveal the door, which was of massive steel, and was
+opened and shut by electric buttons that were partially concealed by
+the head of my bed. Even if they had been discovered, they would have
+revealed nothing, because the first turn of the button lit the
+electric light at the head of my bed; the second turn put it out; and
+this would happen as often as the button was turned to the right. But
+turn it three times slowly to the left, and the steel door opened. Its
+juncture was completely concealed by panelling. I have brought many a
+scoundrel to reason within the impregnable walls of that small room.</p>
+
+<p>Those who know the building regulations of London will wonder how it
+was possible for me to delude the Government inspector during the
+erection of this section of the Bastille in the midst of the modern
+metropolis. It was the simplest thing in the world. Liberty of the
+subject is the first great rule with the English people, and thus many
+a criminal is allowed to escape. Here was I laying plans for the
+contravening of this first great rule, and to do so I took advantage
+of the second great rule of the English people, which is, that
+property is sacred. I told the building authorities I was a rich man
+with a great distrust of banks, and I wished to build in my flat a
+safe or strong-room in which to deposit my valuables. I built then
+such a room as may be found in every bank, and many private premises
+of the City, and a tenant might have lived in my flat for a year and
+never suspected the existence of this prison. A railway engine might
+have screeched its whistle within it, and not a sound would have
+penetrated the apartments that surrounded it unless the door were
+open.</p>
+
+<p>But besides M. Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, dressed in elegant attire as if he were
+still a boulevardier of Paris, occupier of the top floor in the
+Imperial Flats, there was another Frenchman in London to whom I must
+introduce you, namely, Professor Paul Ducharme, who occupied a squalid
+back room in the cheapest and most undesirable quarter of Soho.
+Valmont flatters himself he is not yet middle-aged, but poor Ducharme
+does not need his sparse gray beard to proclaim his advancing years.
+Valmont vaunts an air of prosperity; Ducharme<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> wears the shabby
+habiliments and the shoulder-stoop of hopeless poverty. He shuffles
+cringingly along the street, a compatriot not to be proud of. There
+are so many Frenchmen anxious to give lessons in their language, that
+merely a small living is to be picked up by any one of them. You will
+never see the spruce Valmont walking alongside the dejected Ducharme.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' you exclaim, 'Valmont in his prosperity has forgotten those less
+fortunate of his nationality.'</p>
+
+<p>Pardon, my friends, it is not so. Behold, I proclaim to you, the
+exquisite Valmont and the threadbare Ducharme are one and the same
+person. That is why they do not promenade together. And, indeed, it
+requires no great histrionic art on my part to act the r&ocirc;le of the
+miserable Ducharme, for when I first came to London, I warded off
+starvation in this wretched room, and my hand it was that nailed to
+the door the painted sign 'Professor Paul Ducharme, Teacher of the
+French Language'. I never gave up the room, even when I became
+prosperous and moved to Imperial Flats, with its concealed chamber of
+horrors unknown to British authority. I did not give up the Soho
+chamber principally for this reason: Paul Ducharme, if the truth were
+known about him, would have been regarded as a dangerous character;
+yet this was a character sometimes necessary for me to assume. He was
+a member of the very inner circle of the International, an anarchist
+of the anarchists. This malign organisation has its real headquarters
+in London, and we who were officials connected with the Secret Service
+of the Continent have more than once cursed the complacency of the
+British Government which allows such a nest of vipers to exist
+practically unmolested. I confess that before I came to know the
+English people as well as I do now, I thought that this complacency
+was due to utter selfishness, because the anarchists never commit an
+outrage in England. England is the one spot on the map of Europe where
+an anarchist cannot be laid by the heels unless there is evidence
+against him that will stand the test of open court. Anarchists take
+advantage of this fact, and plots are hatched in London which are
+executed in Paris, Berlin, Petersburg, or Madrid. I know now that this
+leniency on the part of the British Government does not arise from
+craft, but from their unexplainable devotion to their shibboleth&mdash;'The
+liberty of the subject.' Time and again France has demanded the
+extradition of an anarchist, always to be met with the question,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Where is your proof?'</p>
+
+<p>I know many instances where our certainty was absolute, and also cases
+where we possessed legal proof as well, but legal proof which, for one
+reason or another, we dared not use in public; yet all this had no
+effect on the British authorities. They would never give up even the
+vilest criminal except on publicly attested legal evidence, and not
+even then, if the crime were political.</p>
+
+<p>During my term of office under the French Government, no part of my
+duties caused me more anxiety than that which pertained to the
+political secret societies. Of course, with a large portion of the
+Secret Service fund at my disposal, I was able to buy expert
+assistance, and even to get information from anarchists themselves.
+This latter device, however, was always more or less unreliable. I
+have never yet met an anarchist I could believe on oath, and when one
+of them offered to sell exclusive information to the police, we rarely
+knew whether he was merely trying to get a few francs to keep himself
+from starving, or whether he was giving us false particulars which
+would lead us into a trap. I have always regarded our dealings with
+nihilists, anarchists, or other secret associations for the
+perpetrating of murder as the most dangerous service a detective is
+called upon to perform. Yet it is absolutely necessary that the
+authorities should know what is going on in these secret conclaves.
+There are three methods of getting this intelligence. First,
+periodical raids upon the suspected, accompanied by confiscation and
+search of all papers found. This method is much in favour with the
+Russian police. I have always regarded it as largely futile; first,
+because the anarchists are not such fools, speaking generally, as to
+commit their purposes to writing; and, second, because it leads to
+reprisal. Each raid is usually followed by a fresh outbreak of
+activity on the part of those left free. The second method is to bribe
+an anarchist to betray his comrades. I have never found any difficulty
+in getting these gentry to accept money. They are eternally in need,
+but I usually find the information they give in return to be either
+unimportant or inaccurate. There remains, then, the third method,
+which is to place a spy among them. The spy battalion is the forlorn
+hope of the detective service. In one year I lost three men on
+anarchist duty, among the victims being my most valuable helper, Henri
+Brisson. Poor Brisson's fate was an example of how a man may follow a
+perilous occupation for months with safety, and then by a slight
+mistake bring disaster on himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> At the last gathering Brisson
+attended he received news of such immediate and fateful import that on
+emerging from the cellar where the gathering was held, he made
+directly for my residence instead of going to his own squalid room in
+the Rue Falgarie. My concierge said that he arrived shortly after one
+o'clock in the morning, and it would seem that at this hour he could
+easily have made himself acquainted with the fact that he was
+followed. Still, as there was on his track that human panther, Felini,
+it is not strange poor Brisson failed to elude him.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at the tall building in which my flat was then situated,
+Brisson rang the bell, and the concierge, as usual, in that strange
+state of semi-somnolence which envelops concierges during the night,
+pulled the looped wire at the head of his bed, and unbolted the door.
+Brisson assuredly closed the huge door behind him, and yet the moment
+before he did so, Felini must have slipped in unnoticed to the
+stone-paved courtyard. If Brisson had not spoken and announced
+himself, the concierge would have been wide awake in an instant. If he
+had given a name unknown to the concierge, the same result would have
+ensued. As it was he cried aloud 'Brisson,' whereupon the concierge of
+the famous chief of the French detective staff, Valmont, muttered
+'<i>Bon</i>! and was instantly asleep again.</p>
+
+<p>Now Felini had known Brisson well, but it was under the name of
+Revensky, and as an exiled Russian. Brisson had spent all his early
+years in Russia, and spoke the language like a native. The moment
+Brisson had uttered his true name he had pronounced his own death
+warrant. Felini followed him up to the first landing&mdash;my rooms were on
+the second floor&mdash;and there placed his sign manual on the unfortunate
+man, which was the swift downward stroke of a long, narrow, sharp
+poniard, entering the body below the shoulders, and piercing the
+heart. The advantage presented by this terrible blow is that the
+victim sinks instantly in a heap at the feet of his slayer, without
+uttering a moan. The wound left is a scarcely perceptible blue mark
+which rarely even bleeds. It was this mark I saw on the body of the
+Maire of Marseilles, and afterwards on one other in Paris besides poor
+Brisson. It was the mark found on the man in Greenwich Park; always
+just below the left shoulder-blade, struck from behind. Felini's
+comrades claim that there was this nobility in his action, namely, he
+allowed the traitor to prove himself before he struck the blow. I
+should be sorry to take away this poor shred of credit from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> Felini's
+character, but the reason he followed Brisson into the courtyard was
+to give himself time to escape. He knew perfectly the ways of the
+concierge. He knew that the body would lie there until the morning, as
+it actually did, and that this would give him hours in which to effect
+his retreat. And this was the man whom British law warned not to
+incriminate himself! What a people! What a people!</p>
+
+<p>After Brisson's tragic death, I resolved to set no more valuable men
+on the track of the anarchists, but to place upon myself the task in
+my moments of relaxation. I became very much interested in the
+underground workings of the International. I joined the organisation
+under the name of Paul Ducharme, a professor of advanced opinions, who
+because of them had been dismissed his situation in Nantes. As a
+matter of fact there had been such a Paul Ducharme, who had been so
+dismissed, but he had drowned himself in the Loire, at Orleans, as the
+records show. I adopted the precaution of getting a photograph of this
+foolish old man from the police at Nantes, and made myself up to
+resemble him. It says much for my disguise that I was recognised as
+the professor by a delegate from Nantes, at the annual Convention held
+in Paris, which I attended, and although we conversed for some time
+together he never suspected that I was not the professor, whose fate
+was known to no one but the police of Orleans. I gained much credit
+among my comrades because of this encounter, which, during its first
+few moments, filled me with dismay, for the delegate from Nantes held
+me up as an example of a man well off, who had deliberately sacrificed
+his worldly position for the sake of principle. Shortly after this I
+was chosen delegate to carry a message to our comrades in London, and
+this delicate undertaking passed off without mishap.</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps natural then, that when I came to London after my
+dismissal by the French Government, I should assume the name and
+appearance of Paul Ducharme, and adopt the profession of French
+teacher. This profession gave me great advantages. I could be absent
+from my rooms for hours at a time without attracting the least
+attention, because a teacher goes wherever there are pupils. If any of
+my anarchist comrades saw me emerging shabbily from the grand Imperial
+Flats where Valmont lived, he greeted me affably, thinking I was
+coming from a pupil.</p>
+
+<p>The sumptuous flat was therefore the office in which I received my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+rich clients, while the squalid room in Soho was often the workshop in
+which the tasks entrusted to me were brought to completion.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I now come to very modern days indeed, when I spent much time with the
+emissaries of the International.</p>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that the King of England made a round of visits
+to European capitals, the far-reaching results of which in the
+interest of peace we perhaps do not yet fully understand and
+appreciate. His visit to Paris was the beginning of the present
+<i>entente cordiale</i>, and I betray no confidence when I say that this
+brief official call at the French capital was the occasion of great
+anxiety to the Government of my own country and also of that in which
+I was domiciled. Anarchists are against all government, and would like
+to see each one destroyed, not even excepting that of Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>My task in connection with the visit of King Edward to Paris was
+entirely unofficial. A nobleman, for whom on a previous occasion I had
+been so happy as to solve a little mystery which troubled him,
+complimented me by calling at my flat about two weeks before the
+King's entry into the French capital. I know I shall be pardoned if I
+fail to mention this nobleman's name. I gathered that the intended
+visit of the King met with his disapproval. He asked if I knew
+anything, or could discover anything, of the purposes animating the
+anarchist clubs of Paris, and their attitude towards the royal
+function, which was now the chief topic in the newspapers. I replied
+that within four days I would be able to submit to him a complete
+report on the subject. He bowed coldly and withdrew. On the evening of
+the fourth day I permitted myself the happiness of waiting upon his
+lordship at his West End London mansion.</p>
+
+<p>'I have the honour to report to your lordship,' I began, 'that the
+anarchists of Paris are somewhat divided in their opinions regarding
+His Majesty's forthcoming progress through that city. A minority,
+contemptible in point of number, but important so far as the extremity
+of their opinions are concerned, has been trying&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Excuse me,' interrupted the nobleman, with some severity of tone,
+'are they going to attempt to injure the King or not?'</p>
+
+<p>'They are not, your lordship,' I replied, with what, I trust, is my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+usual urbanity of manner, despite his curt interpolation. 'His most
+gracious Majesty will suffer no molestation, and their reason for
+quiescence&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Their reasons do not interest me,' put in his lordship gruffly. 'You
+are sure of what you say?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perfectly sure, your lordship.'</p>
+
+<p>'No precautions need be taken?'</p>
+
+<p>'None in the least, your lordship.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well,' concluded the nobleman shortly, 'if you tell my secretary
+in the next room as you go out how much I owe you, he will hand you a
+cheque,' and with that I was dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>I may say that, mixing as I do with the highest in two lands, and
+meeting invariably such courtesy as I myself am always eager to
+bestow, a feeling almost of resentment arose at this cavalier
+treatment. However, I merely bowed somewhat ceremoniously in silence,
+and availed myself of the opportunity in the next room to double my
+bill, which was paid without demur.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if this nobleman had but listened, he would have heard much that
+might interest an ordinary man, although I must say that during my
+three conversations with him his mind seemed closed to all outward
+impressions save and except the grandeur of his line, which he traced
+back unblemished into the northern part of my own country.</p>
+
+<p>The King's visit had come as a surprise to the anarchists, and they
+did not quite know what to do about it. The Paris Reds were rather in
+favour of a demonstration, while London bade them, in God's name, to
+hold their hands, for, as they pointed out, England is the only refuge
+in which an anarchist is safe until some particular crime can be
+imputed to him, and what is more, proven up to the hilt.</p>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that the visit of the King to Paris passed off
+without incident, as did the return visit of the President to London.
+On the surface all was peace and goodwill, but under the surface
+seethed plot and counterplot, and behind the scenes two great
+governments were extremely anxious, and high officials in the Secret
+Service spent sleepless nights. As no 'untoward incident' had
+happened, the vigilance of the authorities on both sides of the
+Channel relaxed at the very moment when, if they had known their
+adversaries, it should have been redoubled. Always beware of the
+anarchist when he has been good: look out for the reaction. It annoys
+him to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> compelled to remain quiet when there is a grand opportunity
+for strutting across the world's stage, and when he misses the
+psychological moment, he is apt to turn 'nasty', as the English say.</p>
+
+<p>When it first became known that there was to be a Royal procession
+through the streets of Paris, a few fanatical hot-heads, both in that
+city and in London, wished to take action, but they were overruled by
+the saner members of the organisation. It must not be supposed that
+anarchists are a band of lunatics. There are able brains among them,
+and these born leaders as naturally assume control in the underground
+world of anarchy as would have been the case if they had devoted their
+talents to affairs in ordinary life. They were men whose minds, at one
+period, had taken the wrong turning. These people, although they
+calmed the frenzy of the extremists, nevertheless regarded the
+possible <i>rapprochement</i> between England and France with grave
+apprehension. If France and England became as friendly as France and
+Russia, might not the refuge which England had given to anarchy become
+a thing of the past? I may say here that my own weight as an anarchist
+while attending these meetings in disguise under the name of Paul
+Ducharme was invariably thrown in to help the cause of moderation. My
+r&ocirc;le, of course, was not to talk too much; not to make myself
+prominent, yet in such a gathering a man cannot remain wholly a
+spectator. Care for my own safety led me to be as inconspicuous as
+possible, for members of communities banded together against the laws
+of the land in which they live, are extremely suspicious of one
+another, and an inadvertent word may cause disaster to the person
+speaking it.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it was this conservatism on my part that caused my advice to
+be sought after by the inner circle; what you might term the governing
+body of the anarchists; for, strange as it may appear, this
+organisation, sworn to put down all law and order, was itself most
+rigidly governed, with a Russian prince elected as its chairman, a man
+of striking ability, who, nevertheless, I believe, owed his election
+more to the fact that he was a nobleman than to the recognition of his
+intrinsic worth. And another point which interested me much was that
+this prince ruled his obstreperous subjects after the fashion of
+Russian despotism, rather than according to the liberal ideas of the
+country in which he was domiciled. I have known him more than once
+ruthlessly overturn the action of the majority, stamp his foot, smite
+his huge fist on the table, and declare so and so should not be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> done,
+no matter what the vote was. And the thing was not done, either.</p>
+
+<p>At the more recent period of which I speak, the chairmanship of the
+London anarchists was held by a weak, vacillating man, and the mob had
+got somewhat out of hand. In the crisis that confronted us, I yearned
+for the firm fist and dominant boot of the uncompromising Russian. I
+spoke only once during this time, and assured my listeners that they
+had nothing to fear from the coming friendship of the two nations. I
+said the Englishman was so wedded to his grotesque ideas regarding the
+liberty of the subject he so worshipped absolute legal evidence, that
+we would never find our comrades disappear mysteriously from England
+as had been the case in continental countries.</p>
+
+<p>Although restless during the exchange of visits between King and
+President, I believe I could have carried the English phalanx with me,
+if the international courtesies had ended there. But after it was
+announced that members of the British Parliament were to meet the
+members of the French Legislature, the Paris circle became alarmed,
+and when that conference did not end the <i>entente</i>, but merely paved
+the way for a meeting of business men belonging to the two countries
+in Paris, the French anarchists sent a delegate over to us, who made a
+wild speech one night, waving continually the red flag. This aroused
+all our own malcontents to a frenzy. The French speaker practically
+charged the English contingent with cowardice; said that as they were
+safe from molestation, they felt no sympathy for their comrades in
+Paris, at any time liable to summary arrest and the torture of the
+secret cross-examination. This Anglo-French love-feast must be wafted
+to the heavens in a halo of dynamite. The Paris anarchists were
+determined, and although they wished the co-operation of their London
+brethren, yet if the speaker did not bring back with him assurance of
+such co-operation, Paris would act on its own initiative.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian despot would have made short work of this blood-blinded
+rhetoric, but alas, he was absent, and an overwhelming vote in favour
+of force was carried and accepted by the trembling chairman. My French
+<i>confr&egrave;re</i> took back with him to Paris the unanimous consent of the
+English comrades to whom he had appealed. All that was asked of the
+English contingent was that it should arrange for the escape and safe
+keeping of the assassin who flung the bomb into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> midst of the
+English visitors, and after the oratorical madman had departed, I, to
+my horror, was chosen to arrange for the safe transport and future
+custody of the bomb-thrower. It is not etiquette in anarchist circles
+for any member to decline whatever task is given him by the vote of
+his comrades. He knows the alternative, which is suicide. If he
+declines the task and still remains upon earth, the dilemma is solved
+for him, as the Italian Felini solved it through the back of my
+unfortunate helper Brisson. I therefore accepted the unwelcome office
+in silence, and received from the treasurer the money necessary for
+carrying out the same.</p>
+
+<p>I realised for the first time since joining the anarchist association
+years before that I was in genuine danger. A single false step, a
+single inadvertent word, might close the career of Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, and
+at the same moment terminate the existence of the quiet, inoffensive
+Paul Ducharme, teacher of the French language. I knew perfectly well I
+should be followed. The moment I received the money the French
+delegate asked when they were to expect me in Paris. He wished to know
+so that all the resources of their organisation might be placed at my
+disposal. I replied calmly enough that I could not state definitely on
+what day I should leave England. There was plenty of time, as the
+business men's representatives from London would not reach Paris for
+another two weeks. I was well known to the majority of the Paris
+organisation, and would present myself before them on the first night
+of my arrival. The Paris delegate exhibited all the energy of a new
+recruit, and he seemed dissatisfied with my vagueness, but I went on
+without heeding his displeasure. He was not personally known to me,
+nor I to him, but if I may say so, Paul Ducharme was well thought of
+by all the rest of those present.</p>
+
+<p>I had learned a great lesson during the episode of the Queen's
+Necklace, which resulted in my dismissal by the French Government. I
+had learned that if you expect pursuit it is always well to leave a
+clue for the pursuer to follow. Therefore I continued in a low
+conversational tone:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I shall want the whole of tomorrow for myself: I must notify my
+pupils of my absence. Even if my pupils leave me it will not so much
+matter. I can probably get others. But what does matter is my
+secretarial work with Monsieur Valmont of the Imperial Flats. I am
+just finishing for him the translation of a volume from French into
+English, and tomorrow I can complete the work, and get his permission
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> leave for a fortnight. This man, who is a compatriot of my own,
+has given me employment ever since I came to London. From him I have
+received the bulk of my income, and if it had not been for his
+patronage, I do not know what I should have done. I not only have no
+desire to offend him, but I wish the secretarial work to continue when
+I return to London.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a murmur of approval at this. It was generally recognised
+that a man's living should not be interfered with, if possible.
+Anarchists are not poverty-stricken individuals, as most people think,
+for many of them hold excellent situations, some occupying positions
+of great trust, which is rarely betrayed.</p>
+
+<p>It is recognised that a man's duty, not only to himself, but to the
+organisation, is to make all the money he can, and thus not be liable
+to fall back on the relief fund. This frank admission of my dependence
+on Valmont made it all the more impossible that anyone there listening
+should suspect that it was Valmont himself who was addressing the
+conclave.</p>
+
+<p>'You will then take the night train tomorrow for Paris?' persisted the
+inquisitive French delegate.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and no. I shall take the night train, and it shall be for Paris,
+but not from Charing Cross, Victoria, or Waterloo. I shall travel on
+the 8.30 Continental express from Liverpool Street to Harwich, cross
+to the Hook of Holland, and from there make my way to Paris through
+Holland and Belgium. I wish to investigate that route as a possible
+path for our comrade to escape. After the blow is struck, Calais,
+Boulogne, Dieppe, and Havre will be closely watched. I shall perhaps
+bring him to London by way of Antwerp and the Hook.'</p>
+
+<p>These amiable disclosures were so fully in keeping with Paul
+Ducharme's reputation for candour and caution that I saw they made an
+excellent impression on my audience, and here the chairman intervened,
+putting an end to further cross-examination by saying they all had the
+utmost confidence in the judgment of Monsieur Paul Ducharme, and the
+Paris delegate might advise his friends to be on the lookout for the
+London representative within the next three or four days.</p>
+
+<p>I left the meeting and went directly to my room in Soho, without even
+taking the trouble to observe whether I was watched or not. There I
+stayed all night, and in the morning quitted Soho as Ducharme, with a
+gray beard and bowed shoulders, walked west to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> Imperial Flats,
+took the lift to the top, and, seeing the corridor was clear, let
+myself in to my own flat. I departed from my flat promptly at six
+o'clock, again as Paul Ducharme, carrying this time a bundle done up
+in brown paper under my arm, and proceeded directly to my room in
+Soho. Later I took a bus, still carrying my brown paper parcel, and
+reached Liverpool Street in ample time for the Continental train. By a
+little private arrangement with the guard, I secured a compartment for
+myself, although up to the moment the train left the station, I could
+not be sure but that I might be compelled to take the trip to the Hook
+of Holland after all. If any one had insisted on coming into my
+compartment, I should have crossed the North Sea that night. I knew I
+should be followed from Soho to the station, and that probably the spy
+would go as far as Harwich, and see me on the boat. It was doubtful if
+he would cross. I had chosen this route for the reason that we have no
+organisation in Holland: the nearest circle is in Brussels, and if
+there had been time, the Brussels circle would have been warned to
+keep an eye on me. There was, however, no time for a letter, and
+anarchists never use the telegraph, especially so far as the Continent
+is concerned, unless in cases of the greatest emergency. If they
+telegraphed my description to Brussels the chances were it would not
+be an anarchist who watched my landing, but a member of the Belgian
+police force.</p>
+
+<p>The 8.30 Continental express does not stop between Liverpool Street
+and Parkeston Quay, which it is timed to reach three minutes before
+ten. This gave me an hour and a half in which to change my apparel.
+The garments of the poor old professor I rolled up into a ball one by
+one and flung out through the open window, far into the marsh past
+which we were flying in a pitch dark night. Coat, trousers, and
+waistcoat rested in separate swamps at least ten miles apart. Gray
+whiskers and gray wig I tore into little pieces, and dropped the bits
+out of the open window.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p><p>I had taken the precaution to secure a compartment in the front of
+the train, and when it came to rest at Parkeston Quay Station, the
+crowd, eager for the steamer, rushed past me, and I stepped out into
+the midst of it, a dapper, well-dressed young man, with black beard
+and moustaches, my own closely cropped black hair covered by a new
+bowler hat. Anyone looking for Paul Ducharme would have paid small
+attention to me, and to any friend of Valmont's I was equally
+unrecognisable.</p>
+
+<p>I strolled in leisurely manner to the Great Eastern Hotel on the Quay,
+and asked the clerk if a portmanteau addressed to Mr. John Wilkins had
+arrived that day from London. He said 'Yes,' whereupon I secured a
+room for the night, as the last train had already left for the
+metropolis.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, Mr. John Wilkins, accompanied by a brand new and rather
+expensive portmanteau, took the 8.57 train for Liverpool Street, where
+he arrived at half-past ten, stepped into a cab, and drove to the
+Savoy Restaurant, lunching there with the portmanteau deposited in the
+cloak room. When John Wilkins had finished an excellent lunch in a
+leisurely manner at the Caf&eacute; Parisien of the Savoy, and had paid his
+bill, he did not go out into the Strand over the rubber-paved court by
+which he had entered, but went through the hotel and down the stairs,
+and so out into the thoroughfare facing the Embankment. Then turning
+to his right he reached the Embankment entrance of the Hotel Cecil.
+This leads into a long, dark corridor, at the end of which the lift
+may be rung for. It does not come lower than the floor above unless
+specially summoned. In this dark corridor, which was empty, John
+Wilkins took off the black beard and moustache, hid it in the inside
+pocket of his coat, and there went up into the lift a few moments
+later to the office floor, I, Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, myself for the first
+time in several days.</p>
+
+<p>Even then I did not take a cab to my flat, but passed under the arched
+Strand front of the 'Cecil' in a cab, bound for the residence of that
+nobleman who had formerly engaged me to see after the safety of the
+King.</p>
+
+<p>You will say that this was all very elaborate precaution to take when
+a man was not even sure he was followed. To tell you the truth, I do
+not know to this day whether anyone watched me or not, nor do I care.
+I live in the present: when once the past is done with, it ceases to
+exist for me. It is quite possible, nay, entirely probable, that no
+one tracked me farther than Liverpool Street Station the night before,
+yet it was for lack of such precaution that my assistant Brisson
+received the Italian's dagger under his shoulder blade fifteen years
+before. The present moment is ever the critical time; the future is
+merely for intelligent forethought. It was to prepare for the future
+that I was now in a cab on the way to my lord's residence. It was not
+the French anarchists I feared during the contest in which I was about
+to become engaged, but the Paris police. I knew French officialdom too
+well not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> to understand the futility of going to the authorities there
+and proclaiming my object. If I ventured to approach the chief of
+police with the information that I, in London, had discovered what it
+was his business in Paris to know, my reception would be far from
+cordial, even though, or rather because, I announced myself as Eug&egrave;ne
+Valmont. The exploits of Eug&egrave;ne had become part of the legends of
+Paris, and these legends were extremely distasteful to those men in
+power. My doings have frequently been made the subject of feuilletons
+in the columns of the Paris Press, and were, of course, exaggerated by
+the imagination of the writers, yet, nevertheless, I admit I did some
+good strokes of detection during my service with the French
+Government. It is but natural, then, that the present authorities
+should listen with some impatience when the name of Eug&egrave;ne Valmont is
+mentioned. I recognise this as quite in the order of things to be
+expected, and am honest enough to confess that in my own time I often
+hearkened to narratives regarding the performances of Lecocq with a
+doubting shrug of the shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if the French police knew anything of this anarchist plot, which
+was quite within the bounds of possibility, and if I were in
+surreptitious communication with the anarchists, more especially with
+the man who was to fling the bomb, there was every chance I might find
+myself in the grip of French justice. I must, then, provide myself
+with credentials to show that I was acting, not against the peace and
+quiet of my country, but on the side of law and order. I therefore
+wished to get from the nobleman a commission in writing, similar to
+that command which he had placed upon me during the King's visit. This
+commission I should lodge at my bank in Paris, to be a voucher for me
+at the last extremity. I had no doubt his lordship would empower me to
+act in this instance as I had acted on two former occasions.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Perhaps if I had not lunched so well I might have approached his
+lordship with greater deference than was the case; but when ordering
+lunch I permitted a bottle of Ch&acirc;teau du Tertre, 1878, a most
+delicious claret, to be decanted carefully for my delectation at the
+table, and this caused a genial glow to permeate throughout my system,
+inducing a mental optimism which left me ready to salute the greatest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+of earth on a plane of absolute equality. Besides, after all, I am the
+citizen of a Republic.</p>
+
+<p>The nobleman received me with frigid correctness, implying disapproval
+of my unauthorised visit, rather than expressing it. Our interview was
+extremely brief.</p>
+
+<p>'I had the felicity of serving your lordship upon two occasions,' I
+began.</p>
+
+<p>'They are well within my recollection,' he interrupted, 'but I do not
+remember sending for you a third time.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have taken the liberty of coming unrequested, my lord, because of
+the importance of the news I carry. I surmise that you are interested
+in the promotion of friendship between France and England.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your surmise, sir, is incorrect. I care not a button about it. My
+only anxiety was for the safety of the King.'</p>
+
+<p>Even the superb claret was not enough to fortify me against words so
+harsh, and tones so discourteous, as those his lordship permitted
+himself to use.</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' said I, dropping the title in my rising anger, 'it may interest
+you to know that a number of your countrymen run the risk of being
+blown to eternity by an anarchist bomb in less than two weeks from
+today. A party of business men, true representatives of a class to
+which the pre-eminence of your Empire is due, are about to proceed&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Pray spare me,' interpolated his lordship wearily, 'I have read that
+sort of thing so often in the newspapers. If all these estimable City
+men are blown up, the Empire would doubtless miss them, as you hint,
+but I should not, and their fate does not interest me in the least,
+although you did me the credit of believing that it would. Thompson,
+you will show this person out? Sir, if I desire your presence here in
+future I will send for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'You may send for the devil!' I cried, now thoroughly enraged, the
+wine getting the better of me.</p>
+
+<p>'You express my meaning more tersely than I cared to do,' he replied
+coldly, and that was the last I ever saw of him.</p>
+
+<p>Entering the cab I now drove to my flat, indignant at the reception I
+had met with. However, I knew the English people too well to malign
+them for the action of one of their number, and resentment never
+dwells long with me. Arriving at my rooms I looked through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+newspapers to learn all I could of the proposed business men's
+excursion to Paris, and in reading the names of those most prominent
+in carrying out the necessary arrangements, I came across that of W.
+Raymond White, which caused me to sit back in my chair and wrinkle my
+brow in an endeavour to stir my memory. Unless I was much mistaken, I
+had been so happy as to oblige this gentleman some dozen or thirteen
+years before. As I remembered him, he was a business man who engaged
+in large transactions with France, dealing especially in Lyons and
+that district. His address was given in the newspaper as Old Change,
+so at once I resolved to see him. Although I could not recall the
+details of our previous meeting, if, indeed, he should turn out to be
+the same person, yet the mere sight of the name had produced a mental
+pleasure, as a chance chord struck may bring a grateful harmony to the
+mind. I determined to get my credentials from Mr. White if possible,
+for his recommendation would in truth be much more valuable than that
+of the gruff old nobleman to whom I had first applied, because, if I
+got into trouble with the police of Paris, I was well enough
+acquainted with the natural politeness of the authorities to know that
+a letter from one of the city's guests would secure my instant
+release.</p>
+
+<p>I took a hansom to the head of that narrow thoroughfare known as Old
+Change, and there dismissed my cab. I was so fortunate as to recognise
+Mr. White coming out of his office. A moment later, and I should have
+missed him.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. White,' I accosted him, 'I desire to enjoy both the pleasure and
+the honour of introducing myself to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Monsieur,' replied Mr. White with a smile, 'the introduction is not
+necessary, and the pleasure and honour are mine. Unless I am very much
+mistaken, this is Monsieur Valmont of Paris?'</p>
+
+<p>'Late of Paris,' I corrected.</p>
+
+<p>'Are you no longer in Government service then?'</p>
+
+<p>'For a little more than ten years I have been a resident of London.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, and have never let me know? That is something the diplomatists
+call an unfriendly act, monsieur. Now, shall we return to my office,
+or go to a caf&eacute;?'</p>
+
+<p>'To your office, if you please, Mr. White. I come on rather important
+business.'</p>
+
+<p>Entering his private office the merchant closed the door, offered me a
+chair, and sat down himself by his desk. From the first he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+addressed me in French, which he spoke with an accent so pure that it
+did my lonesome heart good to hear it.</p>
+
+<p>'I called upon you half a dozen years ago,' he went on, 'when I was
+over in Paris on a festive occasion, where I hoped to secure your
+company, but I could not learn definitely whether you were still with
+the Government or not.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is the way of the French officialism,' I replied. 'If they knew my
+whereabouts they would keep the knowledge to themselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, if you have been ten years in London, Monsieur Valmont, we may
+now perhaps have the pleasure of claiming you as an Englishman; so I
+beg you will accompany us on another festive occasion to Paris next
+week. Perhaps you have seen that a number of us are going over there
+to make the welkin ring.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I have read all about the business men's excursion to Paris, and
+it is with reference to this journey that I wish to consult you,' and
+here I gave Mr. White in detail the plot of the anarchists against the
+growing cordiality of the two countries. The merchant listened quietly
+without interruption until I had finished; then he said,&mdash;'I suppose
+it will be rather useless to inform the police of Paris?'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Mr. White, it is the police of Paris I fear more than the
+anarchists. They would resent information coming to them from the
+outside, especially from an ex-official, the inference being that they
+were not up to their own duties. Friction and delay would ensue until
+the deed was inevitable. It is quite on the cards that the police of
+Paris may have some inkling of the plot, and in that case, just before
+the event, they are reasonably certain to arrest the wrong men. I
+shall be moving about Paris, not as Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, but as Paul
+Ducharme, the anarchist; therefore, there is some danger that as a
+stranger and a suspect I may be laid by the heels at the critical
+moment. If you would be so good as to furnish me with credentials
+which I can deposit somewhere in Paris in case of need, I may thus be
+able to convince the authorities that they have taken the wrong man.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. White, entirely unperturbed by the prospect of having a bomb thrown
+at him within two weeks, calmly wrote several documents, then turned
+his untroubled face to me, and said, in a very confidential, winning
+tone:&mdash;'Monsieur Valmont, you have stated the case with that clear
+comprehensiveness pertaining to a nation which understands the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+meaning of words, and the correct adjustment of them; that felicity of
+language which has given France the first place in the literature of
+nations. Consequently, I think I see very clearly the delicacies of
+the situation. We may expect hindrances, rather than help, from
+officials on either side of the Channel. Secrecy is essential to
+success. Have you spoken of this to anyone but me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only to Lord Blank,' I replied; 'and now I deeply regret having made
+a confidant of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'That does not in the least matter,' said Mr. White, with a smile;
+'Lord Blank's mind is entirely occupied by his own greatness. Chemists
+tell me that you cannot add a new ingredient to a saturated solution;
+therefore your revelation will have made no impression upon his
+lordship's intellect. He has already forgotten all about it. Am I
+right in supposing that everything hinges on the man who is to throw
+the bomb?'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite right, sir. He may be venal, he may be traitorous, he may be a
+coward, he may be revengeful, he may be a drunkard. Before I am in
+conversation with him for ten minutes, I shall know what his weak spot
+is. It is upon that spot I must act, and my action must be delayed
+till the very last moment; for, if he disappears too long before the
+event, his first, second, or third substitute will instantly step into
+his place.'</p>
+
+<p>'Precisely. So you cannot complete your plans until you have met this
+man?'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Parfaitement.</i>'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I propose,' continued Mr. White, 'that we take no one into our
+confidence. In a case like this there is little use in going before a
+committee. I can see that you do not need any advice, and my own part
+shall be to remain in the background, content to support the most
+competent man that could have been chosen to grapple with a very
+difficult crisis.'</p>
+
+<p>I bowed profoundly. There was a compliment in his glance as well as in
+his words. Never before had I met so charming a man.</p>
+
+<p>'Here,' he continued, handing me one of the papers he had written, 'is
+a letter to whom it may concern, appointing you my agent for the next
+three weeks, and holding myself responsible for all you see fit to do.
+Here,' he went on, passing to me a second sheet, 'is a letter of
+introduction to Monsieur Largent, the manager of my bank in Paris, a
+man well known and highly respected in all circles, both official and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+commercial. I suggest that you introduce yourself to him, and he will
+hold himself in readiness to respond to any call you may make, night
+or day. I assure you that his mere presence before the authorities
+will at once remove any ordinary difficulty. And now,' he added,
+taking in hand the third slip of paper, speaking with some hesitation,
+and choosing his words with care, 'I come to a point which cannot be
+ignored. Money is a magician's wand, which, like faith, will remove
+mountains. It may also remove an anarchist hovering about the route of
+a business man's procession.'</p>
+
+<p>He now handed to me what I saw was a draft on Paris for a thousand
+pounds.</p>
+
+<p>'I assure you, monsieur,' I protested, covered with confusion, 'that
+no thought of money was in my mind when I took the liberty of
+presenting myself to you. I have already received more than I could
+have expected in the generous confidence you were good enough to
+repose in me, as exhibited by these credentials, and especially the
+letter to your banker. Thanks to the generosity of your countrymen, Mr
+White, of which you are a most notable example, I am in no need of
+money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Monsieur Valmont, I am delighted to hear that you have got on well
+amongst us. This money is for two purposes. First, you will use what
+you need. I know Paris very well, monsieur, and have never found gold
+an embarrassment there. The second purpose is this: I suggest that
+when you present the letter of introduction to Monsieur Largent, you
+will casually place this amount to your account in his bank. He will
+thus see that besides writing you a letter of introduction, I transfer
+a certain amount of my own balance to your credit. That will do you no
+harm with him, I assure you. And now, Monsieur Valmont, it only
+remains for me to thank you for the opportunity you have given me, and
+to assure you that I shall march from the Gare du Nord without a
+tremor, knowing the outcome is in such capable custody.'</p>
+
+<p>And then this estimable man shook hands with me in action the most
+cordial. I walked away from Old Change as if I trod upon air; a
+feeling vastly different from that with which I departed from the
+residence of the old nobleman in the West End but a few hours before.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Next morning I was in Paris, and next night I attended the underground
+meeting of the anarchists, held within a quarter of a mile of the
+Luxembourg. I was known to many there assembled, but my acquaintance
+of course was not so large as with the London circle. They had half
+expected me the night before, knowing that even going by the Hook of
+Holland I might have reached Paris in time for the conclave. I was
+introduced generally to the assemblage as the emissary from England,
+who was to assist the bomb-throwing brother to escape either to that
+country, or to such other point of safety as I might choose. No
+questions were asked me regarding my doings of the day before, nor was
+I required to divulge the plans for my fellow-member's escape. I was
+responsible; that was enough. If I failed through no fault of my own,
+it was but part of the ill-luck we were all prepared to face. If I
+failed through treachery, then a dagger in the back at the earliest
+possible moment. We all knew the conditions of our sinister contract,
+and we all recognised that the least said the better.</p>
+
+<p>The cellar was dimly lighted by one oil lamp depending from the
+ceiling. From this hung a cord attached to an extinguisher, and one
+jerk of the cord would put out the light. Then, while the main entry
+doors were being battered down by police, the occupants of the room
+escaped through one of three or four human rat-holes provided for that
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>If any Parisian anarchist does me the honour to read these jottings, I
+beg to inform him that while I remained in office under the Government
+of France there was never a time when I did not know the exit of each
+of these underground passages, and could during any night there was
+conference have bagged the whole lot of those there assembled. It was
+never my purpose, however, to shake the anarchists' confidence in
+their system, for that merely meant the removal of the gathering to
+another spot, thus giving us the additional trouble of mapping out
+their new exits and entrances. When I did make a raid on anarchist
+headquarters in Paris, it was always to secure some particular man. I
+had my emissaries in plain clothes stationed at each exit. In any
+case, the rats were allowed to escape unmolested, sneaking forth with
+great caution into the night, but we always spotted the man we wanted,
+and almost invariably arrested him elsewhere, having followed him from
+his kennel. In each case my uniformed officers found a dark and empty
+cellar, and retired apparently baffled. But the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> coincidence that on
+the night of every raid some member there present was secretly
+arrested in another quarter of Paris, and perhaps given a free passage
+to Russia, never seemed to awaken suspicion in the minds of the
+conspirators.</p>
+
+<p>I think the London anarchists' method is much better, and I have ever
+considered the English nihilist the most dangerous of this fraternity,
+for he is cool-headed and not carried away by his own enthusiasm, and
+consequently rarely carried away by his own police. The authorities of
+London meet no opposition in making a raid. They find a well-lighted
+room containing a more or less shabby coterie playing cards at cheap
+pine tables. There is no money visible, and, indeed, very little coin
+would be brought to light if the whole party were searched; so the
+police are unable to convict the players under the Gambling Act.
+Besides, it is difficult in any case to obtain a conviction under the
+Gambling Act, because the accused has the sympathy of the whole
+country with him. It has always been to me one of the anomalies of the
+English nature that a magistrate can keep a straight face while he
+fines some poor wretch for gambling, knowing that next race day (if
+the court is not sitting) the magistrate himself, in correct sporting
+costume, with binoculars hanging at his hip, will be on the lawn by
+the course backing his favourite horse.</p>
+
+<p>After my reception at the anarchists' club of Paris, I remained seated
+unobtrusively on a bench waiting until routine business was finished,
+after which I expected an introduction to the man selected to throw
+the bomb. I am a very sensitive person, and sitting there quietly I
+became aware that I was being scrutinised with more than ordinary
+intensity by someone, which gave me a feeling of uneasiness. At last,
+in the semi-obscurity opposite me I saw a pair of eyes as luminous as
+those of a tiger peering fixedly at me. I returned the stare with such
+composure as I could bring to my aid, and the man, as if fascinated by
+a look as steady as his own, leaned forward, and came more and more
+into the circle of light.</p>
+
+<p>Then I received a shock which it required my utmost self-control to
+conceal. The face, haggard and drawn, was none other than that of
+Adolph Simard, who had been my second assistant in the Secret Service
+of France during my last year in office. He was a most capable and
+rising young man at that time, and, of course, he knew me well. Had
+he, then, penetrated my disguise? Such an event seemed impossible; he
+could not have recognised my voice, for I had said nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> aloud
+since entering the room, my few words to the president being spoken in
+a whisper. Simard's presence there bewildered me; by this time he
+should be high up in the Secret Service. If he were now a spy, he
+would, of course, wish to familiarise himself with every particular of
+my appearance, as in my hands lay the escape of the criminal. Yet, if
+such were his mission, why did he attract the attention of all members
+by this open-eyed scrutiny? That he recognised me as Valmont I had not
+the least fear; my disguise was too perfect; and, even if I were there
+in my own proper person, I had not seen Simard, nor he me, for ten
+years, and great changes occur in a man's appearance during so long a
+period. Yet I remembered with disquietude that Mr. White recognised me,
+and here tonight I had recognised Simard. I could not move my bench
+farther back because it stood already against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Simard, on the contrary, was seated on one of the few chairs in the
+room, and this he periodically hitched forward, the better to continue
+his examination, which now attracted the notice of others besides
+myself. As he came forward, I could not help admiring the completeness
+of his disguise so far as apparel was concerned. He was a perfect
+picture of the Paris wastrel, and what was more, he wore on his head a
+cap of the Apaches, the most dangerous band of cut-throats that have
+ever cursed a civilised city. I could understand that even among
+lawless anarchists this badge of membership of the Apache band might
+well strike tenor. I felt that before the meeting adjourned I must
+speak with him, and I determined to begin our conversation by asking
+him why he stared so fixedly at me. Yet even then I should have made
+little progress. I did not dare to hint that he belonged to the Secret
+Service; nevertheless, if the authorities had this plot in charge, it
+was absolutely necessary we should work together, or, at least, that I
+should know they were in the secret, and steer my course accordingly.
+The fact that Simard appeared with undisguised face was not so
+important as might appear to an outsider.</p>
+
+<p>It is always safer for a spy to preserve his natural appearance if
+that is possible, because a false beard or false moustache or wig run
+the risk of being deranged or torn away. As I have said, an anarchist
+assemblage is simply a room filled with the atmosphere of suspicion. I
+have known instances where an innocent stranger was suddenly set upon
+in the midst of solemn proceedings by two or three impetuous
+fellow-members, who nearly jerked his own whiskers from his face<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+under the impression that they were false. If Simard, therefore,
+appeared in his own scraggy beard and unkempt hair it meant that he
+communicated with headquarters by some circuitous route. I realised,
+therefore, that a very touchy bit of diplomacy awaited me if I was to
+learn from himself his actual status. While I pondered over this
+perplexity, it was suddenly dissolved by the action of the president,
+and another substituted for it.</p>
+
+<p>'Will Brother Simard come forward?' asked the president.</p>
+
+<p>My former subordinate removed his eyes from me, slowly rose from his
+chair, and shuffled up to the president's table.</p>
+
+<p>'Brother Ducharme,' said that official to me in a quiet tone, 'I
+introduce you to Brother Simard, whom you are commissioned to see into
+a place of safety when he has dispersed the procession.'</p>
+
+<p>Simard turned his fishy goggle eyes upon me, and a grin disclosed
+wolf-like teeth. He held out his hand, which, rising to my feet, I
+took. He gave me a flabby grasp, and all the time his inquiring eyes
+travelled over me.</p>
+
+<p>'You don't look up to much,' he said. 'What are you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am a teacher of the French language in London.'</p>
+
+<p>'Umph!' growled Simard, evidently in no wise prepossessed by my
+appearance. 'I thought you weren't much of a fighter. The gendarmes
+will make short work of this fellow,' he growled to the chairman.</p>
+
+<p>'Brother Ducharme is vouched for by the whole English circle,' replied
+the president firmly.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, the English! I think very little of them. Still, it doesn't
+matter,' and with a shrug of the shoulders he shuffled to his seat
+again, leaving me standing there in a very embarrassed state of mind;
+my brain in a whirl. That the man was present with his own face was
+bewildering enough, but that he should be here under his own name was
+simply astounding. I scarcely heard what the president said. It seemed
+to the effect that Simard would take me to his own room, where we
+might talk over our plans. And now Simard rose again from his chair,
+and said to the president that if nothing more were wanted of him, we
+should go. Accordingly we left the place of meeting together. I
+watched my comrade narrowly. There was now a trembling eagerness in
+his action, and without a word he hurried me to the nearest caf&eacute;,
+where we sat down before a little iron table on the pavement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Gar&ccedil;on!' he shouted harshly, 'bring me four absinthes. What will you
+drink, Ducharme?',</p>
+
+<p>'A caf&eacute;-cognac, if you please.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bah!' cried Simard; 'better have absinthe.'</p>
+
+<p>Then he cursed the waiter for his slowness. When the absinthe came he
+grasped the half-full glass and swallowed the liquid raw, a thing I
+had never seen done before. Into the next measure of the wormwood he
+poured the water impetuously from the carafe, another thing I had
+never seen done before, and dropped two lumps of sugar into it. Over
+the third glass he placed a flat perforated plated spoon, piled the
+sugar on this bridge, and now quite expertly allowed the water to drip
+through, the proper way of concocting this seductive mixture.
+Finishing his second glass he placed the perforated spoon over the
+fourth, and began now more calmly sipping the third while the water
+dripped slowly into the last glass.</p>
+
+<p>Here before my eyes was enacted a more wonderful change than the
+gradual transformation of transparent absinthe into an opaque
+opalescent liquid. Simard, under the influence of the drink, was
+slowly becoming the Simard I had known ten years before. Remarkable!
+Absinthe having in earlier years made a beast of the man was now
+forming a man out of the beast. His staring eyes took on an expression
+of human comradeship. The whole mystery became perfectly clear to me
+without a question asked or an answer uttered. This man was no spy,
+but a genuine anarchist. However it happened, he had become a victim
+of absinthe, one of many with whom I was acquainted, although I never
+met any so far sunk as he. He was into his fourth glass, and had
+ordered two more when he began to speak.</p>
+
+<p>'Here's to us,' he cried, with something like a civilised smile on his
+gaunt face. 'You're not offended at what I said in the meeting, I
+hope?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no,' I answered.</p>
+
+<p>'That's right. You see, I once belonged to the Secret Service, and if
+my chief was there today, we would soon find ourselves in a cool
+dungeon. We couldn't trip up Eug&egrave;ne Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>At these words, spoken with sincerity, I sat up in my chair, and I am
+sure such an expression of enjoyment came into my face that if I had
+not instantly suppressed it, I might have betrayed myself.</p>
+
+<p>'Who was Eug&egrave;ne Valmont?' I asked, in a tone of assumed indifference.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+<p>Mixing his fifth glass he nodded sagely.</p>
+
+<p>'You wouldn't ask that question if you'd been in Paris a dozen years
+ago. He was the Government's chief detective, and he knew more of
+anarchists, yes, and of Apaches, too, than either you or I do. He had
+more brains in his little finger than that whole lot babbling there
+tonight. But the Government being a fool, as all governments are,
+dismissed him, and because I was his assistant, they dismissed me as
+well. They got rid of all his staff. Valmont disappeared. If I could
+have found him, I wouldn't be sitting here with you tonight; but he
+was right to disappear. The Government did all they could against us
+who had been his friends, and I for one came through starvation, and
+was near throwing myself in the Seine, which sometimes I wish I had
+done. Here, gar&ccedil;on, another absinthe. But by-and-by I came to like the
+gutter, and here I am. I'd rather have the gutter and absinthe than
+the Luxembourg without it. I've had my revenge on the Government many
+times since, for I knew their ways, and often have I circumvented the
+police. That's why they respect me among the anarchists. Do you know
+how I joined? I knew all their passwords, and walked right into one of
+their meetings, alone and in rags.</p>
+
+<p>'"Here am I," I said; "Adolph Simard, late second assistant to Eug&egrave;ne
+Valmont, chief detective to the French Government."</p>
+
+<p>'There were twenty weapons covering me at once, but I laughed.</p>
+
+<p>'"I'm starving," I cried, "and I want something to eat, and more
+especially something to drink. In return for that I'll show you every
+rat-hole you've got. Lift the president's chair, and there's a
+trap-door that leads to the Rue Blanc. I'm one of you, and I'll tell
+you the tricks of the police."</p>
+
+<p>'Such was my initiation, and from that moment the police began to pick
+their spies out of the Seine, and now they leave us alone. Even
+Valmont himself could do nothing against the anarchists since I have
+joined them.'</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the incredible self-conceit of human nature! Here was this ruffian
+proclaiming the limitations of Valmont, who half an hour before had
+shaken his hand within the innermost circle of his order! Yet my heart
+warmed towards the wretch who had remembered me and my exploits.</p>
+
+<p>It now became my anxious and difficult task to lure Simard away from
+this caf&eacute; and its absinthe. Glass after glass of the poison had
+brought him up almost to his former intellectual level, but now it
+was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> shoving him rapidly down the hill again. I must know where his
+room was situated, yet if I waited much longer the man would be in a
+state of drunken imbecility which would not only render it impossible
+for him to guide me to his room, but likely cause both of us to be
+arrested by the police. I tried persuasion, and he laughed at me; I
+tried threats, whereat he scowled and cursed me as a renegade from
+England. At last the liquor overpowered him, and his head sunk on the
+metal table and the dark blue cap fell to the floor.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I was in despair, but now received a lesson which taught me that if a
+man leaves a city, even for a short time, he falls out of touch with
+its ways. I called the waiter, and said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know my friend here?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know his name,' replied the gar&ccedil;on, 'but I have seen him
+many times at this caf&eacute;. He is usually in this state when he has
+money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know where he lives? He promised to take me with him, and I am
+a stranger in Paris.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have no discontent, monsieur. Rest tranquil; I will intervene.'</p>
+
+<p>With this he stepped across the pavement in front of the caf&eacute;, into
+the street, and gave utterance to a low, peculiar whistle. The caf&eacute;
+was now nearly deserted, for the hour was very late, or, rather, very
+early. When the waiter returned I whispered to him in some anxiety,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Not the police, surely?'</p>
+
+<p>'But no!' he cried in scorn; 'certainly not the police.'</p>
+
+<p>He went on unconcernedly taking in the empty chairs and tables. A few
+minutes later there swaggered up to the caf&eacute; two of the most
+disreputable, low-browed scoundrels I had ever seen, each wearing a
+dark-blue cap, with a glazed peak over the eyes; caps exactly similar
+to the one which lay in front of Simard. The band of Apaches which now
+permeates all Paris has risen since my time, and Simard had been
+mistaken an hour before in asserting that Valmont was familiar with
+their haunts. The present Chief of Police in Paris and some of his
+predecessors confess there is a difficulty in dealing with these
+picked assassins, but I should very much like to take a hand in the
+game on the side of law and order. However, that is not to be;
+therefore, the Apaches increase and prosper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The two vagabonds roughly smote Simard's cap on his prone head, and as
+roughly raised him to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>'He is a friend of mine,' I interposed, 'and promised to take me home
+with him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good! Follow us,' said one of them; and now I passed through the
+morning streets of Paris behind three cut-throats, yet knew that I was
+safer than if broad daylight was in the thoroughfare, with a meridian
+sun shining down upon us. I was doubly safe, being in no fear of harm
+from midnight prowlers, and equally free from danger of arrest by the
+police. Every officer we met avoided us, and casually stepped to the
+other side of the street. We turned down a narrow lane, then through a
+still narrower one, which terminated at a courtyard. Entering a tall
+building, we climbed up five flights of stairs to a landing, where one
+of the scouts kicked open a door, into a room so miserable that there
+was not even a lock to protect its poverty. Here they allowed the
+insensible Simard to drop with a crash on the floor, thus they left us
+alone without even an adieu. The Apaches take care of their own&mdash;after
+a fashion.</p>
+
+<p>I struck a match, and found part of a bougie stuck in the mouth of an
+absinthe bottle, resting on a rough deal table. Lighting the bougie, I
+surveyed the horrible apartment. A heap of rags lay in a corner, and
+this was evidently Simard's bed. I hauled him to it, and there he lay
+unconscious, himself a bundle of rags. I found one chair, or, rather,
+stool, for it had no back. I drew the table against the lockless door,
+blew out the light, sat on the stool, resting my arms on the table,
+and my head on my arms, and slept peacefully till long after daybreak.</p>
+
+<p>Simard awoke in the worst possible humour. He poured forth a great
+variety of abusive epithets at me. To make himself still more
+agreeable, he turned back the rags on which he had slept, and brought
+to the light a round, black object, like a small cannon-ball, which he
+informed me was the picric bomb that was to scatter destruction among
+my English friends, for whom he expressed the greatest possible
+loathing and contempt. Then sitting up, he began playing with this
+infernal machine, knowing, as well as I, that if he allowed it to drop
+that was the end of us two.</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged my shoulders at this display, and affected a nonchalance I
+was far from feeling, but finally put an end to his dangerous
+amusement by telling him that if he came out with me I would pay for
+his breakfast, and give him a drink of absinthe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next few days were the most anxious of my life. Never before had I
+lived on terms of intimacy with a picric bomb, that most deadly and
+uncertain of all explosive agencies. I speedily found that Simard was
+so absinthe-soaked I could do nothing with him. He could not be bribed
+or cajoled or persuaded or threatened. Once, indeed, when he talked
+with drunken affection of Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, I conceived a wild notion of
+declaring myself to him; but a moment's reflection showed the absolute
+uselessness of this course. It was not one Simard with whom I had to
+deal, but half a dozen or more. There was Simard, sober, half sober,
+quarter sober, drunk, half drunk, quarter drunk, or wholly drunk. Any
+bargain I might make with the one Simard would not be kept by any of
+the other six. The only safe Simard was Simard insensible through
+over-indulgence. I had resolved to get Simard insensibly drunk on the
+morning of the procession, but my plans were upset at a meeting of the
+anarchists, which luckily took place on an evening shortly after my
+arrival, and this gave me time to mature the plan which was actually
+carried out. Each member of the anarchists' club knew of Simard's
+slavery to absinthe, and fears were expressed that he might prove
+incapable on the day of the procession, too late for a substitute to
+take his place. It was, therefore, proposed that one or two others
+should be stationed along the route of the procession with bombs ready
+if Simard failed. This I strenuously opposed, and guaranteed that
+Simard would be ready to launch his missile. I met with little
+difficulty in persuading the company to agree, because, after all,
+every man among them feared he might be one of those selected, which
+choice was practically a sentence of death. I guaranteed that the bomb
+would be thrown, and this apparently was taken to mean that if Simard
+did not do the deed, I would.</p>
+
+<p>This danger over, I next took the measurements, and estimated the
+weight, of the picric bomb. I then sought out a most amiable and
+expert pyrotechnist, a capable workman of genius, who with his own
+hand makes those dramatic firework arrangements which you sometimes
+see in Paris. As Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, I had rendered a great service to
+this man, and he was not likely to have forgotten it. During one of
+the anarchist scares a stupid policeman had arrested him, and when I
+intervened the man was just on the verge of being committed for life.
+France trembled in one of her panics, or, rather, Paris did, and
+demanded victims. This blameless little workman had indeed contributed
+with both material and advice, but any fool might have seen that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> he
+had done this innocently. His assistance had been invoked and secured
+under the pretence that his clients were promoting an amateur firework
+display, which was true enough, but the display cost the lives of
+three men, and intentionally so. I cheered up the citizen in the
+moment of his utmost despair, and brought such proof of his innocence
+to the knowledge of those above me that he was most reluctantly
+acquitted. To this man I now went with my measurement of the bomb and
+the estimate of its weight.</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' said I, 'do you remember Eug&egrave;ne Valmont?'</p>
+
+<p>'Am I ever likely to forget him?' he replied, with a fervour that
+pleased me.</p>
+
+<p>'He has sent me to you, and implores you to aid me, and that aid will
+wipe out the debt you owe him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Willingly, willingly,' cried the artisan, 'so long as it has nothing
+to do with the anarchists or the making of bombs.'</p>
+
+<p>'It has to do exactly with those two things. I wish you to make an
+innocent bomb which will prevent an anarchist outrage.'</p>
+
+<p>At this the little man drew back, and his face became pale.</p>
+
+<p>'It is impossible,' he protested; 'I have had enough of innocent
+bombs. No, no, and in any case how can I be sure you come from Eug&egrave;ne
+Valmont? No, monsieur, I am not to be trapped the second time.'</p>
+
+<p>At this I related rapidly all that Valmont had done for him, and even
+repeated Valmont's most intimate conversation with him. The man was
+nonplussed, but remained firm.</p>
+
+<p>'I dare not do it,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>We were alone in his back shop. I walked to the door and thrust in the
+bolt; then, after a moment's pause, turned round, stretched forth my
+right hand dramatically, and cried,&mdash;'Behold, Eug&egrave;ne Valmont!'</p>
+
+<p>My friend staggered against the wall in his amazement, and I continued
+in solemn tones,&mdash;'Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, who by this removal of his disguise
+places his life in your hands as your life was in his. Now, monsieur,
+what will you do?'</p>
+
+<p>He replied,&mdash;'Monsieur Valmont, I shall do whatever you ask. If I
+refused a moment ago, it was because I thought there was now in France
+no Eug&egrave;ne Valmont to rectify my mistake if I made one.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I resumed my disguise, and told him I wished an innocent substitute
+for this picric bomb, and he at once suggested an earthenware globe,
+which would weigh the same as the bomb, and which could be coloured to
+resemble it exactly.</p>
+
+<p>'And now, Monsieur Valmont, do you wish smoke to issue from this
+imitation bomb?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' I said, 'in such quantity as you can compress within it.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is easily done,' he cried, with the enthusiasm of a true French
+artist. 'And may I place within some little design of my own which
+will astonish your friends the English, and delight my friends the
+French?'</p>
+
+<p>'Monsieur,' said I, 'I am in your hands. I trust the project entirely
+to your skill,' and thus it came about that four days later I
+substituted the bogus globe for the real one, and, unseen, dropped the
+picric bomb from one of the bridges into the Seine.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the procession I was compelled to allow Simard
+several drinks of absinthe to bring him up to a point where he could
+be depended on, otherwise his anxiety and determination to fling the
+bomb, his frenzy against all government, made it certain that he would
+betray both of us before the fateful moment came. My only fear was
+that I could not stop him drinking when once he began, but somehow our
+days of close companionship, loathsome as they were to me, seemed to
+have had the effect of building up again the influence I held over him
+in former days, and his yielding more or less to my wishes appeared to
+be quite unconscious on his part.</p>
+
+<p>The procession was composed entirely of carriages, each containing
+four persons&mdash;two Englishmen sat on the back seats, with two Frenchmen
+in front of them. A thick crowd lined each side of the thoroughfare,
+cheering vociferously. Right into the middle of the procession Simard
+launched his bomb. There was no crash of explosion. The missile simply
+went to pieces as if it were an earthenware jar, and there arose a
+dense column of very white smoke. In the immediate vicinity the
+cheering stopped at once, and the sinister word 'bomb' passed from lip
+to lip in awed whispers. As the throwing had been unnoticed in the
+midst of the commotion, I held Simard firmly by the wrist, determined
+he should not draw attention to himself by his panic-stricken desire
+for immediate flight.</p>
+
+<p>'Stand still, you fool!' I hissed into his ear and he obeyed
+trembling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The pair of horses in front of which the bomb fell rose for a moment
+on their hind legs, and showed signs of bolting, but the coachman held
+them firmly, and uplifted his hand so that the procession behind him
+came to a momentary pause. No one in the carriages moved a muscle,
+then suddenly the tension was broken by a great and simultaneous
+cheer. Wondering at this I turned my eyes from the frightened horses
+to the column of pale smoke in front of us, and saw that in some
+manner it had resolved itself into a gigantic calla lily, pure white,
+while from the base of this sprung the lilies of France, delicately
+tinted. Of course, this could not have happened if there had been the
+least wind, but the air was so still that the vibration of the
+cheering caused the huge lily to tremble gently as it stood there
+marvellously poised; the lily of peace, surrounded by the lilies of
+France! That was the design, and if you ask me how it was done, I can
+only refer you to my pyrotechnist, and say that whatever a Frenchman
+attempts to do he will accomplish artistically.</p>
+
+<p>And now these imperturbable English, who had been seated immobile when
+they thought a bomb was thrown, stood up in their carriages to get a
+better view of this aerial phenomenon, cheering and waving their hats.
+The lily gradually thinned and dissolved in little patches of cloud
+that floated away above our heads.</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot stay here longer,' groaned Simard, quaking, his nerves, like
+himself, in rags. 'I see the ghosts of those I have killed floating
+around me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come on, then, but do not hurry.'</p>
+
+<p>There was no difficulty in getting him to London, but it was absinthe,
+absinthe, all the way, and when we reached Charing Cross, I was
+compelled to help him, partly insensible, into a cab. I took him
+direct to Imperial Flats, and up into my own set of chambers, where I
+opened my strong room, and flung him inside to sleep off his
+intoxication, and subsist on bread and water when he became sober.</p>
+
+<p>I attended that night a meeting of the anarchists, and detailed
+accurately the story of our escape from France. I knew we had been
+watched, and so skipped no detail. I reported that I had taken Simard
+directly to my compatriot's flat; to Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, the man who had
+given me employment, and who had promised to do what he could for
+Simard, beginning by trying to break him of the absinthe habit, as he
+was now a physical wreck through over-indulgence in that stimulant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was curious to note the discussion which took place a few nights
+afterwards regarding the failure of the picric bomb. Scientists among
+us said that the bomb had been made too long; that a chemical reaction
+had taken place which destroyed its power. A few superstitious ones
+saw a miracle in what had happened, and they forthwith left our
+organisation. Then again, things were made easier by the fact that the
+man who constructed the bomb, evidently terror-stricken at what he had
+done, disappeared the day before the procession, and has never since
+been heard of. The majority of the anarchists believed he had made a
+bogus bomb, and had fled to escape their vengeance rather than to
+evade the justice of the law.</p>
+
+<p>Simard will need no purgatory in the next world. I kept him on bread
+and water for a month in my strong room, and at first he demanded
+absinthe with threats, then grovelled, begging and praying for it.
+After that a period of depression and despair ensued, but finally his
+naturally strong constitution conquered, and began to build itself up
+again. I took him from his prison one midnight, and gave him a bed in
+my Soho room, taking care in bringing him away that he would never
+recognise the place where he had been incarcerated. In my dealings
+with him I had always been that old man, Paul Ducharme. Next morning I
+said to him:&mdash;'You spoke of Eug&egrave;ne Valmont. I have learned that he
+lives in London, and I advise you to call upon him. Perhaps he can get
+you something to do.'</p>
+
+<p>Simard was overjoyed, and two hours later, as Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, I
+received him in my flat, and made him my assistant on the spot. From
+that time forward, Paul Ducharme, language teacher, disappeared from
+the earth, and Simard abandoned his two A's&mdash;anarchy and absinthe.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="The_Clue_of_the_Silver_Spoons" id="The_Clue_of_the_Silver_Spoons"></a>3. <i>The Clue of the Silver Spoons</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>When the card was brought in to me, I looked upon it with some
+misgiving, for I scented a commercial transaction, and, although such
+cases are lucrative enough, nevertheless I, Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, formerly
+high in the service of the French Government, do not care to be
+connected with them. They usually pertain to sordid business affairs,
+presenting little that is of interest to a man who, in his time, has
+dealt with subtle questions of diplomacy upon which the welfare of
+nations sometimes turned.</p>
+
+<p>The name of Bentham Gibbes is familiar to everyone, connected as it is
+with the much-advertised pickles, whose glaring announcements in crude
+crimson and green strike the eye throughout Great Britain, and shock
+the artistic sense wherever seen. Me! I have never tasted them, and
+shall not so long as a French restaurant remains open in London. But I
+doubt not they are as pronounced to the palate as their advertisement
+is distressing to the eye. If then, this gross pickle manufacturer
+expected me to track down those who were infringing upon the recipes
+for making his so-called sauces, chutneys, and the like, he would find
+himself mistaken, for I was now in a position to pick and choose my
+cases, and a case of pickles did not allure me. 'Beware of
+imitations,' said the advertisement; 'none genuine without a facsimile
+of the signature of Bentham Gibbes.' Ah, well, not for me were either
+the pickles or the tracking of imitators. A forged cheque! yes, if you
+like, but the forged signature of Mr. Gibbes on a pickle bottle was out
+of my line. Nevertheless, I said to Armand:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Show the gentleman in,' and he did so.</p>
+
+<p>To my astonishment there entered a young man, quite correctly dressed
+in the dark frock-coat, faultless waistcoat and trousers that
+proclaimed a Bond Street tailor. When he spoke his voice and language
+were those of a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>'Monsieur Valmont?' he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>'At your service,' I replied, bowing and waving my hand as Armand
+placed a chair for him, and withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>'I am a barrister with chambers in the Temple,' began Mr. Gibbes, 'and
+for some days a matter has been troubling me about which I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> now
+come to seek your advice, your name having been suggested by a friend
+in whom I confided.'</p>
+
+<p>'Am I acquainted with him?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>'I think not,' replied Mr. Gibbes; 'he also is a barrister with
+chambers in the same building as my own. Lionel Dacre is his name.'</p>
+
+<p>'I never heard of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very likely not. Nevertheless, he recommended you as a man who could
+keep his own counsel, and if you take up this case I desire the utmost
+secrecy preserved, whatever may be the outcome.'</p>
+
+<p>I bowed, but made no protestation. Secrecy is a matter of course with
+me.</p>
+
+<p>The Englishman paused for a few moments as if he expected fervent
+assurances; then went on with no trace of disappointment on his
+countenance at not receiving them.</p>
+
+<p>'On the night of the twenty-third, I gave a little dinner to six
+friends of mine in my own rooms. I may say that so far as I am aware
+they are all gentlemen of unimpeachable character. On the night of the
+dinner I was detained later than I expected at a reception, and in
+driving to the Temple was still further delayed by a block of traffic
+in Piccadilly, so that when I arrived at my chambers there was barely
+time for me to dress and receive my guests. My man Johnson had
+everything laid out ready for me in my dressing-room, and as I passed
+through to it I hurriedly flung off the coat I was wearing and
+carelessly left it hanging over the back of a chair in the
+dining-room, where neither Johnson nor myself noticed it until my
+attention was called to it after the dinner was over, and everyone
+rather jolly with wine.</p>
+
+<p>'This coat contains an inside pocket. Usually any frock-coat I wear at
+an afternoon reception has not an inside pocket, but I had been rather
+on the rush all day.</p>
+
+<p>'My father is a manufacturer whose name may be familiar to you, and I
+am on the directors' board of his company. On this occasion I took a
+cab from the city to the reception I spoke of, and had not time to go
+and change at my rooms. The reception was a somewhat bohemian affair,
+extremely interesting, of course, but not too particular as to
+costume, so I went as I was. In this inside pocket rested a thin
+package, composed of two pieces of cardboard, and between them rested
+five twenty-pound Bank of England notes, folded lengthwise, held in
+place by an elastic rubber band. I had thrown the coat across<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> the
+chair-back in such a way that the inside pocket was exposed, leaving
+the ends of the notes plainly recognisable.</p>
+
+<p>'Over the coffee and cigars one of my guests laughingly called
+attention to what he termed my vulgar display of wealth, and Johnson,
+in some confusion at having neglected to put away the coat, now picked
+it up, and took it to the reception-room where the wraps of my guests
+lay about promiscuously. He should, of course, have hung it up in my
+wardrobe, but he said afterwards he thought it belonged to the guest
+who had spoken. You see, Johnson was in my dressing-room when I threw
+my coat on the chair in the corner while making my way thither, and I
+suppose he had not noticed the coat in the hurry of arriving guests,
+otherwise he would have put it where it belonged. After everybody had
+gone Johnson came to me and said the coat was there, but the package
+was missing, nor has any trace of it been found since that night.'</p>
+
+<p>'The dinner was fetched in from outside, I suppose?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'How many waiters served it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Two. They are men who have often been in my employ on similar
+occasions, but, apart from that, they had left my chambers before the
+incident of the coat happened.'</p>
+
+<p>'Neither of them went into the reception-room, I take it?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. I am certain that not even suspicion can attach to either of the
+waiters.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your man Johnson&mdash;?'</p>
+
+<p>'Has been with me for years. He could easily have stolen much more
+than the hundred pounds if he had wished to do so, but I have never
+known him to take a penny that did not belong to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you favour me with the names of your guests, Mr. Gibbes?'</p>
+
+<p>'Viscount Stern sat at my right hand, and at my left Lord Templemere;
+Sir John Sanclere next to him, and Angus McKeller next to Sanclere.
+After Viscount Stern was Lionel Dacre, and at his right, Vincent
+Innis.'</p>
+
+<p>On a sheet of paper I had written the names of the guests, and noted
+their places at the table.</p>
+
+<p>'Which guest drew your attention to the money?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lionel Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is there a window looking out from the reception-room?'</p>
+
+<p>'Two of them.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Were they fastened on the night of the dinner party?'</p>
+
+<p>'I could not be sure; very likely Johnson would know. You are hinting
+at the possibility of a thief coming in through a reception-room
+window while we were somewhat noisy over our wine. I think such a
+solution highly improbable. My rooms are on the third floor, and a
+thief would scarcely venture to make an entrance when he could not but
+know there was a company being entertained. Besides this, the coat was
+there less than an hour, and it appears to me that whoever stole those
+notes knew where they were.'</p>
+
+<p>'That seems reasonable,' I had to admit. 'Have you spoken to any one
+of your loss?';</p>
+
+<p>'To no one but Dacre, who recommended me to see you. Oh, yes, and to
+Johnson, of course.'</p>
+
+<p>I could not help noting that this was the fourth or fifth time Dacre's
+name had come up during our conversation.</p>
+
+<p>'What of Dacre?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, well, you see, he occupies chambers in the same building on the
+ground floor. He is a very good fellow, and we are by way of being
+firm friends. Then it was he who had called attention to the money, so
+I thought he should know the sequel.'</p>
+
+<p>'How did he take your news?'</p>
+
+<p>'Now that you call attention to the fact, he seemed slightly troubled.
+I should like to say, however, that you must not be misled by that.
+Lionel Dacre could no more steal than he could lie.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did he show any surprise when you mentioned the theft?'</p>
+
+<p>Bentham Gibbes paused a moment before replying, knitting his brows in
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' he said at last; 'and, come to think of it, it appeared as if he
+had been expecting my announcement.'</p>
+
+<p>'Doesn't that strike you as rather strange, Mr. Gibbes?'</p>
+
+<p>'Really my mind is in such a whirl, I don't know what to think. But
+it's perfectly absurd to suspect Dacre. If you knew the man you would
+understand what I mean. He comes of an excellent family, and he
+is&mdash;oh! he is Lionel Dacre, and when you have said that you have made
+any suspicion absurd.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose you caused the rooms to be thoroughly searched. The packet
+didn't drop out and remain unnoticed in some corner?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; Johnson and myself examined every inch of the premises.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you the numbers of the notes?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I got them from the Bank next morning. Payment was stopped, and
+so far not one of the five has been presented. Of course, one or more
+may have been cashed at some shop, but none have been offered to any
+of the banks.'</p>
+
+<p>'A twenty-pound note is not accepted without scrutiny, so the chances
+are the thief may find some difficulty in disposing of them.'</p>
+
+<p>'As I told you, I don't mind the loss of the money at all. It is the
+uncertainty, the uneasiness caused by the incident which troubles me.
+You will comprehend how little I care about the notes when I say that
+if you are good enough to interest yourself in this case, I shall be
+disappointed if your fee does not exceed the amount I have lost.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gibbes rose as he said this, and I accompanied him to the door
+assuring him that I should do my best to solve the mystery. Whether he
+sprang from pickles or not, I realised he was a polished and generous
+gentleman, who estimated the services of a professional expert like
+myself at their true value.</p>
+
+<p>I shall not set down the details of my researches during the following
+few days, because the trend of them must be gone over in the account
+of that remarkable interview in which I took part somewhat later.
+Suffice it to say that an examination of the rooms and a close
+cross-questioning of Johnson satisfied me he and the two waiters were
+innocent. I became certain no thief had made his way through the
+window, and finally I arrived at the conclusion that the notes were
+stolen by one of the guests. Further investigation convinced me that
+the thief was no other than Lionel Dacre, the only one of the six in
+pressing need of money at this time. I caused Dacre to be shadowed,
+and during one of his absences made the acquaintance of his man
+Hopper, a surly, impolite brute, who accepted my golden sovereign
+quickly enough, but gave me little in exchange for it. While I
+conversed with him, there arrived in the passage where we were talking
+together a huge case of champagne, bearing one of the best-known names
+in the trade, and branded as being of the vintage of '78. Now I knew
+that the product of Camelot Fr&egrave;res is not bought as cheaply as British
+beer, and I also had learned that two short weeks before Mr. Lionel
+Dacre was at his wits' end for money. Yet he was still the same
+briefless barrister he had ever been.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning after my unsatisfactory conversation with his man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+Hopper, I was astonished to receive the following note, written on a
+dainty correspondence card:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="sig6">'3 and 4 Vellum Buildings,</p>
+<p class="sig">'Inner Temple, E.C.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Lionel Dacre presents his compliments to Monsieur Eug&egrave;ne
+Valmont, and would be obliged if Monsieur Valmont could make
+it convenient to call upon him in his chambers tomorrow
+morning at eleven.'</p></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Had the young man become aware that he was being shadowed, or had the
+surly servant informed him of the inquiries made? I was soon to know.
+I called punctually at eleven next morning, and was received with
+charming urbanity by Mr. Dacre himself. The taciturn Hopper had
+evidently been sent away for the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Monsieur Valmont, I am delighted to meet you,' began the
+young man with more of effusiveness than I had ever noticed in an
+Englishman before, although his very next words supplied an
+explanation that did not occur to me until afterwards as somewhat
+far-fetched. 'I believe we are by way of being countrymen, and,
+therefore, although the hour is early, I hope you will allow me to
+offer you some of this bottled sunshine of the year '78 from <i>la belle
+France</i>, to whose prosperity and honour we shall drink together. For
+such a toast any hour is propitious,' and to my amazement he brought
+forth from the case I had seen arrive two days before, a bottle of
+that superb Camelot Fr&egrave;res '78.</p>
+
+<p>'Now,' said I to myself, 'it is going to be difficult to keep a clear
+head if the aroma of this nectar rises to the brain. But tempting as
+is the cup, I shall drink sparingly, and hope he may not be so
+judicious.'</p>
+
+<p>Sensitive, I already experienced the charm of his personality, and
+well understood the friendship Mr. Bentham Gibbes felt for him. But I
+saw the trap spread before me. He expected, under the influence of
+champagne and courtesy, to extract a promise from me which I must find
+myself unable to give.</p>
+
+<p>'Sir, you interest me by claiming kinship with France. I had
+understood that you belonged to one of the oldest families of
+England.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Ah, England!' he cried, with an expressive gesture of outspreading
+hands truly Parisian in its significance. 'The trunk belongs to
+England, of course, but the root&mdash;ah! the root&mdash;Monsieur Valmont,
+penetrated the soil from which this wine of the gods has been drawn.'</p>
+
+<p>Then filling my glass and his own he cried:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'To France, which my family left in the year 1066!'</p>
+
+<p>I could not help laughing at his fervent ejaculation.</p>
+
+<p>'1066! With William the Conqueror! That is a long time ago, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'In years perhaps; in feelings but a day. My forefathers came over to
+steal, and, lord! how well they accomplished it. They stole the whole
+country&mdash;something like a theft, say I&mdash;under that prince of robbers
+whom you have well named the Conqueror. In our secret hearts we all
+admire a great thief, and if not a great one, then an expert one, who
+covers his tracks so perfectly that the hounds of justice are baffled
+in attempting to follow them. Now even you, Monsieur Valmont (I can
+see you are the most generous of men, with a lively sympathy found to
+perfection only in France), even you must suffer a pang of regret when
+you lay a thief by the heels who has done his task deftly.'</p>
+
+<p>'I fear, Mr. Dacre, you credit me with a magnanimity to which I dare
+not lay claim. The criminal is a danger to society.'</p>
+
+<p>'True, true, you are in the right, Monsieur Valmont Still, admit there
+are cases that would touch you tenderly. For example, a man,
+ordinarily honest; a great need; a sudden opportunity. He takes that
+of which another has abundance, and he, nothing. What then, Monsieur
+Valmont? Is the man to be sent to perdition for a momentary weakness?'</p>
+
+<p>His words astonished me. Was I on the verge of hearing a confession?
+It almost amounted to that already.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Dacre,' I said, 'I cannot enter into the subtleties you pursue. My
+duty is to find the criminal.'</p>
+
+<p>'Again I say you are in the right, Monsieur Valmont, and I am
+enchanted to find so sensible a head on French shoulders. Although you
+are a more recent arrival, if I may say so, than myself, you
+nevertheless already give utterance to sentiments which do honour to
+England. It is your duty to hunt down the criminal. Very well. In that
+I think I can aid you, and thus have taken the liberty of requesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+your attendance here this morning. Let me fill your glass again,
+Monsieur Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>'No more, I beg of you, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, do you think the receiver is as bad as the thief?'</p>
+
+<p>I was so taken aback by this remark that I suppose my face showed the
+amazement within me. But the young man merely laughed with apparently
+free-hearted enjoyment, poured some wine into his own glass, and
+tossed it off. Not knowing what to say, I changed the current of
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Gibbes said you had been kind enough to recommend me to his
+attention. May I ask how you came to hear of me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! who has not heard of the renowned Monsieur Valmont,' and as he
+said this, for the first time, there began to grow a suspicion in my
+mind that he was chaffing me, as it is called in England&mdash;a procedure
+which I cannot endure. Indeed, if this gentleman practised such a
+barbarism in my own country he would find himself with a duel on his
+hands before he had gone far. However, the next instant his voice
+resumed its original fascination, and I listened to it as to some
+delicious melody.</p>
+
+<p>'I need only mention my cousin, Lady Gladys Dacre, and you will at
+once understand why I recommended you to my friend. The case of Lady
+Gladys, you will remember, required a delicate touch which is not
+always to be had in this land of England, except when those who
+possess the gift do us the honour to sojourn with us.'</p>
+
+<p>I noticed that my glass was again filled, and bowing an acknowledgment
+of his compliment, I indulged in another sip of the delicious wine. I
+sighed, for I began to realise it was going to be very difficult for
+me, in spite of my disclaimer, to tell this man's friend he had stolen
+the money. All this time he had been sitting on the edge of the table,
+while I occupied a chair at its end. He sat there in careless fashion,
+swinging a foot to and fro. Now he sprang to the floor, and drew up a
+chair, placing on the table a blank sheet of paper. Then he took from
+the mantelshelf a packet of letters, and I was astonished to see they
+were held together by two bits of cardboard and a rubber band similar
+to the combination that had contained the folded bank notes. With
+great nonchalance he slipped off the rubber band, threw it and the
+pieces of cardboard on the table before me, leaving the documents
+loose to his hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Now, Monsieur Valmont,' he cried jauntily, 'you have been occupied
+for several days on this case, the case of my dear friend Bentham
+Gibbes, who is one of the best fellows in the world.'</p>
+
+<p>'He said the same of you, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am gratified to hear it. Would you mind letting me know to what
+point your researches have led you?'</p>
+
+<p>'They have led me in a direction rather than to a point.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! In the direction of a man, of course?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you pardon me if I decline to answer this question at the
+present moment?'</p>
+
+<p>'That means you are not sure.'</p>
+
+<p>'It may mean, Mr. Dacre, that I am employed by Mr. Gibbes, and do not
+feel at liberty to disclose the results of my quest without his
+permission.'</p>
+
+<p>'But Mr. Bentham Gibbes and I are entirely at one in this matter.
+Perhaps you are aware that I am the only person with whom he has
+discussed the case beside yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is undoubtedly true, Mr. Dacre; still, you see the difficulty of
+my position.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I do, and so shall press you no further. But I also have been
+studying the problem in a purely amateurish way, of course. You will
+perhaps express no disinclination to learn whether or not my
+deductions agree with yours.'</p>
+
+<p>'None in the least. I should be very glad to know the conclusion at
+which you have arrived. May I ask if you suspect any one in
+particular?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you name him?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I shall copy the admirable reticence you yourself have shown. And
+now let us attack this mystery in a sane and businesslike manner. You
+have already examined the room. Well, here is a rough sketch of it.
+There is the table; in this corner stood the chair on which the coat
+was flung. Here sat Gibbes at the head of the table. Those on the
+left-hand side had their backs to the chair. I, being on the centre to
+the right, saw the chair, the coat, and the notes, and called
+attention to them. Now our first duty is to find a motive. If it were
+a murder, our motive might be hatred, revenge, robbery&mdash;what you like.
+As it is simply the stealing of money, the man must have been either a
+born<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> thief or else some hitherto innocent person pressed to the crime
+by great necessity. Do you agree with me, Monsieur Valmont?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perfectly. You follow exactly the line of my own reasoning.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well. It is unlikely that a born thief was one of Mr. Gibbes's
+guests. Therefore we are reduced to look for a man under the spur of
+necessity; a man who has no money of his own but who must raise a
+certain amount, let us say, by a certain date. If we can find such a
+man in that company, do you not agree with me that he is likely to be
+the thief?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then let us start our process of elimination. Out goes Viscount
+Stern, a lucky individual with twenty thousand acres of land, and God
+only knows what income. I mark off the name of Lord Templemere, one of
+His Majesty's judges, entirely above suspicion. Next, Sir John
+Sanclere; he also is rich, but Vincent Innis is still richer, so the
+pencil obliterates both names. Now we arrive at Angus McKeller, an
+author of some note, as you are well aware, deriving a good income
+from his books and a better one from his plays; a canny Scot, so we
+may rub his name from our paper and our memory. How do my erasures
+correspond with yours, Monsieur Valmont?'</p>
+
+<p>'They correspond exactly, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am flattered to hear it. There remains one name untouched, Mr
+Lionel Dacre, the descendant, as I have said, of robbers.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have not said so, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! my dear Valmont, the politeness of your country asserts itself.
+Let us not be deluded, but follow our inquiry wherever it leads. I
+suspect Lionel Dacre. What do you know of his circumstances before the
+dinner of the twenty-third?'</p>
+
+<p>As I made no reply he looked up at me with his frank, boyish face
+illumined by a winning smile.</p>
+
+<p>'You know nothing of his circumstances?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'It grieves me to state that I do. Mr. Lionel Dacre was penniless on
+the night of the dinner.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, don't exaggerate, Monsieur Valmont,' cried Dacre with a gesture
+of pathetic protest; 'his pocket held one sixpence, two pennies, and a
+halfpenny. How came you to suspect he was penniless?'</p>
+
+<p>'I knew he ordered a case of champagne from the London representative
+of Camelot Fr&egrave;res, and was refused unless he paid the money down.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Quite right, and then when you were talking to Hopper you saw that
+case of champagne delivered. Excellent! excellent! Monsieur Valmont.
+But will a man steal, think you, even to supply himself with so
+delicious a wine as this we have been tasting? And, by the way,
+forgive my neglect, allow me to fill your glass, Monsieur Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not another drop, if you will excuse me, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, yes, champagne should not be mixed with evidence. When we have
+finished, perhaps. What further proof have you discovered, monsieur?'</p>
+
+<p>'I hold proof that Mr. Dacre was threatened with bankruptcy, if, on the
+twenty-fourth, he did not pay a bill of seventy-eight pounds that had
+been long outstanding. I hold proof that this was paid, not on the
+twenty-fourth, but on the twenty-sixth. Mr. Dacre had gone to the
+solicitor and assured him he would pay the money on that date,
+whereupon he was given two days' grace.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, well, he was entitled to three, you know, in law. Yes, there,
+Monsieur Valmont, you touch the fatal point. The threat of bankruptcy
+will drive a man in Dacre's position to almost any crime. Bankruptcy
+to a barrister means ruin. It means a career blighted; it means a life
+buried, with little chance of resurrection. I see, you grasp the
+supreme importance of that bit of evidence. The case of champagne is
+as nothing compared with it, and this reminds me that in the crisis
+now upon us I shall take another sip, with your permission. Sure you
+won't join me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not at this juncture, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'I envy your moderation. Here's to the success of our search, Monsieur
+Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>I felt sorry for the gay young fellow as with smiling face he drank
+the champagne.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Monsieur,' he went on, 'I am amazed to learn how much you have
+discovered. Really, I think tradespeople, solicitors, and all such
+should keep better guard on their tongues than they do. Nevertheless,
+these documents at my elbow, which I expected would surprise you, are
+merely the letters and receipts. Here is the communication from the
+solicitor threatening me with bankruptcy; here is his receipt dated
+the twenty-sixth; here is the refusal of the wine merchant, and here
+is his receipt for the money. Here are smaller bills liquidated. With
+my pencil we will add them up. Seventy-eight pounds&mdash;the principal
+debt&mdash;bulks large. We add the smaller items and it reaches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> a total of
+ninety-three pounds seven shillings and fourpence. Let us now examine
+my purse. Here is a five-pound note; there is a golden sovereign. I
+now count out and place on the table twelve and sixpence in silver and
+two pence in coppers. The purse thus becomes empty. Let us add the
+silver and copper to the amount on the paper. Do my eyes deceive me,
+or is the sum exactly a hundred pounds? There is your money fully
+accounted for.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pardon me, Mr. Dacre,' I said, 'but I observe a sovereign resting on
+the mantelpiece.'</p>
+
+<p>Dacre threw back his head and laughed with greater heartiness than I
+had yet known him to indulge in during our short acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>'By Jove,' he cried, 'you've got me there. I'd forgotten entirely
+about that pound on the mantelpiece, which belongs to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'To me? Impossible!'</p>
+
+<p>'It does, and cannot interfere in the least with our century
+calculation. That is the sovereign you gave to my man Hopper, who,
+knowing me to be hard-pressed, took it and shamefacedly presented it
+to me, that I might enjoy the spending of it. Hopper belongs to our
+family, or the family belongs to him. I am never sure which. You must
+have missed in him the deferential bearing of a man-servant in Paris,
+yet he is true gold, like the sovereign you bestowed upon him, and he
+bestowed upon me. Now here, Monsieur, is the evidence of the theft,
+together with the rubber band and two pieces of cardboard. Ask my
+friend Gibbes to examine them minutely. They are all at your
+disposition, Monsieur, and thus you learn how much easier it is to
+deal with the master than with the servant. All the gold you possess
+would not have wrung these incriminating documents from old Hopper. I
+was compelled to send him away to the West End an hour ago, fearing
+that in his brutal British way he might assault you if he got an
+inkling of your mission.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Dacre,' said I slowly, 'you have thoroughly convinced me&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought I would,' he interrupted with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>'&mdash;that you did <i>not</i> take the money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oho, this is a change of wind, surely. Many a man has been hanged on
+a chain of circumstantial evidence much weaker than this which I have
+exhibited to you. Don't you see the subtlety of my action? Ninety-nine
+persons in a hundred would say: "No man could be such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> a fool as to
+put Valmont on his own track, and then place in Valmont's hands such
+striking evidence." But there comes in my craftiness. Of course, the
+rock you run up against will be Gibbes's incredulity. The first
+question he will ask you may be this: "Why did not Dacre come and
+borrow the money from me?" Now there you find a certain weakness in
+your chain of evidence. I knew perfectly well that Gibbes would lend
+me the money, and he knew perfectly well that if I were pressed to the
+wall I should ask him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Dacre,' said I, 'you have been playing with me. I should resent
+that with most men, but whether it is your own genial manner or the
+effect of this excellent champagne, or both together, I forgive you.
+But I am convinced of another thing. You know who took the money.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know, but I suspect.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you tell me whom you suspect?'</p>
+
+<p>'That would not be fair, but I shall now take the liberty of filling
+your glass with champagne.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am your guest, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'Admirably answered, monsieur,' he replied, pouring out the wine, 'and
+now I offer you a clue. Find out all about the story of the silver
+spoons.'</p>
+
+<p>'The story of the silver spoons! What silver spoons?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! That is the point. Step out of the Temple into Fleet Street,
+seize the first man you meet by the shoulder, and ask him to tell you
+about the silver spoons. There are but two men and two spoons
+concerned. When you learn who those two men are, you will know that
+one of them did not take the money, and I give you my assurance that
+the other did.'</p>
+
+<p>'You speak in mystery, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'But certainly, for I am speaking to Monsieur Eug&egrave;ne Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>'I echo your words, sir. Admirably answered. You put me on my mettle,
+and I flatter myself that I see your kindly drift. You wish me to
+solve the mystery of this stolen money. Sir, you-do me honour, and I
+drink to your health.'</p>
+
+<p>'To yours, monsieur,' said Lionel Dacre, and thus we drank and parted.</p>
+
+<p>On leaving Mr. Dacre I took a hansom to a caf&eacute; in Regent Street, which
+is a passable imitation of similar places of refreshment in Paris.
+There, calling for a cup of black coffee, I sat down to think. The
+clue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> of the silver spoons! He had laughingly suggested that I should
+take by the shoulders the first man I met, and ask him what the story
+of the silver spoons was. This course naturally struck me as absurd,
+and he doubtless intended it to seem absurd. Nevertheless, it
+contained a hint. I must ask somebody, and that the right person, to
+tell me the tale of the silver spoons.</p>
+
+<p>Under the influence of the black coffee I reasoned it out in this way.
+On the night of the twenty-third one of the six guests there present
+stole a hundred pounds, but Dacre had said that an actor in the silver
+spoon episode was the actual thief. That person, then, must have been
+one of Mr. Gibbes's guests at the dinner of the twenty-third. Probably
+two of the guests were the participators in the silver spoon comedy,
+but, be that as it may, it followed that one at least of the men
+around Mr. Gibbes's table knew the episode of the silver spoons.
+Perhaps Bentham Gibbes himself was cognisant of it. It followed,
+therefore, that the easiest plan was to question each of the men who
+partook of that dinner. Yet if only one knew about the spoons, that
+one must also have some idea that these spoons formed the clue which
+attached him to the crime of the twenty-third, in which case he was
+little likely to divulge what he knew to an entire stranger.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I might go to Dacre himself and demand the story of the
+silver spoons, but this would be a confession of failure on my part,
+and I rather dreaded Lionel Dacre's hearty laughter when I admitted
+that the mystery was too much for me. Besides this I was very well
+aware of the young man's kindly intentions towards me. He wished me to
+unravel the coil myself, and so I determined not to go to him except
+as a last resource.</p>
+
+<p>I resolved to begin with Mr. Gibbes, and, finishing my coffee, I got
+again into a hansom, and drove back to the Temple. I found Bentham
+Gibbes in his room, and after greeting me, his first inquiry was about
+the case.</p>
+
+<p>'How are you getting on?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I'm getting on fairly well,' I replied, 'and expect to finish
+in a day or two, if you will kindly tell me the story of the silver
+spoons.'</p>
+
+<p>'The silver spoons?' he echoed, quite evidently not understanding me.</p>
+
+<p>'There happened an incident in which two men were engaged, and this
+incident related to a pair of silver spoons. I want to get the
+particulars of that.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> 'I haven't the slightest idea what you are
+talking about,' replied Gibbes, thoroughly bewildered. 'You will need
+to be more definite, I fear, if you are to get any help from me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot be more definite, because I have already told you all I
+know.'</p>
+
+<p>'What bearing has all this on our own case?'</p>
+
+<p>'I was informed that if I got hold of the clue of the silver spoons I
+should be in a fair way of settling our case.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who told you that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Lionel Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, does Dacre refer to his own conjuring?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know, I'm sure. What was his conjuring?'</p>
+
+<p>'A very clever trick he did one night at dinner here about two months
+ago.'</p>
+
+<p>'Had it anything to do with silver spoons?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it was silver spoons or silver forks, or something of that
+kind. I had entirely forgotten the incident. So far as I recollect at
+the moment there was a sleight-of-hand man of great expertness in one
+of the music halls, and the talk turned upon him. Then Dacre said the
+tricks he did were easy, and holding up a spoon or a fork, I don't
+remember which, he professed his ability to make it disappear before
+our eyes, to be found afterwards in the clothing of some one there
+present. Several offered to bet that he could do nothing of the kind,
+but he said he would bet with no one but Innis, who sat opposite him.
+Innis, with some reluctance, accepted the bet, and then Dacre, with a
+great show of the usual conjurer's gesticulations, spread forth his
+empty hands, and said we should find the spoon in Innis's pocket, and
+there, sure enough, it was. It seemed a proper sleight-of-hand trick,
+but we were never able to get him to repeat it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you very much, Mr. Gibbes; I think I see daylight now.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you do you are cleverer than I by a long chalk,' cried Bentham
+Gibbes as I took my departure.</p>
+
+<p>I went directly downstairs, and knocked at Mr. Dacre's door once more.
+He opened the door himself, his man not yet having returned.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, monsieur,' he cried, 'back already? You don't mean to tell me you
+have so soon got to the bottom of the silver spoon entanglement?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I have, Mr. Dacre. You were sitting at dinner opposite Mr
+Vincent Innis. You saw him conceal a silver spoon in his pocket. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+probably waited for some time to understand what he meant by this, and
+as he did not return the spoon to its place, you proposed a conjuring
+trick, made the bet with him, and thus the spoon was returned to the
+table.'</p>
+
+<p>'Excellent! excellent, monsieur! that is very nearly what occurred,
+except that I acted at once. I had had experiences with Mr. Vincent
+Innis before. Never did he enter these rooms of mine without my
+missing some little trinket after he was gone. Although Mr. Innis is a
+very rich person, I am not a man of many possessions, so if anything
+is taken, I meet little difficulty in coming to a knowledge of my
+loss. Of course, I never mentioned these abstractions to him. They
+were all trivial, as I have said, and so far as the silver spoon was
+concerned, it was of no great value either. But I thought the bet and
+the recovery of the spoon would teach him a lesson; it apparently has
+not done so. On the night of the twenty-third he sat at my right hand,
+as you will see by consulting your diagram of the table and the
+guests. I asked him a question twice, to which he did not reply, and
+looking at him I was startled by the expression in his eyes. They were
+fixed on a distant corner of the room, and following his gaze I saw
+what he was staring at with such hypnotising concentration. So
+absorbed was he in contemplation of the packet there so plainly
+exposed, now my attention was turned to it, that he seemed to be
+entirely oblivious of what was going on around him. I roused him from
+his trance by jocularly calling Gibbes's attention to the display of
+money. I expected in this way to save Innis from committing the act
+which he seemingly did commit. Imagine then the dilemma in which I was
+placed when Gibbes confided to me the morning after what had occurred
+the night before. I was positive Innis had taken the money, yet I
+possessed no proof of it. I could not tell Gibbes, and I dare not
+speak to Innis. Of course, monsieur, you do not need to be told that
+Innis is not a thief in the ordinary sense of the word. He has no need
+to steal, and yet apparently cannot help doing so. I am sure that no
+attempt has been made to pass those notes. They are doubtless resting
+securely in his house at Kensington. He is, in fact, a kleptomaniac,
+or a maniac of some sort. And now, monsieur, was my hint regarding the
+silver spoons of any value to you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of the most infinite value, Mr. Dacre.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then let me make another suggestion. I leave it entirely to your
+bravery; a bravery which, I confess, I do not myself possess. Will
+you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> take a hansom, drive to Mr. Innis's house on the Cromwell Road,
+confront him quietly, and ask for the return of the packet? I am
+anxious to know what will happen. If he hands it to you, as I expect
+he will, then you must tell Mr. Gibbes the whole story.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Dacre, your suggestion shall be immediately acted upon, and I
+thank you for your compliment to my courage.'</p>
+
+<p>I found that Mr. Innis inhabited a very grand house. After a time he
+entered the study on the ground floor, to which I had been conducted.
+He held my card in his hand, and was looking at it with some surprise.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I have not the pleasure of knowing you, Monsieur Valmont,' he
+said, courteously enough.</p>
+
+<p>'No. I ventured to call on a matter of business. I was once
+investigator for the French Government, and now am doing private
+detective work here in London.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! And how is that supposed to interest me? There is nothing that I
+wish investigated. I did not send for you, did I?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Mr. Innis, I merely took the liberty of calling to ask you to let
+me have the package you took from Mr. Bentham Gibbes's frock-coat
+pocket on the night of the twenty-third.'</p>
+
+<p>'He wishes it returned, does he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Innis calmly walked to a desk, which he unlocked and opened,
+displaying a veritable museum of trinkets of one sort and another.
+Pulling out a small drawer he took from it the packet containing the
+five twenty-pound notes. Apparently it had never been opened. With a
+smile he handed it to me.</p>
+
+<p>'You will make my apologies to Mr. Gibbes for not returning it before.
+Tell him I have been unusually busy of late.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall not fail to do so,' said I, with a bow.</p>
+
+<p>'Thanks so much. Good-morning, Monsieur Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good-morning, Mr. Innis,'</p>
+
+<p>And so I returned the packet to Mr. Bentham Gibbes, who pulled the
+notes from between their pasteboard protection, and begged me to
+accept them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Lord_Chizelriggs_Missing_Fortune" id="Lord_Chizelriggs_Missing_Fortune"></a>4. <i>Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>The name of the late Lord Chizelrigg never comes to my mind without
+instantly suggesting that of Mr. T.A. Edison. I never saw the late Lord
+Chizelrigg, and I have met Mr. Edison only twice in my life, yet the
+two men are linked in my memory, and it was a remark the latter once
+made that in great measure enabled me to solve the mystery which the
+former had wrapped round his actions.</p>
+
+<p>There is no memorandum at hand to tell me the year in which those two
+meetings with Edison took place. I received a note from the Italian
+Ambassador in Paris requesting me to wait upon him at the Embassy. I
+learned that on the next day a deputation was to set out from the
+Embassy to one of the chief hotels, there to make a call in state upon
+the great American inventor, and formally present to him various
+insignia accompanying certain honours which the King of Italy had
+conferred upon him. As many Italian nobles of high rank had been
+invited, and as these dignitaries would not only be robed in the
+costumes pertaining to their orders, but in many cases would wear
+jewels of almost inestimable value, my presence was desired in the
+belief that I might perhaps be able to ward off any attempt on the
+part of the deft-handed gentry who might possibly make an effort to
+gain these treasures, and I may add, with perhaps some little
+self-gratification, no <i>contretemps</i> occurred.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison, of course, had long before received notification of the
+hour at which the deputation would wait upon him, but when we entered
+the large parlour assigned to the inventor, it was evident to me at a
+glance that the celebrated man had forgotten all about the function.
+He stood by a bare table, from which the cloth had been jerked and
+flung into a corner, and upon that table were placed several bits of
+black and greasy machinery&mdash;cog wheels, pulleys, bolts, etc. These
+seemingly belonged to a French workman who stood on the other side of
+the table, with one of the parts in his grimy hand. Edison's own hands
+were not too clean, for he had palpably been examining the material,
+and conversing with the workman, who wore the ordinary long blouse of
+an iron craftsman in a small way. I judged him to be a man with a
+little shop of his own in some back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> street, who did odd jobs of
+engineering, assisted perhaps by a skilled helper or two, and a few
+apprentices. Edison looked sternly towards the door as the solemn
+procession filed in, and there was a trace of annoyance on his face at
+the interruption, mixed with a shade of perplexity as to what this
+gorgeous display all meant. The Italian is as ceremonious as the
+Spaniard where a function is concerned, and the official who held the
+ornate box which contained the jewellery resting on a velvet cushion,
+stepped slowly forward, and came to a stand in front of the bewildered
+American. Then the Ambassador, in sonorous voice, spoke some gracious
+words regarding the friendship existing between the United States and
+Italy, expressed a wish that their rivalry should ever take the form
+of benefits conferred upon the human race, and instanced the honoured
+recipient as the most notable example the world had yet produced of a
+man bestowing blessings upon all nations in the arts of peace. The
+eloquent Ambassador concluded by saying that, at the command of his
+Royal master, it was both his duty and his pleasure to present, and so
+forth and so forth.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison, visibly ill at ease, nevertheless made a suitable reply in
+the fewest possible words, and the <i>&eacute;talage</i> being thus at an end, the
+noblemen, headed by their Ambassador, slowly retired, myself forming
+the tail of the procession. Inwardly I deeply sympathised with the
+French workman who thus unexpectedly found himself confronted by so
+much magnificence. He cast one wild look about him, but saw that his
+retreat was cut off unless he displaced some of these gorgeous
+grandees. He tried then to shrink into himself, and finally stood
+helpless like one paralysed. In spite of Republican institutions,
+there is deep down in every Frenchman's heart a respect and awe for
+official pageants, sumptuously staged and costumed as this one was.
+But he likes to view it from afar, and supported by his fellows, not
+thrust incongruously into the midst of things, as was the case with
+this panic-stricken engineer. As I passed out, I cast a glance over my
+shoulder at the humble artisan content with a profit of a few francs a
+day, and at the millionaire inventor opposite him, Edison's face,
+which during the address had been cold and impassive, reminding me
+vividly of a bust of Napoleon, was now all aglow with enthusiasm as he
+turned to his humble visitor. He cried joyfully to the workman:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'A minute's demonstration is worth an hour's explanation. I'll call<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+round tomorrow at your shop, about ten o'clock, and show you how to
+make the thing work.'</p>
+
+<p>I lingered in the hall until the Frenchman came out, then, introducing
+myself to him, asked the privilege of visiting his shop next day at
+ten. This was accorded with that courtesy which you will always find
+among the industrial classes of France, and next day I had the
+pleasure of meeting Mr. Edison. During our conversation I complimented
+him on his invention of the incandescent electric light, and this was
+the reply that has ever remained in my memory:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'It was not an invention, but a discovery. We knew what we wanted; a
+carbonised tissue, which would withstand the electric current in a
+vacuum for, say, a thousand hours. If no such tissue existed, then the
+incandescent light, as we know it, was not possible. My assistants
+started out to find this tissue, and we simply carbonised everything
+we could lay our hands on, and ran the current through it in a vacuum.
+At last we struck the right thing, as we were bound to do if we kept
+on long enough, and if the thing existed. Patience and hard work will
+overcome any obstacle.'</p>
+
+<p>This belief has been of great assistance to me in my profession. I
+know the idea is prevalent that a detective arrives at his solutions
+in a dramatic way through following clues invisible to the ordinary
+man. This doubtless frequently happens, but, as a general thing, the
+patience and hard work which Mr. Edison commends is a much safer guide.
+Very often the following of excellent clues had led me to disaster, as
+was the case with my unfortunate attempt to solve the mystery of the
+five hundred diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>As I was saying, I never think of the late Lord Chizelrigg without
+remembering Mr. Edison at the same time, and yet the two were very
+dissimilar. I suppose Lord Chizelrigg was the most useless man that
+ever lived, while Edison is the opposite.</p>
+
+<p>One day my servant brought in to me a card on which was engraved 'Lord
+Chizelrigg.'</p>
+
+<p>'Show his lordship in,' I said, and there appeared a young man of
+perhaps twenty-four or twenty-five, well dressed, and of most charming
+manners, who, nevertheless, began his interview by asking a question
+such as had never before been addressed to me, and which, if put to a
+solicitor, or other professional man, would have been answered with
+some indignation. Indeed, I believe it is a written or unwritten law
+of the legal profession that the acceptance of such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> proposal as
+Lord Chizelrigg made to me, would, if proved, result in the disgrace
+and ruin of the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>'Monsieur Valmont,' began Lord Chizelrigg, 'do you ever take up cases
+on speculation?'</p>
+
+<p>'On speculation, sir? I do not think I understand you.'</p>
+
+<p>His lordship blushed like a girl, and stammered slightly as he
+attempted an explanation.</p>
+
+<p>'What I mean is, do you accept a case on a contingent fee? That is to
+say, monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;well, not to put too fine a point upon it, no
+results, no pay.'</p>
+
+<p>I replied somewhat severely:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Such an offer has never been made to me, and I may say at once that I
+should be compelled to decline it were I favoured with the
+opportunity. In the cases submitted to me, I devote my time and
+attention to their solution. I try to deserve success, but I cannot
+command it, and as in the interim I must live, I am reluctantly
+compelled to make a charge for my time, at least. I believe the doctor
+sends in his bill, though the patient dies.'</p>
+
+<p>The young man laughed uneasily, and seemed almost too embarrassed to
+proceed, but finally he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Your illustration strikes home with greater accuracy than probably
+you imagined when you uttered it. I have just paid my last penny to
+the physician who attended my late uncle, Lord Chizelrigg, who died
+six months ago. I am fully aware that the suggestion I made may seem
+like a reflection upon your skill, or rather, as implying a doubt
+regarding it. But I should be grieved, monsieur, if you fell into such
+an error. I could have come here and commissioned you to undertake
+some elucidation of the strange situation in which I find myself, and
+I make no doubt you would have accepted the task if your numerous
+engagements had permitted. Then, if you failed, I should have been
+unable to pay you, for I am practically bankrupt. My whole desire,
+therefore, was to make an honest beginning, and to let you know
+exactly how I stand. If you succeed, I shall be a rich man; if you do
+not succeed, I shall be what I am now, penniless. Have I made it plain
+now why I began with a question which you had every right to resent?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perfectly plain, my lord, and your candour does you credit.'</p>
+
+<p>I was very much taken with the unassuming manners of the young man,
+and his evident desire to accept no service under false<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> pretences.
+When I had finished my sentence the pauper nobleman rose to his feet,
+and bowed.</p>
+
+<p>'I am very much your debtor, monsieur, for your courtesy in receiving
+me, and can only beg pardon for occupying your time on a futile quest.
+I wish you good-morning, monsieur.'</p>
+
+<p>'One moment, my lord,' I rejoined, waving him to his chair again.
+'Although I am unprepared to accept a commission on the terms you
+suggest, I may, nevertheless, be able to offer a hint or two that will
+prove of service to you. I think I remember the announcement of Lord
+Chizelrigg's death. He was somewhat eccentric, was he not?'</p>
+
+<p>'Eccentric?' said the young man, with a slight laugh, seating himself
+again&mdash;'well, <i>rather</i>!'</p>
+
+<p>'I vaguely remember that he was accredited with the possession of
+something like twenty thousand acres of land?'</p>
+
+<p>'Twenty-seven thousand, as a matter of fact,' replied my visitor.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you fallen heir to the lands as well as to the title?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes; the estate was entailed. The old gentleman could not divert
+it from me if he would, and I rather suspect that fact must have been
+the cause of some worry to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'But surely, my lord, a man who owns, as one might say, a principality
+in this wealthy realm of England, cannot be penniless?'</p>
+
+<p>Again the young man laughed.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, no,' he replied, thrusting his hand in his pocket and bringing
+to light a few brown coppers, and a white silver piece. 'I possess
+enough money to buy some food tonight, but not enough to dine at the
+Hotel Cecil. You see, it is like this. I belong to a somewhat ancient
+family, various members of whom went the pace, and mortgaged their
+acres up to the hilt. I could not raise a further penny on my estates
+were I to try my hardest, because at the time the money was lent, land
+was much more valuable than it is today. Agricultural depression, and
+all that sort of thing, have, if I may put it so, left me a good many
+thousands worse off than if I had no land at all. Besides this, during
+my late uncle's life, Parliament, on his behalf, intervened once or
+twice, allowing him in the first place to cut valuable timber, and in
+the second place to sell the pictures of Chizelrigg Chase at
+Christie's for figures which make one's mouth water.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what became of the money?' I asked, whereupon once more this
+genial nobleman laughed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> 'That is exactly what I came up in the lift
+to learn if Monsieur Valmont could discover.'</p>
+
+<p>'My lord, you interest me,' I said, quite truly, with an uneasy
+apprehension that I should take up his case after all, for I liked the
+young man already. His lack of pretence appealed to me, and that
+sympathy which is so universal among my countrymen enveloped him, as I
+may say, quite independent of my own will.</p>
+
+<p>'My uncle,' went on Lord Chizelrigg, 'was somewhat of an anomaly in
+our family. He must have been a reversal to a very, very ancient type;
+a type of which we have no record. He was as miserly as his
+forefathers were prodigal. When he came into the title and estate some
+twenty years ago, he dismissed the whole retinue of servants, and,
+indeed, was defendant in several cases at law where retainers of our
+family brought suit against him for wrongful dismissal, or dismissal
+without a penny compensation in lieu of notice. I am pleased to say he
+lost all his cases, and when he pleaded poverty, got permission to
+sell a certain number of heirlooms, enabling him to make compensation,
+and giving him something on which to live. These heirlooms at auction
+sold so unexpectedly well, that my uncle acquired a taste, as it were,
+of what might be done. He could always prove that the rents went to
+the mortgagees, and that he had nothing on which to exist, so on
+several occasions he obtained permission from the courts to cut timber
+and sell pictures, until he denuded the estate and made an empty barn
+of the old manor house. He lived like any labourer, occupying himself
+sometimes as a carpenter, sometimes as a blacksmith; indeed, he made a
+blacksmith's shop of the library, one of the most noble rooms in
+Britain, containing thousands of valuable books which again and again
+he applied for permission to sell, but this privilege was never
+granted to him. I find on coming into the property that my uncle quite
+persistently evaded the law, and depleted this superb collection, book
+by book, surreptitiously through dealers in London. This, of course,
+would have got him into deep trouble if it had been discovered before
+his death, but now the valuable volumes are gone, and there is no
+redress. Many of them are doubtless in America, or in museums and
+collections of Europe.'</p>
+
+<p>'You wish me to trace them, perhaps?' I interpolated.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no; they are past praying for. The old man made tens of thousands
+by the sale of the timber, and other thousands by disposing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> of the
+pictures. The house is denuded of its fine old furniture, which was
+immensely valuable, and then the books, as I have said, must have
+brought in the revenue of a prince, if he got anything like their
+value, and you may be sure he was shrewd enough to know their worth.
+Since the last refusal of the courts to allow him further relief, as
+he termed it, which was some seven years ago, he had quite evidently
+been disposing of books and furniture by a private sale, in defiance
+of the law. At that time I was under age, but my guardians opposed his
+application to the courts, and demanded an account of the moneys
+already in his hands. The judges upheld the opposition of my
+guardians, and refused to allow a further spoliation of the estate,
+but they did not grant the accounting my guardians asked, because the
+proceeds of the former sales were entirely at the disposal of my
+uncle, and were sanctioned by the law to permit him to live as
+befitted his station. If he lived meagrely instead of lavishly, as my
+guardians contended, that, the judges said, was his affair, and there
+the matter ended.</p>
+
+<p>'My uncle took a violent dislike to me on account of this opposition
+to his last application, although, of course, I had nothing whatever
+to do with the matter. He lived like a hermit, mostly in the library,
+and was waited upon by an old man and his wife, and these three were
+the only inhabitants of a mansion that could comfortably house a
+hundred. He visited nobody, and would allow no one to approach
+Chizelrigg Chase. In order that all who had the misfortune to have
+dealing with him should continue to endure trouble after his death, he
+left what might be called a will, but which rather may be termed a
+letter to me. Here is a copy of it.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'"<span class="smcap">My Dear Tom</span>,&mdash;You will find your fortune between a couple
+of sheets of paper in the library.</p>
+
+<p class="sig5">'"Your affectionate uncle,</p>
+
+<p class="sig4">'"<span class="smcap">Reginald Moran, Earl of Chizelrigg</span>."'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>'I should doubt if that were a legal will,' said I.</p>
+
+<p>'It doesn't need to be,' replied the young man with a smile. 'I am
+next-of-kin, and heir to everything he possessed, although, of course,
+he might have given his money elsewhere if he had chosen to do so. Why
+he did not bequeath it to some institution, I do not know. He knew no
+man personally except his own servants, whom he misused and starved,
+but, as he told them, he misused and starved himself, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> they had no
+cause to grumble. He said he was treating them like one of the family.
+I suppose he thought it would cause me more worry and anxiety if he
+concealed the money, and put me on the wrong scent, which I am
+convinced he has done, than to leave it openly to any person or
+charity.'</p>
+
+<p>'I need not ask if you have searched the library?'</p>
+
+<p>'Searched it? Why, there never was such a search since the world
+began!'</p>
+
+<p>'Possibly you put the task into incompetent hands?'</p>
+
+<p>'You are hinting, Monsieur Valmont, that I engaged others until my
+money was gone, then came to you with a speculative proposal. Let me
+assure you such is not the case. Incompetent hands, I grant you, but
+the hands were my own. For the past six months I have lived
+practically as my uncle lived. I have rummaged that library from floor
+to ceiling. It was left in a frightful state, littered with old
+newspapers, accounts, and what-not. Then, of course, there were the
+books remaining in the library, still a formidable collection.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was your uncle a religious man?'</p>
+
+<p>'I could not say. I surmise not. You see, I was unacquainted with him,
+and never saw him until after his death. I fancy he was not religious,
+otherwise he could not have acted as he did. Still, he proved himself
+a man of such twisted mentality that anything is possible.'</p>
+
+<p>'I knew a case once where an heir who expected a large sum of money
+was bequeathed a family Bible, which he threw into the fire, learning
+afterwards, to his dismay, that it contained many thousands of pounds
+in Bank of England notes, the object of the devisor being to induce
+the legatee to read the good Book or suffer through the neglect of
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have searched the Scriptures,' said the youthful Earl with a laugh,
+'but the benefit has been moral rather than material.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is there any chance that your uncle has deposited his wealth in a
+bank, and has written a cheque for the amount, leaving it between two
+leaves of a book?'</p>
+
+<p>'Anything is possible, monsieur, but I think that highly improbable. I
+have gone through every tome, page by page, and I suspect very few of
+the volumes have been opened for the last twenty years.'</p>
+
+<p>'How much money do you estimate he accumulated?'</p>
+
+<p>'He must have cleared more than a hundred thousand pounds, but
+speaking of banking it, I would like to say that my uncle evinced a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+deep distrust of banks, and never drew a cheque in his life so far as
+I am aware. All accounts were paid in gold by this old steward, who
+first brought the receipted bill in to my uncle, and then received the
+exact amount, after having left the room, and waited until he was rung
+for, so that he might not learn the repository from which my uncle
+drew his store. I believe if the money is ever found it will be in
+gold, and I am very sure that this will was written, if we may call it
+a will, to put us on the wrong scent.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you had the library cleared out?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no, it is practically as my uncle left it. I realised that if I
+were to call in help, it would be well that the newcomer found it
+undisturbed.'</p>
+
+<p>'You were quite right, my lord. You say you examined all the papers?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; so far as that is concerned, the room has been very fairly gone
+over, but nothing that was in it the day my uncle died has been
+removed, not even his anvil.'</p>
+
+<p>'His anvil?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I told you he made a blacksmith's shop, as well as bedroom, of
+the library. It is a huge room, with a great fireplace at one end
+which formed an excellent forge. He and the steward built the forge in
+the eastern fireplace of brick and clay, with their own hands, and
+erected there a second-hand blacksmith's bellows.'</p>
+
+<p>'What work did he do at his forge?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, anything that was required about the place. He seems to have been
+a very expert ironworker. He would never buy a new implement for the
+garden or the house so long as he could get one second-hand, and he
+never bought anything second-hand while at his forge he might repair
+what was already in use. He kept an old cob, on which he used to ride
+through the park, and he always put the shoes on this cob himself, the
+steward informs me, so he must have understood the use of blacksmith's
+tools. He made a carpenter's shop of the chief drawing-room and
+erected a bench there. I think a very useful mechanic was spoiled when
+my uncle became an earl.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have been living at the Chase since your uncle died?'</p>
+
+<p>'If you call it living, yes. The old steward and his wife have been
+looking after me, as they looked after my uncle, and, seeing me day
+after day, coatless, and covered with dust, I imagine they think me a
+second edition of the old man.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Does the steward know the money is missing?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; no one knows it but myself. This will was left on the anvil, in
+an envelope addressed to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your statement is exceedingly clear, Lord Chizelrigg, but I confess I
+don't see much daylight through it. Is there a pleasant country around
+Chizelrigg Chase?'</p>
+
+<p>'Very; especially at this season of the year. In autumn and winter the
+house is a little draughty. It needs several thousand pounds to put it
+in repair.'</p>
+
+<p>'Draughts do not matter in the summer. I have been long enough in
+England not to share the fear of my countrymen for a <i>courant d'air.</i>
+Is there a spare bed in the manor house, or shall I take down a cot
+with me, or let us say a hammock?'</p>
+
+<p>'Really,' stammered the earl, blushing again, 'you must not think I
+detailed all these circumstances in order to influence you to take up
+what may be a hopeless case. I, of course, am deeply interested, and,
+therefore, somewhat prone to be carried away when I begin a recital of
+my uncle's eccentricities. If I receive your permission, I will call
+on you again in a month or two. To tell you the truth, I borrowed a
+little money from the old steward, and visited London to see my legal
+advisers, hoping that in the circumstances I may get permission to
+sell something that will keep me from starvation. When I spoke of the
+house being denuded, I meant relatively, of course. There are still a
+good many antiquities which would doubtless bring me in a comfortable
+sum of money. I have been borne up by the belief that I should find my
+uncle's gold. Lately, I have been beset by a suspicion that the old
+gentleman thought the library the only valuable asset left, and for
+this reason wrote his note, thinking I would be afraid to sell
+anything from that room. The old rascal must have made a pot of money
+out of those shelves. The catalogue shows that there was a copy of the
+first book printed in England by Caxton, and several priceless
+Shakespeares, as well as many other volumes that a collector would
+give a small fortune for. All these are gone. I think when I show this
+to be the case, the authorities cannot refuse me the right to sell
+something, and, if I get this permission, I shall at once call upon
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Lord Chizelrigg. Put your application in motion, if you
+like. Meanwhile I beg of you to look upon me as a more substantial
+banker than your old steward. Let us enjoy a good dinner together at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+the Cecil tonight, if you will do me the honour to be my guest.
+Tomorrow we can leave for Chizelrigg Chase. How far is it?'</p>
+
+<p>'About three hours,' replied the young man, becoming as red as a new
+Queen Anne villa. 'Really, Monsieur Valmont, you overwhelm me with
+your kindness, but nevertheless I accept your generous offer.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then that's settled. What's the name of the old steward?'</p>
+
+<p>'Higgins.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are certain he has no knowledge of the hiding-place of this
+treasure?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, quite sure. My uncle was not a man to make a confidant of anyone,
+least of all an old babbler like Higgins.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I should like to be introduced to Higgins as a benighted
+foreigner. That will make him despise me and treat me like a child.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I say,' protested the earl, 'I should have thought you'd lived
+long enough in England to have got out of the notion that we do not
+appreciate the foreigner. Indeed, we are the only nation in the world
+that extends a cordial welcome to him, rich or poor.'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Certainement</i>, my lord, I should be deeply disappointed did you not
+take me at my proper valuation, but I cherish no delusions regarding
+the contempt with which Higgins will regard me. He will look upon me
+as a sort of simpleton to whom the Lord had been unkind by not making
+England my native land. Now, Higgins must be led to believe that I am
+in his own class; that is, a servant of yours. Higgins and I will
+gossip over the fire together, should these spring evenings prove
+chilly, and before two or three weeks are past I shall have learned a
+great deal about your uncle that you never dreamed of. Higgins will
+talk more freely with a fellow-servant than with his master, however
+much he may respect that master, and then, as I am a foreigner, he
+will babble down to my comprehension, and I shall get details that he
+never would think of giving to a fellow-countryman.'</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The young earl's modesty in such description of his home as he had
+given me, left me totally unprepared for the grandeur of the mansion,
+one corner of which he inhabited. It is such a place as you read of in
+romances of the Middle Ages; not a pinnacled or turreted French
+ch&acirc;teau of that period, but a beautiful and substantial stone manor
+house of a ruddy colour, whose warm hue seemed to add a softness to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+the severity of its architecture. It is built round an outer and an
+inner courtyard and could house a thousand, rather than the hundred
+with which its owner had accredited it. There are many stone-mullioned
+windows, and one at the end of the library might well have graced a
+cathedral. This superb residence occupies the centre of a heavily
+timbered park, and from the lodge at the gates we drove at least a
+mile and a half under the grandest avenue of old oaks I have ever
+seen. It seemed incredible that the owner of all this should actually
+lack the ready money to pay his fare to town!</p>
+
+<p>Old Higgins met us at the station with a somewhat rickety cart, to
+which was attached the ancient cob that the late earl used to shoe. We
+entered a noble hall, which probably looked the larger because of the
+entire absence of any kind of furniture, unless two complete suits of
+venerable armour which stood on either hand might be considered as
+furnishing. I laughed aloud when the door was shut, and the sound
+echoed like the merriment of ghosts from the dim timbered roof above
+me.</p>
+
+<p>'What are you laughing at?' asked the earl.</p>
+
+<p>'I am laughing to see you put your modern tall hat on that mediaeval
+helmet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that's it! Well, put yours on the other. I mean no disrespect to
+the ancestor who wore this suit, but we are short of the harmless,
+necessary hat-rack, so I put my topper on the antique helmet, and
+thrust the umbrella (if I have one) in behind here, and down one of
+his legs. Since I came in possession, a very crafty-looking dealer
+from London visited me, and attempted to sound me regarding the sale
+of these suits of armour. I gathered he would give enough money to
+keep me in new suits, London made, for the rest of my life, but when I
+endeavoured to find out if he had had commercial dealings with my
+prophetic uncle, he became frightened and bolted. I imagine that if I
+had possessed presence of mind enough to have lured him into one of
+our most uncomfortable dungeons, I might have learned where some of
+the family treasures went to. Come up these stairs, Monsieur Valmont,
+and I will show you your room.'</p>
+
+<p>We had lunched on the train coming down, so after a wash in my own
+room I proceeded at once to inspect the library. It proved, indeed, a
+most noble apartment, and it had been scandalously used by the old
+reprobate, its late tenant. There were two huge fireplaces, one in the
+middle of the north wall and the other at the eastern end.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> In the
+latter had been erected a rude brick forge, and beside the forge hung
+a great black bellows, smoky with usage. On a wooden block lay the
+anvil, and around it rested and rusted several hammers, large and
+small. At the western end was a glorious window filled with ancient
+stained glass, which, as I have said, might have adorned a cathedral.
+Extensive as the collection of books was, the great size of this
+chamber made it necessary that only the outside wall should be covered
+with book cases, and even these were divided by tall windows. The
+opposite wall was blank, with the exception of a picture here and
+there, and these pictures offered a further insult to the room, for
+they were cheap prints, mostly coloured lithographs that had appeared
+in Christmas numbers of London weekly journals, encased in
+poverty-stricken frames, hanging from nails ruthlessly driven in above
+them. The floor was covered with a litter of papers, in some places
+knee-deep, and in the corner farthest from the forge still stood the
+bed on which the ancient miser had died.</p>
+
+<p>'Looks like a stable, doesn't it?' commented the earl, when I had
+finished my inspection. 'I am sure the old boy simply filled it up
+with this rubbish to give me the trouble of examining it. Higgins
+tells me that up to within a month before he died the room was
+reasonably clear of all this muck. Of course it had to be, or the
+place would have caught fire from the sparks of the forge. The old man
+made Higgins gather all the papers he could find anywhere about the
+place, ancient accounts, newspapers, and what not, even to the brown
+wrapping paper you see, in which parcels came, and commanded him to
+strew the floor with this litter, because, as he complained, Higgins's
+boots on the boards made too much noise, and Higgins, who is not in
+the least of an inquiring mind, accepted this explanation as entirely
+meeting the case.'</p>
+
+<p>Higgins proved to be a garrulous old fellow, who needed no urging to
+talk about the late earl; indeed, it was almost impossible to deflect
+his conversation into any other channel. Twenty years' intimacy with
+the eccentric nobleman had largely obliterated that sense of deference
+with which an English servant usually approaches his master. An
+English underling's idea of nobility is the man who never by any
+possibility works with his hands. The fact that Lord Chizelrigg had
+toiled at the carpenter's bench; had mixed cement in the drawing-room;
+had caused the anvil to ring out till midnight, aroused no admiration
+in Higgins's mind. In addition to this, the ancient noble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>man had been
+penuriously strict in his examination of accounts, exacting the
+uttermost farthing, so the humble servitor regarded his memory with
+supreme contempt. I realised before the drive was finished from the
+station to Chizelrigg Chase that there was little use of introducing
+me to Higgins as a foreigner and a fellow-servant. I found myself
+completely unable to understand what the old fellow said. His dialect,
+was as unknown to me as the Choctaw language would have been, and the
+young earl was compelled to act as interpreter on the occasions when
+we set this garrulous talking-machine going.</p>
+
+<p>The new Earl of Chizelrigg, with the enthusiasm of a boy, proclaimed
+himself my pupil and assistant, and said he would do whatever he was
+told. His thorough and fruitless search of the library had convinced
+him that the old man was merely chaffing him, as he put it, by leaving
+such a letter as he had written. His lordship was certain that the
+money had been hidden somewhere else; probably buried under one of the
+trees in the park. Of course this was possible, and represented the
+usual method by which a stupid person conceals treasure, yet I did not
+think it probable. All conversations with Higgins showed the earl to
+have been an extremely suspicious man; suspicious of banks, suspicious
+even of Bank of England notes, suspicious of every person on earth,
+not omitting Higgins himself. Therefore, as I told his nephew, the
+miser would never allow the fortune out of his sight and immediate
+reach.</p>
+
+<p>From the first the oddity of the forge and anvil being placed in his
+bedroom struck me as peculiar, and I said to the young man,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I'll stake my reputation that forge or anvil, or both, contain the
+secret. You see, the old gentleman worked sometimes till midnight, for
+Higgins could hear his hammering. If he used hard coal on the forge
+the fire would last through the night, and being in continual terror
+of thieves, as Higgins says, barricading the castle every evening
+before dark as if it were a fortress, he was bound to place the
+treasure in the most unlikely spot for a thief to get at it. Now, the
+coal fire smouldered all night long, and if the gold was in the forge
+underneath the embers, it would be extremely difficult to get at. A
+robber rummaging in the dark would burn his fingers in more senses
+than one. Then, as his lordship kept no less than four loaded
+revolvers under his pillow, all he had to do, if a thief entered his
+room was to allow the search to go on until the thief started at the
+forge, then doubtless, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> he had the range with reasonable accuracy
+night or day, he might sit up in bed and blaze away with revolver
+after revolver. There were twenty-eight shots that could be fired in
+about double as many seconds, so you see the robber stood little
+chance in the face of such a fusillade. I propose that we dismantle
+the forge.'</p>
+
+<p>Lord Chizelrigg was much taken by my reasoning, and one morning early
+we cut down the big bellows, tore it open, found it empty, then took
+brick after brick from the forge with a crowbar, for the old man had
+builded better than he knew with Portland cement. In fact, when we
+cleared away the rubbish between the bricks and the core of the
+furnace we came upon one cube of cement which was as hard as granite.
+With the aid of Higgins, and a set of rollers and levers, we managed
+to get this block out into the park, and attempted to crush it with
+the sledge-hammers belonging to the forge, in which we were entirely
+unsuccessful. The more it resisted our efforts, the more certain we
+became that the coins would be found within it. As this would not be
+treasure-trove in the sense that the Government might make a claim
+upon it, there was no particular necessity for secrecy, so we had up a
+man from the mines near by with drills and dynamite, who speedily
+shattered the block into a million pieces, more or less. Alas! there
+was no trace in its debris of 'pay dirt,' as the western miner puts
+it. While the dynamite expert was on the spot, we induced him to
+shatter the anvil as well as the block of cement, and then the
+workman, doubtless thinking the new earl was as insane as the old one
+had been, shouldered his tools, and went back to his mine.</p>
+
+<p>The earl reverted to his former opinion that the gold was concealed in
+the park, while I held even more firmly to my own belief that the
+fortune rested in the library.</p>
+
+<p>'It is obvious,' I said to him, 'that if the treasure is buried
+outside, someone must have dug the hole. A man so timorous and so
+reticent as your uncle would allow no one to do this but himself.
+Higgins maintained the other evening that all picks and spades were
+safely locked up by himself each night in the tool-house. The mansion
+itself was barricaded with such exceeding care that it would have been
+difficult for your uncle to get outside even if he wished to do so.
+Then such a man as your uncle is described to have been would
+continually desire ocular demonstration that his savings were intact,
+which would be practically impossible if the gold had found a grave in
+the park. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> propose now that we abandon violence and dynamite, and
+proceed to an intellectual search of the library.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well,' replied the young earl, 'but as I have already searched
+the library very thoroughly, your use of the word "intellectual",
+Monsieur Valmont, is not in accord with your customary politeness.
+However, I am with you. 'Tis for you to command, and me to obey.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pardon me, my lord,' I said, 'I used the word "intellectual" in
+contradistinction to the word "dynamite". It had no reference to your
+former search. I merely propose that we now abandon the use of
+chemical reaction, and employ the much greater force of mental
+activity. Did you notice any writing on the margins of the newspapers
+you examined?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I did not.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it possible that there may have been some communication on the
+white border of a newspaper?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is, of course, possible.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then will you set yourself to the task of glancing over the margin of
+every newspaper, piling them away in another room when your scrutiny
+of each is complete? Do not destroy anything, but we must clear out
+the library completely. I am interested in the accounts, and will
+examine them.'</p>
+
+<p>It was exasperatingly tedious work, but after several days my
+assistant reported every margin scanned without result, while I had
+collected each bill and memorandum, classifying them according to
+date. I could not get rid of a suspicion that the contrary old beast
+had written instructions for the finding of the treasure on the back
+of some account, or on the fly-leaf of a book, and as I looked at the
+thousands of volumes still left in the library, the prospect of such a
+patient and minute search appalled me. But I remembered Edison's words
+to the effect that if a thing exist, search, exhaustive enough, will
+find it. From the mass of accounts I selected several; the rest I
+placed in another room, alongside the heap of the earl's newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>'Now,' said I to my helper, 'if it please you, we will have Higgins
+in, as I wish some explanation of these accounts.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps I can assist you,' suggested his lordship drawing up a chair
+opposite the table on which I had spread the statements. 'I have lived
+here for six months, and know as much about things as Higgins does. He
+is so difficult to stop when once he begins to talk. What is the first
+account you wish further light upon?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'To go back thirteen years I find that your uncle bought a second-hand
+safe in Sheffield. Here is the bill. I consider it necessary to find
+that safe.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pray forgive me, Monsieur Valmont,' cried the young man, springing to
+his feet and laughing; 'so heavy an article as a safe should not slip
+readily from a man's memory, but it did from mine. The safe is empty,
+and I gave no more thought to it.'</p>
+
+<p>Saying this the earl went to one of the bookcases that stood against
+the wall, pulled it round as if it were a door, books and all, and
+displayed the front of an iron safe, the door of which he also drew
+open, exhibiting the usual empty interior of such a receptacle.</p>
+
+<p>'I came on this,' he said, 'when I took down all these volumes. It
+appears that there was once a secret door leading from the library
+into an outside room, which has long since disappeared; the walls are
+very thick. My uncle doubtless caused this door to be taken off its
+hinges, and the safe placed in the aperture, the rest of which he then
+bricked up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite so,' said I, endeavouring to conceal my disappointment. 'As
+this strong box was bought second-hand and not made to order, I
+suppose there can be no secret crannies in it?'</p>
+
+<p>'It looks like a common or garden safe,' reported my assistant, 'but
+we'll have it out if you say so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not just now,' I replied; 'we've had enough of dynamiting to make us
+feel like housebreakers already.'</p>
+
+<p>'I agree with you. What's the next item on the programme?'</p>
+
+<p>'Your uncle's mania for buying things at second-hand was broken in
+three instances so far as I have been able to learn from a scrutiny of
+these accounts. About four years ago he purchased a new book from
+Denny and Co., the well-known booksellers of the Strand. Denny and Co.
+deal only in new books. Is there any comparatively new volume in the
+library?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you sure of that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, quite; I searched all the literature in the house. What is the
+name of the volume he bought?'</p>
+
+<p>'That I cannot decipher. The initial letter looks like "M", but the
+rest is a mere wavy line. I see, however, that it cost
+twelve-and-sixpence, while the cost of carriage by parcel post was
+sixpence, which shows it weighed something under four pounds. This,
+with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> price of the book, induces me to think that it was a
+scientific work, printed on heavy paper and illustrated.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know nothing of it,' said the earl.</p>
+
+<p>'The third account is for wallpaper; twenty-seven rolls of an
+expensive wallpaper, and twenty-seven rolls of a cheap paper, the
+latter being just half the price of the former. This wallpaper seems
+to have been supplied by a tradesman in the station road in the
+village of Chizelrigg.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's your wallpaper,' cried the youth, waving his hand; 'he was
+going to paper the whole house, Higgins told me, but got tired after
+he had finished the library, which took him nearly a year to
+accomplish, for he worked at it very intermittently, mixing the paste
+in the boudoir, a pailful at a time as he needed it. It was a
+scandalous thing to do, for underneath the paper is the most exquisite
+oak panelling, very plain, but very rich in colour.'</p>
+
+<p>I rose and examined the paper on the wall. It was dark brown, and
+answered the description of the expensive paper on the bill.</p>
+
+<p>'What became of the cheap paper?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think,' said I, 'we are on the track of the mystery. I believe that
+paper covers a sliding panel or concealed door.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very likely,' replied the earl. 'I intended to have the paper
+off, but I had no money to pay a workman, and I am not so industrious
+as was my uncle. What is your remaining account?'</p>
+
+<p>'The last also pertains to paper, but comes from a firm in Budge Row,
+London, E.C. He has had, it seems, a thousand sheets of it, and it
+appears to have been frightfully expensive. This bill is also
+illegible, but I take it a thousand sheets were supplied, although of
+course it may have been a thousand quires, which would be a little
+more reasonable for the price charged, or a thousand reams, which
+would be exceedingly cheap.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know anything about that. Let's turn on Higgins.'</p>
+
+<p>Higgins knew nothing of this last order of paper either. The wallpaper
+mystery he at once cleared up. Apparently the old earl had discovered
+by experiment that the heavy, expensive wallpaper would not stick to
+the glossy panelling, so he had purchased a cheaper paper, and had
+pasted that on first. Higgins said he had gone all over the panelling
+with a yellowish-white paper, and after that was dry, he pasted over
+it the more expensive rolls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'But,' I objected, 'the two papers were bought and delivered at the
+same time; therefore, he could not have found by experiment that the
+heavy paper would not stick.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think there is much in that,' commented the earl; 'the heavy
+paper may have been bought first, and found to be unsuitable, and then
+the coarse, cheap paper bought afterwards. The bill merely shows that
+the account was sent in on that date. Indeed, as the village of
+Chizelrigg is but a few miles away, it would have been quite possible
+for my uncle to have bought the heavy paper in the morning, tried it,
+and in the afternoon sent for the commoner lot; but in any case, the
+bill would not have been presented until months after the order, and
+the two purchases were thus lumped together.'</p>
+
+<p>I was forced to confess that this seemed reasonable.</p>
+
+<p>Now, about the book ordered from Denny's. Did Higgins remember
+anything regarding it? It came four years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, yes, Higgins did; he remembered it very well indeed. He had come
+in one morning with the earl's tea, and the old man was sitting up in
+bed reading his volume with such interest that he was unaware of
+Higgins's knock, and Higgins himself, being a little hard of hearing,
+took for granted the command to enter. The earl hastily thrust the
+book under the pillow, alongside the revolvers, and rated Higgins in a
+most cruel way for entering the room before getting permission to do
+so. He had never seen the earl so angry before, and he laid it all to
+this book. It was after the book had come that the forge had been
+erected and the anvil bought. Higgins never saw the book again, but
+one morning, six months before the earl died, Higgins, in raking out
+the cinders of the forge, found what he supposed was a portion of the
+book's cover. He believed his master had burnt the volume.</p>
+
+<p>Having dismissed Higgins, I said to the earl,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'The first thing to be done is to enclose this bill to Denny and Co.,
+booksellers, Strand. Tell them you have lost the volume, and ask them
+to send another. There is likely someone in the shop who can decipher
+the illegible writing. I am certain the book will give us a clue. Now,
+I shall write to Braun and Sons, Budge Row. This is evidently a French
+company; in fact, the name as connected with paper-making runs in my
+mind, although I cannot at this moment place it. I shall ask them the
+use of this paper that they furnished to the late earl.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This was done accordingly, and now, as we thought, until the answers
+came, we were two men out of work. Yet the next morning, I am pleased
+to say, and I have always rather plumed myself on the fact, I solved
+the mystery before replies were received from London. Of course, both
+the book and the answer of the paper agents, by putting two and two
+together, would have given us the key.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast, I strolled somewhat aimlessly into the library, whose
+floor was now strewn merely with brown wrapping paper, bits of string,
+and all that. As I shuffled among this with my feet, as if tossing
+aside dead autumn leaves in a forest path, my attention was suddenly
+drawn to several squares of paper, unwrinkled, and never used for
+wrapping. These sheets seemed to me strangely familiar. I picked one
+of them up, and at once the significance of the name Braun and Sons
+occurred to me. They are paper makers in France, who produce a smooth,
+very tough sheet, which, dear as it is, proves infinitely cheap
+compared with the fine vellum it deposed in a certain branch of
+industry. In Paris, years before, these sheets had given me the
+knowledge of how a gang of thieves disposed of their gold without
+melting it. The paper was used instead of vellum in the rougher
+processes of manufacturing gold-leaf. It stood the constant beating of
+the hammer nearly as well as the vellum, and here at once there
+flashed on me the secret of the old man's midnight anvil work. He was
+transforming his sovereigns into gold-leaf, which must have been of a
+rude, thick kind, because to produce the gold-leaf of commerce he
+still needed the vellum as well as a 'clutch' and other machinery, of
+which we had found no trace.</p>
+
+<p>'My lord,' I called to my assistant; he was at the other end of the
+room; 'I wish to test a theory on the anvil of your own fresh common
+sense.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hammer away,' replied the earl, approaching me with his usual
+good-natured, jocular expression.</p>
+
+<p>'I eliminate the safe from our investigations because it was purchased
+thirteen years ago, but the buying of the book, of wall covering, of
+this tough paper from France, all group themselves into a set of
+incidents occurring within the same month as the purchase of the anvil
+and the building of the forge; therefore, I think they are related to
+one another. Here are some sheets of paper he got from Budge Row. Have
+you ever seen anything like it? Try to tear this sample.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'It's reasonably tough,' admitted his lordship, fruitlessly
+endeavouring to rip it apart.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. It was made in France, and is used in gold beating. Your uncle
+beat his sovereigns into gold-leaf. You will find that the book from
+Denny's is a volume on gold beating, and now as I remember that
+scribbled word which I could not make out, I think the title of the
+volume is "Metallurgy". It contains, no doubt, a chapter on the
+manufacture of gold-leaf.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe you,' said the earl; 'but I don't see that the discovery
+sets us any further forward. We're now looking for gold-leaf instead
+of sovereigns.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let's examine this wallpaper,' said I.</p>
+
+<p>I placed my knife under a corner of it at the floor, and quite easily
+ripped off a large section. As Higgins had said, the brown paper was
+on top, and the coarse, light-coloured paper underneath. But even that
+came away from the oak panelling as easily as though it hung there
+from habit, and not because of paste.</p>
+
+<p>'Feel the weight of that,' I cried, handing him the sheet I had torn
+from the wall.</p>
+
+<p>'By Jove!' said the earl, in a voice almost of awe.</p>
+
+<p>I took it from him, and laid it, face downwards, on the wooden table,
+threw a little water on the back, and with a knife scraped away the
+porous white paper. Instantly there gleamed up at us the baleful
+yellow of the gold. I shrugged my shoulders and spread out my hands.
+The Earl of Chizelrigg laughed aloud and very heartily.</p>
+
+<p>'You see how it is,' I cried. 'The old man first covered the entire
+wall with this whitish paper. He heated his sovereigns at the forge
+and beat them out on the anvil, then completed the process rudely
+between the sheets of this paper from France. Probably he pasted the
+gold to the wall as soon as he shut himself in for the night, and
+covered it over with the more expensive paper before Higgins entered
+in the morning.'</p>
+
+<p>We found afterwards, however, that he had actually fastened the thick
+sheets of gold to the wall with carpet tacks.</p>
+
+<p>His lordship netted a trifle over a hundred and twenty-three thousand
+pounds through my discovery, and I am pleased to pay tribute to the
+young man's generosity by saying that his voluntary settlement made my
+bank account swell stout as a City alderman.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="The_Absent-Minded_Coterie" id="The_Absent-Minded_Coterie"></a>5. <i>The Absent-Minded Coterie</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>Some years ago I enjoyed the unique experience of pursuing a man for
+one crime, and getting evidence against him of another. He was
+innocent of the misdemeanour, the proof of which I sought, but was
+guilty of another most serious offence, yet he and his confederates
+escaped scot-free in circumstances which I now purpose to relate.</p>
+
+<p>You may remember that in Rudyard Kipling's story, <i>Bedalia
+Herodsfoot</i>, the unfortunate woman's husband ran the risk of being
+arrested as a simple drunkard, at a moment when the blood of murder
+was upon his boots. The case of Ralph Summertrees was rather the
+reverse of this. The English authorities were trying to fasten upon
+him a crime almost as important as murder, while I was collecting
+evidence which proved him guilty of an action much more momentous than
+that of drunkenness.</p>
+
+<p>The English authorities have always been good enough, when they
+recognise my existence at all, to look down upon me with amused
+condescension. If today you ask Spenser Hale, of Scotland Yard, what
+he thinks of Eug&egrave;ne Valmont, that complacent man will put on the
+superior smile which so well becomes him, and if you are a very
+intimate friend of his, he may draw down the lid of his right eye, as
+he replies,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes, a very decent fellow, Valmont, but he's a Frenchman,' as if,
+that said, there was no need of further inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>Myself, I like the English detective very much, and if I were to be in
+a <i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e</i> tomorrow, there is no man I would rather find beside me than
+Spenser Hale. In any situation where a fist that can fell an ox is
+desirable, my friend Hale is a useful companion, but for
+intellectuality, mental acumen, finesse&mdash;ah, well! I am the most
+modest of men, and will say nothing.</p>
+
+<p>It would amuse you to see this giant come into my room during an
+evening, on the bluff pretence that he wishes to smoke a pipe with me.
+There is the same difference between this good-natured giant and
+myself as exists between that strong black pipe of his and my delicate
+cigarette, which I smoke feverishly when he is present, to protect
+myself from the fumes of his terrible tobacco. I look with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> delight
+upon the huge man, who, with an air of the utmost good humour, and a
+twinkle in his eye as he thinks he is twisting me about his finger,
+vainly endeavours to obtain a hint regarding whatever case is
+perplexing him at that moment. I baffle him with the ease that an
+active greyhound eludes the pursuit of a heavy mastiff, then at last I
+say to him with a laugh,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Come <i>mon ami</i> Hale, tell me all about it, and I will help you if I
+can.'</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice at the beginning he shook his massive head, and replied
+the secret was not his. The last time he did this I assured him that
+what he said was quite correct, and then I related full particulars of
+the situation in which he found himself, excepting the names, for
+these he had not mentioned. I had pieced together his perplexity from
+scraps of conversation in his half-hour's fishing for my advice,
+which, of course, he could have had for the plain asking. Since that
+time he has not come to me except with cases he feels at liberty to
+reveal, and one or two complications I have happily been enabled to
+unravel for him.</p>
+
+<p>But, staunch as Spenser Hale holds the belief that no detective
+service on earth can excel that centring in Scotland Yard, there is
+one department of activity in which even he confesses that Frenchmen
+are his masters, although he somewhat grudgingly qualifies his
+admission by adding that we in France are constantly allowed to do
+what is prohibited in England. I refer to the minute search of a house
+during the owner's absence. If you read that excellent story, entitled
+<i>The Purloined Letter</i>, by Edgar Allan Poe, you will find a record of
+the kind of thing I mean, which is better than any description I, who
+have so often taken part in such a search, can set down.</p>
+
+<p>Now, these people among whom I live are proud of their phrase, 'The
+Englishman's house is his castle,' and into that castle even a
+policeman cannot penetrate without a legal warrant. This may be all
+very well in theory, but if you are compelled to march up to a man's
+house, blowing a trumpet, and rattling a snare drum, you need not be
+disappointed if you fail to find what you are in search of when all
+the legal restrictions are complied with. Of course, the English are a
+very excellent people, a fact to which I am always proud to bear
+testimony, but it must be admitted that for cold common sense the
+French are very much their superiors. In Paris, if I wish to obtain an
+incriminating document, I do not send the possessor a <i>carte postale</i>
+to inform him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> of my desire, and in this procedure the French people
+sanely acquiesce. I have known men who, when they go out to spend an
+evening on the boulevards, toss their bunch of keys to the concierge,
+saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'If you hear the police rummaging about while I'm away, pray assist
+them, with an expression of my distinguished consideration.'</p>
+
+<p>I remember while I was chief detective in the service of the French
+Government being requested to call at a certain hour at the private
+hotel of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was during the time that
+Bismarck meditated a second attack upon my country, and I am happy to
+say that I was then instrumental in supplying the Secret Bureau with
+documents which mollified that iron man's purpose, a fact which I
+think entitled me to my country's gratitude, not that I ever even
+hinted such a claim when a succeeding ministry forgot my services. The
+memory of a republic, as has been said by a greater man than I, is
+short. However, all that has nothing to do with the incident I am
+about to relate. I merely mention the crisis to excuse a momentary
+forgetfulness on my part which in any other country might have been
+followed by serious results to myself. But in France&mdash;ah, we
+understand those things, and nothing happened.</p>
+
+<p>I am the last person in the world to give myself away, as they say in
+the great West. I am usually the calm, collected Eug&egrave;ne Valmont whom
+nothing can perturb, but this was a time of great tension, and I had
+become absorbed. I was alone with the minister in his private house,
+and one of the papers he desired was in his bureau at the Ministry for
+Foreign Affairs; at least, he thought so, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, it is in my desk at the bureau. How annoying! I must send for
+it!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Excellency,' I cried, springing up in a self-oblivion the most
+complete, 'it is here.' Touching the spring of a secret drawer, I
+opened it, and taking out the document he wished, handed it to him.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until I met his searching look, and saw the faint smile on
+his lips that I realised what I had done.</p>
+
+<p>'Valmont,' he said quietly, 'on whose behalf did you search my house?'</p>
+
+<p>'Excellency,' I replied in tones no less agreeable than his own,
+'tonight at your orders I pay a domiciliary visit to the mansion of
+Baron Dumoulaine, who stands high in the estimation of the President
+of the French Republic. If either of those distinguished gentlemen
+should learn of my informal call and should ask me in whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> interests
+I made the domiciliary visit, what is it you wish that I should
+reply?'</p>
+
+<p>'You should reply, Valmont, that you did it in the interests of the
+Secret Service.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall not fail to do so, Excellency, and in answer to your question
+just now, I had the honour of searching this mansion in the interests
+of the Secret Service of France.'</p>
+
+<p>The Minister for Foreign Affairs laughed; a hearty laugh that
+expressed no resentment.</p>
+
+<p>'I merely wished to compliment you, Valmont, on the efficiency of your
+search, and the excellence of your memory. This is indeed the document
+which I thought was left in my office.'</p>
+
+<p>I wonder what Lord Lansdowne would say if Spenser Hale showed an equal
+familiarity with his private papers! But now that we have returned to
+our good friend Hale, we must not keep him waiting any longer.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I well remember the November day when I first heard of the Summertrees
+case, because there hung over London a fog so thick that two or three
+times I lost my way, and no cab was to be had at any price. The few
+cabmen then in the streets were leading their animals slowly along,
+making for their stables. It was one of those depressing London days
+which filled me with ennui and a yearning for my own clear city of
+Paris, where, if we are ever visited by a slight mist, it is at least
+clean, white vapour, and not this horrible London mixture saturated
+with suffocating carbon. The fog was too thick for any passer to read
+the contents bills of the newspapers plastered on the pavement, and as
+there were probably no races that day the newsboys were shouting what
+they considered the next most important event&mdash;the election of an
+American President. I bought a paper and thrust it into my pocket. It
+was late when I reached my flat, and, after dining there, which was an
+unusual thing for me to do, I put on my slippers, took an easy-chair
+before the fire, and began to read my evening journal. I was
+distressed to learn that the eloquent Mr. Bryan had been defeated. I
+knew little about the silver question, but the man's oratorical powers
+had appealed to me, and my sympathy was aroused because he owned many
+silver mines, and yet the price of the metal was so low<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> that
+apparently he could not make a living through the operation of them.
+But, of course, the cry that he was a plutocrat, and a reputed
+millionaire over and over again, was bound to defeat him in a
+democracy where the average voter is exceedingly poor and not
+comfortably well-to-do as is the case with our peasants in France. I
+always took great interest in the affairs of the huge republic to the
+west, having been at some pains to inform myself accurately regarding
+its politics, and although, as my readers know, I seldom quote
+anything complimentary that is said of me, nevertheless, an American
+client of mine once admitted that he never knew the true inwardness&mdash;I
+think that was the phrase he used&mdash;of American politics until he heard
+me discourse upon them. But then, he added, he had been a very busy
+man all his life.</p>
+
+<p>I had allowed my paper to slip to the floor, for in very truth the fog
+was penetrating even into my flat, and it was becoming difficult to
+read, notwithstanding the electric light. My man came in, and
+announced that Mr. Spenser Hale wished to see me, and, indeed, any
+night, but especially when there is rain or fog outside, I am more
+pleased to talk with a friend than to read a newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Mon Dieu</i>, my dear Monsieur Hale, it is a brave man you are to
+venture out in such a fog as is abroad tonight.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Monsieur Valmont,' said Hale with pride, 'you cannot raise a fog
+like this in Paris!'</p>
+
+<p>'No. There you are supreme,' I admitted, rising and saluting my
+visitor, then offering him a chair.</p>
+
+<p>'I see you are reading the latest news,' he said, indicating my
+newspaper, 'I am very glad that man Bryan is defeated. Now we shall
+have better times.'</p>
+
+<p>I waved my hand as I took my chair again. I will discuss many things
+with Spenser Hale, but not American politics; he does not understand
+them. It is a common defect of the English to suffer complete
+ignorance regarding the internal affairs of other countries.</p>
+
+<p>'It is surely an important thing that brought you out on such a night
+as this. The fog must be very thick in Scotland Yard.'</p>
+
+<p>This delicate shaft of fancy completely missed him, and he answered
+stolidly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'It's thick all over London, and, indeed, throughout most of England.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it is,' I agreed, but he did not see that either.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Still a moment later he made a remark which, if it had come from some
+people I know, might have indicated a glimmer of comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>'You are a very, very clever man, Monsieur Valmont, so all I need say
+is that the question which brought me here is the same as that on
+which the American election was fought. Now, to a countryman, I should
+be compelled to give further explanation, but to you, monsieur, that
+will not be necessary.'</p>
+
+<p>There are times when I dislike the crafty smile and partial closing of
+the eyes which always distinguishes Spenser Hale when he places on the
+table a problem which he expects will baffle me. If I said he never
+did baffle me, I would be wrong, of course, for sometimes the utter
+simplicity of the puzzles which trouble him leads me into an intricate
+involution entirely unnecessary in the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>I pressed my fingertips together, and gazed for a few moments at the
+ceiling. Hale had lit his black pipe, and my silent servant placed at
+his elbow the whisky and soda, then tiptoed out of the room. As the
+door closed my eyes came from the ceiling to the level of Hale's
+expansive countenance.</p>
+
+<p>'Have they eluded you?' I asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>'Who?'</p>
+
+<p>'The coiners.'</p>
+
+<p>Hale's pipe dropped from his jaw, but he managed to catch it before it
+reached the floor. Then he took a gulp from the tumbler.</p>
+
+<p>'That was just a lucky shot,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Parfaitement</i>,' I replied carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, own up, Valmont, wasn't it?'</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged my shoulders. A man cannot contradict a guest in his own
+house.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, stow that!' cried Hale impolitely. He is a trifle prone to strong
+and even slangy expressions when puzzled. 'Tell me how you guessed
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very simple, <i>mon ami</i>. The question on which the American
+election was fought is the price of silver, which is so low that it
+has ruined Mr. Bryan, and threatens to ruin all the farmers of the west
+who possess silver mines on their farms. Silver troubled America, ergo
+silver troubles Scotland Yard.</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, the natural inference is that someone has stolen bars of
+silver. But such a theft happened three months ago, when the metal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+was being unloaded from a German steamer at Southampton, and my dear
+friend Spenser Hale ran down the thieves very cleverly as they were
+trying to dissolve the marks off the bars with acid. Now crimes do not
+run in series, like the numbers in roulette at Monte Carlo. The
+thieves are men of brains. They say to themselves, "What chance is
+there successfully to steal bars of silver while Mr. Hale is at
+Scotland Yard?" Eh, my good friend?'</p>
+
+<p>'Really, Valmont,' said Hale, taking another sip, 'sometimes you
+almost persuade me that you have reasoning powers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thanks, comrade. Then it is not a <i>theft</i> of silver we have now to
+deal with. But the American election was fought on the <i>price</i> of
+silver. If silver had been high in cost, there would have been no
+silver question. So the crime that is bothering you arises through the
+low price of silver, and this suggests that it must be a case of
+illicit coinage, for there the low price of the metal comes in. You
+have, perhaps, found a more subtle illegitimate act going forward than
+heretofore. Someone is making your shillings and your half-crowns from
+real silver, instead of from baser metal, and yet there is a large
+profit which has not hitherto been possible through the high price of
+silver. With the old conditions you were familiar, but this new
+element sets at nought all your previous formulae. That is how I
+reasoned the matter out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Valmont, you have hit it. I'll say that for you; you have hit
+it. There is a gang of expert coiners who are putting out real silver
+money, and making a clear shilling on the half-crown. We can find no
+trace of the coiners, but we know the man who is shoving the stuff.'</p>
+
+<p>'That ought to be sufficient,' I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it should, but it hasn't proved so up to date. Now I came
+tonight to see if you would do one of your French tricks for us, right
+on the quiet.'</p>
+
+<p>'What French trick, Monsieur Spenser Hale?' I inquired with some
+asperity, forgetting for the moment that the man invariably became
+impolite when he grew excited.</p>
+
+<p>'No offence intended,' said this blundering officer, who really is a
+good-natured fellow, but always puts his foot in it, and then
+apologises. 'I want someone to go through a man's house without a
+search warrant, spot the evidence, let me know, and then we'll rush
+the place before he has time to hide his tracks.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is this man, and where does he live?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'His name is Ralph Summertrees, and he lives in a very natty little
+bijou residence, as the advertisements call it, situated in no less a
+fashionable street than Park Lane.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see. What has aroused your suspicions against him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you know, that's an expensive district to live in; it takes a
+bit of money to do the trick. This Summertrees has no ostensible
+business, yet every Friday he goes to the United Capital Bank in
+Piccadilly, and deposits a bag of swag, usually all silver coin.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and this money?'</p>
+
+<p>'This money, so far as we can learn, contains a good many of these new
+pieces which never saw the British Mint.'</p>
+
+<p>'It's not all the new coinage, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no, he's a bit too artful for that. You see, a man can go round
+London, his pockets filled with new coinage five-shilling pieces, buy
+this, that, and the other, and come home with his change in legitimate
+coins of the realm&mdash;half-crowns, florins, shillings, sixpences, and
+all that.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see. Then why don't you nab him one day when his pockets are
+stuffed with illegitimate five-shilling pieces?'</p>
+
+<p>'That could be done, of course, and I've thought of it, but you see,
+we want to land the whole gang. Once we arrested him, without knowing
+where the money came from, the real coiners would take flight.'</p>
+
+<p>'How do you know he is not the real coiner himself?'</p>
+
+<p>Now poor Hale is as easy to read as a book. He hesitated before
+answering this question, and looked confused as a culprit caught in
+some dishonest act.</p>
+
+<p>'You need not be afraid to tell me,' I said soothingly after a pause.
+'You have had one of your men in Mr. Summertrees' house, and so learned
+that he is not the coiner. But your man has not succeeded in getting
+you evidence to incriminate other people.'</p>
+
+<p>'You've about hit it again, Monsieur Valmont. One of my men has been
+Summertrees' butler for two weeks, but, as you say, he has found no
+evidence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he still butler?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now tell me how far you have got. You know that Summertrees deposits
+a bag of coin every Friday in the Piccadilly bank, and I suppose the
+bank has allowed you to examine one or two of the bags.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir, they have, but, you see, banks are very difficult to treat
+with. They don't like detectives bothering round, and whilst they do
+not stand out against the law, still they never answer any more
+questions than they're asked, and Mr. Summertrees has been a good
+customer at the United Capital for many years.'</p>
+
+<p>'Haven't you found out where the money comes from?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, we have; it is brought there night after night by a man who
+looks like a respectable city clerk, and he puts it into a large safe,
+of which he holds the key, this safe being on the ground floor, in the
+dining-room.'</p>
+
+<p>'Haven't you followed the clerk?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. He sleeps in the Park Lane house every night, and goes up in the
+morning to an old curiosity shop in Tottenham Court Road, where he
+stays all day, returning with his bag of money in the evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why don't you arrest and question him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Monsieur Valmont, there is just the same objection to his
+arrest as to that of Summertrees himself. We could easily arrest both,
+but we have not the slightest evidence against either of them, and
+then, although we put the go-betweens in clink, the worst criminals of
+the lot would escape.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing suspicious about the old curiosity shop?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. It appears to be perfectly regular.'</p>
+
+<p>'This game has been going on under your noses for how long?'</p>
+
+<p>'For about six weeks.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is Summertrees a married man?'</p>
+
+<p>'No.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are there any women servants in the house?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, except that three charwomen come in every morning to do up the
+rooms.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of what is his household comprised?'</p>
+
+<p>'There is the butler, then the valet, and last, the French cook.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah,' cried I, 'the French cook! This case interests me. So
+Summertrees has succeeded in completely disconcerting your man? Has he
+prevented him going from top to bottom of the house?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, he has rather assisted him than otherwise. On one occasion he
+went to the safe, took out the money, had Podgers&mdash;that's my chap's
+name&mdash;help him to count it, and then actually sent Podgers to the bank
+with the bag of coin.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'And Podgers has been all over the place?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Saw no signs of a coining establishment?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. It is absolutely impossible that any coining can be done there.
+Besides, as I tell you, that respectable clerk brings him the money.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose you want me to take Podgers' position?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Monsieur Valmont, to tell you the truth, I would rather you
+didn't. Podgers has done everything a man can do, but I thought if you
+got into the house, Podgers assisting, you might go through it night
+after night at your leisure.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see. That's just a little dangerous in England. I think I should
+prefer to assure myself the legitimate standing of being the amiable
+Podgers' successor. You say that Summertrees has no business?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir, not what you might call a business. He is by the way of
+being an author, but I don't count that any business.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, an author, is he? When does he do his writing?'</p>
+
+<p>'He locks himself up most of the day in his study.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does he come out for lunch?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; he lights a little spirit lamp inside, Podgers tells me, and
+makes himself a cup of coffee, which he takes with a sandwich or two.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's rather frugal fare for Park Lane.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Monsieur Valmont, it is, but he makes it up in the evening, when
+he has a long dinner with all them foreign kickshaws you people like,
+done by his French cook.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sensible man! Well, Hale, I see I shall look forward with pleasure to
+making the acquaintance of Mr. Summertrees. Is there any restriction on
+the going and coming of your man Podgers?'</p>
+
+<p>'None in the least. He can get away either night or day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very good, friend Hale, bring him here tomorrow, as soon as our
+author locks himself up in his study, or rather, I should say, as soon
+as the respectable clerk leaves for Tottenham Court Road, which I
+should guess, as you put it, is about half an hour after his master
+turns the key of the room in which he writes.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are quite right in that guess, Valmont. How did you hit it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Merely a surmise, Hale. There is a good deal of oddity about that
+Park Lane house, so it doesn't surprise me in the least that the
+master gets to work earlier in the morning than the man. I have also
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> suspicion that Ralph Summertrees knows perfectly well what the
+estimable Podgers is there for.'</p>
+
+<p>'What makes you think that?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can give no reason except that my opinion of the acuteness of
+Summertrees has been gradually rising all the while you were speaking,
+and at the same time my estimate of Podgers' craft has been as
+steadily declining. However, bring the man here tomorrow, that I may
+ask him a few questions.'</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Next day, about eleven o'clock, the ponderous Podgers, hat in hand,
+followed his chief into my room. His broad, impassive, immobile smooth
+face gave him rather more the air of a genuine butler than I had
+expected, and this appearance, of course, was enhanced by his livery.
+His replies to my questions were those of a well-trained servant who
+will not say too much unless it is made worth his while. All in all,
+Podgers exceeded my expectations, and really my friend Hale had some
+justification for regarding him, as he evidently did, a triumph in his
+line.</p>
+
+<p>'Sit down, Mr. Hale, and you, Podgers.'</p>
+
+<p>The man disregarded my invitation, standing like a statue until his
+chief made a motion; then he dropped into a chair. The English are
+great on discipline.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Mr. Hale, I must first congratulate you on the make-up of
+Podgers. It is excellent. You depend less on artificial assistance
+than we do in France, and in that I think you are right.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, we know a bit over here, Monsieur Valmont,' said Hale, with
+pardonable pride.</p>
+
+<p>'Now then, Podgers, I want to ask you about this clerk. What time does
+he arrive in the evening?'</p>
+
+<p>'At prompt six, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does he ring, or let himself in with a latchkey?'</p>
+
+<p>'With a latchkey, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'How does he carry the money?'</p>
+
+<p>'In a little locked leather satchel, sir, flung over his shoulder.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does he go direct to the dining-room?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you seen him unlock the safe and put in the money?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does the safe unlock with a word or a key?'</p>
+
+<p>'With a key, sir. It's one of the old-fashioned kind.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then the clerk unlocks his leather money bag?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's three keys used within as many minutes. Are they separate or
+in a bunch?'</p>
+
+<p>'In a bunch, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you ever see your master with this bunch of keys?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'You saw him open the safe once, I am told?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did he use a separate key, or one of a bunch?'</p>
+
+<p>Podgers slowly scratched his head, then said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I don't just remember, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Podgers, you are neglecting the big things in that house. Sure
+you can't remember?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Once the money is in and the safe locked up, what does the clerk do?'</p>
+
+<p>'Goes to his room, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where is this room?'</p>
+
+<p>'On the third floor, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where do you sleep?'</p>
+
+<p>'On the fourth floor with the rest of the servants, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where does the master sleep?'</p>
+
+<p>'On the second floor, adjoining his study.'</p>
+
+<p>'The house consists of four stories and a basement, does it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have somehow arrived at the suspicion that it is a very narrow
+house. Is that true?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does the clerk ever dine with your master?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir. The clerk don't eat in the house at all, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does he go away before breakfast?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'No one takes breakfast to his room?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'What time does he leave the house?'</p>
+
+<p>'At ten o'clock, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'When is breakfast served?'</p>
+
+<p>'At nine o'clock, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'At what hour does your master retire to his study?'</p>
+
+<p>'At half-past nine, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Locks the door on the inside?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never rings for anything during the day?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not that I know of, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'What sort of a man is he?'</p>
+
+<p>Here Podgers was on familiar ground, and he rattled off a description
+minute in every particular.</p>
+
+<p>'What I meant was, Podgers, is he silent, or talkative, or does he get
+angry? Does he seem furtive, suspicious, anxious, terrorised, calm,
+excitable, or what?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir, he is by way of being very quiet, never has much to say
+for himself; never saw him angry, or excited.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Podgers, you've been at Park Lane for a fortnight or more. You
+are a sharp, alert, observant man. What happens there that strikes you
+as unusual?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I can't exactly say, sir,' replied Podgers, looking rather
+helplessly from his chief to myself, and back again.</p>
+
+<p>'Your professional duties have often compelled you to enact the part
+of butler before, otherwise you wouldn't do it so well. Isn't that the
+case.'</p>
+
+<p>Podgers did not reply, but glanced at his chief. This was evidently a
+question pertaining to the service, which a subordinate was not
+allowed to answer. However, Hale said at once,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly. Podgers has been in dozens of places.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Podgers, just call to mind some of the other households where
+you have been employed, and tell me any particulars in which Mr
+Summertrees' establishment differs from them.'</p>
+
+<p>Podgers pondered a long time.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir, he do stick to writing pretty close.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, that's his profession, you see, Podgers. Hard at it from
+half-past nine till towards seven, I imagine?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Anything else, Podgers? No matter how trivial.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir, he's fond of reading too; leastways, he's fond of
+newspapers.'</p>
+
+<p>'When does he read?'</p>
+
+<p>'I've never seen him read 'em, sir; indeed, so far as I can tell, I
+never knew the papers to be opened, but he takes them all in, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, all the morning papers?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir, and all the evening papers too.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where are the morning papers placed?'</p>
+
+<p>'On the table in his study, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the evening papers?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir, when the evening papers come, the study is locked. They
+are put on a side table in the dining-room, and he takes them upstairs
+with him to his study.'</p>
+
+<p>'This has happened every day since you've been there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'You reported that very striking fact to your chief, of course?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir, I don't think I did,' said Podgers, confused.</p>
+
+<p>'You should have done so. Mr. Hale would have known how to make the
+most of a point so vital.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, come now, Valmont,' interrupted Hale, 'you're chaffing us. Plenty
+of people take in all the papers!'</p>
+
+<p>'I think not. Even clubs and hotels subscribe to the leading journals
+only. You said <i>all</i>, I think, Podgers?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, <i>nearly</i> all, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'But which is it? There's a vast difference.'</p>
+
+<p>'He takes a good many, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'How many?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't just know, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's easily found out, Valmont,' cried Hale, with some impatience,
+'if you think it really important.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think it so important that I'm going back with Podgers myself. You
+can take me into the house, I suppose, when you return?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Coming back to these newspapers for a moment, Podgers. What is done
+with them?'</p>
+
+<p>'They are sold to the ragman, sir, once a week.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who takes them from the study?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do, sir.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Do they appear to have been read very carefully?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, no, sir; leastways, some of them seem never to have been
+opened, or else folded up very carefully again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you notice that extracts have been clipped from any of them?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does Mr. Summertrees keep a scrapbook?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not that I know of, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, the case is perfectly plain,' said I, leaning back in my chair,
+and regarding the puzzled Hale with that cherubic expression of
+self-satisfaction which I know is so annoying to him.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>What's</i> perfectly plain?' he demanded, more gruffly perhaps than
+etiquette would have sanctioned.</p>
+
+<p>'Summertrees is no coiner, nor is he linked with any band of coiners.'</p>
+
+<p>'What is he, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, that opens another avenue of enquiry. For all I know to the
+contrary, he may be the most honest of men. On the surface it would
+appear that he is a reasonably industrious tradesman in Tottenham
+Court Road, who is anxious that there should be no visible connection
+between a plebian employment and so aristocratic a residence as that
+in Park Lane.'</p>
+
+<p>At this point Spenser Hale gave expression to one of those rare
+flashes of reason which are always an astonishment to his friends.</p>
+
+<p>'That is nonsense, Monsieur Valmont,' he said, 'the man who is ashamed
+of the connection between his business and his house is one who is
+trying to get into Society, or else the women of his family are trying
+it, as is usually the case. Now Summertrees has no family. He himself
+goes nowhere, gives no entertainments, and accepts no invitations. He
+belongs to no club, therefore to say that he is ashamed of his
+connection with the Tottenham Court Road shop is absurd. He is
+concealing the connection for some other reason that will bear looking
+into.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Hale, the goddess of Wisdom herself could not have made a
+more sensible series of remarks. Now, <i>mon ami</i>, do you want my
+assistance, or have you enough to go on with?'</p>
+
+<p>'Enough to go on with? We have nothing more than we had when I called
+on you last night.'</p>
+
+<p>'Last night, my dear Hale, you supposed this man was in league with
+coiners. Today you know he is not.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'I know you <i>say</i> he is not.'</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged my shoulders, and raised my eyebrows, smiling at him.</p>
+
+<p>'It is the same thing, Monsieur Hale.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, of all the conceited&mdash;' and the good Hale could get no further.</p>
+
+<p>'If you wish my assistance, it is yours.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very good. Not to put too fine a point upon it, I do.'</p>
+
+<p>'In that case, my dear Podgers, you will return to the residence of
+our friend Summertrees, and get together for me in a bundle all of
+yesterday's morning and evening papers, that were delivered to the
+house. Can you do that, or are they mixed up in a heap in the coal
+cellar?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can do it, sir. I have instructions to place each day's papers in a
+pile by itself in case they should be wanted again. There is always
+one week's supply in the cellar, and we sell the papers of the week
+before to the rag men.'</p>
+
+<p>'Excellent. Well, take the risk of abstracting one day's journals, and
+have them ready for me. I will call upon you at half-past three
+o'clock exactly, and then I want you to take me upstairs to the
+clerk's bedroom in the third story, which I suppose is not locked
+during the daytime?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir, it is not.'</p>
+
+<p>With this the patient Podgers took his departure. Spenser Hale rose
+when his assistant left.</p>
+
+<p>'Anything further I can do?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; give me the address of the shop in Tottenham Court Road. Do you
+happen to have about you one of those new five-shilling pieces which
+you believe to be illegally coined?'</p>
+
+<p>He opened his pocket-book, took out the bit of white metal, and handed
+it to me.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm going to pass this off before evening,' I said, putting it in my
+pocket, 'and I hope none of your men will arrest me.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's all right,' laughed Hale as he took his leave.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past three Podgers was waiting for me, and opened the front
+door as I came up the steps, thus saving me the necessity of ringing.
+The house seemed strangely quiet. The French cook was evidently down
+in the basement, and we had probably all the upper part to ourselves,
+unless Summertrees was in his study, which I doubted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> Podgers led me
+directly upstairs to the clerk's room on the third floor, walking on
+tiptoe, with an elephantine air of silence and secrecy combined, which
+struck me as unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>'I will make an examination of this room,' I said. 'Kindly wait for me
+down by the door of the study.'</p>
+
+<p>The bedroom proved to be of respectable size when one considers the
+smallness of the house. The bed was all nicely made up, and there were
+two chairs in the room, but the usual washstand and swing-mirror were
+not visible. However, seeing a curtain at the farther end of the room,
+I drew it aside, and found, as I expected, a fixed lavatory in an
+alcove of perhaps four feet deep by five in width. As the room was
+about fifteen feet wide, this left two-thirds of the space unaccounted
+for. A moment later, I opened a door which exhibited a closet filled
+with clothes hanging on hooks. This left a space of five feet between
+the clothes closet and the lavatory. I thought at first that the
+entrance to the secret stairway must have issued from the lavatory,
+but examining the boards closely, although they sounded hollow to the
+knuckles, they were quite evidently plain matchboarding, and not a
+concealed door. The entrance to the stairway, therefore, must issue
+from the clothes closet. The right hand wall proved similar to the
+matchboarding of the lavatory as far as the casual eye or touch was
+concerned, but I saw at once it was a door. The latch turned out to be
+somewhat ingeniously operated by one of the hooks which held a pair of
+old trousers. I found that the hook, if pressed upward, allowed the
+door to swing outward, over the stairhead. Descending to the second
+floor, a similar latch let me in to a similar clothes closet in the
+room beneath. The two rooms were identical in size, one directly above
+the other, the only difference being that the lower room door gave
+into the study, instead of into the hall, as was the case with the
+upper chamber.</p>
+
+<p>The study was extremely neat, either not much used, or the abode of a
+very methodical man. There was nothing on the table except a pile of
+that morning's papers. I walked to the farther end, turned the key in
+the lock, and came out upon the astonished Podgers.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I'm blowed!' exclaimed he.</p>
+
+<p>'Quite so,' I rejoined, 'you've been tiptoeing past an empty room for
+the last two weeks. Now, if you'll come with me, Podgers, I'll show
+you how the trick is done.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When he entered the study, I locked the door once more, and led the
+assumed butler, still tiptoeing through force of habit, up the stair
+into the top bedroom, and so out again, leaving everything exactly as
+we found it. We went down the main stair to the front hall, and there
+Podgers had my parcel of papers all neatly wrapped up. This bundle I
+carried to my flat, gave one of my assistants some instructions, and
+left him at work on the papers.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I took a cab to the foot of Tottenham Court Road, and walked up that
+street till I came to J. Simpson's old curiosity shop. After gazing at
+the well-filled windows for some time, I stepped aside, having
+selected a little iron crucifix displayed behind the pane; the work of
+some ancient craftsman.</p>
+
+<p>I knew at once from Podgers's description that I was waited upon by
+the veritable respectable clerk who brought the bag of money each
+night to Park Lane, and who I was certain was no other than Ralph
+Summertrees himself.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing in his manner differing from that of any other quiet
+salesman. The price of the crucifix proved to be seven-and-six, and I
+threw down a sovereign to pay for it.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mind the change being all in silver, sir?' he asked, and I
+answered without any eagerness, although the question aroused a
+suspicion that had begun to be allayed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Not in the least.'</p>
+
+<p>He gave me half-a-crown, three two-shilling pieces, and four separate
+shillings, all the coins being well-worn silver of the realm, the
+undoubted inartistic product of the reputable British Mint. This
+seemed to dispose of the theory that he was palming off illegitimate
+money. He asked me if I were interested in any particular branch of
+antiquity, and I replied that my curiosity was merely general, and
+exceedingly amateurish, whereupon he invited me to look around. This I
+proceeded to do, while he resumed the addressing and stamping of some
+wrapped-up pamphlets which I surmised to be copies of his catalogue.</p>
+
+<p>He made no attempt either to watch me or to press his wares upon me. I
+selected at random a little ink-stand, and asked its price. It was two
+shillings, he said, whereupon I produced my fraudulent five-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>shilling
+piece. He took it, gave me the change without comment, and the last
+doubt about his connection with coiners flickered from my mind.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a young man came in, who, I saw at once, was not a
+customer. He walked briskly to the farther end of the shop, and
+disappeared behind a partition which had one pane of glass in it that
+gave an outlook towards the front door.</p>
+
+<p>'Excuse me a moment,' said the shopkeeper, and he followed the young
+man into the private office.</p>
+
+<p>As I examined the curious heterogeneous collection of things for sale,
+I heard the clink of coins being poured out on the lid of a desk or an
+uncovered table, and the murmur of voices floated out to me. I was now
+near the entrance of the shop, and by a sleight-of-hand trick, keeping
+the corner of my eye on the glass pane of the private office, I
+removed the key of the front door without a sound, and took an
+impression of it in wax, returning the key to its place unobserved. At
+this moment another young man came in, and walked straight past me
+into the private office. I heard him say,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I beg pardon, Mr. Simpson. How are you, Rogers?'</p>
+
+<p>'Hallo, Macpherson,' saluted Rogers, who then came out, bidding
+good-night to Mr. Simpson, and departed whistling down the street, but
+not before he had repeated his phrase to another young man entering,
+to whom he gave the name of Tyrrel.</p>
+
+<p>I noted these three names in my mind. Two others came in together, but
+I was compelled to content myself with memorising their features, for
+I did not learn their names. These men were evidently collectors, for
+I heard the rattle of money in every case; yet here was a small shop,
+doing apparently very little business, for I had been within it for
+more than half an hour, and yet remained the only customer. If credit
+were given, one collector would certainly have been sufficient, yet
+five had come in, and had poured their contributions into the pile
+Summertrees was to take home with him that night.</p>
+
+<p>I determined to secure one of the pamphlets which the man had been
+addressing. They were piled on a shelf behind the counter, but I had
+no difficulty in reaching across and taking the one on top, which I
+slipped into my pocket. When the fifth young man went down the street
+Summertrees himself emerged, and this time he carried in his hand the
+well-filled locked leather satchel, with the straps dangling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> It was
+now approaching half-past five, and I saw he was eager to close up and
+get away.</p>
+
+<p>'Anything else you fancy, sir?' he asked me.</p>
+
+<p>'No, or rather yes and no. You have a very interesting collection
+here, but it's getting so dark I can hardly see.'</p>
+
+<p>'I close at half-past five, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, in that case,' I said, consulting my watch, 'I shall be pleased
+to call some other time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, sir,' replied Summertrees quietly, and with that I took my
+leave.</p>
+
+<p>From the corner of an alley on the other side of the street I saw him
+put up the shutters with his own hands, then he emerged with overcoat
+on, and the money satchel slung across his shoulder. He locked the
+door, tested it with his knuckles, and walked down the street,
+carrying under one arm the pamphlets he had been addressing. I
+followed him some distance, saw him drop the pamphlets into the box at
+the first post office he passed, and walk rapidly towards his house in
+Park Lane.</p>
+
+<p>When I returned to my flat and called in my assistant, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'After putting to one side the regular advertisements of pills, soap,
+and what not, here is the only one common to all the newspapers,
+morning and evening alike. The advertisements are not identical, sir,
+but they have two points of similarity, or perhaps I should say three.
+They all profess to furnish a cure for absent-mindedness; they all ask
+that the applicant's chief hobby shall be stated, and they all bear
+the same address: Dr. Willoughby, in Tottenham Court Road.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you,' said I, as he placed the scissored advertisements before
+me.</p>
+
+<p>I read several of the announcements. They were all small, and perhaps
+that is why I had never noticed one of them in the newspapers, for
+certainly they were odd enough. Some asked for lists of absent-minded
+men, with the hobbies of each, and for these lists, prizes of from one
+shilling to six were offered. In other clippings Dr. Willoughby
+professed to be able to cure absent-mindedness. There were no fees,
+and no treatment, but a pamphlet would be sent, which, if it did not
+benefit the receiver, could do no harm. The doctor was unable to meet
+patients personally, nor could he enter into correspondence with them.
+The address was the same as that of the old curiosity shop in
+Tottenham Court Road. At this juncture I pulled the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> pamphlet from my
+pocket, and saw it was entitled <i>Christian Science and
+Absent-Mindedness</i>, by Dr. Stamford Willoughby, and at the end of the
+article was the statement contained in the advertisements, that Dr
+Willoughby would neither see patients nor hold any correspondence with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>I drew a sheet of paper towards me, wrote to Dr. Willoughby alleging
+that I was a very absent-minded man, and would be glad of his
+pamphlet, adding that my special hobby was the collecting of first
+editions. I then signed myself, 'Alport Webster, Imperial Flats,
+London, W.'</p>
+
+<p>I may here explain that it is often necessary for me to see people
+under some other name than the well-known appellation of Eug&egrave;ne
+Valmont. There are two doors to my flat, and on one of these is
+painted, 'Eug&egrave;ne Valmont'; on the other there is a receptacle, into
+which can be slipped a sliding panel bearing any <i>nom de guerre</i> I
+choose. The same device is arranged on the ground floor, where the
+names of all the occupants of the building appear on the right-hand
+wall.</p>
+
+<p>I sealed, addressed, and stamped my letter, then told my man to put
+out the name of Alport Webster, and if I did not happen to be in when
+anyone called upon that mythical person, he was to make an appointment
+for me.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly six o'clock next afternoon when the card of Angus
+Macpherson was brought in to Mr. Alport Webster. I recognised the young
+man at once as the second who had entered the little shop carrying his
+tribute to Mr. Simpson the day before. He held three volumes under his
+arm, and spoke in such a pleasant, insinuating sort of way, that I
+knew at once he was an adept in his profession of canvasser.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you be seated, Mr. Macpherson? In what can I serve you?'</p>
+
+<p>He placed the three volumes, backs upward, on my table.</p>
+
+<p>'Are you interested at all in first editions, Mr. Webster?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is the one thing I am interested in,' I replied; 'but
+unfortunately they often run into a lot of money.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is true,' said Macpherson sympathetically, 'and I have here
+three books, one of which is an exemplification of what you say. This
+one costs a hundred pounds. The last copy that was sold by auction in
+London brought a hundred and twenty-three pounds. This next one is
+forty pounds, and the third ten pounds. At these prices I am certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+you could not duplicate three such treasures in any book shop in
+Britain.'</p>
+
+<p>I examined them critically, and saw at once that what he said was
+true. He was still standing on the opposite side of the table.</p>
+
+<p>'Please take a chair, Mr. Macpherson. Do you mean to say you go round
+London with a hundred and fifty pounds worth of goods under your arm
+in this careless way?'</p>
+
+<p>The young man laughed.</p>
+
+<p>'I run very little risk, Mr. Webster. I don't suppose anyone I meet
+imagines for a moment there is more under my arm than perhaps a trio
+of volumes I have picked up in the fourpenny box to take home with
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>I lingered over the volume for which he asked a hundred pounds, then
+said, looking across at him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'How came you to be possessed of this book, for instance?'</p>
+
+<p>He turned upon me a fine, open countenance, and answered without
+hesitation in the frankest possible manner,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am not in actual possession of it, Mr. Webster. I am by way of being
+a connoisseur in rare and valuable books myself, although, of course,
+I have little money with which to indulge in the collection of them. I
+am acquainted, however, with the lovers of desirable books in
+different quarters of London. These three volumes, for instance, are
+from the library of a private gentleman in the West End. I have sold
+many books to him, and he knows I am trustworthy. He wishes to dispose
+of them at something under their real value, and has kindly allowed me
+to conduct the negotiation. I make it my business to find out those
+who are interested in rare books, and by such trading I add
+considerably to my income.'</p>
+
+<p>'How, for instance, did you learn that I was a bibliophile?'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Macpherson laughed genially.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Mr. Webster, I must confess that I chanced it. I do that very
+often. I take a flat like this, and send in my card to the name on the
+door. If I am invited in, I ask the occupant the question I asked you
+just now: "Are you interested in rare editions?" If he says no, I
+simply beg pardon and retire. If he says yes, then I show my wares.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see,' said I, nodding. What a glib young liar he was, with that
+innocent face of his, and yet my next question brought forth the
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>'As this is the first time you have called upon me, Mr. Macpherson,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+you have no objection to my making some further inquiry, I suppose.
+Would you mind telling me the name of the owner of these books in the
+West End?'</p>
+
+<p>'His name is Mr. Ralph Summertrees, of Park Lane.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of Park Lane? Ah, indeed.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be glad to leave the books with you, Mr. Webster, and if you
+care to make an appointment with Mr. Summertrees, I am sure he will not
+object to say a word in my favour.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I do not in the least doubt it, and should not think of troubling
+the gentleman.'</p>
+
+<p>'I was going to tell you,' went on the young man, 'that I have a
+friend, a capitalist, who, in a way, is my supporter; for, as I said,
+I have little money of my own. I find it is often inconvenient for
+people to pay down any considerable sum. When, however, I strike a
+bargain, my capitalist buys the book, and I make an arrangement with
+my customer to pay a certain amount each week, and so even a large
+purchase is not felt, as I make the instalments small enough to suit
+my client.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are employed during the day, I take it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I am a clerk in the City.'</p>
+
+<p>Again we were in the blissful realms of fiction!</p>
+
+<p>'Suppose I take this book at ten pounds, what instalment should I have
+to pay each week?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, what you like, sir. Would five shillings be too much?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think not.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, sir, if you pay me five shillings now, I will leave the
+book with you, and shall have pleasure in calling this day week for
+the next instalment.'</p>
+
+<p>I put my hand into my pocket, and drew out two half-crowns, which I
+passed over to him.</p>
+
+<p>'Do I need to sign any form or undertaking to pay the rest?'</p>
+
+<p>The young man laughed cordially.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no, sir, there is no formality necessary. You see, sir, this is
+largely a labour of love with me, although I don't deny I have my eye
+on the future. I am getting together what I hope will be a very
+valuable connection with gentlemen like yourself who are fond of
+books, and I trust some day that I may be able to resign my place with
+the insurance company and set up a choice little business of my own,
+where my knowledge of values in literature will prove useful.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And then, after making a note in a little book he took from his
+pocket, he bade me a most graceful good-bye and departed, leaving me
+cogitating over what it all meant.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning two articles were handed to me. The first came by post
+and was a pamphlet on <i>Christian Science and Absent-Mindedness</i>,
+exactly similar to the one I had taken away from the old curiosity
+shop; the second was a small key made from my wax impression that
+would fit the front door of the same shop&mdash;a key fashioned by an
+excellent anarchist friend of mine in an obscure street near Holborn.</p>
+
+<p>That night at ten o'clock I was inside the old curiosity shop, with a
+small storage battery in my pocket, and a little electric glow-lamp at
+my buttonhole, a most useful instrument for either burglar or
+detective.</p>
+
+<p>I had expected to find the books of the establishment in a safe,
+which, if it was similar to the one in Park Lane, I was prepared to
+open with the false keys in my possession or to take an impression of
+the keyhole and trust to my anarchist friend for the rest. But to my
+amazement I discovered all the papers pertaining to the concern in a
+desk which was not even locked. The books, three in number, were the
+ordinary day book, journal, and ledger referring to the shop;
+book-keeping of the older fashion; but in a portfolio lay half a dozen
+foolscap sheets, headed 'Mr. Rogers's List', 'Mr. Macpherson's', 'Mr
+Tyrrel's', the names I had already learned, and three others. These
+lists contained in the first column, names; in the second column,
+addresses; in the third, sums of money; and then in the small, square
+places following were amounts ranging from two-and-sixpence to a
+pound. At the bottom of Mr. Macpherson's list was the name Alport
+Webster, Imperial Flats, &pound;10; then in the small, square place, five
+shillings. These six sheets, each headed by a canvasser's name, were
+evidently the record of current collections, and the innocence of the
+whole thing was so apparent that if it were not for my fixed rule
+never to believe that I am at the bottom of any case until I have come
+on something suspicious, I would have gone out empty-handed as I came
+in.</p>
+
+<p>The six sheets were loose in a thin portfolio, but standing on a shelf
+above the desk were a number of fat volumes, one of which I took down,
+and saw that it contained similar lists running back several years. I
+noticed on Mr. Macpherson's current list the name of Lord Semptam, an
+eccentric old nobleman whom I knew slightly. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> turning to the list
+immediately before the current one the name was still there; I traced
+it back through list after list until I found the first entry, which
+was no less than three years previous, and there Lord Semptam was down
+for a piece of furniture costing fifty pounds, and on that account he
+had paid a pound a week for more than three years, totalling a hundred
+and seventy pounds at the least, and instantly the glorious simplicity
+of the scheme dawned upon me, and I became so interested in the
+swindle that I lit the gas, fearing my little lamp would be exhausted
+before my investigation ended, for it promised to be a long one.</p>
+
+<p>In several instances the intended victim proved shrewder than old
+Simpson had counted upon, and the word 'Settled' had been written on
+the line carrying the name when the exact number of instalments was
+paid. But as these shrewd persons dropped out, others took their
+places, and Simpson's dependence on their absent-mindedness seemed to
+be justified in nine cases out of ten. His collectors were collecting
+long after the debt had been paid. In Lord Semptam's case, the payment
+had evidently become chronic, and the old man was giving away his
+pound a week to the suave Macpherson two years after his debt had been
+liquidated.</p>
+
+<p>From the big volume I detached the loose leaf, dated 1893, which
+recorded Lord Semptam's purchase of a carved table for fifty pounds,
+and on which he had been paying a pound a week from that time to the
+date of which I am writing, which was November, 1896. This single
+document taken from the file of three years previous, was not likely
+to be missed, as would have been the case if I had selected a current
+sheet. I nevertheless made a copy of the names and addresses of
+Macpherson's present clients; then, carefully placing everything
+exactly as I had found it, I extinguished the gas, and went out of the
+shop, locking the door behind me. With the 1893 sheet in my pocket I
+resolved to prepare a pleasant little surprise for my suave friend
+Macpherson when he called to get his next instalment of five
+shillings.</p>
+
+<p>Late as was the hour when I reached Trafalgar Square, I could not
+deprive myself of the felicity of calling on Mr. Spenser Hale, who I
+knew was then on duty. He never appeared at his best during office
+hours, because officialism stiffened his stalwart frame. Mentally he
+was impressed with the importance of his position, and added to this
+he was not then allowed to smoke his big, black pipe and terrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+tobacco. He received me with the curtness I had been taught to expect
+when I inflicted myself upon him at his office. He greeted me abruptly
+with,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I say, Valmont, how long do you expect to be on this job?'</p>
+
+<p>'What job?' I asked mildly.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you know what I mean: the Summertrees affair.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, <i>that</i>!' I exclaimed, with surprise. 'The Summertrees case is
+already completed, of course. If I had known you were in a hurry, I
+should have finished up everything yesterday, but as you and Podgers,
+and I don't know how many more, have been at it sixteen or seventeen
+days, if not longer, I thought I might venture to take as many hours,
+as I am working entirely alone. You said nothing about haste, you
+know.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, come now, Valmont, that's a bit thick. Do you mean to say you
+have already got evidence against the man?'</p>
+
+<p>'Evidence absolute and complete.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then who are the coiners?'</p>
+
+<p>'My most estimable friend, how often have I told you not to jump at
+conclusions? I informed you when you first spoke to me about the
+matter that Summertrees was neither a coiner nor a confederate of
+coiners. I secured evidence sufficient to convict him of quite another
+offence, which is probably unique in the annals of crime. I have
+penetrated the mystery of the shop, and discovered the reason for all
+those suspicious actions which quite properly set you on his trail.
+Now I wish you to come to my flat next Wednesday night at a quarter to
+six, prepared to make an arrest.'</p>
+
+<p>'I must know who I am to arrest, and on what counts.'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite so, <i>mon ami</i> Hale; I did not say you were to make an arrest,
+but merely warned you to be prepared. If you have time now to listen
+to the disclosures, I am quite at your service. I promise you there
+are some original features in the case. If, however, the present
+moment is inopportune, drop in on me at your convenience, previously
+telephoning so that you may know whether I am there or not, and thus
+your valuable time will not be expended purposelessly.'</p>
+
+<p>With this I presented to him my most courteous bow, and although his
+mystified expression hinted a suspicion that he thought I was chaffing
+him, as he would call it, official dignity dissolved somewhat, and he
+intimated his desire to hear all about it then and there. I had
+succeeded in arousing my friend Hale's curiosity. He listened to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+evidence with perplexed brow, and at last ejaculated he would be
+blessed.</p>
+
+<p>'This young man,' I said, in conclusion, 'will call upon me at six on
+Wednesday afternoon, to receive his second five shillings. I propose
+that you, in your uniform, shall be seated there with me to receive
+him, and I am anxious to study Mr. Macpherson's countenance when he
+realises he has walked in to confront a policeman. If you will then
+allow me to cross-examine him for a few moments, not after the manner
+of Scotland Yard, with a warning lest he incriminate himself, but in
+the free and easy fashion we adopt in Paris, I shall afterwards turn
+the case over to you to be dealt with at your discretion.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have a wonderful flow of language, Monsieur Valmont,' was the
+officer's tribute to me. 'I shall be on hand at a quarter to six on
+Wednesday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Meanwhile,' said I, 'kindly say nothing of this to anyone. We must
+arrange a complete surprise for Macpherson. That is essential. Please
+make no move in the matter at all until Wednesday night.'</p>
+
+<p>Spenser Hale, much impressed, nodded acquiescence, and I took a polite
+leave of him.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The question of lighting is an important one in a room such as mine,
+and electricity offers a good deal of scope to the ingenious. Of this
+fact I have taken full advantage. I can manipulate the lighting of my
+room so that any particular spot is bathed in brilliancy, while the
+rest of the space remains in comparative gloom, and I arranged the
+lamps so that the full force of their rays impinged against the door
+that Wednesday evening, while I sat on one side of the table in
+semi-darkness and Hale sat on the other, with a light beating down on
+him from above which gave him the odd, sculptured look of a living
+statue of Justice, stern and triumphant. Anyone entering the room
+would first be dazzled by the light, and next would see the gigantic
+form of Hale in the full uniform of his order.</p>
+
+<p>When Angus Macpherson was shown into this room he was quite visibly
+taken aback, and paused abruptly on the threshold, his gaze riveted on
+the huge policeman. I think his first purpose was to turn and run, but
+the door closed behind him, and he doubtless heard, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> we all did,
+the sound of the bolt being thrust in its place, thus locking him in.</p>
+
+<p>'I&mdash;I beg your pardon,' he stammered, 'I expected to meet Mr. Webster.'</p>
+
+<p>As he said this, I pressed the button under my table, and was
+instantly enshrouded with light. A sickly smile overspread the
+countenance of Macpherson as he caught sight of me, and he made a very
+creditable attempt to carry off the situation with nonchalance.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, there you are, Mr. Webster; I did not notice you at first.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a tense moment. I spoke slowly and impressively.</p>
+
+<p>'Sir, perhaps you are not unacquainted with the name of Eug&egrave;ne
+Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>He replied brazenly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry to say, sir, I never heard of the gentleman before.'</p>
+
+<p>At this came a most inopportune 'Haw-haw' from that blockhead Spenser
+Hale, completely spoiling the dramatic situation I had elaborated with
+such thought and care. It is little wonder the English possess no
+drama, for they show scant appreciation of the sensational moments in
+life.</p>
+
+<p>'Haw-haw,' brayed Spenser Hale, and at once reduced the emotional
+atmosphere to a fog of commonplace. However, what is a man to do? He
+must handle the tools with which it pleases Providence to provide him.
+I ignored Hale's untimely laughter.</p>
+
+<p>'Sit down, sir,' I said to Macpherson, and he obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>'You have called on Lord Semptam this week,' I continued sternly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'And collected a pound from him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'In October, 1893, you sold Lord Semptam a carved antique table for
+fifty pounds?'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite right, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'When you were here last week you gave me Ralph Summertrees as the
+name of a gentleman living in Park Lane. You knew at the time that
+this man was your employer?'</p>
+
+<p>Macpherson was now looking fixedly at me, and on this occasion made no
+reply. I went on calmly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'You also knew that Summertrees, of Park Lane, was identical with
+Simpson, of Tottenham Court Road?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir,' said Macpherson, 'I don't exactly see what you're<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+driving at, but it's quite usual for a man to carry on a business
+under an assumed name. There is nothing illegal about that.'</p>
+
+<p>'We will come to the illegality in a moment, Mr. Macpherson. You, and
+Rogers, and Tyrrel, and three others, are confederates of this man
+Simpson.'</p>
+
+<p>'We are in his employ; yes, sir, but no more confederates than clerks
+usually are.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think, Mr. Macpherson, I have said enough to show you that the game
+is, what you call, up. You are now in the presence of Mr. Spenser Hale,
+from Scotland Yard, who is waiting to hear your confession.'</p>
+
+<p>Here the stupid Hale broke in with his&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'And remember, sir, that anything you say will be&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Excuse me, Mr. Hale,' I interrupted hastily, 'I shall turn over the
+case to you in a very few moments, but I ask you to remember our
+compact, and to leave it for the present entirely in my hands. Now, Mr
+Macpherson, I want your confession, and I want it at once.'</p>
+
+<p>'Confession? Confederates?' protested Macpherson with admirably
+simulated surprise. 'I must say you use extraordinary terms,
+Mr&mdash;Mr&mdash;What did you say the name was?'</p>
+
+<p>'Haw-haw,' roared Hale. 'His name is Monsieur Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>'I implore you, Mr. Hale, to leave this man to me for a very few
+moments. Now, Macpherson, what have you to say in your defence?'</p>
+
+<p>'Where nothing criminal has been alleged, Monsieur Valmont, I see no
+necessity for defence. If you wish me to admit that somehow you have
+acquired a number of details regarding our business, I am perfectly
+willing to do so, and to subscribe to their accuracy. If you will be
+good enough to let me know of what you complain, I shall endeavour to
+make the point clear to you if I can. There has evidently been some
+misapprehension, but for the life of me, without further explanation,
+I am as much in a fog as I was on my way coming here, for it is
+getting a little thick outside.'</p>
+
+<p>Macpherson certainly was conducting himself with great discretion, and
+presented, quite unconsciously, a much more diplomatic figure than my
+friend, Spenser Hale, sitting stiffly opposite me. His tone was one of
+mild expostulation, mitigated by the intimation that all
+misunderstanding speedily would be cleared away. To outward view he
+offered a perfect picture of innocence, neither protesting too much
+nor too little. I had, however, another surprise in store for him, a
+trump card, as it were, and I played it down on the table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'There!' I cried with vim, 'have you ever seen that sheet before?'</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at it without offering to take it in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes,' he said, 'that has been abstracted from our file. It is
+what I call my visiting list.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, come, sir,' I cried sternly, 'you refuse to confess, but I warn
+you we know all about it. You never heard of Dr. Willoughby, I
+suppose?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he is the author of the silly pamphlet on Christian Science.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are in the right, Mr. Macpherson; on Christian Science and
+Absent-Mindedness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Possibly. I haven't read it for a long while.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you ever met this learned doctor, Mr. Macpherson?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes. Dr. Willoughby is the pen-name of Mr. Summertrees. He believes
+in Christian Science and that sort of thing, and writes about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, really. We are getting your confession bit by bit, Mr. Macpherson.
+I think it would be better to be quite frank with us.'</p>
+
+<p>'I was just going to make the same suggestion to you, Monsieur
+Valmont. If you will tell me in a few words exactly what is your
+charge against either Mr. Summertrees or myself, I will know then what
+to say.'</p>
+
+<p>'We charge you, sir, with obtaining money under false pretences, which
+is a crime that has landed more than one distinguished financier in
+prison.'</p>
+
+<p>Spenser Hale shook his fat forefinger at me, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Tut, tut, Valmont; we mustn't threaten, we mustn't threaten, you
+know;' but I went on without heeding him.</p>
+
+<p>'Take for instance, Lord Semptam. You sold him a table for fifty
+pounds, on the instalment plan. He was to pay a pound a week, and in
+less than a year the debt was liquidated. But he is an absent-minded
+man, as all your clients are. That is why you came to me. I had
+answered the bogus Willoughby's advertisement. And so you kept on
+collecting and collecting for something more than three years. Now do
+you understand the charge?'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Macpherson's head during this accusation was held slightly inclined
+to one side. At first his face was clouded by the most clever
+imitation of anxious concentration of mind I had ever seen, and this
+was gradually cleared away by the dawn of awakening perception. When I
+had finished, an ingratiating smile hovered about his lips.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Really, you know,' he said, 'that is rather a capital scheme. The
+absent-minded league, as one might call them. Most ingenious.
+Summertrees, if he had any sense of humour, which he hasn't, would be
+rather taken by the idea that his innocent fad for Christian Science
+had led him to be suspected of obtaining money under false pretences.
+But, really, there are no pretensions about the matter at all. As I
+understand it, I simply call and receive the money through the
+forgetfulness of the persons on my list, but where I think you would
+have both Summertrees and myself, if there was anything in your
+audacious theory, would be an indictment for conspiracy. Still, I
+quite see how the mistake arises. You have jumped to the conclusion
+that we sold nothing to Lord Semptam except that carved table three
+years ago. I have pleasure in pointing out to you that his lordship is
+a frequent customer of ours, and has had many things from us at one
+time or another. Sometimes he is in our debt; sometimes we are in his.
+We keep a sort of running contract with him by which he pays us a
+pound a week. He and several other customers deal on the same plan,
+and in return for an income that we can count upon, they get the first
+offer of anything in which they are supposed to be interested. As I
+have told you, we call these sheets in the office our visiting lists,
+but to make the visiting lists complete you need what we term our
+encyclopaedia. We call it that because it is in so many volumes; a
+volume for each year, running back I don't know how long. You will
+notice little figures here from time to time above the amount stated
+on this visiting list. These figures refer to the page of the
+encyclopaedia for the current year, and on that page is noted the new
+sale, and the amount of it, as it might be set down, say, in a
+ledger.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is a very entertaining explanation, Mr. Macpherson. I suppose
+this encyclopaedia, as you call it, is in the shop at Tottenham Court
+Road?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no, sir. Each volume of the encyclopaedia is self-locking. These
+books contain the real secret of our business, and they are kept in
+the safe at Mr. Summertrees' house in Park Lane. Take Lord Semptam's
+account, for instance. You will find in faint figures under a certain
+date, 102. If you turn to page 102 of the encyclopaedia for that year,
+you will then see a list of what Lord Semptam has bought, and the
+prices he was charged for them. It is really a very simple matter. If
+you will allow me to use your telephone for a moment, I will ask Mr
+Summertrees, who has not yet begun dinner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> to bring with him here the
+volume for 1893, and, within a quarter of an hour, you will be
+perfectly satisfied that everything is quite legitimate.'</p>
+
+<p>I confess that the young man's naturalness and confidence staggered
+me, the more so as I saw by the sarcastic smile on Hale's lips that he
+did not believe a single word spoken. A portable telephone stood on
+the table, and as Macpherson finished his explanation, he reached over
+and drew it towards him. Then Spenser Hale interfered.</p>
+
+<p>'Excuse <i>me</i>,' he said, 'I'll do the telephoning. What is the call
+number of Mr. Summertrees?'</p>
+
+<p>'140 Hyde Park.'</p>
+
+<p>Hale at once called up Central, and presently was answered from Park
+Lane. We heard him say,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Is this the residence of Mr. Summertrees? Oh, is that you, Podgers? Is
+Mr. Summertrees in? Very well. This is Hale. I am in Valmont's
+flat&mdash;Imperial Flats&mdash;you know. Yes, where you went with me the other
+day. Very well, go to Mr. Summertrees, and say to him that Mr
+Macpherson wants the encyclopaedia for 1893. Do you get that? Yes,
+encyclopaedia. Oh, he'll understand what it is. Mr. Macpherson. No,
+don't mention my name at all. Just say Mr. Macpherson wants the
+encyclopaedia for the year 1893, and that you are to bring it. Yes,
+you may tell him that Mr. Macpherson is at Imperial Flats, but don't
+mention my name at all. Exactly. As soon as he gives you the book, get
+into a cab, and come here as quickly as possible with it. If
+Summertrees doesn't want to let the book go, then tell him to come
+with you. If he won't do that, place him under arrest, and bring both
+him and the book here. All right. Be as quick as you can; we're
+waiting.'</p>
+
+<p>Macpherson made no protest against Hale's use of the telephone; he
+merely sat back in his chair with a resigned expression on his face
+which, if painted on canvas, might have been entitled 'The Falsely
+Accused.' When Hale rang off, Macpherson said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Of course you know your own business best, but if your man arrests
+Summertrees, he will make you the laughing-stock of London. There is
+such a thing as unjustifiable arrest, as well as getting money under
+false pretences, and Mr. Summertrees is not the man to forgive an
+insult. And then, if you will allow me to say so, the more I think
+over your absent-minded theory, the more absolutely grotesque it
+seems, and if the case ever gets into the newspapers, I am sure, Mr<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+Hale, you'll experience an uncomfortable half-hour with your chiefs at
+Scotland Yard.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll take the risk of that, thank you,' said Hale stubbornly.</p>
+
+<p>'Am I to consider myself under arrest?' inquired the young man.</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then, if you will pardon me, I shall withdraw. Mr. Summertrees will
+show you everything you wish to see in his books, and can explain his
+business much more capably than I, because he knows more about it;
+therefore, gentlemen, I bid you good-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'No you don't. Not just yet awhile,' exclaimed Hale, rising to his
+feet simultaneously with the young man.</p>
+
+<p>'Then I <i>am</i> under arrest,' protested Macpherson.</p>
+
+<p>'You're not going to leave this room until Podgers brings that book.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, very well,' and he sat down again.</p>
+
+<p>And now, as talking is dry work, I set out something to drink, a box
+of cigars, and a box of cigarettes. Hale mixed his favourite brew, but
+Macpherson, shunning the wine of his country, contented himself with a
+glass of plain mineral water, and lit a cigarette. Then he awoke my
+high regard by saying pleasantly as if nothing had happened,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'While we are waiting, Monsieur Valmont, may I remind you that you owe
+me five shillings?'</p>
+
+<p>I laughed, took the coin from my pocket, and paid him, whereupon he
+thanked me.</p>
+
+<p>'Are you connected with Scotland Yard, Monsieur Valmont?' asked
+Macpherson, with the air of a man trying to make conversation to
+bridge over a tedious interval; but before I could reply, Hale blurted
+out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Not likely!'</p>
+
+<p>'You have no official standing as a detective, then, Monsieur
+Valmont?'</p>
+
+<p>'None whatever,' I replied quickly, thus getting in my oar ahead of
+Hale.</p>
+
+<p>'This is a loss to our country,' pursued this admirable young man,
+with evident sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>I began to see I could make a good deal of so clever a fellow if he
+came under my tuition.</p>
+
+<p>'The blunders of our police', he went on, 'are something deplorable.
+If they would but take lessons in strategy, say, from France, their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+unpleasant duties would be so much more acceptably performed, with
+much less discomfort to their victims.'</p>
+
+<p>'France,' snorted Hale in derision, 'why, they call a man guilty there
+until he's proven innocent.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Mr. Hale, and the same seems to be the case in Imperial Flats.
+You have quite made up your mind that Mr. Summertrees is guilty, and
+will not be content until he proves his innocence. I venture to
+predict that you will hear from him before long in a manner that may
+astonish you.'</p>
+
+<p>Hale grunted and looked at his watch. The minutes passed very slowly
+as we sat there smoking, and at last even I began to get uneasy.
+Macpherson, seeing our anxiety, said that when he came in the fog was
+almost as thick as it had been the week before, and that there might
+be some difficulty in getting a cab. Just as he was speaking the door
+was unlocked from the outside, and Podgers entered, bearing a thick
+volume in his hand. This he gave to his superior, who turned over its
+pages in amazement, and then looked at the back, crying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Encyclopaedia of Sport</i>, 1893! What sort of a joke is this,
+Mr. Macpherson?'</p>
+
+<p>There was a pained look on Mr. Macpherson's face as he reached forward
+and took the book. He said with a sigh,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'If you had allowed me to telephone, Mr. Hale, I should have made it
+perfectly plain to Summertrees what was wanted. I might have known
+this mistake was liable to occur. There is an increasing demand for
+out-of-date books of sport, and no doubt Mr. Summertrees thought this
+was what I meant. There is nothing for it but to send your man back to
+Park Lane and tell Mr. Summertrees that what we want is the locked
+volume of accounts for 1893, which we call the encyclopaedia. Allow me
+to write an order that will bring it. Oh, I'll show you what I have
+written before your man takes it,' he said, as Hale stood ready to
+look over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>On my notepaper he dashed off a request such as he had outlined, and
+handed it to Hale, who read it and gave it to Podgers.</p>
+
+<p>'Take that to Summertrees, and get back as quickly as possible. Have
+you a cab at the door?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it foggy outside?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not so much, sir, as it was an hour ago. No difficulty about the
+traffic now, sir.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Very well, get back as soon as you can.'</p>
+
+<p>Podgers saluted, and left with the book under his arm. Again the door
+was locked, and again we sat smoking in silence until the stillness
+was broken by the tinkle of the telephone. Hale put the receiver to
+his ear.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, this is the Imperial Flats. Yes. Valmont. Oh, yes; Macpherson is
+here. What? Out of what? Can't hear you. Out of print. What, the
+encyclopaedia's out of print? Who is that speaking? Dr. Willoughby;
+thanks.'</p>
+
+<p>Macpherson rose as if he would go to the telephone, but instead (and
+he acted so quietly that I did not notice what he was doing until the
+thing was done), he picked up the sheet which he called his visiting
+list, and walking quite without haste, held it in the glowing coals of
+the fireplace until it disappeared in a flash of flame up the chimney.
+I sprang to my feet indignant, but too late to make even a motion
+outwards saving the sheet. Macpherson regarded us both with that
+self-deprecatory smile which had several times lighted up his face.</p>
+
+<p>'How dared you burn that sheet?' I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>'Because, Monsieur Valmont, it did not belong to you; because you do
+not belong to Scotland Yard; because you stole it; because you had no
+right to it; and because you have no official standing in this
+country. If it had been in Mr. Hale's possession I should not have
+dared, as you put it, to destroy the sheet, but as this sheet was
+abstracted from my master's premises by you, an entirely unauthorised
+person, whom he would have been justified in shooting dead if he had
+found you housebreaking and you had resisted him on his discovery, I
+took the liberty of destroying the document. I have always held that
+these sheets should not have been kept, for, as has been the case, if
+they fell under the scrutiny of so intelligent a person as Eug&egrave;ne
+Valmont, improper inferences might have been drawn. Mr. Summertrees,
+however, persisted in keeping them, but made this concession, that if
+I ever telegraphed him or telephoned him the word "Encyclopaedia", he
+would at once burn these records, and he, on his part, was to
+telegraph or telephone to me "The <i>Encyclopaedia</i> is out of print,"
+whereupon I would know that he had succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, gentlemen, open this door, which will save me the trouble of
+forcing it. Either put me formally under arrest, or cease to restrict
+my liberty. I am very much obliged to Mr. Hale for telephoning, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+have made no protest to so gallant a host as Monsieur Valmont is,
+because of the locked door. However, the farce is now terminated. The
+proceedings I have sat through were entirely illegal, and if you will
+pardon me, Mr. Hale, they have been a little too French to go down here
+in old England, or to make a report in the newspapers that would be
+quite satisfactory to your chiefs. I demand either my formal arrest,
+or the unlocking of that door.'</p>
+
+<p>In silence I pressed a button, and my man threw open the door.
+Macpherson walked to the threshold, paused, and looked back at Spenser
+Hale, who sat there silent as a sphinx.</p>
+
+<p>'Good-evening, Mr. Hale.'</p>
+
+<p>There being no reply, he turned to me with the same ingratiating
+smile,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Good-evening, Monsieur Eug&egrave;ne Valmont,' he said, 'I shall give myself
+the pleasure of calling next Wednesday at six for my five shillings.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="The_Ghost_with_the_Club-Foot" id="The_Ghost_with_the_Club-Foot"></a>6. <i>The Ghost with the Club-Foot</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>Celebrated critics have written with scorn of what they call 'the long
+arm of coincidence' in fiction. Coincidence is supposed to be the
+device of a novelist who does not possess ingenuity enough to
+construct a book without it. In France our incomparable writers pay no
+attention to this, because they are gifted with a keener insight into
+real life than is the case with the British. The superb Charles
+Dickens, possibly as well known in France as he is wherever the
+English language is read, and who loved French soil and the French
+people, probably probed deeper into the intricacies of human character
+than any other novelist of modern times, and if you read his works,
+you will see that he continually makes use of coincidence. The
+experience that has come to me throughout my own strange and varied
+career convinces me that coincidence happens in real life with
+exceeding frequency, and this fact is especially borne in upon me when
+I set out to relate my conflict with the Rantremly ghost, which
+wrought startling changes upon the lives of two people, one an
+objectionable, domineering man, and the other a humble and crushed
+woman. Of course, there was a third person, and the consequences that
+came to him were the most striking of all, as you will learn if you do
+me the honour to read this account of the episode.</p>
+
+<p>So far as coincidence is concerned, there was first the arrival of the
+newspaper clipping, then the coming of Sophia Brooks, and when that
+much-injured woman left my flat I wrote down this sentence on a sheet
+of paper:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Before the week is out, I predict that Lord Rantremly himself will
+call to see me.'</p>
+
+<p>Next day my servant brought in the card of Lord Rantremly.</p>
+
+<p>I must begin with the visit of Sophia Brooks, for though that comes
+second, yet I had paid no attention in particular to the newspaper
+clipping until the lady told her story. My man brought me a
+typewritten sheet of paper on which were inscribed the words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Sophia Brooks, Typewriting and Translating Office, First Floor, No. 51
+Beaumont Street, Strand, London, W.C.'</p>
+
+<p>I said to my servant,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Tell the lady as kindly as possible that I have no typewriting work
+to give out, and that, in fact, I keep a stenographer and typewriting
+machine on the premises.'</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later my man returned, and said the lady wished to see
+me, not about typewriting, but regarding a case in which she hoped to
+interest me. I was still in some hesitation about admitting her, for
+my transactions had now risen to a higher plane than when I was new to
+London. My expenses were naturally very heavy, and it was not possible
+for me, in justice to myself, to waste time in commissions from the
+poor, which even if they resulted successfully meant little money
+added to my banking account, and often nothing at all, because the
+client was unable to pay. As I remarked before, I possess a heart the
+most tender, and therefore must greatly to my grief, steel myself
+against the enlisting of my sympathy, which, alas! has frequently led
+to my financial loss. Still, sometimes the apparently poor are
+involved in matters of extreme importance, and England is so eccentric
+a country that one may find himself at fault if he closes his door too
+harshly. Indeed, ever since my servant, in the utmost good faith,
+threw downstairs the persistent and tattered beggar-man, who he
+learned later to his sorrow was actually his Grace the Duke of
+Ventnor, I have always cautioned my subordinates not to judge too
+hastily from appearances.</p>
+
+<p>'Show the lady in,' I said, and there came to me, hesitating,
+backward, abashed, a middle-aged woman, dressed with distressing
+plainness, when one thinks of the charming costumes to be seen on a
+Parisian boulevard. Her subdued manner was that of one to whom the
+world had been cruel. I rose, bowed profoundly, and placed a chair at
+her disposal, with the air I should have used if my caller had been a
+Royal Princess. I claim no credit for this; it is of my nature. There
+you behold Eug&egrave;ne Valmont. My visitor was a woman. <i>Voil&agrave;!</i></p>
+
+<p>'Madam,' I said politely, 'in what may I have the pleasure of serving
+you?'</p>
+
+<p>The poor woman seemed for the moment confused, and was, I feared, on
+the verge of tears, but at last she spoke, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps you have read in the newspapers of the tragedy at Rantremly
+Castle?'</p>
+
+<p>'The name, madam, remains in my memory, associated elusively with some
+hint of seriousness. Will you pardon me a moment?' and a vague thought
+that I had seen the castle mentioned either in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> newspaper, or a
+clipping from one, caused me to pick up the latest bunch which had
+come from my agent. I am imbued with no vanity at all; still it is
+amusing to note what the newspapers say of one, and therefore I have
+subscribed to a clipping agency. In fact, I indulge in two
+subscriptions&mdash;one personal; the other calling for any pronouncement
+pertaining to the differences between England and France; for it is my
+determination yet to write a book on the comparative characteristics
+of the two people. I hold a theory that the English people are utterly
+incomprehensible to the rest of humanity, and this will be duly set
+out in my forthcoming volume.</p>
+
+<p>I speedily found the clipping I was in search of. It proved to be a
+letter to the <i>Times</i>, and was headed: 'Proposed Destruction of
+Rantremly Castle'. The letter went on to say that this edifice was one
+of the most noted examples of Norman architecture in the north of
+England; that Charles II had hidden there for some days after his
+disastrous defeat at Worcester. Part of the castle had been battered
+down by Cromwell, and later it again proved the refuge of a Stuart
+when the Pretender made it a temporary place of concealment. The new
+Lord Rantremly, it seemed, had determined to demolish this ancient
+stronghold, so interesting architecturally and historically, and to
+build with its stones a modern residence. Against this act of
+vandalism the writer strongly protested, and suggested that England
+should acquire the power which France constantly exerts, in making an
+historical monument of an edifice so interwoven with the fortunes of
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, madam,' I said, 'all this extract alludes to is the coming
+demolition of Rantremly Castle. Is that the tragedy of which you
+speak?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' she exclaimed; 'I mean the death of the eleventh Lord
+Rantremly about six weeks ago. For ten years Lord Rantremly lived
+practically alone in the castle. Servants would not remain there
+because the place was haunted, and well it may be, for a terrible
+family the Rantremlys have been, and a cruel, as I shall be able to
+tell you. Up to a month and a half ago Lord Rantremly was waited on by
+a butler older than himself, and if possible, more wicked. One morning
+this old butler came up the stairs from the kitchen, with Lord
+Rantremly's breakfast on a silver tray, as was his custom. His
+lordship always partook of breakfast in his own room. It is not known
+how the accident happened, as the old servant was going up the stairs
+instead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> of coming down, but the steps are very smooth and slippery,
+and without a carpet; at any rate, he seems to have fallen from the
+top to the bottom, and lay there with a broken neck. Lord Rantremly,
+who was very deaf, seemingly did not hear the crash, and it is
+supposed that after ringing and ringing in vain, and doubtless working
+himself into a violent fit of temper&mdash;alas! too frequent an
+occurrence&mdash;the old nobleman got out of bed, and walked barefooted
+down the stair, coming at last upon the body of his ancient servant.
+There the man who arrived every morning to light the fires found them,
+the servant dead, and Lord Rantremly helpless from an attack of
+paralysis. The physicians say that only his eyes seemed alive, and
+they were filled with a great fear, and indeed that is not to be
+wondered at, after his wicked, wicked life. His right hand was but
+partially disabled, and with that he tried to scribble something which
+proved indecipherable. And so he died, and those who attended him at
+his last moments say that if ever a soul had a taste of future
+punishment before it left this earth, it was the soul of Lord
+Rantremly as it shone through those terror-stricken eyes.'</p>
+
+<p>Here the woman stopped, with a catch in her breath, as if the fear of
+that grim death-bed had communicated itself to her. I interjected
+calmness into an emotional situation by remarking in a commonplace
+tone,&mdash;'And it is the present Lord Rantremly who proposes to destroy
+the Castle, I suppose?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he the son of the late lord?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; he is a distant relative. The branch of the family to which he
+belongs has been engaged in commerce, and, I believe, its members are
+very wealthy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, madam, no doubt this is all extremely interesting, and rather
+gruesome. In what way are you concerned in these occurrences?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ten years ago I replied to an advertisement, there being required one
+who knew shorthand, who possessed a typewriting machine and a
+knowledge of French, to act as secretary to a nobleman. I was at that
+time twenty-three years old, and for two years had been trying to earn
+my living in London through the typing of manuscript. But I was making
+a hard struggle of it, so I applied for this position and got it.
+There are in the library of Rantremly Castle many documents relating
+to the Stuart exile in France. His lordship wished these docu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>ments
+sorted and catalogued, as well as copies taken of each. Many of the
+letters were in the French language, and these I was required to
+translate and type. It was a sombre place of residence, but the salary
+was good, and I saw before me work enough to keep me busy for years.
+Besides this, the task was extremely congenial, and I became absorbed
+in it, being young and romantically inclined. Here I seemed to live in
+the midst of these wonderful intrigues of long ago. Documents passed
+through my hands whose very possession at one period meant capital
+danger, bringing up even now visions of block, axe, and masked
+headsman. It seemed strange to me that so sinister a man as Lord
+Rantremly, who, I had heard, cared for nothing but drink and gambling,
+should have desired to promote this historical research, and, indeed,
+I soon found he felt nothing but contempt for it. However, he had
+undertaken it at the instance of his only son, then a young man of my
+own age, at Oxford University.</p>
+
+<p>'Lord Rantremly at that time was sixty-five years old. His countenance
+was dark, harsh, and imperious, and his language brutal. He indulged
+in frightful outbursts of temper, but he paid so well for service that
+there was no lack of it, as there has been since the ghost appeared
+some years ago. He was very tall, and of commanding appearance, but
+had a deformity in the shape of a club-foot, and walked with the
+halting step of those so afflicted. There were at that time servants
+in plenty at the castle, for although a tradition existed that the
+ghost of the founder of the house trod certain rooms, this ghost, it
+was said, never demonstrated its presence when the living
+representative of the family was a man with a club-foot. Tradition
+further affirmed that if this club-footed ghost allowed its halting
+footsteps to be heard while the reigning lord possessed a similar
+deformity, the conjunction foreshadowed the passing of title and
+estates to a stranger. The ghost haunted the castle only when it was
+occupied by a descendant whose two feet were normal. It seems that the
+founder of the house was a club-footed man, and this disagreeable
+peculiarity often missed one generation, and sometimes two, while at
+other times both father and son had club-feet, as was the case with
+the late Lord Rantremly and the young man at Oxford. I am not a
+believer in the supernatural, of course, but nevertheless it is
+strange that within the past few years everyone residing in the castle
+has heard the club-footed ghost, and now title and estates descend to
+a family that were utter strangers to the Rantremlys.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Well, madam, this also sounds most alluring, and were my time not
+taken up with affairs more material than those to which you allude, I
+should be content to listen all day, but as it is&mdash;' I spread my hands
+and shrugged my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>The woman with a deep sigh said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry to have taken so long, but I wished you to understand the
+situation, and now I will come direct to the heart of the case. I
+worked alone in the library, as I told you, much interested in what I
+was doing. The chaplain, a great friend of Lord Rantremly's son, and,
+indeed, a former tutor of his, assisted me with the documents that
+were in Latin, and a friendship sprang up between us. He was an
+elderly man, and extremely unworldly. Lord Rantremly never concealed
+his scorn of this clergyman, but did not interfere with him because of
+the son.</p>
+
+<p>'My work went on very pleasantly up to the time that Reginald, the
+heir of his lordship, came down from Oxford. Then began the happiest
+days of a life that has been otherwise full of hardships and distress.
+Reginald was as different as possible from his father. In one respect
+only did he bear any resemblance to that terrible old man, and this
+resemblance was the deformity of a club-foot, a blemish which one soon
+forgot when one came to know the gentle and high-minded nature of the
+young man. As I have said, it was at his instance that Lord Rantremly
+had engaged me to set in order those historical papers. Reginald
+became enthusiastic at the progress I had made, and thus the young
+nobleman, the chaplain, and myself continued our work together with
+ever-increasing enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>'To cut short a recital which must be trying to your patience, but
+which is necessary if you are to understand the situation, I may say
+that our companionship resulted in a proposal of marriage to me, which
+I, foolishly, perhaps, and selfishly, it may be, accepted. Reginald
+knew that his father would never consent, but we enlisted the sympathy
+of the chaplain, and he, mild, unworldly man, married us one day in
+the consecrated chapel of the castle.</p>
+
+<p>'As I have told you, the house at that time contained many servants,
+and I think, without being sure, that the butler, whom I feared even
+more than Lord Rantremly himself, got some inkling of what was going
+forward. But, be that as it may, he and his lordship entered the
+chapel just as the ceremony was finished, and there followed an
+agonising scene. His lordship flung the ancient chaplain from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+place, and when Reginald attempted to interfere, the maddened nobleman
+struck his son full in the face with his clenched fist, and my husband
+lay as one dead on the stone floor of the chapel. By this time the
+butler had locked the doors, and had rudely torn the vestments from
+the aged, half-insensible clergyman, and with these tied him hand and
+foot. All this took place in a very few moments, and I stood there as
+one paralysed, unable either to speak or scream, not that screaming
+would have done me any good in that horrible place of thick walls. The
+butler produced a key, and unlocked a small, private door at the side
+of the chapel which led from the apartments of his lordship to the
+family pew. Then taking my husband by feet and shoulders, Lord
+Rantremly and the butler carried him out, locking the door, and
+leaving the clergyman and me prisoners in the chapel. The reverend old
+gentleman took no notice of me. He seemed to be dazed, and when at
+last I found my voice and addressed him, he merely murmured over and
+over texts of Scripture pertaining to the marriage service.</p>
+
+<p>'In a short time I heard the key turn again in the lock of the private
+door, and the butler entered alone. He unloosened the bands around the
+clergyman's knees, escorted him out, and once more locked the door
+behind him. A third time that terrible servant came back, grasped me
+roughly by the wrist, and without a word dragged me with him, along a
+narrow passage, up a stair, and finally to the main hall, and so to my
+lord's private study, which adjoined his bedroom, and there on a table
+I found my typewriting machine brought up from the library.</p>
+
+<p>'I have but the most confused recollection of what took place. I am
+not a courageous woman, and was in mortal terror both of Lord
+Rantremly and his attendant. His lordship was pacing up and down the
+room, and, when I came in, used the most unseemly language to me; then
+ordered me to write at his dictation, swearing that if I did not do
+exactly as he told me, he would finish his son, as he put it. I sat
+down at the machine, and he dictated a letter to himself, demanding
+two thousand pounds to be paid to me, otherwise I should claim that I
+was the wife of his son, secretly married. This, placing pen and ink
+before me, he compelled me to sign, and when I had done so, pleading
+to be allowed to see my husband, if only for a moment, I thought he
+was going to strike me, for he shook his fist in my face, and used
+words which were appalling to hear. That was the last I ever saw of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+Lord Rantremly, my husband, the clergyman, or the butler. I was at
+once sent off to London with my belongings, the butler himself buying
+my ticket, and flinging a handful of sovereigns into my lap as the
+train moved out.'</p>
+
+<p>Here the woman stopped, buried her face in her hands, and began to
+weep.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you done nothing about this for the past ten years?'</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>'What could I do?' she gasped. 'I had little money, and no friends.
+Who would believe my story? Besides this, Lord Rantremly retained
+possession of a letter, signed by myself, that would convict me of
+attempted blackmail, while the butler would swear to anything against
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have no marriage certificate, of course?'</p>
+
+<p>'No.'</p>
+
+<p>'What has become of the clergyman?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what of Lord Rantremly's son?'</p>
+
+<p>'It was announced that he had gone on a voyage to Australia for his
+health in a sailing ship, which was wrecked on the African coast, and
+everyone on board lost.'</p>
+
+<p>'What is your own theory?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my husband was killed by the blow given him in the chapel.'</p>
+
+<p>'Madam, that does not seem credible. A blow from the fist seldom
+kills.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he fell backwards, and his head struck the sharp stone steps at
+the foot of the altar. I know my husband was dead when the butler and
+his father carried him out.'</p>
+
+<p>'You think the clergyman was also murdered?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure of it. Both master and servant were capable of any crime or
+cruelty.'</p>
+
+<p>'You received no letters from the young man?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. You see, during our short friendship we were constantly together,
+and there was no need of correspondence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, madam, what do you expect of me?'</p>
+
+<p>'I hoped you would investigate, and find perhaps where Reginald and
+the clergyman are buried. I realise that I have no proof, but in that
+way my strange story will be corroborated.'</p>
+
+<p>I leaned back in my chair and looked at her. Truth to tell, I only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+partially credited her story myself, and yet I was positive she
+believed every word of it. Ten years brooding on a fancied injustice
+by a woman living alone, and doubtless often in dire poverty, had
+mixed together the actual and the imaginary until now, what had
+possibly been an aimless flirtation on the part of the young man,
+unexpectedly discovered by the father, had formed itself into the
+tragedy which she had told me.</p>
+
+<p>'Would it not be well,' I suggested, 'to lay the facts before the
+present Lord Rantremly?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have done so,' she answered simply.</p>
+
+<p>'With what result?'</p>
+
+<p>'His lordship said my story was preposterous. In examining the late
+lord's private papers, he discovered the letter which I typed and
+signed. He said very coldly that the fact that I had waited until
+everyone who could corroborate or deny my story was dead, united with
+the improbability of the narrative itself, would very likely consign
+me to prison if I made public a statement so incredible.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you know, madam, I think his lordship is right.'</p>
+
+<p>'He offered me an annuity of fifty pounds, which I refused.'</p>
+
+<p>'In that refusal, madam, I think you are wrong. If you take my advice,
+you will accept the annuity.'</p>
+
+<p>The woman rose slowly to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not money I am after,' she said, 'although, God knows, I have
+often been in sore need of it. But I am the Countess of Rantremly, and
+I wish my right to that name acknowledged. My character has been under
+an impalpable shadow for ten years. On several occasions mysterious
+hints have reached me that in some manner I left the castle under a
+cloud. If Lord Rantremly will destroy the letter which I was compelled
+to write under duress, and if he will give me written acknowledgment
+that there was nothing to be alleged against me during my stay in the
+castle, he may enjoy his money in peace for all of me. I want none of
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you asked him to do this?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. He refuses to give up or destroy the letter, although I told him
+in what circumstances it had been written. But, desiring to be fair,
+he said he would allow me a pound a week for life, entirely through
+his own generosity.'</p>
+
+<p>'And this you refused?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I refused.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Madam, I regret to say that I cannot see my way to do anything with
+regard to what I admit is very unjust usage. We have absolutely
+nothing to go upon except your unsupported word. Lord Rantremly was
+perfectly right when he said no one would credit your story. I could
+not go down to Rantremly Castle and make investigations there. I
+should have no right upon the premises at all, and would get into
+instant trouble as an interfering trespasser. I beg you to heed my
+advice, and accept the annuity.'</p>
+
+<p>Sophia Brooks, with that mild obstinacy of which I had received
+indications during her recital, slowly shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>'You have been very kind to listen for so long,' she said, and then,
+with a curt 'Good-day!' turned and left the room. On the sheet of
+paper underneath her address, I wrote this prophecy: 'Before the week
+is out, I predict that Lord Rantremly himself will call to see me.'</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Next morning, at almost the same hour that Miss Brooks had arrived the
+day before, the Earl of Rantremly's card was brought in to me.</p>
+
+<p>His lordship proved to be an abrupt, ill-mannered, dapper business
+man; purse-proud, I should call him, as there was every reason he
+should be, for he had earned his own fortune. He was doubtless equally
+proud of his new title, which he was trying to live up to, assuming
+now and then a haughty, domineering attitude, and again relapsing into
+the keen, incisive manner of the man of affairs; shrewd financial
+sense waging a constant struggle with the glamour of an ancient name.
+I am sure he would have shone to better advantage either as a
+financier or as a nobleman, but the combination was too much for him.
+I formed an instinctive dislike to the man, which probably would not
+have happened had he been wearing the title for twenty years, or had I
+met him as a business man, with no thought of the aristocratic honour
+awaiting him. There seemed nothing in common between him and the
+former holder of the title. He had keen, ferrety eyes, a sharp
+financial nose, a thin-lipped line of mouth which indicated little of
+human kindness. He was short of stature, but he did not possess the
+club-foot, which was one advantage. He seated himself before I had
+time to offer him a chair, and kept on his hat in my presence, which
+he would not have done if he had either been a genuine nobleman or a
+courteous business man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'I am Lord Rantremly,' he announced pompously, which announcement was
+quite unnecessary, because I held his card in my hand.</p>
+
+<p>'Quite so, my lord. And you have come to learn whether or no I can lay
+the ghost in that old castle to the north which bears your name?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I'm blessed!' cried his lordship, agape. 'How could you guess
+that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it is not a guess, but rather a choice of two objects, either of
+which might bring you to my rooms. I chose the first motive because I
+thought you might prefer to arrange the second problem with your
+solicitor, and he doubtless told you that Miss Sophia Brooks's claim
+was absurd; that you were quite right in refusing to give up or
+destroy the typewritten letter she had signed ten years ago, and that
+it was weakness on your part, without consulting him, to offer her an
+annuity of fifty-two pounds a year.'</p>
+
+<p>Long before this harangue was finished, which I uttered in an easy and
+nonchalant tone of voice, as if reciting something that everybody
+knew, his lordship stood on his feet again, staring at me like a man
+thunderstruck. This gave me the opportunity of exercising that
+politeness which his abrupt entrance and demeanour had forestalled. I
+rose, and bowing, said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I pray you to be seated, my lord.'</p>
+
+<p>He dropped into the chair, rather than sat down in it.</p>
+
+<p>'And now,' I continued, with the utmost suavity, stretching forth my
+hand, 'may I place your hat on this shelf out of the way, where it
+will not incommode you during our discourse?'</p>
+
+<p>Like a man in a dream, he took his hat from his head, and passively
+handed it to me, and after placing it in safety I resumed my chair
+with the comfortable feeling that his lordship and I were much nearer
+a plane of equality than when he entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>'How about the ghost with a club-foot, my lord?' said I genially. 'May
+I take it that in the City, that sensible, commercial portion of
+London, no spirits are believed in except those sold over the bars?'</p>
+
+<p>'If you mean,' began his lordship, struggling to reach his dignity
+once more, 'if you mean to ask if there is any man fool enough to
+place credit in the story of a ghost, I answer no. I am a practical
+man, sir. I now possess in the north property representing, in farming
+lands, in shooting rights, and what not, a locked-up capital of many
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> thousand pounds. As you seem to know everything, sir, perhaps you
+are aware that I propose to build a modern mansion on the estate.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I saw the letter in the <i>Times</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, sir. It has come to a fine pass if, in this country of law
+and the rights of property, a man may not do what he pleases with his
+own.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think, my lord, cases may be cited where the decisions of your
+courts have shown a man may not do what he likes with his own.
+Nevertheless, I am quite certain that if you level Rantremly Castle
+with the ground, and build a modern mansion in its place, the law will
+not hinder you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should hope not, sir, I should hope not,' said his lordship
+gruffly. 'Nevertheless, I am not one who wishes to ride roughshod over
+public opinion.</p>
+
+<p>'I am chairman of several companies which depend more or less on
+popular favour for success. I deplore unnecessary antagonism.
+Technically, I might assert my right to destroy this ancient
+stronghold tomorrow if I wished to do so, and if that right were
+seriously disputed, I should, of course, stand firm. But it is not
+seriously disputed. The British nation, sir, is too sensible a people
+to object to the removal of an antiquated structure that has long
+outlived its usefulness, and the erection of a mansion replete with
+all modern improvements would be a distinct addition to the country,
+sir. A few impertinent busybodies protest against the demolition of
+Rantremly Castle, but that is all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, then you <i>do</i> intend to destroy it?' I rejoined, and it is
+possible that a touch of regret was manifest in my tones.</p>
+
+<p>'Not just at present; not until this vulgar clamour has had time to
+subside. Nevertheless, as a business man, I am forced to recognise
+that a large amount of unproductive capital is locked up in that
+property.'</p>
+
+<p>'And why is it locked up?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because of an absurd belief that the place is haunted. I could let it
+tomorrow at a good figure, if it were not for that rumour.'</p>
+
+<p>'But surely sensible men do not pay any attention to such a rumour.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sensible men may not, but sensible men are often married to silly
+women, and the women object. It is only the other day that I was in
+negotiation with Bates, of Bates, Sturgeon and Bates, a very wealthy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+man, quite able and willing to pay the price I demanded. He cared
+nothing about the alleged ghost, but his family absolutely refused to
+have anything to do with the place, and so the arrangement fell
+through.'</p>
+
+<p>'What is your theory regarding this ghost, my lord?'</p>
+
+<p>He answered me with some impatience.</p>
+
+<p>'How can a sane man hold a theory about a ghost? I can, however,
+advance a theory regarding the noises heard in the castle. For years
+that place has been the resort of questionable characters.'</p>
+
+<p>'I understand the Rantremly family is a very old one,' I commented
+innocently, but his lordship did not notice the innuendo.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, we are an old family,' he went on with great complacency. 'The
+castle, as perhaps you are aware, is a huge, ramshackle place,
+honeycombed underneath with cellars. I dare say in the old days some
+of these cellars and caves were the resort of smugglers, and the
+receptacle of their contraband wares, doubtless with the full
+knowledge of my ancestors, who, I regret to admit, as a business man,
+were not too particular in their respect for law. I make no doubt that
+the castle is now the refuge of a number of dangerous characters, who,
+knowing the legends of the place, frighten away fools by impersonating
+ghosts.'</p>
+
+<p>'You wish me to uncover their retreat, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Precisely.'</p>
+
+<p>'Could I get accommodation in the castle itself?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lord bless you, no! Nor within two miles of it. You might secure bed
+and board at the porter's lodge, perhaps, or in the village, which is
+three miles distant.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should prefer to live in the castle night and day, until the
+mystery is solved.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, you are a practical man. That is a very sensible resolution. But
+you can persuade no one in that neighbourhood to bear you company. You
+would need to take some person down with you from London, and the
+chances are, that person will not stay long.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps, my lord, if you used your influence, the chief of police in
+the village might allow a constable to bear me company. I do not mind
+roughing it in the least, but I should like someone to prepare my
+meals, and to be on hand in case of a struggle, should your surmise
+concerning the ghost prove correct.'</p>
+
+<p>'I regret to inform you,' said his lordship, 'that the police in that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+barbarous district are as superstitious as the peasantry. I, myself,
+told the chief constable my theory, and for six weeks he has been
+trying to run down the miscreants, who, I am sure, are making a
+rendezvous of the castle. Would you believe it, sir, that the
+constabulary, after a few nights' experience in the castle, threatened
+to resign in a body if they were placed on duty at Rantremly? They
+said they heard groans and shrieks, and the measured beat of a
+club-foot on the oaken floors. Perfectly absurd, of course, but there
+you are! Why, I cannot even get a charwoman or labourer to clear up
+the evidences of the tragedy which took place there six weeks ago. The
+beds are untouched, the broken china and the silver tray lie today at
+the foot of the stairway, and everything remains just as it was when
+the inquest took place.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, my lord, the case presents many difficulties, and so,
+speaking as one business man to another, you will understand that my
+compensation must be correspondingly great.'</p>
+
+<p>All the assumed dignity which straightened up this man whenever I
+addressed him as 'my lord', instantly fell from him when I enunciated
+the word 'compensation'. His eyes narrowed, and all the native
+shrewdness of an adept skinflint appeared in his face. I shall do him
+the justice to say that he drove the very best bargain he could with
+me, and I, on my part, very deftly concealed from him the fact that I
+was so much interested in the affair that I should have gone down to
+Rantremly for nothing rather than forgo the privilege of ransacking
+Rantremly Castle.</p>
+
+<p>When the new earl had taken his departure, walking to the door with
+the haughty air of a nobleman, then bowing to me with the affability
+of a business man, I left my flat, took a cab, and speedily found
+myself climbing the stair to the first floor of 51 Beaumont Street,
+Strand. As I paused at the door on which were painted the words, 'S.
+Brooks, Stenography, Typewriting, Translation', I heard the rapid
+click-click of a machine inside. Knocking at the door the writing
+ceased, and I was bidden to enter. The room was but meagrely
+furnished, and showed scant signs of prosperity. On a small
+side-table, clean, but uncovered, the breakfast dishes, washed, but
+not yet put away, stood, and the kettle on the hob by the dying fire
+led me to infer that the typewriting woman was her own cook. I
+suspected that the awkward-looking sofa which partly occupied one side
+of the room, concealed a bed. By the lone front window stood the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+typewriting machine on a small stand, and in front of it sat the woman
+who had visited me the morning before. She was now gazing at me,
+probably hoping I was a customer, for there was no recognition in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Good-morning, Lady Rantremly,' was my greeting, which caused her to
+spring immediately to her feet, with a little exclamation of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh,' she said at last, 'you are Monsieur Valmont. Excuse me that I am
+so stupid. Will you take a chair?'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, madam. It is I who should ask to be excused for so
+unceremonious a morning call. I have come to ask you a question. Can
+you cook?'</p>
+
+<p>The lady looked at me with some surprise, mingled perhaps with so much
+of indignation as such a mild person could assume. She did not reply,
+but, glancing at the kettle, and then turning towards the breakfast
+dishes on the table by the wall, a slow flush of colour suffused her
+wan cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>'My lady,' I said at last, as the silence became embarrassing, 'you
+must pardon the impulse of a foreigner who finds himself constantly
+brought into conflict with prejudices which he fails to understand.
+You are perhaps offended at my question. The last person of whom I
+made that inquiry was the young and beautiful Madame la Comtesse de
+Val&eacute;rie-Moberanne, who enthusiastically clapped her hands with delight
+at the compliment, and replied impulsively,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'"Oh, Monsieur Valmont, let me compose for you an omelette which will
+prove a dream," and she did. One should not forget that Louis XVIII
+himself cooked the <i>truffes &agrave; la pur&eacute;e d'ortolans</i> that caused the Duc
+d'Escars, who partook of the royal dish, to die of an indigestion.
+Cooking is a noble, yes, a regal art. I am a Frenchman, my lady, and,
+like all my countrymen, regard the occupation of a cuisini&egrave;re as
+infinitely superior to the manipulation of that machine, which is your
+profession, or the science of investigation, which is mine.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' she said, quite unmollified by my harangue, speaking with a
+lofty pride which somehow seemed much more natural than that so
+intermittently assumed by my recent visitor, 'Sir, have you come to
+offer me a situation as cook?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, madam, at Rantremly Castle.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are going there?' she demanded, almost breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, madam, I leave on the ten o'clock train tomorrow morning. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> am
+commissioned by Lord Rantremly to investigate the supposed presence of
+the ghost in that mouldering dwelling. I am allowed to bring with me
+whatever assistants I require, and am assured that no one in the
+neighbourhood can be retained who dare sleep in the castle. You know
+the place very well, having lived there, so I shall be glad of your
+assistance if you will come. If there is any person whom you can
+trust, and who is not afraid of ghosts, I shall be delighted to escort
+you both to Rantremly Castle tomorrow.'</p>
+
+<p>'There is an old woman,' she said, 'who comes here to clear up my
+room, and do whatever I wish done. She is so deaf that she will hear
+no ghosts, and besides, monsieur, she can cook.'</p>
+
+<p>I laughed in acknowledgment of this last sly hit at me, as the English
+say.</p>
+
+<p>'That will do excellently,' I replied, rising, and placing a ten-pound
+note before her. 'I suggest, madam, that you purchase with this
+anything you may need. My man has instructions to send by passenger
+train a huge case of provisions, which should arrive there before us.
+If you could make it convenient to meet me at Euston Station about a
+quarter of an hour before the train leaves, we may be able to discover
+all you wish to know regarding the mystery of Rantremly Castle.'</p>
+
+<p>Sophia Brooks accepted the money without demur, and thanked me. I
+could see that her thin hands were trembling with excitement as she
+put the crackling banknote into her purse.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Darkness was coming on next evening before we were installed in the
+grim building, which at first sight seemed more like a fortress than a
+residence. I had telegraphed from London to order a wagonette for us,
+and in this vehicle we drove to the police station, where I presented
+the written order from Lord Rantremly for the keys of the castle. The
+chief constable himself, a stolid, taciturn person, exhibited,
+nevertheless, some interest in my mission, and he was good enough to
+take the fourth seat in the wagonette, and accompany us through the
+park to the castle, returning in that conveyance to the village as
+nightfall approached, and I could not but notice that this grave
+official betrayed some uneasiness to get off before dusk had
+completely set in. Silent as he was, I soon learned that he entirely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+disbelieved Lord Rantremly's theory that the castle harboured
+dangerous characters, yet so great was his inherent respect for the
+nobility that I could not induce him to dispute with any decisiveness
+his lordship's conjecture. It was plain to be seen, however, that the
+chief constable believed implicitly in the club-footed ghost. I asked
+him to return the next morning, as I should spend the night in
+investigation, and might possibly have some questions to ask him,
+questions which none but the chief constable could answer. The good
+man promised, and left us rather hurriedly, the driver of the
+wagonette galloping his horse down the long, sombre avenue towards the
+village outside the gates.</p>
+
+<p>I found Sophia Brooks but a doleful companion, and of very little
+assistance that evening. She seemed overcome by her remembrances. She
+had visited the library where her former work was done, doubtless the
+scene of her brief love episode, and she returned with red eyes and
+trembling chin, telling me haltingly that the great tome from which
+she was working ten years ago, and which had been left open on the
+solid library table, was still there exactly as she had placed it
+before being forced to abandon her work. For a decade apparently no
+one had entered that library. I could not but sympathise with the poor
+lady, thus revisiting, almost herself like a ghost, the haunted arena
+of her short happiness. But though she proved so dismal a companion,
+the old woman who came with her was a treasure. Having lived all her
+life in some semi-slum near the Strand, and having rarely experienced
+more than a summer's-day glimpse of the country, the long journey had
+delighted her, and now this rambling old castle in the midst of the
+forest seemed to realise all the dreams which a perusal of halfpenny
+fiction had engendered in her imagination. She lit a fire, and cooked
+for us a very creditable supper, bustling about the place, singing to
+herself in a high key.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after supper Sophia Brooks, exhausted as much by her emotions
+and memories as by her long journey of that day, retired to rest.
+After being left to myself I smoked some cigarettes, and finished a
+bottle of superb claret which stood at my elbow. A few hours before I
+had undoubtedly fallen in the estimation of the stolid constable when,
+instead of asking him questions regarding the tragedy, I had inquired
+the position of the wine cellar, and obtained possession of the key
+that opened its portal. The sight of bin after bin of dust-laden,
+cobwebbed bottles, did more than anything else to reconcile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> me to my
+lonely vigil. There were some notable vintages represented in that
+dismal cavern.</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps half-past ten or eleven o'clock when I began my
+investigations. I had taken the precaution to provide myself with half
+a dozen so-called electric torches before I left London. These give
+illumination for twenty or thirty hours steadily, and much longer if
+the flash is used only now and then. The torch is a thick tube,
+perhaps a foot and a half long, with a bull's-eye of glass at one end.
+By pressing a spring the electric rays project like the illumination
+of an engine's headlight. A release of the spring causes instant
+darkness. I have found this invention useful in that it concentrates
+the light on any particular spot desired, leaving all the surroundings
+in gloom, so that the mind is not distracted, even unconsciously, by
+the eye beholding more than is necessary at the moment. One pours a
+white light over any particular substance as water is poured from the
+nozzle of a hose.</p>
+
+<p>The great house was almost painfully silent. I took one of these
+torches, and went to the foot of the grand staircase where the wicked
+butler had met his death. There, as his lordship had said, lay the
+silver tray, and nearby a silver jug, a pair of spoons, a knife and
+fork, and scattered all around the fragments of broken plates, cups,
+and saucers. With an exclamation of surprise at the stupidity of the
+researchers who had preceded me, I ran up the stair two steps at a
+time, turned to the right, and along the corridor until I came to the
+room occupied by the late earl. The coverings of the bed lay turned
+down just as they were when his lordship sprang to the floor,
+doubtless, in spite of his deafness, having heard faintly the fatal
+crash at the foot of the stairs. A great oaken chest stood at the head
+of the bed, perhaps six inches from the wall. Leaning against this
+chest at the edge of the bed inclined a small, round table, and the
+cover of the table had slipped from its sloping surface until it
+partly concealed the chest lid. I mounted on this carven box of old
+black oak and directed the rays of electric light into the chasm
+between it and the wall. Then I laughed aloud, and was somewhat
+startled to hear another laugh directly behind me. I jumped down on
+the floor again, and swung round my torch like a searchlight on a
+battleship at sea. There was no human presence in that chamber except
+myself. Of course, after my first moment of surprise, I realised that
+the laugh was but an echo of my own. The old walls of the old house
+were like sounding-boards. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> place resembled an ancient fiddle,
+still tremulous with the music that had been played on it. It was easy
+to understand how a superstitious population came to believe in its
+being haunted; in fact, I found by experiment that if one trod quickly
+along the uncovered floor of the corridor, and stopped suddenly, one
+seemed to hear the sound of steps still going on.</p>
+
+<p>I now returned to the stair head, and examined the bare polished
+boards with most gratifying results. Amazed at having learnt so much
+in such a short time, I took from my pocket the paper on which the
+dying nobleman had attempted to write with his half-paralysed hand.
+The chief constable had given the document to me, and I sat on the
+stair head, spread it out on the floor and scrutinised it. It was all
+but meaningless. Apparently two words and the initial letter of a
+third had been attempted. Now, however grotesque a piece of writing
+may be, you can sometimes decipher it by holding it at various angles,
+as those puzzles are solved which remain a mystery when gazed at
+direct. By partially closing the eyes you frequently catch the intent,
+as in those pictures where a human figure is concealed among the
+outlines of trees and leaves. I held the paper at arm's length, and
+with the electric light gleaming upon it, examined it at all angles,
+with eyes wide open, and eyes half closed. At last, inclining it away
+from me, I saw that the words were intended to mean, 'The Secret'. The
+secret, of course, was what he was trying to impart, but he had
+apparently got no further than the title of it. Deeply absorbed in my
+investigation, I was never more startled in my life than to hear in
+the stillness down the corridor the gasped words, '<i>Oh, God!</i>'</p>
+
+<p>I swept round my light, and saw leaning against the wall, in an almost
+fainting condition, Sophia Brooks, her eyes staring like those of a
+demented person, and her face white as any ghost's could have been.
+Wrapped round her was a dressing-gown. I sprang to my feet.</p>
+
+<p>'What are you doing there?' I cried.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, is that you, Monsieur Valmont? Thank God, thank God! I thought I
+was going insane. I saw a hand, a bodiless hand, holding a white sheet
+of paper.'</p>
+
+<p>'The hand was far from bodiless, madam, for it belonged to me. But why
+are you here? It must be near midnight.'</p>
+
+<p>'It <i>is</i> midnight,' answered the woman; 'I came here because I heard
+my husband call me three times distinctly, "Sophia, Sophia, Sophia!"
+just like that.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, madam,' I said, with an asperity I seldom use where the
+fair sex is concerned; but I began to see that this hysterical
+creature was going to be in the way during a research that called for
+coolness and calmness. I was sorry I had invited her to come.
+'Nonsense, madam, you have been dreaming.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Monsieur Valmont, I have not. I have not even been asleep,
+and I heard the words quite plainly. You must not think I am either
+mad or superstitious.'</p>
+
+<p>I thought she was both, and next moment she gave further evidence of
+it, running suddenly forward, and clutching me by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>'Listen! listen!' she whispered. 'You hear nothing?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense!' I cried again, almost roughly for my patience was at an
+end, and I wished to go on with my inquiry undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>'Hist, hist!' she whispered; 'listen!' holding up her finger. We both
+stood like statues, and suddenly I felt that curious creeping of the
+scalp which shows that even the most civilised among us have not yet
+eliminated superstitious fear. In the tense silence I heard someone
+slowly coming up the stair; I heard the halting step of a lame man. In
+the tension of the moment I had allowed the light to go out; now
+recovering myself, I pressed the spring, and waved its rays backward
+and forward down the stairway. The space was entirely empty, yet the
+hesitating footsteps approached us, up and up. I could almost have
+sworn on which step they last struck. At this interesting moment
+Sophia Brooks uttered a piercing shriek and collapsed into my arms,
+sending the electric torch rattling down the steps, and leaving us in
+impenetrable darkness. Really, I profess myself to be a gallant man,
+but there are situations which have a tendency to cause annoyance. I
+carried the limp creature cautiously down the stairs, fearing the fate
+of the butler, and at last got her into the dining-room, where I lit a
+candle, which gave a light less brilliant, perhaps, but more steady
+than my torch. I dashed some water in her face, and brought her to her
+senses, then uncorking another bottle of wine, I bade her drink a
+glassful, which she did.</p>
+
+<p>'What was it?' she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>'Madam, I do not know. Very possibly the club-footed ghost of
+Rantremly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you believe in ghosts, Monsieur Valmont?'</p>
+
+<p>'Last night I did not, but at this hour I believe in only one thing,
+which is that it is time everyone was asleep.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet at this, and with a tremulous little laugh
+apologised for her terror, but I assured her that for the moment there
+were two panic-stricken persons at the stair head. Taking the candle,
+and recovering my electric torch, which luckily was uninjured by its
+roll down the incline the butler had taken, I escorted the lady to the
+door of her room, and bade her good-night, or rather, good-morning.</p>
+
+<p>The rising sun dissipated a slight veil of mist which hung over the
+park, and also dissolved, so far as I was concerned, the phantoms
+which my imagination had conjured up at midnight. It was about
+half-past ten when the chief constable arrived. I flatter myself I put
+some life into that unimaginative man before I was done with him.</p>
+
+<p>'What made you think that the butler was mounting the stair when he
+fell?'</p>
+
+<p>'He was going up with my lord's breakfast,' replied the chief.</p>
+
+<p>'Then did it not occur to you that if such were the case, the silver
+pitcher would not have been empty, and, besides the broken dishes,
+there would have been the rolls, butter, toast, or what not, strewn
+about the floor?'</p>
+
+<p>The chief constable opened his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'There was no one else for him to bring breakfast to,' he objected.</p>
+
+<p>'That is where you are very much mistaken. Bring me the boots the
+butler wore.'</p>
+
+<p>'He did not wear boots, sir. He wore a pair of cloth slippers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know where they are?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; they are in the boot closet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, bring them out, examine their soles, and sticking in one
+of them you will find a short sliver of pointed oak.'</p>
+
+<p>The constable, looking slightly more stupefied than ever, brought the
+slippers, and I heard him ejaculate: 'Well, I'm blowed!' as he
+approached me. He handed me the slippers soles upward, and there, as I
+have stated, was the fragment of oak, which I pulled out.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, if you take this piece of oak to the top of the stair, you will
+see that it fits exactly a slight interstice at the edge of one of the
+planks. It is as well to keep one's eyes open, constable, when
+investigating a case like this.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I'm blowed!' he said again, as we walked up the stair
+together.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I showed him that the sliver taken from the slipper fitted exactly the
+interstice I had indicated.</p>
+
+<p>'Now,' said I to him, 'the butler was not going up the stairs, but was
+coming down. When he fell headlong he must have made a fearful
+clatter. Shuffling along with his burden, his slipper was impaled by
+this sliver, and the butler's hands being full, he could not save
+himself, but went head foremost down the stair. The startling point,
+however, is the fact that he was <i>not</i> carrying my lord's breakfast to
+him, or taking it away from him, but that there is someone else in the
+castle for whom he was caterer. Who is that person?'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm blessed if I know,' said the constable, 'but I think you are
+wrong there. He may not have been carrying up the breakfast, but he
+certainly was taking away the tray, as is shown by the empty dishes,
+which you have just a moment ago pointed out.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, constable; when his lordship heard the crash, and sprang
+impulsively from his bed, he upset the little table on which had been
+placed his own tray; it shot over the oaken chest at the head of the
+bed, and if you look between it and the wall you will find tray,
+dishes, and the remnants of a breakfast.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I'm blessed!' exclaimed the chief constable once again.</p>
+
+<p>'The main point of all this,' I went on calmly, 'is not the disaster
+to the butler, nor even the shock to his lordship, but the fact that
+the tray the serving man carried brought food to a prisoner, who
+probably for six weeks has been without anything to eat.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said the constable, 'he is a dead man.'</p>
+
+<p>'I find it easier,' said I, 'to believe in a living man than in a dead
+man's ghost. I think I heard his footsteps at midnight, and they
+seemed to me the footsteps of a person very nearly exhausted.
+Therefore, constable, I have awaited your arrival with some
+impatience. The words his late lordship endeavoured to write on the
+paper were "The Secret". I am sure that the hieroglyphics with which
+he ended his effort stood for the letter "R", and if he finished his
+sentence, it would have stood: "The secret room". Now, constable, it
+is a matter of legend that a secret room exists in this castle. Do you
+know where it is?'</p>
+
+<p>'No one knows where the secret room is, or the way to enter it, except
+the Lords of Rantremly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I can assure you that the Lord of Rantremly who lives in London
+knows nothing about it. I have been up and about since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> daylight,
+taking some rough measurements by stepping off distances. I surmise
+that the secret room is to the left of this stairway. Probably a whole
+suite of rooms exists, for there is certainly a stair coinciding with
+this one, and up that stair at midnight I heard a club-footed man
+ascend. Either that, or the ghost that has frightened you all, and, as
+I have said, I believe in the man.'</p>
+
+<p>Here the official made the first sensible remark I had yet heard him
+utter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'If the walls are so thick that a prisoner's cry has not been heard,
+how could you hear his footsteps, which make much less noise?'</p>
+
+<p>'That is very well put, constable, and when the same thing occurred to
+me earlier this morning, I began to study the architecture of this
+castle. In the first place, the entrance hall is double as wide at the
+big doors as it is near the stairway. If you stand with your back to
+the front door you will at once wonder why the builders made this
+curious and unnecessary right angle, narrowing the farther part of the
+hall to half its width. Then, as you gaze at the stair, and see that
+marvellous carved oak newel post standing like a monumental column,
+you guess, if you have any imagination, that the stairway, like the
+hall, was once double as wide as it is now. We are seeing only half of
+it, and doubtless we shall find a similar newel post within the hidden
+room. You must remember, constable, that these secret apartments are
+no small added chambers. Twice they have sheltered a king.'</p>
+
+<p>The constable's head bent low at the mention of royalty. I saw that
+his insular prejudice against me and my methods was vanishing, and
+that he had come to look upon me with greater respect than was shown
+at first.</p>
+
+<p>'The walls need not be thick to be impenetrable to sound. Two courses
+of brick, and a space between filled with deafening would do it. The
+secret apartment has been cut off from the rest of the house since the
+castle was built, and was not designed by the original architect. The
+partition was probably built in a hurry to fulfil a pressing need, and
+it was constructed straight up the middle of the stair, leaving the
+stout planks intact, each step passing thus, as it were, through the
+wall. Now, when a man walks up the secret stairway, his footsteps
+reverberate until one would swear that some unseen person was treading
+the visible boards on the outside.'</p>
+
+<p>'By Jove!' said the constable, in an awed tone of voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Now, officer, I have here a pickaxe and a crowbar. I propose that we settle
+the question at once.'</p>
+
+<p>But to this proposal the constable demurred.</p>
+
+<p>'You surely would not break the wall without permission from his
+lordship in London?'</p>
+
+<p>'Constable, I suspect there is no Lord Rantremly in London, and that
+we will find a very emaciated but genuine Lord Rantremly within ten
+feet of us. I need not tell you that if you are instrumental in his
+immediate rescue without the exercise of too much red tape, your
+interests will not suffer because you the more speedily brought food
+and drink to the lord paramount of your district.'</p>
+
+<p>'Right you are,' cried the constable, with an enthusiasm for which I
+was not prepared. 'Where shall we begin?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, anywhere; this wall is all false from the entrance hall to some
+point up here. Still, as the butler was carrying the meal upstairs I
+think we shall save time if we begin on the landing.'</p>
+
+<p>I found the constable's brawn much superior to his brain. He worked
+like a sansculotte on a barricade. When we had torn down part of the
+old oak panelling, which it seemed such a pity to mutilate with axe
+and crowbar, we came upon a brick wall, that quickly gave way before
+the strength of the constable. Then we pulled out some substance like
+matting, and found a second brick wall, beyond which was a further
+shell of panelling. The hole we made revealed nothing but darkness
+inside, and although we shouted, there was no answer. At last, when we
+had hewn it large enough for a man to enter, I took with me an
+electric torch, and stepped inside, the constable following, with
+crowbar still in hand. I learned, as I had surmised, that we were in
+the upper hall of a staircase nearly as wide as the one on the
+outside. A flash of the light showed a door corresponding with the
+fireplace of the upper landing, and this door not being locked, we
+entered a large room, rather dimly lighted by strongly barred windows
+that gave into a blind courtyard, of which there had been no
+indication heretofore, either outside or inside the castle. Broken
+glass crunched under our feet, and I saw that the floor was strewn
+with wine bottles whose necks had been snapped off to save the pulling
+of the cork. On a mattress at the farther end of the room lay a man
+with gray hair, and shaggy, unkempt iron-gray beard. He seemed either
+asleep or dead, but when I turned my electric light full on his face
+he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> proved to be still alive, for he rubbed his eyes languidly, and
+groaned, rather than spoke:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Is that you at last, you beast of a butler? Bring me something to
+eat, in Heaven's name!'</p>
+
+<p>I shook him wider awake. He seemed to be drowsed with drink, and was
+fearfully emaciated. When I got him on his feet, I noticed then the
+deformity that characterised one of them. We assisted him through the
+aperture, and down into the dining-room, where he cried out
+continually for something to eat, but when we placed food before him,
+he could scarcely touch it. He became more like a human being when he
+had drunk two glasses of wine, and I saw at once he was not as old as
+his gray hair seemed to indicate. There was a haunted look in his
+eyes, and he watched the door as if apprehensive.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is that butler?' he asked at last.</p>
+
+<p>'Dead,' I replied.</p>
+
+<p>'Did I kill him?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; he fell down the stairway and broke his neck.'</p>
+
+<p>The man laughed harshly.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is my father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is your father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lord Rantremly.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is dead also.'</p>
+
+<p>'How came he to die?'</p>
+
+<p>'He died from a stroke of paralysis on the morning the butler was
+killed.'</p>
+
+<p>The rescued man made no comment on this, but turned and ate a little
+more of his food. Then he said to me:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know a girl named Sophia Brooks?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. For ten years she thought you dead.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ten years! Good God, do you mean to say I've been in there only ten
+years? Why, I'm an old man. I must be sixty at least.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; you're not much over thirty.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is Sophia&mdash;' He stopped, and the haunted look came into his eyes
+again.</p>
+
+<p>'No. She is all right, and she is here.'</p>
+
+<p>'Here?'</p>
+
+<p>'Somewhere in the grounds. I sent her and the servant out for a walk,
+and told them not to return till luncheon time, as the constable and I
+had something to do, and did not wish to be interrupted.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The man ran his hand through his long tangled beard.</p>
+
+<p>'I should like to be trimmed up a bit before I see Sophia,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'I can do that for you, my lord,' cried the constable.</p>
+
+<p>'My lord?' echoed the man. 'Oh, yes, I understand. You are a
+policeman, are you not?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my lord, chief constable.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I shall give myself up to you. I killed the butler.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, impossible, my lord!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, it isn't. The beast, as I called him, was getting old, and one
+morning he forgot to close the door behind him. I followed him
+stealthily out, and at the head of the stair planted my foot in the
+small of his back, which sent him headlong. There was an infernal
+crash. I did not mean to kill the brute, but merely to escape, and
+just as I was about to run down the stairway, I was appalled to see my
+father looking like&mdash;looking like&mdash;well, I won't attempt to say what
+he looked like; but all my old fear of him returned. As he strode
+towards me, along the corridor, I was in such terror that I jumped
+through the secret door and slammed it shut.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where is the secret door?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>'The secret door is that fireplace. The whole fireplace moves inward
+if you push aside the carved ornament at the left-hand corner.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it a dummy fireplace, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, you may build a fire in it, and the smoke will escape up the
+chimney. But I killed the butler, constable, though not intending it,
+I swear.'</p>
+
+<p>And now the constable shone forth like the real rough diamond he was.</p>
+
+<p>'My lord, we'll say nothing about that. Legally you didn't do it. You
+see, there's been an inquest on the butler and the jury brought in the
+verdict, "Death by accident, through stumbling from the top of the
+stair." You can't go behind a coroner's inquest, my lord.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed,' said his lordship, with the first laugh in which he had
+indulged for many a year. 'I don't want to go behind anything,
+constable, I've been behind that accursed chimney too long to wish any
+further imprisonment.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="The_Liberation_of_Wyoming_Ed" id="The_Liberation_of_Wyoming_Ed"></a>7. <i>The Liberation of Wyoming Ed</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>A man should present the whole truth to his doctor, his lawyer, or his
+detective. If a doctor is to cure, he must be given the full
+confidence of the patient; if a lawyer is to win a case he needs to
+know what tells against his client as well as the points in his
+favour; if a secret agent is to solve a mystery all the cards should
+be put on the table. Those who half trust a professional man need not
+be disappointed when results prove unsatisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>A partial confidence reposed in me led to the liberation of a
+dangerous criminal, caused me to associate with a robber much against
+my own inclination, and brought me within danger of the law. Of
+course, I never pretend to possess that absolute confidence in the law
+which seems to be the birthright of every Englishman. I have lived too
+intimately among the machinery of the law, and have seen too many of
+its ghastly mistakes, to hold it in that blind esteem which appears to
+be prevalent in the British Isles.</p>
+
+<p>There is a doggerel couplet which typifies this spirit better than
+anything I can write, and it runs:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No rogue e'er felt the halter draw,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With a good opinion of the law.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Those lines exemplify the trend of British thought in this direction.
+If you question a verdict of their courts you are a rogue, and that
+ends the matter. And yet when an Englishman undertakes to circumvent
+the law, there is no other man on earth who will go to greater
+lengths. An amazing people! Never understandable by the sane of other
+countries.</p>
+
+<p>It was entirely my own fault that I became involved in affairs which
+were almost indefensible and wholly illegal.</p>
+
+<p>My client first tried to bribe me into compliance with his wishes,
+which bribe I sternly refused. Then he partially broke down and, quite
+unconsciously as I take it, made an appeal to the heart&mdash;a strange
+thing for an Englishman to do. My kind heart has ever been my most
+vulnerable point. We French are sentimentalists. France has before now
+staked its very existence for an ideal, while other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> countries fight
+for continents, cash, or commerce. You cannot pierce me with a lance
+of gold, but wave a wand of sympathy, and I am yours.</p>
+
+<p>There waited upon me in my flat a man who gave his name as Douglas
+Sanderson, which may or may not have been his legitimate title. This
+was a question into which I never probed, and at the moment of writing
+am as ignorant of his true cognomen, if that was not it, as on the
+morning he first met me. He was an elderly man of natural dignity and
+sobriety, slow in speech, almost sombre in dress. His costume was not
+quite that of a professional man, and not quite that of a gentleman. I
+at once recognised the order to which he belonged, and a most
+difficult class it is to deal with. He was the confidential servant or
+steward of some ancient and probably noble family, embodying in
+himself all the faults and virtues, each a trifle accentuated, of the
+line he served, and to which, in order to produce him and his like,
+his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had doubtless been
+attached. It is frequently the case that the honour of the house he
+serves is more dear to him than it is to the representative of that
+house. Such a man is almost always the repository of family secrets; a
+repository whose inviolability gold cannot affect, threats sway, or
+cajolery influence.</p>
+
+<p>I knew, when I looked at him, that practically I was looking at his
+master, for I have known many cases where even the personal appearance
+of the two was almost identical, which may have given rise to the
+English phrase, 'Like master, like man.' The servant was a little more
+haughty, a little less kind, a little more exclusive, a little less
+confidential, a little more condescending, a little less human, a
+little more Tory, and altogether a little less pleasant and easy
+person to deal with.</p>
+
+<p>'Sir,' he began, when I had waved him to a seat, 'I am a very rich
+man, and can afford to pay well for the commission I request you to
+undertake. To ask you to name your own terms may seem unbusinesslike,
+so I may say at the outset I am not a business man. The service I
+shall ask will involve the utmost secrecy, and for that I am willing
+to pay. It may expose you to risk of limb or liberty, and for that I
+am willing to pay. It will probably necessitate the expenditure of a
+large sum of money; that sum is at your disposal.'</p>
+
+<p>Here he paused; he had spoken slowly and impressively, with a touch of
+arrogance in his tone which aroused to his prejudice, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+combativeness latent in my nature. However, at this juncture I merely
+bowed my head, and replied in accents almost as supercilious as his
+own:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'The task must either be unworthy or unwelcome. In mentioning first
+the compensation, you are inverting the natural order of things. You
+should state at the outset what you expect me to do, then, if I accept
+the commission, it is time to discuss the details of expenditure.'</p>
+
+<p>Either he had not looked for such a reply, or was loath to open his
+budget, for he remained a few moments with eyes bent upon the floor,
+and lips compressed in silence. At last he went on, without change of
+inflection, without any diminution of that air of condescension, which
+had so exasperated me in the beginning, and which was preparing a
+downfall for himself that would rudely shake the cold dignity which
+encompassed him like a cloak:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'It is difficult for a father to confide in a complete stranger the
+vagaries of a beloved son, and before doing so you must pledge your
+word that my communication will be regarded as strictly confidential.'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Cela va sans dire</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not understand French,' said Mr. Sanderson severely, as if the
+use of the phrase were an insult to him.</p>
+
+<p>I replied nonchalantly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'It means, as a matter of course; that goes without saying. Whatever
+you care to tell me about your son will be mentioned to no one. Pray
+proceed, without further circumlocution, for my time is valuable.'</p>
+
+<p>'My son was always a little wild and impatient of control. Although
+everything he could wish was at his disposal here at home, he chose to
+visit America, where he fell into bad company. I assure you there is
+no real harm in the boy, but he became implicated with others, and has
+suffered severely for his recklessness. For five years he has been an
+inmate of a prison in the West. He was known and convicted under the
+name of Wyoming Ed.'</p>
+
+<p>'What was his crime?'</p>
+
+<p>'His alleged crime was the stopping, and robbing, of a railway train.'</p>
+
+<p>'For how long was he sentenced?'</p>
+
+<p>'He was sentenced for life.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you wish me to do?'</p>
+
+<p>'Every appeal has been made to the governor of the State in an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+endeavour to obtain a pardon. These appeals have failed. I am informed
+that if money enough is expended it may be possible to arrange my
+son's escape.'</p>
+
+<p>'In other words, you wish me to bribe the officials of the jail?'</p>
+
+<p>'I assure you the lad is innocent.'</p>
+
+<p>For the first time a quiver of human emotion came into the old man's
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Then, if you can prove that, why not apply for a new trial?'</p>
+
+<p>'Unfortunately, the circumstances of the case, of his arrest on the
+train itself, the number of witnesses against him, give me no hope
+that a new trial would end in a different verdict, even if a new trial
+could be obtained, which I am informed is not possible. Every legal
+means tending to his liberation has already been tried.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see. And now you are determined to adopt illegal means? I refuse to
+have anything to do with the malpractice you propose. You objected to
+a phrase in French, Mr. Sanderson, perhaps one in Latin will please you
+better. It is "<i>Veritas praevalebit</i>," which means, "Truth will
+prevail." I shall set your mind entirely at rest regarding your son.
+Your son at this moment occupies a humble, if honourable, position in
+the great house from which you came, and he hopes in time worthily to
+fill his father's shoes, as you have filled the shoes of your father.
+You are not a rich man, but a servant. Your son never was in America,
+and never will go there. It is your master's son, the heir to great
+English estates, who became the Wyoming Ed of the Western prison. Even
+from what you say, I do not in the least doubt he was justly
+convicted, and you may go back to your master and tell him so. You
+came here to conceal the shameful secret of a wealthy and noble house;
+you may return knowing that secret has been revealed, and that the
+circumstances in which you so solemnly bound me to secrecy never
+existed. Sir, that is the penalty of lying.'</p>
+
+<p>The old man's contempt for me had been something to be felt, so
+palpable was it. The armour of icy reserve had been so complete that
+actually I had expected to see him rise with undiminished hauteur, and
+leave the room, disdaining further parley with one who had insulted
+him. Doubtless that is the way in which his master would have acted,
+but even in the underling I was unprepared for the instantaneous
+crumbling of this monument of pomp and pride. A few moments after I
+began to speak in terms as severe as his own, his trembling hands
+grasped the arms of the chair in which he sat, and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> ever-widening
+eyes, which came to regard me with something like superstitious dread
+as I went on, showed me I had launched my random arrow straight at the
+bull's-eye of fact. His face grew mottled and green rather than pale.
+When at last I accused him of lying, he arose slowly, shaking like a
+man with a palsy, but, unable to support himself erect, sank
+helplessly back into his chair again. His head fell forward to the
+table before him, and he sobbed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>'God help me!' he cried, 'it is not my own secret I am trying to
+guard.'</p>
+
+<p>I sprang to the door, and turned the key in the lock so that by no
+chance might we be interrupted; then, going to the sideboard, I poured
+him out a liqueur glass full of the finest Cognac ever imported from
+south of the Loire, and tapping him on the shoulder, said brusquely:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Here, drink this. The case is no worse than it was half an hour ago.
+I shall not betray the secret.'</p>
+
+<p>He tossed off the brandy, and with some effort regained his
+self-control.</p>
+
+<p>'I have done my errand badly,' he wailed. 'I don't know what I have
+said that has led you to so accurate a statement of the real
+situation, but I have been a blundering fool. God forgive me, when so
+much depended on my making no mistake.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't let that trouble you,' I replied; 'nothing you said gave me the
+slightest clue.'</p>
+
+<p>'You called me a liar,' he continued, 'and that is a hard word from
+one man to another, but I would not lie for myself, and when I do it
+for one I revere and respect, my only regret is that I have done it
+without avail.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear sir,' I assured him, 'the fault is not with yourself at all.
+You were simply attempting the impossible. Stripped and bare, your
+proposal amounts to this. I am to betake myself to the United States,
+and there commit a crime, or a series of crimes, in bribing sworn
+officials to turn traitor to their duty and permit a convict to
+escape.'</p>
+
+<p>'You put it very harshly, sir. You must admit that, especially in new
+countries, there is lawlessness within the law as well as outside of
+it. The real criminals in the robbery of the railway train escaped; my
+young master, poor fellow, was caught. His father, one of the proudest
+men in England, has grown prematurely old under the burden of this
+terrible dishonour. He is broken-hearted, and a dying man, yet he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+presents an impassive front to the world, with all the ancient courage
+of his race. My young master is an only son, and failing his
+appearance, should his father die, title and estate will pass to
+strangers. Our helplessness in this situation adds to its horror. We
+dare not make any public move. My old master is one with such
+influence among the governing class of this country, of which he has
+long been a member, that the average Englishman, if his name were
+mentioned, would think his power limitless. Yet that power he dare not
+exert to save his own son from a felon's life and death. However much
+he or another may suffer, publicity must be avoided, and this is a
+secret which cannot safely be shared with more than those who know it
+now.'</p>
+
+<p>'How many know it?'</p>
+
+<p>'In this country, three persons. In an American prison, one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you kept up communication with the young man?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Direct?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; through a third person. My young master has implored his father
+not to write to him direct.'</p>
+
+<p>'This go-between, as we may call him, is the third person in the
+secret? Who is he?'</p>
+
+<p>'That I dare not tell you!'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Sanderson, it would be much better for your master and his son
+that you should be more open with me. These half-confidences are
+misleading. Has the son made any suggestion regarding his release?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, but not the suggestion I have put before you. His latest
+letter was to the effect that within six months or so there is to be
+an election for governor. He proposes that a large sum of money shall
+be used to influence this election so that a man pledged to pardon him
+may sit in the governor's chair.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see. And this sum of money is to be paid to the third person you
+referred to?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'May I take it that this third person is the one to whom various sums
+have been paid during the last five years in order to bribe the
+governor to pardon the young man?'</p>
+
+<p>Sanderson hesitated a moment before answering; in fact, he appeared so
+torn between inclination and duty; anxious to give me whatever
+information I deemed necessary, yet hemmed in by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> instructions
+with which his master had limited him, that at last I waved my hand
+and said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'You need not reply, Mr. Sanderson. That third party is the crux of the
+situation. I strongly suspect him of blackmail. If you would but name
+him, and allow me to lure him to these rooms, I possess a little
+private prison of my own into which I could thrust him, and I venture
+to say that before he had passed a week in darkness, on bread and
+water, we should have the truth about this business.'</p>
+
+<p>Look you now the illogical nature of an Englishman! Poor old
+Sanderson, who had come to me with a proposal to break the law of
+America, seemed horror-stricken when I airily suggested the immuring
+of a man in a dungeon here in England. He gazed at me in amazement,
+then cast his eyes furtively about him, as if afraid a trap door would
+drop beneath him, and land him in my private <i>oubliette</i>.</p>
+
+<p>'Do not be alarmed, Mr. Sanderson, you are perfectly safe. You are
+beginning at the wrong end of this business, and it seems to me five
+years of contributions to this third party without any result might
+have opened the eyes of even the most influential nobleman in England,
+not to mention those of his faithful servant.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, sir,' said Sanderson, 'I must confess to you that I have long
+had a suspicion of this third person, but my master has clung to him
+as his only hope, and if this third person were interfered with, I may
+tell you that he has deposited in London at some place unknown to us,
+a full history of the case, and if it should happen that he disappears
+for more than a week at a time, this record will be brought to light.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Mr. Sanderson, that device is as old as Noah and his ark. I
+should chance that. Let me lay this fellow by the heels, and I will
+guarantee that no publicity follows.'</p>
+
+<p>Sanderson sadly shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>'Everything might happen as you say, sir, but all that would put us no
+further forward. The only point is the liberation of my young master.
+It is possible that the person unmentioned, whom we may call Number
+Three, has been cheating us throughout, but that is a matter of no
+consequence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pardon me, but I think it is. Suppose your young master here, and at
+liberty. This Number Three would continue to maintain the power over
+him which he seems to have held over his father for the last five
+years.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think we can prevent that, sir, if my plan is carried out.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'The scheme for bribing the American officials is yours, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir, and I may say I am taking a great deal upon myself in
+coming to you. I am, in fact, disobeying the implied commands of my
+master, but I have seen him pay money, and very large sums of money,
+to this Number Three for the last five years and nothing has come of
+it. My master is an unsuspicious man, who has seen little of the real
+world, and thinks everyone as honest as himself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, that may be, Mr. Sanderson, but permit me to suggest that the
+one who proposes a scheme of bribery, and, to put it mildly, an
+evasion of the law, shows some knowledge of the lower levels of this
+world, and is not quite in a position to plume himself on his own
+honesty.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am coming to that, Mr. Valmont. My master knows nothing whatever of
+my plan. He has given me the huge sum of money demanded by Number
+Three, and he supposes that amount has been already paid over. As a
+matter of fact, it has not been paid over, and will not be until my
+suggestion has been carried out, and failed. In fact, I am about to
+use this money, all of it if necessary, if you will undertake the
+commission. I have paid Number Three his usual monthly allowance, and
+will continue to do so. I have told him my master has his proposal
+under consideration; that there are still six months to come and go
+upon, and that my master is not one who decides in a hurry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Number Three says there is an election in six months for governor.
+What is the name of the state?'</p>
+
+<p>Sanderson informed me. I walked to my book-case, and took down a
+current American Year Book, consulted it, and returned to the table.</p>
+
+<p>'There is no election in that State, Mr. Sanderson, for eighteen
+months. Number Three is simply a blackmailer, as I have suspected.'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite so, sir,' replied Sanderson, taking a newspaper from his
+pocket. 'I read in this paper an account of a man immured in a Spanish
+dungeon. His friends arranged it with the officials in this way: The
+prisoner was certified to have died, and his body was turned over to
+his relatives. Now, if that could be done in America, it would serve
+two purposes. It would be the easiest way to get my young master out
+of the jail. It would remain a matter of record that he had died,
+therefore there could be no search for him, as would be the case if he
+simply escaped. If you were so good as to undertake this task<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> you
+might perhaps see my young master in his cell, and ask him to write to
+this Number Three with whom he is in constant communication, telling
+him he was very ill. Then you could arrange with the prison doctor
+that this person was informed of my young master's death.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, we can try that, but a blackmailer is not so easily thrown
+off the scent. Once he has tasted blood he is a human man-eating
+tiger. But still, there is always my private dungeon in the
+background, and if your plan for silencing him fails, I guarantee that
+my more drastic and equally illegal method will be a success.'</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It will be seen that my scruples concerning the acceptance of this
+commission, and my first dislike for the old man had both faded away
+during the conversation which I have set down in the preceding
+chapter. I saw him under the stress of deep emotion, and latterly
+began to realise the tremendous chances he was taking in contravening
+the will of his imperious master. If the large sum of money was long
+withheld from the blackmailer, Douglas Sanderson ran the risk of
+Number Three opening up communication direct with his master.
+Investigation would show that the old servant had come perilously near
+laying himself open to a charge of breach of trust, and even of
+defalcation with regard to the money, and all this danger he was
+heroically incurring for the unselfish purpose of serving the
+interests of his employer. During our long interview old Sanderson
+gradually became a hero in my eyes, and entirely in opposition to the
+resolution I had made at the beginning, I accepted his commission at
+the end of it.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, my American experiences are those of which I am least
+proud, and all I care to say upon the subject is that my expedition
+proved completely successful. The late convict was my companion on the
+<i>Arontic</i>, the first steamship sailing for England after we reached
+New York from the west. Of course I knew that two or three years
+roughing it in mining camps and on ranches, followed by five years in
+prison, must have produced a radical effect not only on the character,
+but also in the personal appearance of a man who had undergone these
+privations. Nevertheless, making due allowance for all this, I could
+not but fear that the ancient English family, of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> this young man
+was the hope and pride, would be exceedingly disappointed with him. In
+spite of the change which grooming and the wearing of a civilised
+costume made, Wyoming Ed still looked much more the criminal than the
+gentleman. I considered myself in honour bound not to make any
+inquiries of the young man regarding his parentage. Of course, if I
+had wished to possess myself of the secret, I had but to touch a
+button under the table when Sanderson left my rooms in the Imperial
+Flats, which would have caused him to be shadowed and run to earth. I
+may also add that the ex-prisoner volunteered no particulars about
+himself or his family. Only once on board ship did he attempt to
+obtain some information from me as we walked up and down the deck
+together.</p>
+
+<p>'You are acting for someone else, I suppose?' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'For someone in England?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'He put up the money, did he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, during which we took two or three turns in silence.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course, there's no secret about it,' he said at last. 'I expected
+help from the other side, but Colonel Jim has been so mighty long
+about it, I was afraid he'd forgotten me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is Colonel Jim?'</p>
+
+<p>'Colonel Jim Baxter. Wasn't it him gave you the money?'</p>
+
+<p>'I never heard of the man before.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then who put up the coin?'</p>
+
+<p>'Douglas Sanderson,' I replied, looking at him sidewise as I mentioned
+the name. It had apparently no effect upon him. He wrinkled his brow
+for a moment, then said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Well, if you never heard of Baxter, I never heard of Sanderson.'</p>
+
+<p>This led me to suspect that Douglas Sanderson did not give me his own
+name, and doubtless the address with which he had furnished me was
+merely temporary. I did not cable to him from America regarding the
+success of the expedition, because I could not be certain it was a
+success until I was safely on English ground, and not even then, to
+tell the truth. Anyhow, I wished to leave no trail behind me, but the
+moment the <i>Arontic</i> reached Liverpool, I telegraphed Sanderson to
+meet us that evening at my flat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He was waiting for me when Wyoming Ed and I entered together. The old
+man was quite evidently in a state of nervous tension. He had been
+walking up and down the room with hands clenched behind his back, and
+now stood at the end farthest from the door as he heard us approach,
+with his hands still clasped behind his back, and an expression of
+deep anxiety upon his rugged face. All the electric lamps were turned
+on, and the room was bright as day.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you not brought him with you?' he cried.</p>
+
+<p>'Brought him with me?' I echoed. 'Here is Wyoming Ed!'</p>
+
+<p>The old man glared at him for a moment or two stupefied, then
+moaned:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, my God, my God, that is not the man!'</p>
+
+<p>I turned to my short-haired fellow traveller.</p>
+
+<p>'You told me you were Wyoming Ed!'</p>
+
+<p>He laughed uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, in a manner of speaking, so I have been for the last five
+years, but I wasn't Wyoming Ed before that. Say, old man, are you
+acting for Colonel Jim Baxter?'</p>
+
+<p>Sanderson, on whom a dozen years seemed to have fallen since we
+entered the room, appeared unable to speak, and merely shook his head
+in a hopeless sort of way.</p>
+
+<p>'I say, boys,' ejaculated the ex-convict, with an uneasy laugh,
+half-comic, half-bewildered, 'this is a sort of mix-up, isn't it? I
+wish Colonel Jim was here to explain. I say, Boss,' he cried suddenly,
+turning sharp on me, 'this here misfit's not my fault. I didn't change
+the children in the cradle. You don't intend to send me back to that
+hell-hole, do you?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' I said, 'not if you tell the truth. Sit down.'</p>
+
+<p>The late prisoner seated himself in a chair as close to the door as
+possible, hitching a little nearer as he sat down. His face had taken
+on a sharp, crafty aspect like that of a trapped rat.</p>
+
+<p>'You are perfectly safe,' I assured him. 'Sit over here by the table.
+Even if you bolted through that door, you couldn't get out of this
+flat. Mr. Sanderson, take a chair.'</p>
+
+<p>The old man sank despondently into the one nearest at hand. I pressed
+a button, and when my servant entered, I said to him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Bring some Cognac and Scotch whisky, glasses, and two syphons of
+soda.'</p>
+
+<p>'You haven't got any Kentucky or Canadian?' asked the prisoner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+moistening his lips. The jail whiteness in his face was now
+accentuated by the pallor of fear, and the haunted look of the escaped
+convict glimmered from his eyes. In spite of the comfort I had
+attempted to bestow upon him, he knew that he had been rescued in
+mistake for another, and for the first time since he left prison
+realised he was among strangers, and not among friends. In his trouble
+he turned to the beverage of his native continent.</p>
+
+<p>'Bring a bottle of Canadian whisky,' I said to the servant, who
+disappeared, and shortly returned with what I had ordered. I locked
+the door after him, and put the key in my pocket.</p>
+
+<p>'What am I to call you?' I asked the ex-convict.</p>
+
+<p>With a forced laugh he said; 'You can call me Jack for short.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, Jack, help yourself,' and he poured out a very liberal
+glass of the Dominion liquor, refusing to dilute it with soda.
+Sanderson took Scotch, and I helped myself to a <i>petit verre</i> of
+brandy.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Jack,' I began, 'I may tell you plainly that if I wished to send
+you back to prison, I could not do so without incriminating myself.
+You are legally dead, and you have now a chance to begin life anew, an
+opportunity of which I hope you will take advantage. If you were to
+apply three weeks from today at the prison doors, they would not dare
+admit you. You are dead. Does that console you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, squire, you can bet your bottom dollar I never thought I'd be
+pleased to hear I was dead, but I'm glad if it's all fixed as you say,
+and you can bet your last pair of boots I'm going to keep out of the
+jug in future if I can.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's right. Now, I can promise that if you answer all my questions
+truthfully, you shall be given money enough to afford you a new
+beginning in life.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good enough,' said Jack briefly.</p>
+
+<p>'You were known in prison as Wyoming Ed?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'If that was not your name, why did you use it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because Colonel Jim, on the train, asked me to do that. He said it
+would give him a pull in England to get me free.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you know Wyoming Ed?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir, he was one of us three that held up the train.'</p>
+
+<p>'What became of him?'</p>
+
+<p>'He was shot dead.'</p>
+
+<p>'By one of the passengers?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was silence, during which the old man groaned, and bowed his
+head. Jack was studying the floor. Then he looked up at me and said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'You don't expect me to give a pal away, do you?'</p>
+
+<p>'As that pal has given you away for the last five years, it seems to
+me you need not show very much consideration for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm not so sure he did.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am; but never mind that point. Colonel Jim Baxter shot Wyoming Ed
+and killed him. Why?'</p>
+
+<p>'See here, my friend, you're going a little too fast. I didn't say
+that.'</p>
+
+<p>He reached somewhat defiantly for the bottle from Canada.</p>
+
+<p>'Pardon me,' I said, rising quietly, and taking possession of the
+bottle myself, 'it grieves me more than I can say to restrict my
+hospitality. I have never done such a thing in my life before, but
+this is not a drinking bout; it is a very serious conference. The
+whisky you have already taken has given you a bogus courage, and a
+false view of things. Are you going to tell me the truth, or are you
+not?'</p>
+
+<p>Jack pondered on this for a while, then he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Well, sir, I'm perfectly willing to tell you the truth as far as it
+concerns myself, but I don't want to rat on a friend.'</p>
+
+<p>'As I have said, he isn't your friend. He told you to take the name of
+Wyoming Ed, so that he might blackmail the father of Wyoming Ed. He
+has done so for the last five years, living in luxury here in London,
+and not moving a finger to help you. In fact, nothing would appal him
+more than to learn that you are now in this country. By this time he
+has probably received the news from the prison doctor that you are
+dead, and so thinks himself safe for ever.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you can prove that to me&mdash;' said Jack.</p>
+
+<p>'I can and will,' I interrupted; then, turning to Sanderson, I
+demanded:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'When are you to meet this man next?'</p>
+
+<p>'Tonight, at nine o'clock,' he answered. 'His monthly payment is due,
+and he is clamouring for the large sum I told you of.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where do you meet him? In London?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'At your master's town house?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you take us there, and place us where we can see him and he
+can't see us?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes. I trust to your honour, Mr. Valmont. A closed carriage will call
+for me at eight, and you can accompany me. Still, after all, Mr
+Valmont, we have no assurance that he is the same person this young
+man refers to.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am certain he is. He does not go under the name of Colonel Jim
+Baxter, I suppose?'</p>
+
+<p>'No.'</p>
+
+<p>The convict had been looking from one to the other of us during this
+colloquy. Suddenly he drew his chair up closer to the table.</p>
+
+<p>'Look here,' he said, 'you fellows are square, I can see that, and
+after all's said and done, you're the man that got me out of clink.
+Now, I half suspicion you're right about Colonel Jim, but, anyhow,
+I'll tell you exactly what happened. Colonel Jim was a Britisher, and
+I suppose that's why he and Wyoming Ed chummed together a good deal.
+We called Jim Baxter Colonel, but he never said he was a colonel or
+anything else. I was told he belonged to the British army, and that
+something happened in India so that he had to light out He never
+talked about himself, but he was a mighty taking fellow when he laid
+out to please anybody. We called him Colonel because he was so
+straight in the back, and walked as if he were on parade. When this
+young English tenderfoot came out, he and the Colonel got to be as
+thick as thieves, and the Colonel won a good deal of money from him at
+cards, but that didn't make any difference in their friendship. The
+Colonel most always won when he played cards, and perhaps that's what
+started the talk about why he left the British army. He was the
+luckiest beggar I ever knew in that line of business. We all met in
+the rush to the new goldfields, which didn't pan out worth a cent, and
+one after another of the fellows quit and went somewhere else. But
+Wyoming Ed, he held on, even after Colonel Jim wanted to quit. As long
+as there were plenty of fellows there, Colonel Jim never lacked money,
+although he didn't dig it out of the ground, but when the population
+thinned down to only a few of us, then we all struck hard times. Now,
+I knew Colonel Jim was going to hold up a train. He asked me if I
+would join him, and I said I would if there wasn't too many in the
+gang. I'd been into that business afore, and I knew there was no
+greater danger than to have a whole mob of fellows. Three men can hold
+up a train better than three dozen. Everybody's scared except the
+express messenger, and it's generally easy to settle him, for he
+stands where the light is, and we shoot from the dark. Well, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+thought at first Wyoming Ed was on to the scheme, because when we were
+waiting in the cut to signal the train he talked about us going on
+with her to San Francisco, but I thought he was only joking. I guess
+that Colonel Jim imagined that when it came to the pinch, Ed wouldn't
+back out and leave us in the lurch: he knew Ed was as brave as a lion.
+In the cut, where the train would be on the up grade, the Colonel got
+his lantern ready, lit it, and wrapped a thin red silk handkerchief
+round it. The express was timed to pass up there about midnight, but
+it was near one o'clock when her headlight came in sight. We knew all
+the passengers would be in bed in the sleepers, and asleep in the
+smoking car and the day coach. We didn't intend to meddle with them.
+The Colonel had brought a stick or two of dynamite from the mines, and
+was going to blow open the safe in the express car, and climb out with
+whatever was inside.</p>
+
+<p>'The train stopped to the signal all right, and the Colonel fired a
+couple of shots just to let the engineer know we meant business. The
+engineer and fireman at once threw up their hands, then the Colonel
+turns to Ed, who was standing there like a man pole-axed, and says to
+him mighty sharp, just like if he was speaking to a regiment of
+soldiers:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'"You keep these two men covered. Come on, Jack!" he says to me, and
+then we steps up to the door of the express car, which the fellow
+inside had got locked and bolted. The Colonel fires his revolver in
+through the lock, then flung his shoulder agin the door, and it went
+in with a crash, which was followed instantly by another crash, for
+the little expressman was game right through. He had put out the
+lights and was blazing away at the open door. The Colonel sprang for
+cover inside the car, and wasn't touched, but one of the shots took me
+just above the knee, and broke my leg, so I went down in a heap. The
+minute the Colonel counted seven shots he was on to that express
+messenger like a tiger, and had him tied up in a hard knot before you
+could shake a stick. Then, quick as a wink he struck a match, and lit
+the lamp. Plucky as the express messenger was, he looked scared to
+death, and now, when Colonel Jim held a pistol to his head, he gave up
+the keys and told him how to open the safe. I had fallen back against
+the corner of the car, inside, and was groaning with Pain. Colonel Jim
+was scooping out the money from the shelves of the safe, and stuffing
+it into a sack.</p>
+
+<p>'"Are you hurt, Jack?" he cried.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'"Yes, my leg's broke."</p>
+
+<p>'"Don't let that trouble you; we'll get you clear all right. Do you
+think you can ride your horse?"</p>
+
+<p>'"I don't believe it," said I. "I guess I'm done for," and I thought I
+was.</p>
+
+<p>'Colonel Jim never looked round, but he went through that safe in a
+way that'd make your hair curl, throwing aside the bulky packages
+after tearing them open, taking only cash, which he thrust into a bag
+he had with him, till he was loaded like a millionaire. Then suddenly
+he swore, for the train began to move.</p>
+
+<p>'"What is that fool Ed doing?" he shouted, rising to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>'At that minute Ed came in, pistol in each hand, and his face ablaze.</p>
+
+<p>'"Here, you cursed thief!" he cried, "I didn't come with you to rob a
+train!"</p>
+
+<p>'"Get outside, you fool!" roared Colonel Jim, "get outside and stop
+this train. Jack has got his leg broke. Don't come another step
+towards me, or I'll kill you!"</p>
+
+<p>'But Ed, he walked right on, Colonel Jim backing, then there was a
+shot that rang like cannon fire in the closed car, and Ed fell forward
+on his face. Colonel Jim turned him over, and I saw he had been hit
+square in the middle of the forehead. The train was now going at good
+speed, and we were already miles away from where our horses were tied.
+I never heard a man swear like Colonel Jim. He went through the
+pockets of Ed, and took a bundle of papers that was inside his coat,
+and this he stuffed away in his own clothes. Then he turned to me, and
+his voice was like a lamb.</p>
+
+<p>'"Jack, old man," he said, "I can't help you. They're going to nab
+you, but not for murder. The expressman there will be your witness. It
+isn't murder anyhow on my part, but self-defence. You saw he was
+coming at me when I warned him to keep away."</p>
+
+<p>'All this he said in a loud voice, for the expressman to hear, then he
+bent over to me and whispered:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'"I'll get the best lawyer I can for you, but I'm afraid they're bound
+to convict you, and if they do, I will spend every penny of this money
+to get you free. You call yourself Wyoming Ed at the trial. I've taken
+all this man's papers so that he can't be identified. And don't you
+worry if you're sentenced, for remember I'll be working night and day
+for you, and if money can get you out, you'll be got out,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> because
+these papers will help me to get the cash required. Ed's folks are
+rich in England, so they'll fork over to get you out if you pretend to
+be him." With that he bade me good-bye and jumped off the train.
+There, gentlemen, that's the whole story just as it happened, and
+that's why I thought it was Colonel Jim had sent you to get me free.'</p>
+
+<p>There was not the slightest doubt in my mind that the convict had told
+the exact truth, and that night, at nine o'clock, he identified Major
+Renn as the former Colonel Jim Baxter. Sanderson placed us in a
+gallery where we could see, but could not hear. The old man seemed
+determined that we should not know where we were, and took every
+precaution to keep us in the dark. I suppose he put us out of earshot,
+so that if the Major mentioned the name of the nobleman we should not
+be any the wiser. We remained in the gallery for some time after the
+major had left before Sanderson came to us again, carrying with him a
+packet.</p>
+
+<p>'The carriage is waiting at the door,' he said, 'and with your
+permission, Monsieur Valmont, I will accompany you to your flat.'</p>
+
+<p>I smiled at the old man's extreme caution, but he continued very
+gravely:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'It is not that, Monsieur Valmont. I wish to consult with you, and if
+you will accept it, I have another commission to offer.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said I, 'I hope it is not so unsavoury as the last.' But to
+this the old man made no response.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence in the carriage as we drove back to my flat.
+Sanderson had taken the precaution of pulling down the blinds of the
+carriage, which he need not have troubled to do, for, as I have said,
+it would have been the simplest matter in the world for me to have
+discovered who his employer was, if I had desired to know. As a matter
+of fact, I do not know to this day whom he represented.</p>
+
+<p>Once more in my room with the electric light turned on, I was shocked
+and astonished to see the expression on Sanderson's face. It was the
+face of a man who would grimly commit murder and hang for it. If ever
+the thirst for vengeance was portrayed on a human countenance, it was
+on his that night. He spoke very quietly, laying down the packet
+before him on the table.</p>
+
+<p>'I think you will agree with me,' he said, 'that no punishment on
+earth is too severe for that creature calling himself Major Renn.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'I'm willing to shoot him dead in the streets of London tomorrow,'
+said the convict, 'if you give the word.'</p>
+
+<p>Sanderson went on implacably: 'He not only murdered the son, but for
+five years has kept the father in an agony of sorrow and apprehension,
+bleeding him of money all the time, which was the least of his crimes.
+Tomorrow I shall tell my master that his son has been dead these five
+years, and heavy as that blow must prove, it will be mitigated by the
+fact that his son died an honest and honourable man. I thank you for
+offering to kill this vile criminal. I intend that he shall die, but
+not so quickly or so mercifully.'</p>
+
+<p>Here he untied the packet, and took from it a photograph, which he
+handed to the convict.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you recognise that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; that's Wyoming Ed as he appeared at the mine; as, indeed, he
+appeared when he was shot.'</p>
+
+<p>The photograph Sanderson then handed to me.</p>
+
+<p>'An article that I read about you in the paper, Monsieur Valmont, said
+you could impersonate anybody. Can you impersonate this young man?'</p>
+
+<p>'There's no difficulty in that,' I replied.</p>
+
+<p>'Then will you do this? I wish you two to dress in that fashion. I
+shall give you particulars of the haunts of Major Renn. I want you to
+meet him together and separately, as often as you can, until you drive
+him mad or to suicide. He believes you to be dead,' said Sanderson,
+addressing Jack. 'I am certain he has the news, by his manner tonight.
+He is extremely anxious to get the lump sum of money which I have been
+holding back from him. You may address him, for he will recognise your
+voice as well as your person, but Monsieur Valmont had better not
+speak, as then he might know it was not the voice of my poor young
+master. I suggest that you meet him first together, always at night.
+The rest I leave in your hands, Monsieur Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>With that the old man rose and left us.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps I should stop this narration here, for I have often wondered
+if practically I am guilty of manslaughter.</p>
+
+<p>We did not meet Major Renn together, but arranged that he should
+encounter Jack under one lamp-post, and me under the next. It was just
+after midnight, and the streets were practically deserted. The theatre
+crowds had gone, and the traffic was represented by the last 'buses,
+and a belated cab now and then. Major Renn came down the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> steps of his
+club, and under the first lamp-post, with the light shining full upon
+him, Jack the convict stepped forth.</p>
+
+<p>'Colonel Jim,' he said, 'Ed and I are waiting for you. There were
+three in that robbery, and one was a traitor. His dead comrades ask
+the traitor to join them.'</p>
+
+<p>The Major staggered back against the lamp-post, drew his hand across
+his brow, and muttered, Jack told me afterwards:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I must stop drinking! I must stop drinking!'</p>
+
+<p>Then he pulled himself together, and walked rapidly towards the next
+lamp-post. I stood out square in front of him, but made no sound. He
+looked at me with distended eyes, while Jack shouted out in his
+boisterous voice, that had no doubt often echoed over the plain:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Come on, Wyoming Ed, and never mind him. He must follow.'</p>
+
+<p>Then he gave a war whoop. The Major did not turn round, but continued
+to stare at me, breathing stertorously like a person with apoplexy. I
+slowly pushed back my hat, and on my brow he saw the red mark of a
+bullet hole. He threw up his hands and fell with a crash to the
+pavement.</p>
+
+<p>'Heart failure' was the verdict of the coroner's jury.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Lady_Alicias_Emeralds" id="Lady_Alicias_Emeralds"></a>8. <i>Lady Alicia's Emeralds</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>Many Englishmen, if you speak to them of me, indulge themselves in a
+detraction that I hope they will not mind my saying is rarely graced
+by the delicacy of innuendo with which some of my own countrymen
+attempt to diminish whatever merit I may possess. Mr. Spenser Hale, of
+Scotland Yard, whose lack of imagination I have so often endeavoured
+to amend, alas! without perceptible success, was good enough to say,
+after I had begun these reminiscences, which he read with affected
+scorn, that I was wise in setting down my successes, because the life
+of Methuselah himself would not be long enough to chronicle my
+failures, and the man to whom this was said replied that it was only
+my artfulness, a word of which these people are very fond; that I
+intended to use my successes as bait, issue a small pamphlet filled
+with them, and then record my failures in a thousand volumes, after
+the plan of a Chinese encyclopaedia, selling these to the public on
+the instalment plan.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, well; it is not for me to pass comment on such observations. Every
+profession is marred by its little jealousies, and why should the
+coterie of detection be exempt? I hope I may never follow an example
+so deleterious, and thus be tempted to express my contempt for the
+stupidity with which, as all persons know, the official detective
+system of England is imbued. I have had my failures, of course. Did I
+ever pretend to be otherwise than human? But what has been the cause
+of these failures? They have arisen through the conservatism of the
+English. When there is a mystery to be solved, the average Englishman
+almost invariably places it in the hands of the regular police. When
+these good people are utterly baffled; when their big boots have
+crushed out all evidences that the grounds may have had to offer to a
+discerning mind; when their clumsy hands have obliterated the clues
+which are everywhere around them, I am at last called in, and if I
+fail, they say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'What could you expect; he is a Frenchman.'</p>
+
+<p>This was exactly what happened in the case of Lady Alicia's emeralds.
+For two months the regular police were not only befogged, but they
+blatantly sounded the alarm to every thief in Europe. All the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+pawnbrokers' shops of Great Britain were ransacked, as if a robber of
+so valuable a collection would be foolish enough to take it to a
+pawnbroker. Of course, the police say that they thought the thief
+would dismantle the cluster, and sell the gems separately. As to this
+necklace of emeralds, possessing as it does an historical value which
+is probably in excess of its intrinsic worth, what more natural than
+that the holder of it should open negotiations with its rightful
+owner, and thus make more money by quietly restoring it than by its
+dismemberment and sale piecemeal? But such a fuss was kicked up, such
+a furore created, that it is no wonder the receiver of the goods lay
+low, and said nothing. In vain were all ports giving access to the
+Continent watched; in vain were the police of France, Belgium, and
+Holland warned to look out for this treasure. Two valuable months were
+lost, and then the Marquis of Blair sent for me! I maintain that the
+case was hopeless from the moment I took it up.</p>
+
+<p>It may be asked why the Marquis of Blair allowed the regular police to
+blunder along for two precious months, but anyone who is acquainted
+with that nobleman will not wonder that he clung so long to a forlorn
+hope. Very few members of the House of Peers are richer than Lord
+Blair, and still fewer more penurious. He maintained that, as he paid
+his taxes, he was entitled to protection from theft; that it was the
+duty of the Government to restore the gems, and if this proved
+impossible, to make compensation for them. This theory is not
+acceptable in the English Courts, and while Scotland Yard did all it
+could during those two months, what but failure was to be expected
+from its limited mental equipment?</p>
+
+<p>When I arrived at the Manor of Blair, as his lordship's very ugly and
+somewhat modern mansion house is termed, I was instantly admitted to
+his presence. I had been summoned from London by a letter in his
+lordship's own hand, on which the postage was not paid. It was late in
+the afternoon when I arrived, and our first conference was what might
+be termed futile. It was take up entirely with haggling about terms,
+the marquis endeavouring to beat down the price of my services to a
+sum so insignificant that it would barely have paid my expenses from
+London to Blair and back. Such bargaining is intensely distasteful to
+me. When the marquis found all his offers declined with a politeness
+which left no opening for anger on his part, he endeavoured to induce
+me to take up the case on a commission contingent upon my recovery of
+the gems, and as I had declined this for the twentieth time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> darkness
+had come on, and the gong rang for dinner. I dined alone in the <i>salle
+&agrave; manger</i>, which appeared to be set apart for those calling at the
+mansion on business, and the meagreness of the fare, together with the
+indifferent nature of the claret, strengthened my determination to
+return to London as early as possible next morning.</p>
+
+<p>When the repast was finished, the dignified servingman said gravely to
+me,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'The Lady Alicia asks if you will be good enough to give her a few
+moments in the drawing-room, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>I followed the man to the drawing-room, and found the young lady
+seated at the piano, on which she was strumming idly and
+absentmindedly, but with a touch, nevertheless, that indicated
+advanced excellence in the art of music. She was not dressed as one
+who had just risen from the dining table, but was somewhat grimly and
+commonly attired, looking more like a cottager's daughter than a
+member of the great country family. Her head was small, and crowned
+with a mass of jet black hair. My first impression on entering the
+large, rather dimly lighted room was unfavourable, but that vanished
+instantly under the charm of a manner so graceful and vivacious, that
+in a moment I seemed to be standing in a brilliant Parisian <i>salon</i>
+rather than in the sombre drawing-room of an English country house.
+Every poise of her dainty head; every gesture of those small, perfect
+hands; every modulated tone of the voice, whether sparkling with
+laughter or caressing in confidential speech, reminded me of the
+<i>grandes dames</i> of my own land. It was strange to find this perfect
+human flower amidst the gloomy ugliness of a huge square house built
+in the time of the Georges; but I remembered now that the Blairs are
+the English equivalent of the de Bellairs of France, from which family
+sprang the fascinating Marquise de Bellairs, who adorned the Court of
+Louis XIV. Here, advancing towards me, was the very reincarnation of
+the lovely marquise, who gave lustre to this dull world nearly three
+hundred years ago. Ah, after all, what are the English but a conquered
+race! I often forget this, and I trust I never remind them of it, but
+it enables one to forgive them much. A vivid twentieth-century
+marquise was Lady Alicia, in all except attire. What a dream some of
+our Parisian dress artists could have made of her, and here she was
+immured in this dull English house in the high-necked costume of a
+labourer's wife.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> 'Welcome, Monsieur Valmont,' she cried, in French of
+almost faultless intonation. 'I am so glad you have arrived,' and she
+greeted me as if I were an old friend of the family. There was nothing
+of condescension in her manner; no display of her own affability,
+while at the same time teaching me my place, and the difference in our
+stations of life. I can stand the rudeness of the nobility, but I
+detest their condescension. No; Lady Alicia was a true de Bellairs,
+and in my confusion, bending over her slender hand, I said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Madame la Marquise, it is a privilege to extend to you my most
+respectful salutations.'</p>
+
+<p>She laughed at this quietly, with the melting laugh of the
+nightingale.</p>
+
+<p>'Monsieur, you mistake my title. Although my uncle is a marquis, I am
+but Lady Alicia.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your pardon, my lady. For the moment I was back in that scintillating
+Court which surrounded Louis le Grand.'</p>
+
+<p>'How flatteringly you introduce yourself, monsieur. In the gallery
+upstairs there is a painting of the Marquise de Bellairs, and when I
+show it to your tomorrow, you will then understand how charmingly you
+have pleased a vain woman by your reference to that beautiful lady.
+But I must not talk in this frivolous strain, monsieur. There is
+serious business to be considered, and I assure you I looked forward
+to your coming, monsieur, with the eagerness of Sister Anne in the
+tower of Bluebeard.'</p>
+
+<p>I fear my expression as I bowed to her must have betrayed my
+gratification at hearing these words, so confidentially uttered by
+lips so sweet, while the glance of her lovely eyes was even more
+eloquent than her words. Instantly I felt ashamed of my chaffering
+over terms with her uncle; instantly I forgot my resolution to depart
+on the morrow; instantly I resolved to be of what assistance I could
+to this dainty lady. Alas! the heart of Valmont is today as
+unprotected against the artillery of inspiring eyes as ever it was in
+his extreme youth.</p>
+
+<p>'This house,' she continued vivaciously, 'has been practically in a
+state of siege for two months. I could take none of my usual walks in
+the gardens, on the lawns, or through the park, without some clumsy
+policeman in uniform crashing his way through the bushes, or some
+detective in plain clothes accosting me and questioning me under the
+pretence that he was a stranger who had lost his way. The lack of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+subtlety in our police is something deplorable. I am sure the real
+criminal might have passed through their hands a dozen times
+unmolested, while our poor innocent servants, and the strangers within
+our gates, were made to feel that the stern eye of the law was upon
+them night and day.'</p>
+
+<p>The face of the young lady was an entrancing picture of animated
+indignation as she gave utterance to this truism which her countrymen
+are so slow to appreciate. I experienced a glow of satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' she went on, 'they sent down from London an army of stupid men,
+who have kept our household in a state of abject terror for eight long
+weeks, and where are the emeralds?'</p>
+
+<p>As she suddenly asked this question, in the most Parisian of accents,
+with a little outward spreading of the hand, a flash of the eye, and a
+toss of the head, the united effect was something indescribable
+through the limitations of the language I am compelled to use.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, monsieur, your arrival has put to flight this tiresome brigade,
+if, indeed, the word flight is not too airy a term to use towards a
+company so elephantine, and I assure you a sigh of relief has gone up
+from the whole household with the exception of my uncle. I said to him
+at dinner tonight: "If Monsieur Valmont had been induced to take an
+interest in the case at first, the jewels would have been in my
+possession long before tonight."'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, my lady,' I protested, 'I fear you overrate my poor ability. It
+is quite true that if I had been called in on the night of the
+robbery, my chances of success would have been infinitely greater than
+they are now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Monsieur,' she cried, clasping her hands over her knees, and leaning
+towards me, hypnotising me with those starry eyes, 'Monsieur, I am
+perfectly confident that before a week is past you will restore the
+necklace, if such restoration be possible. I have said so from the
+first. Now, am I right in my conjecture, monsieur, that you come here
+alone; that you bring with you no train of followers and assistants?'</p>
+
+<p>'That is as you have stated it, my lady.'</p>
+
+<p>'I was sure of it. It is to be a contest of trained mentality in
+opposition to our two months' experience of brute force.'</p>
+
+<p>Never before had I felt such ambition to succeed, and a determination
+not to disappoint took full possession of me. Appreciation is a needed
+stimulant, and here it was offered to me in its most intoxicating
+form. Ah, Valmont, Valmont, will you never grow old! I am sure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> that
+at this moment, if I had been eighty, the same thrill of enthusiasm
+would have tingled to my fingers' ends. Leave the Manor of Blair in
+the morning? Not for the Bank of France!</p>
+
+<p>'Has my uncle acquainted you with particulars of the robbery?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, madame, we were talking of other things.'</p>
+
+<p>The lady leaned back in her low chair, partially closed her eyes, and
+breathed a deep sigh.</p>
+
+<p>'I can well imagine the subject of your conversation,' she said at
+last. 'The Marquis of Blair was endeavouring to impose usurer's terms
+upon you, while you, nobly scorning such mercenary considerations, had
+perhaps resolved to leave us at the earliest opportunity.'</p>
+
+<p>'I assure you, my lady, that if any such conclusion had been arrived
+at on my part, it vanished the moment I was privileged to set foot in
+this drawing-room.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is kind of you to say that, monsieur, but you must not allow your
+conversation with my uncle to prejudice you against him. He is an old
+man now, and, of course, has his fancies. You would think him
+mercenary, perhaps, and so he is; but then so, too, am I. Oh, yes, I
+am, monsieur, frightfully mercenary. To be mercenary, I believe, means
+to be fond of money. No one is fonder of money than I, except,
+perhaps, my uncle; but you see, monsieur, we occupy the two extremes.
+He is fond of money to hoard it; I am fond of money to spend it. I am
+fond of money for the things it will buy. I should like to scatter
+largesse as did my fair ancestress in France. I should love a manor
+house in the country, and a mansion in Mayfair. I could wish to make
+everyone around me happy if the expenditure of money would do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is a form of money-love, Lady Alicia, which will find a
+multitude of admirers.'</p>
+
+<p>The girl shook her head and laughed merrily.</p>
+
+<p>'I should so dislike to forfeit your esteem, Monsieur Valmont, and
+therefore I shall not reveal the depth of my cupidity. You will learn
+that probably from my uncle, and then you will understand my extreme
+anxiety for the recovery of these jewels.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are they very valuable?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes; the necklace consists of twenty stones, no one of which
+weighs less than an ounce. Altogether, I believe, they amount to two
+thousand four hundred or two thousand five hundred carats, and their
+intrinsic value is twenty pounds a carat at least. So you see that
+means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> nearly fifty thousand pounds, yet even this sum is trivial
+compared with what it involves. There is something like a million at
+stake, together with my coveted manor house in the country, and my
+equally coveted mansion in Mayfair. All this is within my grasp if I
+can but recover the emeralds.'</p>
+
+<p>The girl blushed prettily as she noticed how intently I regarded her
+while she evolved this tantalising mystery. I thought there was a
+trace of embarrassment in her laugh when she cried:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, what will you think of me when you understand the situation?
+Pray, pray do not judge me harshly. I assure you the position I aim at
+will be used for the good of others as well as for my own pleasure. If
+my uncle does not make a confidant of you, I must take my courage in
+both hands, and give you all the particulars, but not tonight. Of
+course, if one is to unravel such a snarl as that in which we find
+ourselves, he must be made aware of every particular, must he not?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly, my lady.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, Monsieur Valmont, I shall supply any deficiencies that
+occur in my uncle's conversation with you. There is one point on which
+I should like to warn you. Both my uncle and the police have made up
+their minds that a certain young man is the culprit. The police found
+several clues which apparently led in his direction, but they were
+unable to find enough to justify his arrest. At first I could have
+sworn he had nothing whatever to do with the matter, but lately I am
+not so sure. All I ask of you until we secure another opportunity of
+consulting together is to preserve an open mind. Please do not allow
+my uncle to prejudice you against him.'</p>
+
+<p>'What is the name of this young man?'</p>
+
+<p>'He is the Honourable John Haddon.'</p>
+
+<p>'The Honourable! Is he a person who could do so dishonourable an
+action?'</p>
+
+<p>The young lady shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>'I am almost sure he would not, and yet one never can tell. I think at
+the present moment there are one or two noble lords in prison, but
+their crimes have not been mere vulgar housebreaking.'</p>
+
+<p>'Am I to infer, Lady Alicia, that you are in possession of certain
+facts unknown either to your uncle or the police?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pardon me, but do these facts tend to incriminate the young man?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+Again the young lady leaned back in her chair, and gazed past me, a
+wrinkle of perplexity on her fair brow. Then she said very slowly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'You will understand, Monsieur Valmont, how loath I am to speak
+against one who was formerly a friend. If he had been content to
+remain a friend, I am sure this incident, which has caused us all such
+worry and trouble, would never have happened. I do not wish to dwell
+on what my uncle will tell you was a very unpleasant episode, but the
+Honourable John Haddon is a poor man, and it is quite out of the
+question for one brought up as I have been to marry into poverty. He
+was very headstrong and reckless about the matter, and involved my
+uncle in a bitter quarrel while discussing it, much to my chagrin and
+disappointment. It is as necessary for him to marry wealth as it is
+for me to make a good match, but he could not be brought to see that.
+Oh, he is not at all a sensible young man, and my former friendship
+for him has ceased. Yet I should dislike very much to take any action
+that might harm him, therefore I have spoken to no one but you about
+the evidence that is in my hands, and this you must treat as entirely
+confidential, giving no hint to my uncle, who is already bitter enough
+against Mr. Haddon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does this evidence convince you that he stole the necklace?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I do not believe that he actually stole it, but I am persuaded he
+was an accessory after the fact&mdash;is that the legal term? Now, Monsieur
+Valmont, we will say no more tonight. If I talk any longer about this
+crisis, I shall not sleep, and I wish, assured of your help, to attack
+the situation with a very clear mind tomorrow.'</p>
+
+<p>When I retired to my room, I found that I, too, could not sleep,
+although I needed a clear mind to face the problem of tomorrow. It is
+difficult for me to describe accurately the effect this interview had
+upon my mind, but to use a bodily simile, I may say that it seemed as
+if I had indulged too freely in a subtle champagne which appeared
+exceedingly excellent at first, but from which the exhilaration had
+now departed. No man could have been more completely under a spell
+than I was when Lady Alicia's eyes first told me more than her lips
+revealed; but although I had challenged her right to the title
+'mercenary' when she applied it to herself, I could not but confess
+that her nonchalant recital regarding the friend who desired to be a
+lover jarred upon me. I found my sympathy extending itself to that
+unknown young man, on whom it appeared the shadow of suspicion already
+rested. I was confident that if he had actually taken the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> emeralds it
+was not at all from motives of cupidity. Indeed that was practically
+shown by the fact that Scotland Yard found itself unable to trace the
+jewels, which at least they might have done if the necklace had been
+sold either as a whole or dismembered. Of course, an emerald weighing
+an ounce is by no means unusual. The Hope emerald, for example, weighs
+six ounces, and the gem owned by the Duke of Devonshire measures two
+and a quarter inches through its greatest diameter. Nevertheless, such
+a constellation as the Blair emeralds was not to be disposed of very
+easily, and I surmised no attempt had been made either to sell them or
+to raise money upon them. Now that I had removed myself from the
+glamour of her presence, I began to suspect that the young lady, after
+all, although undoubtedly possessing the brilliancy of her jewels,
+retained also something of their hardness. There had been no
+expression of sympathy for the discarded friend; it was too evident,
+recalling what had latterly passed between us, that the young woman's
+sole desire, and a perfectly natural desire, was to recover her
+missing treasure. There was something behind all this which I could
+not comprehend, and I resolved in the morning to question the Marquis
+of Blair as shrewdly as he cared to allow. Failing him, I should
+cross-question the niece in a somewhat dryer light than that which had
+enshrouded me during this interesting evening. I care not who knows
+it, but I have been befooled more than once by a woman, but I
+determined that in clear daylight I should resist the hypnotising
+influence of those glorious eyes. <i>Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu</i>! how easy it is
+for me to make good resolutions when I am far from temptation!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It was ten o'clock next morning when I was admitted to the study of
+the aged bachelor Marquis of Blair. His keen eyes looked through and
+through me as I seated myself before him.</p>
+
+<p>'Well!' he said shortly.</p>
+
+<p>'My lord,' I began deliberately, 'I know nothing more of the case than
+was furnished by the accounts I have read in the newspapers. Two
+months have elapsed since the robbery. Every day that passed made the
+detection of the criminal more difficult. I do not wish to waste
+either my time or your money on a forlorn hope. If, therefore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> you
+will be good enough to place me in possession of all the facts known
+to you, I shall tell you at once whether or not I can take up the
+case.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you wish me to give you the name of the criminal?' asked his
+lordship.</p>
+
+<p>'Is his name known to you?' I asked in return.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. John Haddon stole the necklace.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you give that name to the police?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why didn't they arrest him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because the evidence against him is so small, and the improbability
+of his having committed the crime is so great.'</p>
+
+<p>'What is the evidence against him?'</p>
+
+<p>His lordship spoke with the dry deliberation of an aged solicitor.</p>
+
+<p>'The robbery was committed on the night of October the fifth. All day
+there had been a heavy rain, and the grounds were wet. For reasons
+into which I do not care to enter, John Haddon was familiar with this
+house, and with our grounds. He was well known to my servants, and,
+unfortunately, popular with them, for he is an openhanded spendthrift.
+The estate of his elder brother, Lord Steffenham, adjoins my own to
+the west, and Lord Steffenham's house is three miles from where we
+sit. On the night of the fifth a ball was given in the mansion of Lord
+Steffenham, to which, of course, my niece and myself were invited, and
+which invitation we accepted. I had no quarrel with the elder brother.
+It was known to John Haddon that my niece intended to wear her
+necklace of emeralds. The robbery occurred at a time when most crimes
+of that nature are committed in country houses, namely, while we were
+at dinner, an hour during which the servants are almost invariably in
+the lower part of the house. In October the days are getting short.
+The night was exceptionally dark, for, although the rain had ceased,
+not a star was visible. The thief placed a ladder against the sill of
+one of the upper windows, opened it, and came in. He must have been
+perfectly familiar with the house, for there are evidences that he
+went direct to the boudoir where the jewel case had been carelessly
+left on my niece's dressing table when she came down to dinner. It had
+been taken from the strong room about an hour before. The box was
+locked, but, of course, that made no difference. The thief wrenched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+the lid off, breaking the lock, stole the necklace, and escaped by the
+way he came.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did he leave the window open, and the ladder in place?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Doesn't that strike you as very extraordinary?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. I do not assert that he is a professional burglar, who would take
+all the precautions against the discovery that might have been
+expected from one of the craft. Indeed, the man's carelessness in
+going straight across the country to his brother's house, and leaving
+footsteps in the soft earth, easily traceable almost to the very
+boundary fence, shows he is incapable of any serious thought.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is John Haddon rich?'</p>
+
+<p>'He hasn't a penny.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you go to the ball that night?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I had promised to go.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was John Haddon there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but he appeared late. He should have been present at the
+opening, and his brother was seriously annoyed by his absence. When he
+did come he acted in a wild and reckless manner, which gave the guests
+the impression that he had been drinking. Both my niece and myself
+were disgusted with his actions.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think your niece suspects him?'</p>
+
+<p>'She certainly did not at first, and was indignant when I told her,
+coming home from the ball, that her jewels were undoubtedly in
+Steffenham House, even though they were not round her neck, but
+latterly I think her opinion has changed.'</p>
+
+<p>'To go back a moment. Did any of your servants see him prowling about
+the place?'</p>
+
+<p>'They all say they didn't, but I myself saw him, just before dusk,
+coming across the fields towards this house, and next morning we found
+the same footprints both going and coming. It seems to me the
+circumstantial evidence is rather strong.'</p>
+
+<p>'It's a pity that no one but yourself saw him. What more evidence are
+the authorities waiting for?'</p>
+
+<p>'They are waiting until he attempts to dispose of the jewels.'</p>
+
+<p>'You think, then, he has not done so up to date?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think he will never do so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why did he steal them?'</p>
+
+<p>'To prevent the marriage of my niece with Jonas Carter, of Shef<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>field,
+to whom she is betrothed. They were to be married early in the New
+Year.'</p>
+
+<p>'My lord, you amaze me. If Mr. Carter and Lady Alicia are engaged, why
+should the theft of the jewels interfere with the ceremony?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Jonas Carter is a most estimable man, who, however, does not move
+in our sphere of life. He is connected with the steel or cutlery
+industry, and is a person of great wealth, rising upwards of a
+million, with a large estate in Derbyshire, and a house fronting Hyde
+Park, in London. He is a very strict business man, and both my niece
+and myself agree that he is also an eligible man. I myself am rather
+strict in matters of business, and I must admit that Mr. Carter showed
+a very generous spirit in arranging the preliminaries of the
+engagement with me. When Alicia's father died he had run through all
+the money he himself possessed or could borrow from his friends.
+Although a man of noble birth, I never liked him. He was married to my
+only sister. The Blair emeralds, as perhaps you know, descend down the
+female line. They, therefore, came to my niece from her mother. My
+poor sister had long been disillusioned before death released her from
+the titled scamp she had married, and she very wisely placed the
+emeralds in my custody to be held in trust for her daughter. They
+constitute my niece's only fortune, and would produce, if offered in
+London today, probably seventy-five or a hundred thousand pounds,
+although actually they are not worth so much. Mr. Jonas Carter very
+amiably consented to receive my niece with a dowry of only fifty
+thousand pounds, and that money I offered to advance, if I was allowed
+to retain the jewels as security. This was arranged between Mr. Carter
+and myself.'</p>
+
+<p>'But surely Mr. Carter does not refuse to carry out his engagement
+because the jewels have been stolen?'</p>
+
+<p>'He does. Why should he not?'</p>
+
+<p>'Then surely you will advance the fifty thousand necessary?'</p>
+
+<p>'I will not. Why should I?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it seems to me,' said I, with a slight laugh, 'the young man
+has very definitely checkmated both of you.'</p>
+
+<p>'He has, until I have laid him by the heels, which I am determined to
+do if he were the brother of twenty Lord Steffenhams.'</p>
+
+<p>'Please answer one more question. Are you determined to put the young
+man in prison, or would you be content with the return of the emeralds
+intact?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Of course I should prefer to put him in prison and get the emeralds
+too, but if there's no choice in the matter, I must content myself
+with the necklace.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, my lord, I will undertake the case.'</p>
+
+<p>This conference had detained us in the study till after eleven, and
+then, as it was a clear, crisp December morning, I went out through
+the gardens into the park, that I might walk along the well-kept
+private road and meditate upon my course of action, or, rather, think
+over what had been said, because I could not map my route until I had
+heard the secret which the Lady Alicia promised to impart. As at
+present instructed, it seemed to me the best way to go direct to the
+young man, show him as effectively as I could the danger in which he
+stood, and, if possible, persuade him to deliver up the necklace to
+me. As I strolled along under the grand old leafless trees, I suddenly
+heard my name called impulsively two or three times, and turning round
+saw the Lady Alicia running toward me. Her cheeks were bright with
+Nature's rouge, and her eyes sparkled more dazzlingly than any emerald
+that ever tempted man to wickedness.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Monsieur Valmont, I have been waiting for you, and you escaped
+me. Have you seen my uncle?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I have been with him since ten o'clock.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well?'</p>
+
+<p>'Your ladyship, that is exactly the word with which he accosted me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, you see an additional likeness between my uncle and myself this
+morning, then? Has he told you about Mr. Carter?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'So now you understand how important it is that I should regain
+possession of my property?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' I said with a sigh; 'the house near Hyde Park and the great
+estate in Derbyshire.'</p>
+
+<p>She clapped her hands with glee, eyes and feet dancing in unison, as
+she capered along gaily beside me; a sort of skippety-hop,
+skippety-hop, sideways, keeping pace with my more stately step, as if
+she were a little girl of six instead of a young woman of twenty.</p>
+
+<p>'Not only that!' she cried, 'but one million pounds to spend! Oh,
+Monsieur Valmont, you know Paris, and yet you do not seem to
+comprehend what that plethora of money means!'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Well, madame, I have seen Paris, and I have seen a good deal of the
+world, but I am not so certain you will secure the million to spend.'</p>
+
+<p>'What!' she cried, stopping short, that little wrinkle which betokened
+temper appearing on her brow. 'Do you think we won't get the emeralds
+then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I am sure we will get the emeralds. I, Valmont, pledge you my
+word. But if Mr. Jonas Carter before marriage calls a halt upon the
+ceremony until your uncle places fifty thousand pounds upon the table,
+I confess I am very pessimistic about your obtaining control of the
+million afterwards.'</p>
+
+<p>All her vivacity instantaneously returned.</p>
+
+<p>'Pooh!' she cried, dancing round in front of me, and standing there
+directly in my path, so that I came to a stand. 'Pooh!' she repeated,
+snapping her fingers, with an inimitable gesture of that lovely hand.
+'Monsieur Valmont, I am disappointed in you. You are not nearly so
+nice as you were last evening. It is very uncomplimentary in you to
+intimate that when once I am married to Mr. Jonas I shall not wheedle
+from him all the money I want. Do not rest your eyes on the ground;
+look at me and answer!'</p>
+
+<p>I glanced up at her, and could not forbear laughing. The witchery of
+the wood was in that girl; yes, and a perceptible trace of the Gallic
+devil flickered in those enchanting eyes of hers. I could not help
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Madame la Marquise de Bellairs, how jauntily you would scatter
+despair in that susceptible Court of Louis!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Monsieur Eug&egrave;ne de Valmont,' she cried, mimicking my tones, and
+imitating my manner with an exactitude that amazed me, 'you are once
+more my dear de Valmont of last night. I dreamed of you, I assure you
+I did, and now to find you in the morning, oh, so changed!' She
+clasped her little hands and inclined her head, while the sweet voice
+sank into a cadence of melancholy which seemed so genuine that the
+mocking ripple of a laugh immediately following was almost a shock to
+me. Where had this creature of the dull English countryside learnt all
+such frou-frou of gesture and tone?</p>
+
+<p>'Have you ever seen Sarah Bernhardt?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>Now the average English woman would have inquired the genesis of so
+inconsequent a question, but Lady Alicia followed the trend of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> my
+thought, and answered at once as if my query had been quite
+expected:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Mais non</i>, monsieur. Sarah the Divine! Ah, she comes with my million
+a year and the house of Hyde Park. No, the only inhabitant of my real
+world whom I have yet seen is Monsieur Valmont, and he, alas! I find
+so changeable. But now, adieu frivolity, we must be serious,' and she
+walked sedately by my side.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know where you are going, monsieur? You are going to church.
+Oh, do not look frightened, not to a service. I am decorating the
+church with holly, and you shall help me and get thorns in your poor
+fingers.'</p>
+
+<p>The private road, which up to this time had passed through a forest,
+now reached a secluded glade in which stood a very small, but
+exquisite, church, evidently centuries older than the mansion we had
+left. Beyond it were gray stone ruins, which Lady Alicia pointed out
+to me as remnants of the original mansion that had been built in the
+reign of the second Henry. The church, it was thought, formed the
+private chapel to the hall, and it had been kept in repair by the
+various lords of the manor.</p>
+
+<p>'Now hearken to the power of the poor, and learn how they may flout
+the proud marquis,' cried Lady Alicia gleefully; 'the poorest man in
+England may walk along this private road on Sunday to the church, and
+the proud marquis is powerless to prevent him. Of course, if the poor
+man prolongs his walk then is he in danger from the law of trespass.
+On weekdays, however, this is the most secluded spot on the estate,
+and I regret to say that my lordly uncle does not trouble it even on
+Sundays. I fear we are a degenerate race, Monsieur Valmont, for
+doubtless a fighting and deeply religious ancestor of mine built this
+church, and to think that when the useful masons cemented those stones
+together, Madame la Marquise de Bellairs or Lady Alicia were alike
+unthought of, and though three hundred years divide them this ancient
+chapel makes them seem, as one might say, contemporaries. Oh, Monsieur
+Valmont, what is the use of worrying about emeralds or anything else?
+As I look at this beautiful old church, even the house of Hyde Park
+appears as naught,' and to my amazement, the eyes that Lady Alicia
+turned upon me were wet.</p>
+
+<p>The front door was unlocked, and we walked into the church in silence.
+Around the pillars holly and ivy were twined. Great armfuls of the
+shrubs had been flung here and there along the walls in heaps,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> and a
+step-ladder stood in one of the aisles, showing that the decoration of
+the edifice was not yet complete. A subdued melancholy had settled
+down on my erstwhile vivacious companion, the inevitable reaction so
+characteristic of the artistic temperament, augmented doubtless by the
+solemnity of the place, around whose walls in brass and marble were
+sculptured memorials of her ancient race.</p>
+
+<p>'You promised,' I said at last, 'to tell me how you came to suspect&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Not here, not here,' she whispered; then rising from the pew in which
+she had seated herself, she said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Let us go, I am in no mood for working this morning. I shall finish
+the decoration in the afternoon.'</p>
+
+<p>We came out into the cool and brilliant sunlight again, and as we
+turned homeward, her spirits immediately began to rise.</p>
+
+<p>'I am anxious to know,' I persisted, 'why you came to suspect a man
+whom at first you believed innocent.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not sure but I believe him innocent now, although I am forced to
+the conclusion that he knows where the treasure is.'</p>
+
+<p>'What forces you to that conclusion, my lady?'</p>
+
+<p>'A letter I received from himself, in which he makes a proposal so
+extraordinary that I am almost disinclined to accede to it, even
+though it leads to the discovery of my necklace. However, I am
+determined to leave no means untried if I receive the support of my
+friend, Monsieur Valmont.'</p>
+
+<p>'My lady,' said I, with a bow, 'it is but yours to command, mine to
+obey. What were the contents of that letter?'</p>
+
+<p>'Read it,' she replied, taking the folded sheet from her pocket, and
+handing it to me.</p>
+
+<p>She had been quite right in characterising the note as an
+extraordinary epistle. The Honourable John Haddon had the temerity to
+propose that she should go through a form of marriage with him in the
+old church we had just left. If she did that, he said, it would
+console him for the mad love he felt for her. The ceremony would have
+no binding force upon her whatever, and she might bring whom she
+pleased to perform it. If she knew no one that she could trust, he
+would invite an old college chum, and bring him to the church next
+morning at half-past seven o'clock. Even if an ordained clergyman
+performed the ceremony, it would not be legal unless it took place
+between the hours of eight in the morning, and three in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+afternoon. If she consented to this, the emeralds were hers once more.</p>
+
+<p>'This is the proposal of a madman,' said I, as I handed back the
+letter.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' she replied, with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, 'he has
+always said he was madly in love with me, and I quite believe it. Poor
+young man, if this mummery were to console him for the rest of his
+life, why should I not indulge him in it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lady Alicia, surely you would not countenance the profaning of that
+lovely old edifice with a mock ceremonial? No man in his senses could
+suggest such a thing!'</p>
+
+<p>Once more her eyes were twinkling with merriment.</p>
+
+<p>'But the Honourable John Haddon, as I have told you, is not in his
+senses.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why should you indulge him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why? How can you ask such a question? Because of the emeralds. It is
+only a mad lark, after all, and no one need know of it. Oh, Monsieur
+Valmont,' she cried pleadingly, clasping her hands, and yet it seemed
+to me with an undercurrent of laughter in her beseeching tones, 'will
+you not enact for us the part of clergyman? I am sure if your face
+were as serious as it is at this moment, the robes of a priest would
+become you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lady Alicia, you are incorrigible. I am somewhat of a man of the
+world, yet I should not dare to counterfeit the sacred office, and I
+hope you but jest. In fact, I am sure you do, my lady.'</p>
+
+<p>She turned away from me with a very pretty pout.</p>
+
+<p>'Monsieur Valmont, your knighthood is, after all, but surface deep.
+'Tis not mine to command, and yours to obey. Certainly I did but jest.
+John shall bring his own imitation clergyman with him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you going to meet him tomorrow?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly I am. I have promised. I must secure my necklace.'</p>
+
+<p>'You seem to place great confidence in the belief that he will produce
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'If he fails to do so, then I play Monsieur Valmont as my trump card.
+But, monsieur, although you quite rightly refuse to comply with my
+first request, you will surely not reject my second. Please meet me
+tomorrow at the head of the avenue, promptly at a quarter-past seven,
+and escort me to the church.'</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the negative trembled on my tongue's end, but she turned
+those enchanting eyes upon me, and I was undone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Very well,' I answered.</p>
+
+<p>She seized both my hands, like a little girl overjoyed at a promised
+excursion.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Monsieur Valmont, you are a darling! I feel as if I'd known you
+all my life. I am sure you will never regret having humoured me,' then
+added a moment later, 'if we get the emeralds.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah,' said I, '<i>if</i> we get the emeralds.'</p>
+
+<p>We were now within sight of the house, and she pointed out our
+rendezvous for the following day, and with that I bade her good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>It was shortly after seven o'clock next morning when I reached the
+meeting-place. The Lady Alicia was somewhat long in coming, but when
+she arrived her face was aglow with girlish delight at the solemn
+prank she was about to play.</p>
+
+<p>'You have not changed your mind?' I asked, after the morning's
+greetings.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no, Monsieur Valmont,' she replied, with a bright laugh. 'I am
+determined to recover those emeralds.'</p>
+
+<p>'We must hurry, Lady Alicia, or we will be too late.'</p>
+
+<p>'There is plenty of time,' she remarked calmly; and she proved to be
+right, because when we came in sight of the church, the clock pointed
+to the hour of half-past seven.</p>
+
+<p>'Now,' she said 'I shall wait here until you steal up to the church
+and look in through one of the windows that do not contain stained
+glass. I should not for the world arrive before Mr. Haddon and his
+friend are there.'</p>
+
+<p>I did as requested, and saw two young men standing together in the
+centre aisle, one in the full robes of a clergyman, the other in his
+ordinary dress, whom I took to be the Honourable John Haddon. His
+profile was toward me, and I must admit there was very little of the
+madman in his calm countenance. His was a well-cut face, clean shaven,
+and strikingly manly. In one of the pews was seated a woman&mdash;I learned
+afterwards she was Lady Alicia's maid, who had been instructed to come
+and go from the house by a footpath, while we had taken the longer
+road. I returned and escorted Lady Alicia to the church, and there was
+introduced to Mr. Haddon and his friend, the made-up divine. The
+ceremony was at once performed, and, man of the world as I professed
+myself to be, this enacting of private theatricals in a church grated
+upon me. When the maid and I were asked to sign the book as witnesses,
+I said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Surely this is carrying realism a little too far?'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Haddon smiled, and replied:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I am amazed to hear a Frenchman objecting to realism going to its
+full length, and speaking for myself, I should be delighted to see the
+autograph of the renowned Eug&egrave;ne Valmont,' and with that he proffered
+me the pen, whereupon I scrawled my signature. The maid had already
+signed, and disappeared. The reputed clergyman bowed us out of the
+church, standing in the porch to see us walk up the avenue.</p>
+
+<p>'Ed,' cried John Haddon, I'll be back within half an hour, and we'll
+attend to the clock. You won't mind waiting?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not in the least, dear boy. God bless you both,' and the tremor in
+his voice seemed to me carrying realism one step further still.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Alicia, with downcast head, hurried us on until we were
+within the gloom of the forest, and then, ignoring me, she turned
+suddenly to the young man, and placed her two hands on his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Jack, Jack!' she cried.</p>
+
+<p>He kissed her twice on the lips.</p>
+
+<p>'Jack, Monsieur Valmont insists on the emeralds.'</p>
+
+<p>The young man laughed. Her ladyship stood fronting him with her back
+towards me. Tenderly the young man unfastened something at the throat
+of that high-necked dress of hers, then there was a snap, and he drew
+out an amazing, dazzling, shimmering sheen of green, that seemed to
+turn the whole bleak December landscape verdant as with a touch of
+spring. The girl hid her rosy face against him, and over her shoulder,
+with a smile, he handed me the celebrated Blair emeralds.</p>
+
+<p>'There is the treasure, Valmont,' he cried, 'on condition that you do
+not molest the culprit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or the accessory after the fact,' gurgled Lady Alicia in smothered
+tones, with a hand clasping together her high-necked dress at the
+throat.</p>
+
+<p>'We trust to your invention, Valmont, to deliver that necklace to
+uncle with a detective story that will thrill him to his very heart.'</p>
+
+<p>We heard the clock strike eight; then a second later smaller bells
+chimed a quarter-past, and another second after they tinkled the
+half-hour. 'Hallo!' cried Haddon, 'Ed has attended to the clock
+himself. What a good fellow he is.'</p>
+
+<p>'I looked at my watch; it was twenty-five minutes to nine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Was the ceremony genuine then?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Valmont,' said the young man, patting his wife affectionately on
+the shoulder, 'nothing on earth can be more genuine than that ceremony
+was.'</p>
+
+<p>And the volatile Lady Alicia snuggled closer to him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX_TWO_SHERLOCK_HOLMES_PARODIES" id="APPENDIX_TWO_SHERLOCK_HOLMES_PARODIES"></a>APPENDIX: TWO SHERLOCK HOLMES PARODIES</h2>
+
+
+<h2>1. The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs</h2>
+<p class="center">(With apologies to Dr. Conan Doyle, and his excellent book, <br />
+'A Study in
+Scarlet'.)</p>
+
+
+<p>I dropped in on my friend, Sherlaw Kombs, to hear what he had to say
+about the Pegram mystery, as it had come to be called in the
+newspapers. I found him playing the violin with a look of sweet peace
+and serenity on his face, which I never noticed on the countenances of
+those within hearing distance. I knew this expression of seraphic calm
+indicated that Kombs had been deeply annoyed about something. Such,
+indeed, proved to be the case, for one of the morning papers had
+contained an article eulogising the alertness and general competence
+of Scotland Yard. So great was Sherlaw Kombs's contempt for Scotland
+Yard that he never would visit Scotland during his vacations, nor
+would he ever admit that a Scotchman was fit for anything but export.</p>
+
+<p>He generously put away his violin, for he had a sincere liking for me,
+and greeted me with his usual kindness.</p>
+
+<p>'I have come,' I began, plunging at once into the matter on my mind,
+'to hear what you think of the great Pegram mystery.'</p>
+
+<p>'I haven't heard of it,' he said quietly, just as if all London were
+not talking of that very thing. Kombs was curiously ignorant on some
+subjects, and abnormally learned on others. I found, for instance,
+that political discussion with him was impossible, because he did not
+know who Salisbury and Gladstone were. This made his friendship a
+great boon.</p>
+
+<p>'The Pegram mystery has baffled even Gregory, of Scotland Yard.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can well believe it,' said my friend, calmly. 'Perpetual motion, or
+squaring the circle, would baffle Gregory. He's an infant, is
+Gregory.'</p>
+
+<p>This was one of the things I always liked about Kombs. There was no
+professional jealousy in him, such as characterises so many other men.</p>
+
+<p>He filled his pipe, threw himself into his deep-seated armchair,
+placed his feet on the mantel, and clasped his hands behind his head.</p>
+
+<p>'Tell me about it,' he said simply.</p>
+
+<p>'Old Barrie Kipson,' I began, 'was a stockbroker in the City. He lived
+in Pegram, and it was his custom to&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'COME IN!' shouted Kombs, without changing his position, but with a
+suddenness that startled me. I had heard no knock.</p>
+
+<p>'Excuse me,' said my friend, laughing, 'my invitation to enter was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+trifle premature. I was really so interested in your recital that I
+spoke before I thought, which a detective should never do. The fact
+is, a man will be here in a moment who will tell me all about this
+crime, and so you will be spared further effort in that line.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, you have an appointment. In that case I will not intrude,' I
+said, rising.</p>
+
+<p>'Sit down; I have no appointment. I did not know until I spoke that he
+was coming.'</p>
+
+<p>I gazed at him in amazement. Accustomed as I was to his extraordinary
+talents, the man was a perpetual surprise to me. He continued to smoke
+quietly, but evidently enjoyed my consternation.</p>
+
+<p>'I see you are surprised. It is really too simple to talk about, but,
+from my position opposite the mirror, I can see the reflection of
+objects in the street. A man stopped, looked at one of my cards, and
+then glanced across the street. I recognised my card, because, as you
+know, they are all in scarlet. If, as you say, London is talking of
+this mystery, it naturally follows that <i>he</i> will talk of it, and the
+chances are he wished to consult with me upon it. Anyone can see that,
+besides there is always&mdash;<i>Come in!</i></p>
+
+<p>There was a rap at the door this time.</p>
+
+<p>A stranger entered. Sherlaw Kombs did not change his lounging
+attitude.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish to see Mr. Sherlaw Kombs, the detective,' said the stranger,
+coming within the range of the smoker's vision.</p>
+
+<p>'This is Mr. Kombs,' I remarked at last, as my friend smoked quietly,
+and seemed half-asleep.</p>
+
+<p>'Allow me to introduce myself,' continued the stranger, fumbling for a
+card.</p>
+
+<p>'There is no need. You are a journalist,' said Kombs.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah,' said the stranger, somewhat taken aback, 'you know me, then.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never saw or heard of you in my life before.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then how in the world&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing simpler. You write for an evening paper. You have written an
+article slating the book of a friend. He will feel badly about it, and
+you will condole with him. He will never know who stabbed him unless I
+tell him.'</p>
+
+<p>'The devil!' cried the journalist, sinking into a chair and mopping
+his brow, while his face became livid.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' drawled Kombs, 'it is a devil of a shame that such things are
+done. But what would you? as we say in France.'</p>
+
+<p>When the journalist had recovered his second wind he pulled himself
+together somewhat. 'Would you object to telling me how you know these
+particulars about a man you say you have never seen?'</p>
+
+<p>'I rarely talk about these things,' said Kombs with great composure.
+'But as the cultivation of the habit of observation may help you in
+your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> profession, and thus in a remote degree benefit me by making
+your paper less deadly dull, I will tell you. Your first and second
+fingers are smeared with ink, which shows that you write a great deal.
+This smeared class embraces two sub-classes, clerks or accountants,
+and journalists. Clerks have to be neat in their work. The ink smear
+is slight in their case. Your fingers are badly and carelessly
+smeared; therefore, you are a journalist. You have an evening paper in
+your pocket. Anyone might have any evening paper, but yours is a
+Special Edition, which will not be on the streets for half-an-hour
+yet. You must have obtained it before you left the office, and to do
+this you must be on the staff. A book notice is marked with a blue
+pencil. A journalist always despises every article in his own paper
+not written by himself; therefore, you wrote the article you have
+marked, and doubtless are about to send it to the author of the book
+referred to. Your paper makes a speciality of abusing all books not
+written by some member of its own staff. That the author is a friend
+of yours, I merely surmised. It is all a trivial example of ordinary
+observation.'</p>
+
+<p>'Really, Mr. Kombs, you are the most wonderful man on earth. You are
+the equal of Gregory, by Jove, you are.'</p>
+
+<p>A frown marred the brow of my friend as he placed his pipe on the
+sideboard and drew his self-cocking six-shooter.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean to insult me, sir?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not&mdash;I&mdash;I assure you. You are fit to take charge of Scotland
+Yard tomorrow &mdash;&mdash;. I am in earnest, indeed I am, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then heaven help you,' cried Kombs, slowly raising his right arm.</p>
+
+<p>I sprang between them.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't shoot!' I cried. 'You will spoil the carpet. Besides, Sherlaw,
+don't you see the man means well. He actually thinks it is a
+compliment!'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps you are right,' remarked the detective, flinging his revolver
+carelessly beside his pipe, much to the relief of the third party.
+Then, turning to the journalist, he said, with his customary bland
+courtesy&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'You wanted to see me, I think you said. What can I do for you, Mr
+Wilber Scribbings?'</p>
+
+<p>The journalist started.</p>
+
+<p>'How do you know my name?' he gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Kombs waved his hand impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>'Look inside your hat if you doubt your own name.'</p>
+
+<p>I then noticed for the first time that the name was plainly to be seen
+inside the top-hat Scribbings held upside down in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>'You have heard, of course, of the Pegram mystery&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Tush,' cried the detective; 'do not, I beg of you, call it a mystery.
+There is no such thing. Life would become more tolerable if there ever
+<i>was</i> a mystery. Nothing is original. Everything has been done before.
+What about the Pegram affair?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'The Pegram&mdash;ah&mdash;case has baffled everyone. The <i>Evening Blade</i> wishes
+you to investigate, so that it may publish the result. It will pay you
+well. Will you accept the commission?'</p>
+
+<p>'Possibly. Tell me about the case.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought everybody knew the particulars. Mr. Barrie Kipson lived at
+Pegram. He carried a first-class season ticket between the terminus
+and that station. It was his custom to leave for Pegram on the 5.30
+train each evening. Some weeks ago, Mr. Kipson was brought down by the
+influenza. On his first visit to the City after his recovery, he drew
+something like &pound;300 in notes, and left the office at his usual hour to
+catch the 5.30. He was never seen again alive, as far as the public
+have been able to learn. He was found at Brewster in a first-class
+compartment on the Scotch Express, which does not stop between London
+and Brewster. There was a bullet in his head, and his money was gone,
+pointing plainly to murder and robbery.'</p>
+
+<p>'And where is the mystery, might I ask?'</p>
+
+<p>'There are several unexplainable things about the case. First, how
+came he on the Scotch Express, which leaves at six, and does not stop
+at Pegram? Second, the ticket examiners at the terminus would have
+turned him out if he showed his season ticket; and all the tickets
+sold for the Scotch Express on the 21st are accounted for. Third, how
+could the murderer have escaped? Fourth, the passengers in the two
+compartments on each side of the one where the body was found heard no
+scuffle and no shot fired.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you sure the Scotch Express on the 21st did not stop between
+London and Brewster?'</p>
+
+<p>'Now that you mention the fact, it did. It was stopped by signal just
+outside of Pegram. There was a few moments' pause, when the line was
+reported clear, and it went on again. This frequently happens, as
+there is a branch line beyond Pegram.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sherlaw Kombs pondered for a few moments, smoking his pipe
+silently.</p>
+
+<p>'I presume you wish the solution in time for tomorrow's paper?'</p>
+
+<p>'Bless my soul, no. The editor thought if you evolved a theory in a
+month you would do well.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear sir, I do not deal with theories, but with facts. If you can
+make it convenient to call here tomorrow at 8 a.m. I will give you the
+full particulars early enough for the first edition. There is no sense
+in taking up much time over so simple an affair as the Pegram case.
+Good afternoon, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Scribbings was too much astonished to return the greeting. He left
+in a speechless condition, and I saw him go up the street with his hat
+still in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Sherlaw Kombs relapsed into his old lounging attitude, with his hands
+clasped behind his head. The smoke came from his lips in quick puffs
+at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> first, then at longer intervals. I saw he was coming to a
+conclusion, so I said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Finally he spoke in his most dreamy manner. 'I do not wish to seem to
+be rushing things at all, Whatson, but I am going out tonight on the
+Scotch Express. Would you care to accompany me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Bless me!' I cried, glancing at the clock, 'you haven't time, it is
+after five now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ample time, Whatson&mdash;ample,' he murmured, without changing his
+position. 'I give myself a minute and a half to change slippers and
+dressing-gown for boots and coat, three seconds for hat, twenty-five
+seconds to the street, forty-two seconds waiting for a hansom, and
+then seven minutes at the terminus before the express starts. I shall
+be glad of your company.'</p>
+
+<p>I was only too happy to have the privilege of going with him. It was
+most interesting to watch the workings of so inscrutable a mind. As we
+drove under the lofty iron roof of the terminus I noticed a look of
+annoyance pass over his face.</p>
+
+<p>'We are fifteen seconds ahead of our time,' he remarked, looking at
+the big clock. 'I dislike having a miscalculation of that sort occur.'</p>
+
+<p>The great Scotch Express stood ready for its long journey. The
+detective tapped one of the guards on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>'You have heard of the so-called Pegram mystery, I presume?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly, sir. It happened on this very train, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Really? Is the same carriage still on the train?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, yes, sir, it is,' replied the guard, lowering his voice, 'but
+of course, sir, we have to keep very quiet about it. People wouldn't
+travel in it, else, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Doubtless. Do you happen to know if anybody occupies the compartment
+in which the body was found?'</p>
+
+<p>'A lady and gentleman, sir; I put 'em in myself, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Would you further oblige me,' said the detective, deftly slipping
+half-a-sovereign into the hand of the guard, 'by going to the window
+and informing them in an offhand casual sort of way that the tragedy
+took place in that compartment?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>We followed the guard, and the moment he had imparted his news there
+was a suppressed scream in the carriage. Instantly a lady came out,
+followed by a florid-faced gentleman, who scowled at the guard. We
+entered the now empty compartment, and Kombs said:</p>
+
+<p>'We would like to be alone here until we reach Brewster.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll see to that, sir,' answered the guard, locking the door.</p>
+
+<p>When the official moved away, I asked my friend what he expected to
+find in the carriage that would cast any light on the case.</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing,' was his brief reply.</p>
+
+<p>'Then why do you come?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Merely to corroborate the conclusions I have already arrived at.'</p>
+
+<p>'And might I ask what those conclusions are?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly,' replied the detective, with a touch of lassitude in his
+voice. 'I beg to call your attention, first, to the fact that this
+train stands between two platforms, and can be entered from either
+side. Any man familiar with the station for years would be aware of
+that fact. This shows how Mr. Kipson entered the train just before it
+started.'</p>
+
+<p>'But the door on this side is locked,' I objected, trying it.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course. But every season ticket-holder carries a key. This
+accounts for the guard not seeing him, and for the absence of a
+ticket. Now let me give you some information about the influenza. The
+patient's temperature rises several degrees above normal, and he has a
+fever. When the malady has run its course, the temperature falls to
+three-quarters of a degree below normal. These facts are unknown to
+you, I imagine, because you are a doctor.'</p>
+
+<p>I admitted such was the case.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, the consequence of this fall in temperature is that the
+convalescent's mind turns towards thoughts of suicide. Then is the
+time he should be watched by his friends. Then was the time Mr. Barrie
+Kipson's friends did <i>not</i> watch him. You remember the 21st, of
+course. No? It was a most depressing day. Fog all around and mud under
+foot. Very good. He resolves on suicide. He wishes to be unidentified,
+if possible, but forgets his season ticket. My experience is that a
+man about to commit a crime always forgets something.'</p>
+
+<p>'But how do you account for the disappearance of the money?'</p>
+
+<p>'The money has nothing to do with the matter. If he was a deep man,
+and knew the stupidness of Scotland Yard, he probably sent the notes
+to an enemy. If not, they may have been given to a friend. Nothing is
+more calculated to prepare the mind for self-destruction than the
+prospect of a night ride on the Scotch express, and the view from the
+windows of the train as it passes through the northern part of London
+is particularly conducive to thoughts of annihilation.'</p>
+
+<p>'What became of the weapon?'</p>
+
+<p>'That is just the point on which I wish to satisfy myself. Excuse me
+for a moment.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sherlaw Kombs drew down the window on the right hand side, and
+examined the top of the casing minutely with a magnifying glass.
+Presently he heaved a sigh of relief, and drew up the sash.</p>
+
+<p>'Just as I expected,' he remarked, speaking more to himself than to
+me. 'There is a slight dent on the top of the window-frame. It is of
+such a nature as to be made only by the trigger of a pistol falling
+from the nerveless hand of a suicide. He intended to throw the weapon
+far out of the window, but had not the strength. It might have fallen
+into the carriage. As a matter of fact, it bounced away from the line
+and lies among the grass about ten feet six inches from the outside
+rail. The only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> question that now remains is where the deed was
+committed, and the exact present position of the pistol reckoned in
+miles from London, but that, fortunately, is too simple to even need
+explanation.'</p>
+
+<p>'Great heavens, Sherlaw!' I cried. 'How can you call that simple? It
+seems to me impossible to compute.'</p>
+
+<p>We were now flying over Northern London, and the great detective
+leaned back with every sign of <i>ennui</i>, closing his eyes. At last he
+spoke wearily:</p>
+
+<p>'It is really too elementary, Whatson, but I am always willing to
+oblige a friend. I shall be relieved, however, when you are able to
+work out the ABC of detection for yourself, although I shall never
+object to helping you with the words of more than three syllables.
+Having made up his mind to commit suicide, Kipson naturally intended
+to do it before he reached Brewster, because tickets are again
+examined at that point. When the train began to stop at the signal
+near Pegram, he came to the false conclusion that it was stopping at
+Brewster. The fact that the shot was not heard is accounted for by the
+screech of the air-brake, added to the noise of the train. Probably
+the whistle was also sounding at the same moment. The train being a
+fast express would stop as near the signal as possible. The air-brake
+will stop a train in twice its own length. Call it three times in this
+case. Very well. At three times the length of this train from the
+signal-post towards London, deducting half the length of the train, as
+this carriage is in the middle, you will find the pistol.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wonderful!' I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>'Commonplace,' he murmured.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the whistle sounded shrilly, and we felt the grind of
+the air-brakes.</p>
+
+<p>'The Pegram signal again,' cried Kombs, with something almost like
+enthusiasm. 'This is indeed luck. We will get out here, Whatson, and
+test the matter.'</p>
+
+<p>As the train stopped, we got out on the right-hand side of the line.
+The engine stood panting impatiently under the red light, which
+changed to green as I looked at it. As the train moved on with
+increasing speed, the detective counted the carriages, and noted down
+the number. It was now dark, with the thin crescent of the moon
+hanging in the western sky throwing a weird half-light on the shining
+metals. The rear lamps of the train disappeared around a curve, and
+the signal stood at baleful red again. The black magic of the lonesome
+night in that strange place impressed me, but the detective was a most
+practical man. He placed his back against the signal-post, and paced
+up the line with even strides, counting his steps. I walked along the
+permanent way beside him silently. At last he stopped, and took a
+tape-line from his pocket. He ran it out until the ten feet six inches
+were unrolled, scanning the figures in the wan light of the new moon.
+Giving me the end, he placed his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> knuckles on the metals, motioning me
+to proceed down the embankment. I stretched out the line, and then
+sank my hand in the damp grass to mark the spot.</p>
+
+<p>'Good God!' I cried, aghast, 'what is this?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is the pistol,' said Kombs quietly.</p>
+
+<p>It was!!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Journalistic London will not soon forget the sensation that was caused
+by the record of the investigations of Sherlaw Kombs, as printed at
+length in the next day's <i>Evening Blade</i>. Would that my story ended
+here. Alas! Kombs contemptuously turned over the pistol to Scotland
+Yard. The meddlesome officials, actuated, as I always hold, by
+jealousy, found the name of the seller upon it. They investigated. The
+seller testified that it had never been in the possession of Mr
+Kipson, as far as he knew. It was sold to a man whose description
+tallied with that of a criminal long watched by the police. He was
+arrested, and turned Queen's evidence in the hope of hanging his pal.
+It seemed that Mr. Kipson, who was a gloomy, taciturn man, and usually
+came home in a compartment by himself, thus escaping observation, had
+been murdered in the lane leading to his house. After robbing him, the
+miscreants turned their thoughts towards the disposal of the body&mdash;a
+subject that always occupies a first-class criminal mind before the
+deed is done. They agreed to place it on the line, and have it mangled
+by the Scotch Express, then nearly due. Before they got the body
+half-way up the embankment the express came along and stopped. The
+guard got out and walked along the other side to speak with the
+engineer. The thought of putting the body into an empty first-class
+carriage instantly occurred to the murderers. They opened the door
+with the deceased's key. It is supposed that the pistol dropped when
+they were hoisting the body in the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen's evidence dodge didn't work, and Scotland Yard ignobly
+insulted my friend Sherlaw Kombs by sending him a pass to see the
+villains hanged.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="The_Adventure_of_the_Second_Swag" id="The_Adventure_of_the_Second_Swag"></a>2. The Adventure of the Second Swag</h2>
+
+
+<p>The time was Christmas Eve, 1904. The place was an ancient, secluded
+manor house, built so far back in the last century as 1896. It stood
+at the head of a profound valley; a valley clothed in ferns waist
+deep, and sombrely guarded by ancient trees, the remnants of a
+primeval forest. From this mansion no other human habitation could be
+seen. The descending road which connected the king's highway with the
+stronghold was so sinuous and precipitate that more than once the grim
+baronet who owned it had upset his automobile in trying to negotiate
+the dangerous curves. The isolated situation and gloomy architecture
+of this venerable mansion must have impressed the most casual observer
+with the thought that here was the spot for the perpetration of dark
+deeds, were it not for the fact that the place was brilliantly
+illumined with electricity, while the silence was emphasised rather
+than disturbed by the monotonous, regular thud of an accumulator
+pumping the subtle fluid into a receptive dynamo situated in an
+outhouse to the east.</p>
+
+<p>The night was gloomy and lowering after a day of rain, but the very
+sombreness of the scene made the brilliant stained glass windows stand
+out like the radiant covers of a Christmas number. Such was the
+appearance presented by 'Undershaw', the home of Sir Arthur Conan
+Doyle, situated among the wilds of Hindhead, some forty or fifty miles
+from London. Is it any wonder that at a spot so remote from
+civilisation law should be set at defiance, and that the one lone
+policeman who perambulates the district should tremble as he passed
+the sinister gates of 'Undershaw'?</p>
+
+<p>In a large room of this manor house, furnished with a luxuriant
+elegance one would not have expected in a region so far from
+humanising influences, sat two men. One was a giant in stature, whose
+broad brow and smoothly shaven strong chin gave a look of
+determination to his countenance, which was further enhanced by the
+heavy black moustache which covered his upper lip. There was something
+of the dragoon in his upright and independent bearing. He had, in
+fact, taken part in more than one fiercely fought battle, and was a
+member of several military clubs; but it was plain to be seen that his
+ancestors had used war clubs, and had transmitted to him the physique
+of a Hercules. One did not need to glance at the Christmas number of
+the <i>Strand</i>, which he held in his hand, nor read the name printed
+there in large letters, to know that he was face to face with Sir
+Arthur Conan Doyle.</p>
+
+<p>His guest, an older man, yet still in the prime of life, whose beard
+was tinged with grey, was of less warlike bearing than the celebrated
+novelist, belonging, as he evidently did, to the civil and not the
+military section of life. He had about him the air of a prosperous man
+of affairs, shrewd,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> good-natured, conciliatory, and these two
+strongly contrasting personages are types of the men to whom England
+owes her greatness. The reader of the Christmas number will very
+probably feel disappointed when he finds, as he supposes, merely two
+old friends sitting amicably in a country house after dinner. There
+seems, to his jaded taste, no element of tragedy in such a situation.
+These two men appear comfortable enough, and respectable enough. It is
+true that there is whisky and soda at hand, and the box of cigars is
+open, yet there are latent possibilities of passion under the most
+placid natures, revealed only to writers of fiction in our halfpenny
+Press. Let the reader wait, therefore, till he sees these two men
+tried as by fire under a great temptation, and then let him say
+whether even the probity of Sir George Newnes comes scathless from the
+ordeal.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you brought the swag, Sir George?' asked the novelist, with some
+trace of anxiety in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' replied the great publisher; 'but before proceeding to the
+count would it not be wise to give orders that will insure our being
+left undisturbed?'</p>
+
+<p>'You are right,' replied Doyle, pressing an electric button.</p>
+
+<p>When the servant appeared he said: 'I am not at home to anyone. No
+matter who calls, or what excuse is given, you must permit none to
+approach this room.'</p>
+
+<p>When the servant had withdrawn, Doyle took the further precaution of
+thrusting in place one of the huge bolts which ornamented the massive
+oaken door studded with iron knobs. Sir George withdrew from the tail
+pocket of his dress coat two canvas bags, and, untying the strings,
+poured the rich red gold on the smooth table.</p>
+
+<p>'I think you will find that right,' he said; 'six thousand pounds in
+all.'</p>
+
+<p>The writer dragged his heavy chair nearer the table, and began to
+count the coins two by two, withdrawing each pair from the pile with
+his extended forefingers in the manner of one accustomed to deal with
+great treasure. For a time the silence was unbroken, save by the chink
+of gold, when suddenly a high-keyed voice outside penetrated even the
+stout oak of the huge door. The shrill exclamation seemed to touch a
+chord of remembrance in the mind of Sir George Newnes. Nervously he
+grasped the arms of his chair, sitting very bolt upright, muttering:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Can it be he, of all persons, at this time, of all times?'</p>
+
+<p>Doyle glanced up with an expression of annoyance on his face,
+murmuring, to keep his memory green:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'A hundred and ten, a hundred and ten, a hundred and ten.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not at home?' cried the vibrant voice. 'Nonsense! Everybody is at
+home on Christmas Eve!'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>You</i> don't seem to be,' he heard the servant reply.</p>
+
+<p>'Me? Oh, I have no home, merely rooms in Baker Street. I must see your
+master, and at once.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Master left in his motor car half an hour ago to attend the county
+ball, given tonight, at the Royal Huts Hotel, seven miles away,'
+answered the servant, with that glib mastery of fiction which
+unconsciously comes to those who are members, even in a humble
+capacity, of a household devoted to the production of imaginative art.</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, I say again,' came the strident voice. 'It is true that the
+tracks of an automobile are on the ground in front of your door, but
+if you will notice the markings of the puncture-proof belt, you will
+see that the automobile is returning and not departing. It went to the
+station before the last shower to bring back a visitor, and since its
+arrival there has been no rain. That suit of armour in the hall
+spattered with mud shows it to be the casing the visitor wore. The
+blazonry upon it of a pair of scissors above an open book resting upon
+a printing press, indicates that the wearer is first of all an editor;
+second, a publisher; and third, a printer. The only baronet in England
+whose occupation corresponds with this heraldic device is Sir George
+Newnes.'</p>
+
+<p>'You forget Sir Alfred Harmsworth,' said the servant, whose hand held
+a copy of <i>Answers</i>.</p>
+
+<p>If the insistent visitor was taken aback by this unlooked-for
+rejoinder, his manner showed no trace of embarrassment, and he went on
+unabashed.</p>
+
+<p>'As the last shower began at ten minutes to six, Sir George must have
+arrived at Haslemere station on the 6.19 from Waterloo. He has had
+dinner, and at this moment is sitting comfortably with Sir Arthur
+Conan Doyle, doubtless in the front room, which I see is so
+brilliantly lighted. Now if you will kindly take in my card&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'But I tell you,' persisted the perplexed servant, 'that the master
+left in his motor car for the county ball at the Royal&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I know, I know. There stands his suit of armour, too, newly
+blackleaded, whose coat of arms is a couchant typewriter on an
+automobile rampant.'</p>
+
+<p>'Great heavens!' cried Sir George, his eyes brightening with the light
+of unholy desire, 'you have material enough there, Doyle, for a story
+in our January number. What do you say?'</p>
+
+<p>A deep frown marred the smoothness of the novelist's brow.</p>
+
+<p>'I say,' he replied sternly, 'that this man has been sending
+threatening letters to me. I have had enough of his menaces.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then triply bolt the door,' advised Newnes, with a sigh of
+disappointment, leaning back in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you take me for a man who bolts when his enemy appears?' asked
+Doyle fiercely, rising to his feet. 'No, I will unbolt. He shall meet
+the Douglas in his hall!'</p>
+
+<p>'Better have him in the drawing-room, where it's warm,' suggested Sir
+George, with a smile, diplomatically desiring to pour oil on the
+troubled waters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The novelist, without reply, spread a copy of that evening's
+<i>Westminster Gazette</i> over the pile of gold, strode to the door, threw
+it open, and said coldly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Show the gentleman in, please.'</p>
+
+<p>There entered to them a tall, self-possessed, calm man, with
+clean-shaven face, eagle eye, and inquisitive nose.</p>
+
+<p>Although the visit was most embarrassing at that particular juncture,
+the natural courtesy of the novelist restrained him from giving
+utterance to his resentment of the intrusion, and he proceeded to
+introduce the bidden to the unbidden guest as if each were equally
+welcome.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Sherlock Holmes, permit me to present to you Sir George&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'It is quite superfluous,' said the newcomer, in an even voice of
+exasperating tenor, 'for I perceive at once that one who wears a green
+waistcoat must be a Liberal of strong Home Rule opinions, or the
+editor of several publications wearing covers of emerald hue. The
+shamrock necktie, in addition to the waistcoat, indicates that the
+gentleman before me is both, and so I take it for granted that this is
+Sir George Newnes. How is your circulation, Sir George?'</p>
+
+<p>'Rapidly rising,' replied the editor.</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad of that,' asserted the intruder, suavely, 'and can assure
+you that the temperature outside is as rapidly falling.'</p>
+
+<p>The great detective spread his hands before the glowing electric fire,
+and rubbed them vigorously together.</p>
+
+<p>'I perceive through that evening paper the sum of six thousand pounds
+in gold.'</p>
+
+<p>Doyle interrupted him with some impatience.</p>
+
+<p>'You didn't see it <i>through</i> the paper; you saw it <i>in</i> the paper.
+Goodness knows, it's been mentioned in enough of the sheets.'</p>
+
+<p>'As I was about to remark,' went on Sherlock Holmes imperturbably, 'I
+am amazed that a man whose time is so valuable should waste it in
+counting the money. You are surely aware that a golden sovereign
+weighs 123.44 grains, therefore, if I were you, I should have up the
+kitchen scales, dump in the metal, and figure out the amount with a
+lead pencil. You brought the gold in two canvas bags, did you not, Sir
+George?'</p>
+
+<p>'In the name of all that's wonderful, how do you know that?' asked the
+astonished publisher.</p>
+
+<p>Sherlock Holmes, with a superior smile, casually waved his hand toward
+the two bags which still lay on the polished table.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I'm tired of this sort of thing,' said Doyle wearily, sitting
+down in the first chair that presented itself. 'Can't you be honest,
+even on Christmas Eve? You know the oracles of old did not try it on
+with each other.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is true,' said Sherlock Holmes. 'The fact is, I followed Sir
+George Newnes into the Capital and Counties Bank this afternoon, where
+he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> demanded six thousand pounds in gold; but when he learned this
+would weigh ninety-six pounds seven ounces avoirdupois weight, and
+that even troy weight would make the sum no lighter, he took two small
+bags of gold and the rest in Bank of England notes. I came from London
+on the same train with him, but he was off in the automobile before I
+could make myself known, and so I had to walk up. I was further
+delayed by taking the wrong turning on the top and finding myself at
+that charming spot in the neighbourhood where a sailor was murdered by
+two ruffians a century or so ago.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a note of warning in Doyle's voice when he said:&mdash;'Did that
+incident teach you no lesson? Did you not realise that you are in a
+dangerous locality?'</p>
+
+<p>'And likely to fall in with two ruffians?' asked Holmes, slightly
+elevating his eyebrows, while the same sweet smile hovered round his
+thin lips. 'No; the remembrance of the incident encouraged me. It was
+the man who had the money that was murdered. I brought no coin with
+me, although I expect to bear many away.'</p>
+
+<p>'Would you mind telling us, without further circumlocution, what
+brings you here so late at night?'</p>
+
+<p>Sherlock Holmes heaved a sigh, and mournfully shook his head very
+slowly.</p>
+
+<p>'After all the teaching I have bestowed upon you, Doyle, is it
+possible that you cannot deduct even so simple a thing as that? Why am
+I here? Because Sir George made a mistake about those bags. He was
+quite right in taking one of them to 'Undershaw', but he should have
+left the other at 221B, Baker Street. I call this little trip 'The
+Adventure of the Second Swag'. Here is the second swag on the table.
+The first swag you received long ago, and all I had for my share was
+some honeyed words of compliment in the stories you wrote. Now, it is
+truly said that soft words butter no parsnips, and, in this instance,
+they do not even turn away wrath. So far as the second swag is
+concerned, I have come to demand half of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not so poor at deduction as you seem to imagine,' said Doyle,
+apparently nettled at the other's slighting reference to his powers.
+'I was well aware, when you came in, what your errand was. I deduced
+further that if you saw Sir George withdraw gold from the bank, you
+also followed him to Waterloo station.'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite right.'</p>
+
+<p>'When he purchased his ticket for Haslemere, you did the same.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did.'</p>
+
+<p>'When you arrived at Haslemere, you sent a telegram to your friend, Dr
+Watson, telling him of your whereabouts.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are wrong there; I ran after the motor car.'</p>
+
+<p>'You certainly sent a telegram from somewhere, to someone, or at least
+dropped a note in the post-box. There are signs, which I need not
+mention, that point irrevocably to such a conclusion.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The doomed man, ruined by his own self-complacency, merely smiled in
+his superior manner, not noticing the eager look with which Doyle
+awaited his answer.</p>
+
+<p>'Wrong entirely. I neither wrote any telegram, nor spoke any message,
+since I left London.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, no,' cried Doyle. 'I see where I went astray. You merely inquired
+the way to my house.'</p>
+
+<p>'I needed to make no inquiries. I followed the rear light of the
+automobile part way up the hill, and, when that disappeared, I turned
+to the right instead of the left, as there was no one out on such a
+night from whom I could make inquiry.'</p>
+
+<p>'My deductions, then, are beside the mark,' said Doyle hoarsely, in an
+accent which sent cold chills up and down the spine of his invited
+guest, but conveyed no intimation of his fate to the self-satisfied
+later arrival.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course they were,' said Holmes, with exasperating self-assurance.</p>
+
+<p>'Am I also wrong in deducting that you have had nothing to eat since
+you left London?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, you are quite right there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, oblige me by pressing that electric button.'</p>
+
+<p>Holmes did so with much eagerness, but, although the trio waited some
+minutes in silence, there was no response.</p>
+
+<p>'I deduct from that,' said Doyle, 'that the servants have gone to bed.
+After I have quite satisfied all your claims in the way of hunger for
+food and gold, I shall take you back in my motor car, unless you
+prefer to stay here the night.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are very kind,' said Sherlock Holmes.</p>
+
+<p>'Not at all,' replied Doyle. 'Just take that chair, draw it up to the
+table and we will divide the second swag.'</p>
+
+<p>The chair indicated differed from all others in the room. It was
+straight-backed, and its oaken arms were covered by two plates,
+apparently of German silver. When Holmes clutched it by the arms to
+drag it forward, he gave one half-articulate gasp, and plunged
+headlong to the floor, quivering. Sir George Newnes sprang up standing
+with a cry of alarm. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remained seated, a
+seraphic smile of infinite satisfaction playing about his lips.</p>
+
+<p>'Has he fainted?' cried Sir George.</p>
+
+<p>'No, merely electrocuted. A simple device the Sheriff of New York
+taught me when I was over there last.'</p>
+
+<p>'Merciful heavens! Cannot he be resuscitated?'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Newnes,' said Doyle, with the air of one from whose shoulders
+a great weight is lifted, 'a man may fall into the chasm at the foot
+of the Reichenbach Fall and escape to record his adventures later, but
+when two thousand volts pass through the human frame, the person who
+owns that frame is dead.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean to say you've murdered him?' asked Sir George, in an
+awed whisper.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, the term you use is harsh, still it rather accurately sums up
+the situation. To speak candidly, Sir George, I don't think they can
+indite us for anything more than manslaughter. You see, this is a
+little invention for the reception of burglars. Every night before the
+servants go to bed, they switch on the current to this chair. That's
+why I asked Holmes to press the button. I place a small table beside
+the chair, and put on it a bottle of wine, whisky and soda, and
+cigars. Then, if any burglar comes in, he invariably sits down in the
+chair to enjoy himself, and so you see, that piece of furniture is an
+effective method of reducing crime. The number of burglars I have
+turned over to the parish to be buried will prove that this taking off
+of Holmes was not premeditated by me. This incident, strictly
+speaking, is not murder, but manslaughter. We shouldn't get more than
+fourteen years apiece, and probably that would be cut down to seven on
+the ground that we had performed an act for the public benefit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Apiece!' cried Sir George. 'But what have I had to do with it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Everything, my dear sir, everything. As that babbling fool talked, I
+saw in your eye the gleam which betokens avarice for copy. Indeed, I
+think you mentioned the January number. You were therefore accessory
+before the fact. I simply had to slaughter the poor wretch.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir George sank back in his chair wellnigh breathless with horror.
+Publishers are humane men who rarely commit crimes; authors, however,
+are a hardened set who usually perpetrate a felony every time they
+issue a book. Doyle laughed easily.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm used to this sort of thing,' he said. 'Remember how I killed off
+the people in "The White Company". Now, if you will help me to get rid
+of the body, all may yet be well. You see, I learned from the
+misguided simpleton himself that nobody knows where he is today. He
+often disappears for weeks at a time, so there really is slight danger
+of detection. Will you lend a hand?'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose I must,' cried the conscience-stricken man.</p>
+
+<p>Doyle at once threw off the lassitude which the coming of Sherlock
+Holmes had caused, and acted now with an energy which was
+characteristic of him. Going to an outhouse, he brought the motor car
+to the front door, then, picking up Holmes and followed by his
+trembling guest, he went outside and flung the body into the tonneau
+behind. He then threw a spade and a pick into the car, and covered
+everything up with a water-proof spread. Lighting the lamps, he bade
+his silent guest get up beside him, and so they started on their
+fateful journey, taking the road past the spot where the sailor had
+been murdered, and dashing down the long hill at fearful speed toward
+London.</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you take this direction?' asked Sir George. 'Wouldn't it be
+more advisable to go further into the country?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Doyle laughed harshly.</p>
+
+<p>'Haven't you a place on Wimbledon Common? Why not bury him in your
+garden?'</p>
+
+<p>'Merciful motors!' cried the horrified man. 'How can you propose such
+a thing? Talking of gardens, why not have buried him in your own,
+which was infinitely safer than going forward at this pace.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have no fear,' said Doyle reassuringly, 'we shall find him a suitable
+sepulchre without disturbing either of our gardens. I'll be in the
+centre of London within two hours.'</p>
+
+<p>Sir George stared in affright at the demon driver. The man had
+evidently gone mad. To London, of all places in the world. Surely that
+was the one spot on earth to avoid.</p>
+
+<p>'Stop the motor and let me off,' he cried. 'I'm going to wake up the
+nearest magistrate and confess.'</p>
+
+<p>'You'll do nothing of the sort,' said Doyle. 'Don't you see that no
+person on earth would suspect two criminals of making for London when
+they have the whole country before them? Haven't you read my stories?
+The moment a man commits a crime he tries to get as far away from
+London as possible. Every policeman knows that, therefore, two men
+coming into London are innocent strangers, according to Scotland
+Yard.'</p>
+
+<p>'But then we may be taken up for fast driving, and think of the
+terrible burden we carry.'</p>
+
+<p>'We're safe on the country roads, and I'll slow down when we reach the
+suburbs.'</p>
+
+<p>It was approaching three o'clock in the morning when a huge motor car
+turned out of Trafalgar Square, and went eastward along the Strand.
+The northern side of the Strand was up, as it usually is, and the
+motor, skilfully driven, glided past the piles of wood-paving blocks,
+great sombre kettles holding tar and the general <i>d&eacute;bris</i> of a
+re-paving convulsion. Opposite Southampton Street, at the very spot so
+graphically illustrated by George C. Hait&eacute; on the cover of the <i>Strand
+Magazine</i>, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stopped his motor. The Strand was
+deserted. He threw pick and shovel into the excavation, and curtly
+ordered his companion to take his choice of weapons. Sir George
+selected the pick, and Doyle vigorously plied the spade. In almost
+less time than it takes to tell it, a very respectable hole had been
+dug, and in it was placed the body of the popular private detective.
+Just as the last spadeful was shovelled in place the stern voice of a
+policeman awoke the silence, and caused Sir George to drop his pick
+from nerveless hands.</p>
+
+<p>'What are you two doing down there?'</p>
+
+<p>'That's all right, officer,' said Doyle glibly, as one who had
+foreseen every emergency. 'My friend here is controller of the Strand.
+When the Strand is up he is responsible, and it has the largest
+circulation in the&mdash;I mean it's up oftener than any other street in
+the world. We cannot inspect the work satisfactorily while traffic is
+on, and so we have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> examining it in the night-time. I am his
+secretary; I do the writing, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I see,' replied the constable. 'Well, gentlemen, good morning to
+you, and merry Christmas.'</p>
+
+<p>'The same to you, constable. Just lend a hand, will you?'</p>
+
+<p>The officer of the law helped each of the men up to the level of the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>As Doyle drove away from the ill-omened spot he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Thus have we disposed of poor Holmes in the busiest spot on earth,
+where no one will ever think of looking for him, and we've put him
+away without even a Christmas box around him. We have buried him for
+ever in the <i>Strand</i>.'</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont, by Robert Barr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont
+
+Author: Robert Barr
+
+Release Date: September 25, 2006 [EBook #19369]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRIUMPHS OF EUGENE VALMONT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Starner, Sankar Viswanathan, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+    The Attribution and the Table of Contents are not part of the
+    original book.
+
+
+
+                           _The Triumphs of
+                            Eugene Valmont_
+
+
+                                  By
+
+
+                             Robert Barr
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+1.  _The Mystery of the Five Hundred Diamonds_
+
+2.  _The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower_
+
+3.  _The Clue of the Silver Spoons_
+
+4.  _Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune_
+
+5.  _The Absent-Minded Coterie_
+
+6.  _The Ghost with the Club-Foot_
+
+7.  _The Liberation of Wyoming Ed_
+
+8.  _Lady Alicia's Emeralds_
+
+
+APPENDIX: TWO SHERLOCK HOLMES PARODIES
+
+1.  The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs
+
+2.  The Adventure of the Second Swag
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+1. _The Mystery of the Five Hundred Diamonds_
+
+
+When I say I am called Valmont, the name will convey no impression to
+the reader, one way or another. My occupation is that of private
+detective in London, but if you ask any policeman in Paris who Valmont
+was he will likely be able to tell you, unless he is a recent recruit.
+If you ask him where Valmont is now, he may not know, yet I have a
+good deal to do with the Parisian police.
+
+For a period of seven years I was chief detective to the Government of
+France, and if I am unable to prove myself a great crime hunter, it is
+because the record of my career is in the secret archives of Paris.
+
+I may admit at the outset that I have no grievances to air. The French
+Government considered itself justified in dismissing me, and it did
+so. In this action it was quite within its right, and I should be the
+last to dispute that right; but, on the other hand, I consider myself
+justified in publishing the following account of what actually
+occurred, especially as so many false rumours have been put abroad
+concerning the case. However, as I said at the beginning, I hold no
+grievance, because my worldly affairs are now much more prosperous
+than they were in Paris, my intimate knowledge of that city and the
+country of which it is the capital bringing to me many cases with
+which I have dealt more or less successfully since I established
+myself in London.
+
+Without further preliminary I shall at once plunge into an account of
+the case which riveted the attention of the whole world a little more
+than a decade ago.
+
+The year 1893 was a prosperous twelve months for France. The weather
+was good, the harvest excellent, and the wine of that vintage is
+celebrated to this day. Everyone was well off and reasonably happy, a
+marked contrast to the state of things a few years later, when
+dissension over the Dreyfus case rent the country in twain.
+
+Newspaper readers may remember that in 1893 the Government of France
+fell heir to an unexpected treasure which set the civilised world
+agog, especially those inhabitants of it who are interested in
+historical relics. This was the finding of the diamond necklace in
+the Chateau de Chaumont, where it had rested undiscovered for a
+century in a rubbish heap of an attic. I believe it has not been
+questioned that this was the veritable necklace which the court
+jeweller, Boehmer, hoped to sell to Marie Antoinette, although how it
+came to be in the Chateau de Chaumont no one has been able to form
+even a conjecture. For a hundred years it was supposed that the
+necklace had been broken up in London, and its half a thousand stones,
+great and small, sold separately. It has always seemed strange to me
+that the Countess de Lamotte-Valois, who was thought to have profited
+by the sale of these jewels, should not have abandoned France if she
+possessed money to leave that country, for exposure was inevitable if
+she remained. Indeed, the unfortunate woman was branded and
+imprisoned, and afterwards was dashed to death from the third storey
+of a London house, when, in the direst poverty, she sought escape from
+the consequences of the debts she had incurred.
+
+I am not superstitious in the least, yet this celebrated piece of
+treasure-trove seems actually to have exerted a malign influence over
+everyone who had the misfortune to be connected with it. Indeed, in a
+small way, I who write these words suffered dismissal and disgrace,
+though I caught but one glimpse of this dazzling scintillation of
+jewels. The jeweller who made the necklace met financial ruin; the
+Queen for whom it was constructed was beheaded; that high-born Prince
+Louis Rene Edouard, Cardinal de Rohan, who purchased it, was flung
+into prison; the unfortunate Countess, who said she acted as
+go-between until the transfer was concluded, clung for five awful
+minutes to a London window-sill before dropping to her death to the
+flags below; and now, a hundred and eight years later, up comes this
+devil's display of fireworks to the light again!
+
+Droulliard, the working man who found the ancient box, seems to have
+prised it open, and ignorant though he was--he had probably never seen
+a diamond in his life before--realised that a fortune was in his
+grasp. The baleful glitter from the combination must have sent madness
+into his brain, working havoc therein as though the shafts of
+brightness were those mysterious rays which scientists have recently
+discovered. He might quite easily have walked through the main gate of
+the Chateau unsuspected and unquestioned with the diamonds concealed
+about his person, but instead of this he crept from the attic window
+on to the steep roof, slipped to the eaves, fell to the ground, and
+lay dead with a broken neck, while the necklace, intact, shimmered in
+the sunlight beside his body. No matter where these jewels had been
+found the Government would have insisted that they belonged to the
+Treasury of the Republic; but as the Chateau de Chaumont was a
+historical monument, and the property of France, there could be no
+question regarding the ownership of the necklace. The Government at
+once claimed it, and ordered it to be sent by a trustworthy military
+man to Paris. It was carried safely and delivered promptly to the
+authorities by Alfred Dreyfus, a young captain of artillery, to whom
+its custody had been entrusted.
+
+In spite of its fall from the tall tower neither case nor jewels were
+perceptibly damaged. The lock of the box had apparently been forced by
+Droulliard's hatchet, or perhaps by the clasp knife found on his body.
+On reaching the ground the lid had flown open, and the necklace was
+thrown out.
+
+I believe there was some discussion in the Cabinet regarding the fate
+of this ill-omened trophy, one section wishing it to be placed in a
+museum on account of its historical interest, another advocating the
+breaking up of the necklace and the selling of the diamonds for what
+they would fetch. But a third party maintained that the method to get
+the most money into the coffers of the country was to sell the
+necklace as it stood, for as the world now contains so many rich
+amateurs who collect undoubted rarities, regardless of expense, the
+historic associations of the jewelled collar would enhance the
+intrinsic value of the stones; and, this view prevailing, it was
+announced that the necklace would be sold by auction a month later in
+the rooms of Meyer, Renault and Co., in the Boulevard des Italiens,
+near the Bank of the Credit-Lyonnais.
+
+This announcement elicited much comment from the newspapers of all
+countries, and it seemed that, from a financial point of view at
+least, the decision of the Government had been wise, for it speedily
+became evident that a notable coterie of wealthy buyers would be
+congregated in Paris on the thirteenth (unlucky day for me!) when the
+sale was to take place. But we of the inner circle were made aware of
+another result somewhat more disquieting, which was that the most
+expert criminals in the world were also gathering like vultures upon
+the fair city. The honour of France was at stake. Whoever bought that
+necklace must be assured of a safe conduct out of the country. We
+might view with equanimity whatever happened afterwards, but while he
+was a resident of France his life and property must not be endangered.
+Thus it came about that I was given full authority to ensure that
+neither murder nor theft nor both combined should be committed while
+the purchaser of the necklace remained within our boundaries, and for
+this purpose the police resources of France were placed unreservedly
+at my disposal. If I failed there should be no one to blame but
+myself; consequently, as I have remarked before, I do not complain of
+my dismissal by the Government.
+
+The broken lock of the jewel-case had been very deftly repaired by an
+expert locksmith, who in executing his task was so unfortunate as to
+scratch a finger on the broken metal, whereupon blood poisoning set
+in, and although his life was saved, he was dismissed from the
+hospital with his right arm gone and his usefulness destroyed.
+
+When the jeweller Boehmer made the necklace he asked a hundred and
+sixty thousand pounds for it, but after years of disappointment he was
+content to sell it to Cardinal de Rohan for sixty-four thousand
+pounds, to be liquidated in three instalments, not one of which was
+ever paid. This latter amount was probably somewhere near the value of
+the five hundred and sixteen separate stones, one of which was of
+tremendous size, a very monarch of diamonds, holding its court among
+seventeen brilliants each as large as a filbert. This iridescent
+concentration of wealth was, as one might say, placed in my care, and
+I had to see to it that no harm came to the necklace or to its
+prospective owner until they were safely across the boundaries of
+France.
+
+The four weeks previous to the thirteenth proved a busy and anxious
+time for me. Thousands, most of whom were actuated by mere curiosity,
+wished to view the diamonds. We were compelled to discriminate, and
+sometimes discriminated against the wrong person, which caused
+unpleasantness. Three distinct attempts were made to rob the safe, but
+luckily these criminal efforts were frustrated, and so we came
+unscathed to the eventful thirteenth of the month.
+
+The sale was to begin at two o'clock, and on the morning of that day I
+took the somewhat tyrannical precaution of having the more dangerous
+of our own malefactors, and as many of the foreign thieves as I could
+trump up charges against, laid by the heels, yet I knew very well it
+was not these rascals I had most to fear, but the suave, well-groomed
+gentlemen, amply supplied with unimpeachable credentials, stopping at
+our fine hotels and living like princes. Many of these were foreigners
+against whom we could prove nothing, and whose arrest might land us
+into temporary international difficulties. Nevertheless, I had each of
+them shadowed, and on the morning of the thirteenth if one of them had
+even disputed a cab fare I should have had him in prison half an hour
+later, and taken the consequences, but these gentlemen are very shrewd
+and do not commit mistakes.
+
+I made up a list of all the men in the world who were able or likely
+to purchase the necklace. Many of them would not be present in person
+at the auction rooms; their bidding would be done by agents. This
+simplified matters a good deal, for the agents kept me duly informed
+of their purposes, and, besides, an agent who handles treasure every
+week is an adept at the business, and does not need the protection
+which must surround an amateur, who in nine cases out of ten has but
+scant idea of the dangers that threaten him, beyond knowing that if he
+goes down a dark street in a dangerous quarter he is likely to be
+maltreated and robbed.
+
+There were no less than sixteen clients all told, whom we learned were
+to attend personally on the day of the sale, any one of whom might
+well have made the purchase. The Marquis of Warlingham and Lord Oxtead
+from England were well-known jewel fanciers, while at least half a
+dozen millionaires were expected from the United States, with a
+smattering from Germany, Austria, and Russia, and one each from Italy,
+Belgium, and Holland.
+
+Admission to the auction rooms was allowed by ticket only, to be
+applied for at least a week in advance, applications to be accompanied
+by satisfactory testimonials. It would possibly have surprised many of
+the rich men collected there to know that they sat cheek by jowl with
+some of the most noted thieves of England and America, but I allowed
+this for two reasons: first, I wished to keep these sharpers under my
+own eye until I knew who had bought the necklace; and, secondly, I was
+desirous that they should not know they were suspected.
+
+I stationed trusty men outside on the Boulevard des Italiens, each of
+whom knew by sight most of the probable purchasers of the necklace. It
+was arranged that when the sale was over I should walk out to the
+boulevard alongside the man who was the new owner of the diamonds, and
+from that moment until he quitted France my men were not to lose sight
+of him if he took personal custody of the stones, instead of doing the
+sensible and proper thing of having them insured and forwarded to his
+residence by some responsible transit company, or depositing them in
+the bank. In fact, I took every precaution that occurred to me. All
+police Paris was on the _qui vive_, and felt itself pitted against the
+scoundrelism of the world.
+
+For one reason or another it was nearly half-past two before the sale
+began. There had been considerable delay because of forged tickets,
+and, indeed, each order for admittance was so closely scrutinised that
+this in itself took a good deal more time than we anticipated. Every
+chair was occupied, and still a number of the visitors were compelled
+to stand. I stationed myself by the swinging doors at the entrance end
+of the hall, where I could command a view of the entire assemblage.
+Some of my men were placed with backs against the wall, whilst others
+were distributed amongst the chairs, all in plain clothes. During the
+sale the diamonds themselves were not displayed, but the box
+containing them rested in front of the auctioneer and three policemen
+in uniform stood guard on either side.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Very quietly the auctioneer began by saying that there was no need for
+him to expatiate on the notable character of the treasure he was
+privileged to offer for sale, and with this preliminary, he requested
+those present to bid. Someone offered twenty thousand francs, which
+was received with much laughter; then the bidding went steadily on
+until it reached nine hundred thousand francs, which I knew to be less
+than half the reserve the Government had placed upon the necklace. The
+contest advanced more slowly until the million and a half was touched,
+and there it hung fire for a time, while the auctioneer remarked that
+this sum did not equal that which the maker of the necklace had been
+finally forced to accept for it. After another pause he added that, as
+the reserve was not exceeded, the necklace would be withdrawn, and
+probably never again offered for sale. He therefore urged those who
+were holding back to make their bids now. At this the contest livened
+until the sum of two million three hundred thousand francs had been
+offered, and now I knew the necklace would be sold. Nearing the three
+million mark the competition thinned down to a few dealers from
+Hamburg and the Marquis of Warlingham, from England, when a voice that
+had not yet been heard in the auction room was lifted in a tone of
+some impatience:--
+
+    'One million dollars!'
+
+There was an instant hush, followed by the scribbling of pencils, as
+each person present reduced the sum to its equivalent in his own
+currency--pounds for the English, francs for the French, marks for the
+German, and so on. The aggressive tone and the clear-cut face of the
+bidder proclaimed him an American, not less than the financial
+denomination he had used. In a moment it was realised that his bid was
+a clear leap of more than two million francs, and a sigh went up from
+the audience as if this settled it, and the great sale was done.
+Nevertheless the auctioneer's hammer hovered over the lid of his desk,
+and he looked up and down the long line of faces turned towards him.
+He seemed reluctant to tap the board, but no one ventured to compete
+against this tremendous sum, and with a sharp click the mallet fell.
+
+'What name?' he asked, bending over towards the customer.
+
+'Cash,' replied the American; 'here's a cheque for the amount. I'll
+take the diamonds with me.'
+
+'Your request is somewhat unusual,' protested the auctioneer mildly.
+
+'I know what you mean,' interrupted the American; 'you think the
+cheque may not be cashed. You will notice it is drawn on the
+Credit-Lyonnais, which is practically next door. I must have the
+jewels with me. Send round your messenger with the cheque; it will
+take only a few minutes to find out whether or not the money is there
+to meet it. The necklace is mine, and I insist on having it.'
+
+The auctioneer with some demur handed the cheque to the representative
+of the French Government who was present, and this official himself
+went to the bank. There were some other things to be sold and the
+auctioneer endeavoured to go on through the list, but no one paid the
+slightest attention to him.
+
+Meanwhile I was studying the countenance of the man who had made the
+astounding bid, when I should instead have adjusted my preparations to
+meet the new conditions now confronting me. Here was a man about whom
+we knew nothing whatever. I had come to the instant conclusion that he
+was a prince of criminals, and that a sinister design, not at that
+moment fathomed by me, was on foot to get possession of the jewels.
+The handing up of the cheque was clearly a trick of some sort, and I
+fully expected the official to return and say the draft was good. I
+determined to prevent this man from getting the jewel box until I knew
+more of his game. Quickly I removed from my place near the door to
+the auctioneer's desk, having two objects in view; first, to warn the
+auctioneer not to part with the treasure too easily; and, second, to
+study the suspected man at closer range. Of all evil-doers the
+American is most to be feared; he uses more ingenuity in the planning
+of his projects, and will take greater risks in carrying them out than
+any other malefactor on earth.
+
+From my new station I saw there were two men to deal with. The
+bidder's face was keen and intellectual; his hands refined, lady-like,
+clean and white, showing they were long divorced from manual labour,
+if indeed they had ever done any useful work. Coolness and
+imperturbability were his beyond a doubt. The companion who sat at his
+right was of an entirely different stamp. His hands were hairy and
+sun-tanned; his face bore the stamp of grim determination and
+unflinching bravery. I knew that these two types usually hunted in
+couples--the one to scheme, the other to execute, and they always
+formed a combination dangerous to encounter and difficult to
+circumvent.
+
+There was a buzz of conversation up and down the hall as these two men
+talked together in low tones. I knew now that I was face to face with
+the most hazardous problem of my life.
+
+I whispered to the auctioneer, who bent his head to listen. He knew
+very well who I was, of course.
+
+'You must not give up the necklace,' I began.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+'I am under the orders of the official from the Ministry of the
+Interior. You must speak to him.'
+
+'I shall not fail to do so,' I replied. 'Nevertheless, do not give up
+the box too readily.'
+
+'I am helpless,' he protested with another shrug. 'I obey the orders
+of the Government.'
+
+Seeing it was useless to parley further with the auctioneer, I set my
+wits to work to meet the new emergency. I felt convinced that the
+cheque would prove to be genuine, and that the fraud, wherever it lay,
+might not be disclosed in time to aid the authorities. My duty,
+therefore, was to make sure we lost sight neither of the buyer nor the
+thing bought. Of course I could not arrest the purchaser merely on
+suspicion; besides, it would make the Government the laughing-stock of
+the world if they sold a case of jewels and immediately placed the
+buyer in custody when they themselves had handed over his goods to
+him. Ridicule kills in France. A breath of laughter may blow a
+Government out of existence in Paris much more effectually than will a
+whiff of cannon smoke. My duty then was to give the Government full
+warning, and never lose sight of my man until he was clear of France;
+then my responsibility ended.
+
+I took aside one of my own men in plain clothes and said to him,--
+
+'You have seen the American who has bought the necklace?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Very well. Go outside quietly, and station yourself there. He is
+likely to emerge presently with the jewels in his possession. You are
+not to lose sight of either the man or the casket. I shall follow him
+and be close behind him as he emerges, and you are to shadow us. If he
+parts with the case you must be ready at a sign from me to follow
+either the man or the jewels. Do you understand?' 'Yes, sir,' he
+answered, and left the room.
+
+It is ever the unforeseen that baffles us; it is easy to be wise after
+the event. I should have sent two men, and I have often thought since
+how admirable is the regulation of the Italian Government which sends
+out its policemen in pairs. Or I should have given my man power to
+call for help, but even as it was he did only half as well as I had a
+right to expect of him, and the blunder he committed by a moment's
+dull-witted hesitation--ah, well! there is no use of scolding. After
+all the result might have been the same.
+
+Just as my man disappeared between the two folding doors the official
+from the Ministry of the Interior entered. I intercepted him about
+half-way on his journey from the door to the auctioneer.
+
+'Possibly the cheque appears to be genuine,' I whispered to him.
+
+'But certainly,' he replied pompously. He was an individual greatly
+impressed with his own importance; a kind of character with which it
+is always difficult to deal. Afterwards the Government asserted that
+this official had warned me, and the utterances of an empty-headed ass
+dressed in a little brief authority, as the English poet says, were
+looked upon as the epitome of wisdom.
+
+'I advise you strongly not to hand over the necklace as has been
+requested,' I went on.
+
+'Why?' he asked.
+
+'Because I am convinced the bidder is a criminal.'
+
+'If you have proof of that, arrest him.'
+
+'I have no proof at the present moment, but I request you to delay the
+delivery of the goods.'
+
+'That is absurd,' he cried impatiently. 'The necklace is his, not
+ours. The money has already been transferred to the account of the
+Government; we cannot retain the five million francs, and refuse to
+hand over to him what he has bought with them,' and so the man left me
+standing there, nonplussed and anxious. The eyes of everyone in the
+room had been turned on us during our brief conversation, and now the
+official proceeded ostentatiously up the room with a grand air of
+importance; then, with a bow and a flourish of the hand, he said,
+dramatically,--
+
+'The jewels belong to Monsieur.'
+
+The two Americans rose simultaneously, the taller holding out his hand
+while the auctioneer passed to him the case he had apparently paid so
+highly for. The American nonchalantly opened the box and for the first
+time the electric radiance of the jewels burst upon that audience,
+each member of which craned his neck to behold it. It seemed to me a
+most reckless thing to do. He examined the jewels minutely for a few
+moments, then snapped the lid shut again, and calmly put the box in
+his outside pocket, and I could not help noticing that the light
+overcoat he wore possessed pockets made extraordinarily large, as if
+on purpose for this very case. And now this amazing man walked
+serenely down the room past miscreants who joyfully would have cut his
+throat for even the smallest diamond in that conglomeration; yet he
+did not take the trouble to put his hand on the pocket which contained
+the case, or in any way attempt to protect it. The assemblage seemed
+stricken dumb by his audacity. His friend followed closely at his
+heels, and the tall man disappeared through the folding doors. Not so
+the other. He turned quickly, and whipped two revolvers out of his
+pockets, which he presented at the astonished crowd. There had been a
+movement on the part of every one to leave the room, but the sight of
+these deadly weapons confronting them made each one shrink into his
+place again.
+
+The man with his back to the door spoke in a loud and domineering
+voice, asking the auctioneer to translate what he had to say into
+French and German; he spoke in English.
+
+'These here shiners are valuable; they belong to my friend who has
+just gone out. Casting no reflections on the generality of people in
+this room, there are, nevertheless, half a dozen "crooks" among us
+whom my friend wishes to avoid. Now, no honest man here will object to
+giving the buyer of that there trinket five clear minutes in which to
+get away. It's only the "crooks" that can kick. I ask these five
+minutes as a favour, but if they are not granted I am going to take
+them as a right. Any man who moves will get shot.'
+
+'I am an honest man,' I cried, 'and I object. I am chief detective of
+the French Government. Stand aside; the police will protect your
+friend.'
+
+'Hold on, my son,' warned the American, turning one weapon directly
+upon me, while the other held a sort of roving commission, pointing
+all over the room. 'My friend is from New York and he distrusts the
+police as much as he does the grafters. You may be twenty detectives,
+but if you move before that clock strikes three, I'll bring you down,
+and don't you forget it.'
+
+It is one thing to face death in a fierce struggle, but quite another
+to advance coldly upon it toward the muzzle of a pistol held so
+steadily that there could be no chance of escape. The gleam of
+determination in the man's eyes convinced me he meant what he said. I
+did not consider then, nor have I considered since, that the next five
+minutes, precious as they were, would be worth paying my life for.
+Apparently everyone else was of my opinion, for none moved hand or
+foot until the clock slowly struck three.
+
+'Thank you, gentlemen,' said the American, as he vanished between the
+spring-doors. When I say vanished, I mean that word and no other,
+because my men outside saw nothing of this individual then or later.
+He vanished as if he had never existed, and it was some hours before
+we found how this had been accomplished.
+
+I rushed out almost on his heels, as one might say, and hurriedly
+questioned my waiting men. They had all seen the tall American come
+out with the greatest leisure and stroll towards the west. As he was
+not the man any of them were looking for they paid no further
+attention to him, as, indeed, is the custom with our Parisian force.
+They have eyes for nothing but what they are sent to look for, and
+this trait has its drawbacks for their superiors.
+
+I ran up the boulevard, my whole thought intent on the diamonds and
+their owner. I knew my subordinate in command of the men inside the
+hall would look after the scoundrel with the pistols. A short distance
+up I found the stupid fellow I had sent out, standing in a dazed
+manner at the corner of the Rue Michodiere, gazing alternately down
+that short street and towards the Place de l'Opera. The very fact that
+he was there furnished proof that he had failed.
+
+'Where is the American?' I demanded.
+
+'He went down this street, sir.'
+
+'Then why are you standing here like a fool?'
+
+'I followed him this far, when a man came up the Rue Michodiere, and
+without a word the American handed him the jewel-box, turning
+instantly down the street up which the other had come. The other
+jumped into a cab, and drove towards the Place de l'Opera.'
+
+'And what did you do? Stood here like a post, I suppose?'
+
+'I didn't know what to do, sir. It all happened in a moment.'
+
+'Why didn't you follow the cab?'
+
+'I didn't know which to follow, sir, and the cab was gone instantly
+while I watched the American.'
+
+'What was its number?'
+
+'I don't know, sir.'
+
+'You clod! Why didn't you call one of our men, whoever was nearest,
+and leave him to shadow the American while you followed the cab?'
+
+'I did shout to the nearest man, sir, but he said you told him to stay
+there and watch the English lord, and even before he had spoken both
+American and cabman were out of sight.'
+
+'Was the man to whom he gave the box an American also?'
+
+'No, sir, he was French.'
+
+'How do you know?'
+
+'By his appearance and the words he spoke.'
+
+'I thought you said he didn't speak.'
+
+'He did not speak to the American, sir, but he said to the cabman,
+"Drive to the Madeleine as quickly as you can."'
+
+'Describe the man.'
+
+'He was a head shorter than the American, wore a black beard and
+moustache rather neatly trimmed, and seemed to be a superior sort of
+artisan.'
+
+'You did not take the number of the cab. Should you know the cabman if
+you saw him again?'
+
+'Yes, sir, I think so.'
+
+Taking this fellow with me I returned to the now nearly empty auction
+room and there gathered all my men about me. Each in his notebook
+took down particulars of the cabman and his passenger from the lips of
+my incompetent spy; next I dictated a full description of the two
+Americans, then scattered my men to the various railway stations of
+the lines leading out of Paris, with orders to make inquiries of the
+police on duty there, and to arrest one or more of the four persons
+described should they be so fortunate as to find any of them.
+
+I now learned how the rogue with the pistols vanished so completely as
+he did. My subordinate in the auction room had speedily solved the
+mystery. To the left of the main entrance of the auction room was a
+door that gave private access to the rear of the premises. As the
+attendant in charge confessed when questioned, he had been bribed by
+the American earlier in the day to leave this side door open and to
+allow the man to escape by the goods entrance. Thus the ruffian did
+not appear on the boulevard at all, and so had not been observed by
+any of my men.
+
+Taking my futile spy with me I returned to my own office, and sent an
+order throughout the city that every cabman who had been in the
+Boulevard des Italiens between half-past two and half-past three that
+afternoon, should report immediately to me. The examination of these
+men proved a very tedious business indeed, but whatever other
+countries may say of us, we French are patient, and if the haystack is
+searched long enough, the needle will be found. I did not discover the
+needle I was looking for, but I came upon one quite as important, if
+not more so.
+
+It was nearly ten o'clock at night when a cabman answered my
+oft-repeated questions in the affirmative.
+
+'Did you take up a passenger a few minutes past three o'clock on the
+Boulevard des Italiens, near the Credit-Lyonnais? Had he a short black
+beard? Did he carry a small box in his hand and order you to drive to
+the Madeleine?'
+
+The cabman seemed puzzled.
+
+'He wore a short black beard when he got out of the cab,' he replied.
+
+'What do you mean by that?'
+
+'I drive a closed cab, sir. When he got in he was a smooth-faced
+gentleman; when he got out he wore a short black beard.'
+
+'Was he a Frenchman?'
+
+'No, sir; he was a foreigner, either English or American.'
+
+'Was he carrying a box?'
+
+'No, sir; he held in his hand a small leather bag.'
+
+'Where did he tell you to drive?'
+
+'He told me to follow the cab in front, which had just driven off very
+rapidly towards the Madeleine. In fact, I heard the man, such as you
+describe, order the other cabman to drive to the Madeleine. I had come
+alongside the curb when this man held up his hand for a cab, but the
+open cab cut in ahead of me. Just then my passenger stepped up and
+said in French, but with a foreign accent: "Follow that cab wherever
+it goes."'
+
+I turned with some indignation to my inefficient spy.
+
+'You told me,' I said, 'that the American had gone down a side street.
+Yet he evidently met a second man, obtained from him the handbag,
+turned back, and got into the closed cab directly behind you.'
+
+'Well, sir,' stammered the spy, 'I could not look in two directions at
+the same time. The American certainly went down the side street, but
+of course I watched the cab which contained the jewels.'
+
+'And you saw nothing of the closed cab right at your elbow?'
+
+'The boulevard was full of cabs, sir, and the pavement crowded with
+passers-by, as it always is at that hour of the day, and I have only
+two eyes in my head.'
+
+'I am glad to know you had that many, for I was beginning to think you
+were blind.'
+
+Although I said this, I knew in my heart it was useless to censure the
+poor wretch, for the fault was entirely my own in not sending two men,
+and in failing to guess the possibility of the jewels and their owner
+being separated. Besides, here was a clue to my hand at last, and no
+time must be lost in following it up. So I continued my interrogation
+of the cabman.
+
+'The other cab was an open vehicle, you say?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'You succeeded in following it?'
+
+'Oh, yes, sir. At the Madeleine the man in front redirected the
+coachman, who turned to the left and drove to the Place de la
+Concorde, then up the Champs-Elysees to the Arch and so down the
+Avenue de la Grande Armee, and the Avenue de Neuilly, to the Pont de
+Neuilly, where it came to a standstill. My fare got out, and I saw he
+now wore a short black beard, which he had evidently put on inside the
+cab. He gave me a ten-franc piece, which was very satisfactory.
+
+'And the fare you were following? What did he do?'
+
+'He also stepped out, paid the cabman, went down the bank of the river
+and got on board a steam launch that seemed to be waiting for him.'
+
+'Did he look behind, or appear to know that he was being followed?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'And your fare?'
+
+'He ran after the first man, and also went aboard the steam launch,
+which instantly started down the river.'
+
+'And that was the last you saw of them?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'At what time did you reach the Pont de Neuilly?'
+
+'I do not know, sir; I was compelled to drive rather fast, but the
+distance is seven to eight kilometres.'
+
+'You would do it under the hour?'
+
+'But certainly, under the hour.'
+
+'Then you must have reached Neuilly bridge about four o'clock?'
+
+'It is very likely, sir.'
+
+The plan of the tall American was now perfectly clear to me, and it
+comprised nothing that was contrary to law. He had evidently placed
+his luggage on board the steam launch in the morning. The handbag had
+contained various materials which would enable him to disguise
+himself, and this bag he had probably left in some shop down the side
+street, or else someone was waiting with it for him. The giving of the
+treasure to another man was not so risky as it had at first appeared,
+because he instantly followed that man, who was probably his
+confidential servant. Despite the windings of the river there was
+ample time for the launch to reach Havre before the American steamer
+sailed on Saturday morning. I surmised it was his intention to come
+alongside the steamer before she left her berth in Havre harbour, and
+thus transfer himself and his belongings unperceived by anyone on
+watch at the land side of the liner.
+
+All this, of course, was perfectly justifiable, and seemed, in truth,
+merely a well-laid scheme for escaping observation. His only danger of
+being tracked was when he got into the cab. Once away from the
+neighbourhood of the Boulevard des Italiens he was reasonably sure to
+evade pursuit, and the five minutes which his friend with the pistols
+had won for him afforded just the time he needed to get so far as the
+Place Madeleine, and after that everything was easy. Yet, if it had
+not been for those five minutes secured by coercion, I should not have
+found the slightest excuse for arresting him. But he was accessory
+after the act in that piece of illegality--in fact, it was absolutely
+certain that he had been accessory before the act, and guilty of
+conspiracy with the man who had presented firearms to the auctioneer's
+audience, and who had interfered with an officer in the discharge of
+his duty by threatening me and my men. So I was now legally in the
+right if I arrested every person on board that steam launch.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With a map of the river before me I proceeded to make some
+calculations. It was now nearly ten o'clock at night. The launch had
+had six hours in which to travel at its utmost speed. It was doubtful
+if so small a vessel could make ten miles an hour, even with the
+current in its favour, which is rather sluggish because of the locks
+and the level country. Sixty miles would place her beyond Meulan,
+which is fifty-eight miles from the Pont Royal, and, of course, a
+lesser distance from the Pont de Neuilly. But the navigation of the
+river is difficult at all times, and almost impossible after dark.
+There were chances of the boat running aground, and then there was the
+inevitable delay at the locks. So I estimated that the launch could
+not yet have reached Meulan, which was less than twenty-five miles
+from Paris by rail. Looking up the timetable I saw there were still
+two trains to Meulan, the next at 10.25, which reached Meulan at
+11.40. I therefore had time to reach St. Lazare station, and accomplish
+some telegraphing before the train left.
+
+With three of my assistants I got into a cab and drove to the station.
+On arrival I sent one of my men to hold the train while I went into
+the telegraph office, cleared the wires, and got into communication
+with the lock master at Meulan. He replied that no steam launch had
+passed down since an hour before sunset. I then instructed him to
+allow the yacht to enter the lock, close the upper gate, let half of
+the water out, and hold the vessel there until I came. I also ordered
+the local Meulan police to send enough men to the lock to enforce this
+command. Lastly, I sent messages all along the river asking the police
+to report to me on the train the passage of the steam launch.
+
+The 10.25 is a slow train, stopping at every station. However, every
+drawback has its compensation, and these stoppages enabled me to
+receive and to send telegraphic messages. I was quite well aware that
+I might be on a fool's errand in going to Meulan. The yacht could have
+put about before it had steamed a mile, and so returned back to Paris.
+There had been no time to learn whether this was so or not if I was to
+catch the 10.25. Also, it might have landed its passengers anywhere
+along the river. I may say at once that neither of these two things
+happened, and my calculations regarding her movements were accurate to
+the letter. But a trap most carefully set may be prematurely sprung by
+inadvertence, or more often by the over-zeal of some stupid ass who
+fails to understand his instructions, or oversteps them if they are
+understood. I received a most annoying telegram from Denouval, a lock
+about thirteen miles above that of Meulan. The local policeman,
+arriving at the lock, found that the yacht had just cleared. The fool
+shouted to the captain to return, threatening him with all the pains
+and penalties of the law if he refused. The captain did refuse, rung
+on full speed ahead, and disappeared in the darkness. Through this
+well-meant blunder of an understrapper those on board the launch had
+received warning that we were on their track. I telegraphed to the
+lock-keeper at Denouval to allow no craft to pass toward Paris until
+further orders. We thus held the launch in a thirteen-mile stretch of
+water, but the night was pitch dark, and passengers might be landed on
+either bank with all France before them, over which to effect their
+escape in any direction.
+
+It was midnight when I reached the lock at Meulan, and, as was to be
+expected, nothing had been seen or heard of the launch. It gave me
+some satisfaction to telegraph to that dunderhead at Denouval to walk
+along the river bank to Meulan, and report if he learnt the launch's
+whereabouts. We took up our quarters in the lodgekeeper's house and
+waited. There was little sense in sending men to scour the country at
+this time of night, for the pursued were on the alert, and very
+unlikely to allow themselves to be caught if they had gone ashore. On
+the other hand, there was every chance that the captain would refuse
+to let them land, because he must know his vessel was in a trap from
+which it could not escape, and although the demand of the policeman at
+Denouval was quite unauthorised, nevertheless the captain could not
+know that, while he must be well aware of his danger in refusing to
+obey a command from the authorities. Even if he got away for the
+moment he must know that arrest was certain, and that his punishment
+would be severe. His only plea could be that he had not heard and
+understood the order to return. But this plea would be invalidated if
+he aided in the escape of two men, whom he must know were wanted by
+the police. I was therefore very confident that if his passengers
+asked to be set ashore, the captain would refuse when he had had time
+to think about his own danger. My estimate proved accurate, for
+towards one o'clock the lock-keeper came in and said the green and red
+lights of an approaching craft were visible, and as he spoke the yacht
+whistled for the opening of the lock. I stood by the lock-keeper while
+he opened the gates; my men and the local police were concealed on
+each side of the lock. The launch came slowly in, and as soon as it
+had done so I asked the captain to step ashore, which he did.
+
+'I wish a word with you,' I said. 'Follow me.'
+
+I took him into the lock-keeper's house and closed the door.
+
+'Where are you going?'
+
+'To Havre.'
+
+'Where did you come from?'
+
+'Paris.'
+
+'From what quay?'
+
+'From the Pont de Neuilly.'
+
+'When did you leave there?'
+
+'At five minutes to four o'clock this afternoon.'
+
+'Yesterday afternoon, you mean?'
+
+'Yesterday afternoon.'
+
+'Who engaged you to make this voyage?'
+
+'An American; I do not know his name.'
+
+'He paid you well, I suppose?'
+
+'He paid me what I asked.'
+
+'Have you received the money?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'I may inform you, captain, that I am Eugene Valmont, chief detective
+of the French Government, and that all the police of France at this
+moment are under my control. I ask you, therefore, to be careful of
+your answers. You were ordered by a policeman at Denouval to return.
+Why did you not do so?'
+
+'The lock-keeper ordered me to return, but as he had no right to order
+me, I went on.'
+
+'You knew very well it was the police who ordered you, and you ignored
+the command. Again I ask you why you did so.'
+
+'I did not know it was the police.'
+
+'I thought you would say that. You knew very well, but were paid to
+take the risk, and it is likely to cost you dear. You had two
+passengers aboard?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Did you put them ashore between here and Denouval?'
+
+'No, sir; but one of them went overboard, and we couldn't find him
+again.'
+
+'Which one?'
+
+'The short man.'
+
+'Then the American is still aboard?'
+
+'What American, sir?'
+
+'Captain, you must not trifle with me. The man who engaged you is
+still aboard?'
+
+'Oh, no, sir; he has never been aboard.'
+
+'Do you mean to tell me that the second man who came on your launch at
+the Pont de Neuilly is not the American who engaged you?'
+
+'No, sir; the American was a smooth-faced man; this man wore a black
+beard.'
+
+'Yes, a false beard.'
+
+'I did not know that, sir. I understood from the American that I was
+to take but one passenger. One came aboard with a small box in his
+hand; the other with a small bag. Each declared himself to be the
+passenger in question. I did not know what to do, so I left Paris with
+both of them on board.'
+
+'Then the tall man with the black beard is still with you?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Well, captain, is there anything else you have to tell me? I think
+you will find it better in the end to make a clean breast of it.'
+
+The captain hesitated, turning his cap about in his hands for a few
+moments, then he said,--
+
+'I am not sure that the first passenger went overboard of his own
+accord. When the police hailed us at Denouval--'
+
+'Ah, you knew it was the police, then?'
+
+'I was afraid after I left it might have been. You see, when the
+bargain was made with me the American said that if I reached Havre at
+a certain time a thousand francs extra would be paid to me, so I was
+anxious to get along as quickly as I could. I told him it was
+dangerous to navigate the Seine at night, but he paid me well for
+attempting it. After the policeman called to us at Denouval the man
+with the small box became very much excited, and asked me to put him
+ashore, which I refused to do. The tall man appeared to be watching
+him, never letting him get far away. When I heard the splash in the
+water I ran aft, and I saw the tall man putting the box which the
+other had held into his handbag, although I said nothing of it at the
+time. We cruised back and forward about the spot where the other man
+had gone overboard, but saw nothing more of him. Then I came on to
+Meulan, intending to give information about what I had seen. That is
+all I know of the matter, sir.'
+
+'Was the man who had the jewels a Frenchman?'
+
+'What jewels, sir?'
+
+'The man with the small box.'
+
+'Oh, yes, sir; he was French.'
+
+'You have hinted that the foreigner threw him overboard. What grounds
+have you for such a belief if you did not see the struggle?'
+
+'The night is very dark, sir, and I did not see what happened. I was
+at the wheel in the forward part of the launch, with my back turned to
+these two. I heard a scream, then a splash. If the man had jumped
+overboard as the other said he did, he would not have screamed.
+Besides, as I told you, when I ran aft I saw the foreigner put the
+little box in his handbag, which he shut up quickly as if he did not
+wish me to notice.'
+
+'Very good, captain. If you have told the truth it will go easier with
+you in the investigation that is to follow.'
+
+I now turned the captain over to one of my men, and ordered in the
+foreigner with his bag and bogus black whiskers. Before questioning
+him I ordered him to open the handbag, which he did with evident
+reluctance. It was filled with false whiskers, false moustaches, and
+various bottles, but on top of them all lay the jewel case. I raised
+the lid and displayed that accursed necklace. I looked up at the man,
+who stood there calmly enough, saying nothing in spite of the
+overwhelming evidence against him.
+
+'Will you oblige me by removing your false beard?'
+
+He did so at once, throwing it into the open bag. I knew the moment I
+saw him that he was not the American, and thus my theory had broken
+down, in one very important part at least. Informing him who I was,
+and cautioning him to speak the truth, I asked how he came in
+possession of the jewels.
+
+'Am I under arrest?' he asked.
+
+'But certainly,' I replied.
+
+'Of what am I accused?'
+
+'You are accused, in the first place, of being in possession of
+property which does not belong to you.'
+
+'I plead guilty to that. What in the second place?'
+
+'In the second place, you may find yourself accused of murder.'
+
+'I am innocent of the second charge. The man jumped overboard.'
+
+'If that is true, why did he scream as he went over?'
+
+'Because, too late to recover his balance, I seized this box and held
+it.'
+
+'He was in rightful possession of the box; the owner gave it to him.'
+
+'I admit that; I saw the owner give it to him.'
+
+'Then why should he jump overboard?'
+
+'I do not know. He seemed to become panic-stricken when the police at
+the last lock ordered us to return. He implored the captain to put him
+ashore, and from that moment I watched him keenly, expecting that if
+we drew near to the land he would attempt to escape, as the captain
+had refused to beach the launch. He remained quiet for about half an
+hour, seated on a camp chair by the rail, with his eyes turned toward
+the shore, trying, as I imagined, to penetrate the darkness and
+estimate the distance. Then suddenly he sprung up and made his dash. I
+was prepared for this, and instantly caught the box from his hand. He
+gave a half turn, trying either to save himself or to retain the box;
+then with a scream went down shoulders first into the water. It all
+happened within a second after he leaped from his chair.'
+
+'You admit yourself, then, indirectly responsible for his drowning, at
+least?'
+
+'I see no reason to suppose that the man was drowned. If able to swim
+he could easily have reached the river bank. If unable to swim, why
+should he attempt it encumbered by the box?'
+
+'You believe he escaped, then?'
+
+'I think so.'
+
+'It will be lucky for you should that prove to be the case.'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'How did you come to be in the yacht at all?' 'I shall give you a
+full account of the affair, concealing nothing. I am a private
+detective, with an office in London. I was certain that some attempt
+would be made, probably by the most expert criminals at large, to rob
+the possessor of this necklace. I came over to Paris, anticipating
+trouble, determined to keep an eye upon the jewel case if this proved
+possible. If the jewels were stolen the crime was bound to be one of
+the most celebrated in legal annals. I was present during the sale,
+and saw the buyer of the necklace. I followed the official who went to
+the bank, and thus learned that the money was behind the cheque. I
+then stopped outside and waited for the buyer to appear. He held the
+case in his hand.'
+
+'In his pocket, you mean?' I interrupted.
+
+'He had it in his hand when I saw him. Then the man who afterwards
+jumped overboard approached him, took the case without a word, held up
+his hand for a cab, and when an open vehicle approached the curb he
+stepped in, saying, "The Madeleine." I hailed a closed cab, instructed
+the cabman to follow the first, disguising myself with whiskers as
+near like those the man in front wore as I had in my collection.'
+
+'Why did you do that?'
+
+'As a detective you should know why I did it. I wished as nearly as
+possible to resemble the man in front, so that if necessity arose I
+could pretend that I was the person commissioned to carry the jewel
+case. As a matter of fact, the crisis arose when we came to the end of
+our cab journey. The captain did not know which was his true
+passenger, and so let us both remain aboard the launch. And now you
+have the whole story.'
+
+'An extremely improbable one, sir. Even by your own account you had no
+right to interfere in this business at all.'
+
+'I quite agree with you there,' he replied, with great nonchalance,
+taking a card from his pocket-book, which he handed to me.
+
+'That is my London address; you may make inquiries, and you will find
+I am exactly what I represent myself to be.'
+
+The first train for Paris left Meulan at eleven minutes past four in
+the morning. It was now a quarter after two. I left the captain, crew,
+and launch in charge of two of my men, with orders to proceed to Paris
+as soon as it was daylight. I, supported by the third man, waited at
+the station with our English prisoner, and reached Paris at half-past
+five in the morning.
+
+The English prisoner, though severely interrogated by the judge, stood
+by his story. Inquiry by the police in London proved that what he said
+of himself was true. His case, however, began to look very serious
+when two of the men from the launch asserted that they had seen him
+push the Frenchman overboard, and their statement could not be shaken.
+All our energies were bent for the next two weeks on trying to find
+something of the identity of the missing man, or to get any trace of
+the two Americans. If the tall American were alive, it seemed
+incredible that he should not have made application for the valuable
+property he had lost. All attempts to trace him by means of the cheque
+on the Credit-Lyonnais proved futile. The bank pretended to give me
+every assistance, but I sometimes doubt if it actually did so. It had
+evidently been well paid for its services, and evinced no impetuous
+desire to betray so good a customer.
+
+We made inquiries about every missing man in Paris, but also without
+result.
+
+The case had excited much attention throughout the world, and
+doubtless was published in full in the American papers. The Englishman
+had been in custody three weeks when the chief of police in Paris
+received the following letter:--
+
+'DEAR SIR,--On my arrival in New York by the English steamer
+_Lucania_, I was much amused to read in the papers accounts of the
+exploits of detectives, French and English. I am sorry that only one
+of them seems to be in prison; I think his French _confrere_ ought to
+be there also. I regret exceedingly, however, that there is the rumour
+of the death by drowning of my friend Martin Dubois, of 375 Rue aux
+Juifs, Rouen. If this is indeed the case he has met his death through
+the blunders of the police. Nevertheless, I wish you would communicate
+with his family at the address I have given, and assure them that I
+will make arrangements for their future support.
+
+'I beg to inform you that I am a manufacturer of imitation diamonds,
+and through extensive advertising succeeded in accumulating a fortune
+of many millions. I was in Europe when the necklace was found, and had
+in my possession over a thousand imitation diamonds of my own
+manufacture. It occurred to me that here was the opportunity of the
+most magnificent advertisement in the world. I saw the necklace,
+received its measurements, and also obtained photographs of it taken
+by the French Government. Then I set my expert friend Martin Dubois at
+work, and, with the artificial stones I gave him, he made an imitation
+necklace so closely resembling the original that you apparently do not
+know it is the unreal you have in your possession. I did not fear the
+villainy of the crooks as much as the blundering of the police, who
+would have protected me with brass-band vehemence if I could not elude
+them. I knew that the detectives would overlook the obvious, but would
+at once follow a clue if I provided one for them. Consequently, I laid
+my plans, just as you have discovered, and got Martin Dubois up from
+Rouen to carry the case I gave him down to Havre. I had had another
+box prepared and wrapped in brown paper, with my address in New York
+written thereon. The moment I emerged from the auction room, while my
+friend the cowboy was holding up the audience, I turned my face to the
+door, took out the genuine diamonds from the case and slipped it into
+the box I had prepared for mailing. Into the genuine case I put the
+bogus diamonds. After handing the box to Dubois, I turned down a side
+street, and then into another whose name I do not know, and there in a
+shop with sealing wax and string did up the real diamonds for posting.
+I labelled the package "Books", went to the nearest post office, paid
+letter postage, and handed it over unregistered as if it were of no
+particular value. After this I went to my rooms in the Grand Hotel
+where I had been staying under my own name for more than a month. Next
+morning I took train for London, and the day after sailed from
+Liverpool on the _Lucania_. I arrived before the _Gascoigne_, which
+sailed from Havre on Saturday, met my box at the Customs house, paid
+duty, and it now reposes in my safe. I intend to construct an
+imitation necklace which will be so like the genuine one that nobody
+can tell the two apart; then I shall come to Europe and exhibit the
+pair, for the publication of the truth of this matter will give me the
+greatest advertisement that ever was.
+
+'Yours truly,
+
+'JOHN P HAZARD.'
+
+I at once communicated with Rouen and found Martin Dubois alive and
+well. His first words were:--'I swear I did not steal the jewels.'
+
+He had swum ashore, tramped to Rouen, and kept quiet in great fear
+while I was fruitlessly searching Paris for him. It took Mr. Hazard
+longer to make his imitation necklace than he supposed, and several
+years later he booked his passage with the two necklaces on the
+ill-fated steamer _Burgoyne_, and now rests beside them at the bottom
+of the Atlantic.
+
+    Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
+    The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
+
+
+
+
+2. _The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower_
+
+
+The events previously related in 'The Mystery of the Five Hundred
+Diamonds' led to my dismissal by the French Government. It was not
+because I had arrested an innocent man; I had done that dozens of
+times before, with nothing said about it. It was not because I had
+followed a wrong clue, or because I had failed to solve the mystery of
+the five hundred diamonds. Every detective follows a wrong clue now
+and then, and every detective fails more often than he cares to admit.
+No. All these things would not have shaken my position, but the
+newspapers were so fortunate as to find something humorous in the
+case, and for weeks Paris rang with laughter over my exploits and my
+defeat. The fact that the chief French detective had placed the most
+celebrated English detective into prison, and that each of them were
+busily sleuth-hounding a bogus clue, deliberately flung across their
+path by an amateur, roused all France to great hilarity. The
+Government was furious. The Englishman was released and I was
+dismissed. Since the year 1893 I have been a resident of London.
+
+When a man is, as one might say, the guest of a country, it does not
+become him to criticise that country. I have studied this strange
+people with interest, and often with astonishment, and if I now set
+down some of the differences between the English and the French, I
+trust that no note of criticism of the former will appear, even when
+my sympathies are entirely with the latter. These differences have
+sunk deeply into my mind, because, during the first years of my stay
+in London my lack of understanding them was often a cause of my own
+failure when I thought I had success in hand. Many a time did I come
+to the verge of starvation in Soho, through not appreciating the
+peculiar trend of mind which causes an Englishman to do inexplicable
+things--that is, of course, from my Gallic standpoint.
+
+For instance, an arrested man is presumed to be innocent until he is
+proved guilty. In England, if a murderer is caught red-handed over his
+victim, he is held guiltless until the judge sentences him. In France
+we make no such foolish assumption, and although I admit that innocent
+men have sometimes been punished, my experience enables me to state
+very emphatically that this happens not nearly so often as the public
+imagines. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred an innocent man can at
+once prove his innocence without the least difficulty. I hold it is
+his duty towards the State to run the very slight risk of unjust
+imprisonment in order that obstacles may not be thrown in the way of
+the conviction of real criminals. But it is impossible to persuade an
+Englishman of this. _Mon Dieu!_ I have tried it often enough.
+
+Never shall I forget the bitterness of my disappointment when I
+captured Felini, the Italian anarchist, in connection with the
+Greenwich Park murder. At this time--it gives me no shame to confess
+it--I was myself living in Soho, in a state of extreme poverty. Having
+been employed so long by the French Government, I had formed the
+absurd idea that the future depended on my getting, not exactly a
+similar connection with Scotland Yard, but at least a subordinate
+position on the police force which would enable me to prove my
+capabilities, and lead to promotion. I had no knowledge, at that time,
+of the immense income which awaited me entirely outside the Government
+circle. Whether it is contempt for the foreigner, as has often been
+stated, or that native stolidity which spells complacency, the British
+official of any class rarely thinks it worth his while to discover the
+real cause of things in France, or Germany, or Russia, but plods
+heavily on from one mistake to another. Take, for example, those
+periodical outbursts of hatred against England which appear in the
+Continental Press. They create a dangerous international situation,
+and more than once have brought Britain to the verge of a serious war.
+Britain sternly spends millions in defence and preparation, whereas,
+if she would place in my hand half a million pounds I would guarantee
+to cause Britannia to be proclaimed an angel with white wings in every
+European country.
+
+When I attempted to arrive at some connection with Scotland Yard, I
+was invariably asked for my credentials. When I proclaimed that I had
+been chief detective to the Republic of France, I could see that this
+announcement made a serious impression, but when I added that the
+Government of France had dismissed me without credentials,
+recommendation, or pension, official sympathy with officialism at once
+turned the tables against me. And here I may be pardoned for pointing
+out another portentous dissimilarity between the two lands which I
+think is not at all to the credit of my countrymen.
+
+I was summarily dismissed. You may say it was because I failed, and it
+is true that in the case of the Queen's necklace I had undoubtedly
+failed, but, on the other hand, I had followed unerringly the clue
+which lay in my path, and although the conclusion was not in
+accordance with the facts, it was in accordance with logic. No, I was
+not dismissed because I failed. I had failed on various occasions
+before, as might happen to any man in any profession. I was dismissed
+because I made France for the moment the laughing-stock of Europe and
+America. France dismissed me because France had been laughed at. No
+Frenchman can endure the turning of a joke against him, but the
+Englishman does not appear to care in the least. So far as failure is
+concerned, never had any man failed so egregiously as I did with
+Felini, a slippery criminal who possessed all the bravery of a
+Frenchman and all the subtlety of an Italian. Three times he was in my
+hands--twice in Paris, once in Marseilles--and each time he escaped
+me; yet I was not dismissed.
+
+When I say that Signor Felini was as brave as a Frenchman, perhaps I
+do him a little more than justice. He was desperately afraid of one
+man, and that man was myself. Our last interview in France he is not
+likely to forget, and although he eluded me, he took good care to get
+into England as fast as train and boat could carry him, and never
+again, while I was at the head of the French detective force, did he
+set foot on French soil. He was an educated villain, a graduate of the
+University of Turin, who spoke Spanish, French, and English as well as
+his own language, and this education made him all the more dangerous
+when he turned his talents to crime.
+
+Now, I knew Felini's handiwork, either in murder or in housebreaking,
+as well as I know my own signature on a piece of white paper, and as
+soon as I saw the body of the murdered man in Greenwich Park I was
+certain Felini was the murderer. The English authorities at that time
+looked upon me with a tolerant, good-natured contempt.
+
+Inspector Standish assumed the manner of a man placing at my disposal
+plenty of rope with which I might entangle myself. He appeared to
+think me excitable, and used soothing expressions as if I were a
+fractious child to be calmed, rather than a sane equal to be reasoned
+with. On many occasions I had the facts at my finger ends, while he
+remained in a state of most complacent ignorance, and though this
+attitude of lowering himself to deal gently with one whom he
+evidently looked upon as an irresponsible lunatic was most
+exasperating, I nevertheless claim great credit for having kept my
+temper with him. However, it turned out to be impossible for me to
+overcome his insular prejudice. He always supposed me to be a
+frivolous, volatile person, and so I was unable to prove myself of any
+value to him in his arduous duties.
+
+The Felini instance was my last endeavour to win his favour. Inspector
+Standish appeared in his most amiable mood when I was admitted to his
+presence, and this in spite of the fact that all London was ringing
+with the Greenwich Park tragedy, while the police possessed not the
+faintest idea regarding the crime or its perpetrator. I judged from
+Inspector Standish's benevolent smile that I was somewhat excited when
+I spoke to him, and perhaps used many gestures which seemed
+superfluous to a large man whom I should describe as immovable, and
+who spoke slowly, with no motion of the hand, as if his utterances
+were the condensed wisdom of the ages.
+
+'Inspector Standish,' I cried, 'is it within your power to arrest a
+man on suspicion?'
+
+'Of course it is,' he replied; 'but we must harbour the suspicion
+before we make the arrest.'
+
+'Have confidence in me,' I exclaimed. 'The man who committed the
+Greenwich Park murder is an Italian named Felini.'
+
+I gave the address of the exact room in which he was to be found, with
+cautions regarding the elusive nature of this individual. I said that
+he had been three times in my custody, and those three times he had
+slipped through my fingers. I have since thought that Inspector
+Standish did not credit a word I had spoken.
+
+'What is your proof against this Italian?' asked the Inspector slowly.
+
+'The proof is on the body of the murdered man, but, nevertheless, if
+you suddenly confront Felini with me without giving him any hint of
+whom he is going to meet, you shall have the evidence from his own
+lips before he recovers from his surprise and fright.'
+
+Something of my confidence must have impressed the official, for the
+order of arrest was made. Now, during the absence of the constable
+sent to bring in Felini, I explained to the inspector fully the
+details of my plan. Practically he did not listen to me, for his head
+was bent over a writing-pad on which I thought he was taking down my
+remarks, but when I had finished he went on writing as before, so I
+saw I had flattered myself unnecessarily. More than two hours passed
+before the constable returned, bringing with him the trembling
+Italian. I swung round in front of him, and cried, in a menacing
+voice:--
+
+'Felini! Regard me! You know Valmont too well to trifle with him! What
+have you to say of the murder in Greenwich Park?'
+
+I give you my word that the Italian collapsed, and would have fallen
+to the floor in a heap had not the constables upheld him with hands
+under each arm. His face became of a pasty whiteness, and he began to
+stammer his confession, when this incredible thing happened, which
+could not be believed in France. Inspector Standish held up his
+finger.
+
+'One moment,' he cautioned solemnly, 'remember that whatever you say
+will be used against you!'
+
+The quick, beady black eyes of the Italian shot from Standish to me,
+and from me to Standish. In an instant his alert mind grasped the
+situation. Metaphorically I had been waved aside. I was not there in
+any official capacity, and he saw in a moment with what an opaque
+intellect he had to deal. The Italian closed his mouth like a steel
+trap, and refused to utter a word. Shortly after he was liberated, as
+there was no evidence against him. When at last complete proof was in
+the tardy hands of the British authorities, the agile Felini was safe
+in the Apennine mountains, and today is serving a life sentence in
+Italy for the assassination of a senator whose name I have forgotten.
+
+Is it any wonder that I threw up my hands in despair at finding myself
+amongst such a people. But this was in the early days, and now that I
+have greater experience of the English, many of my first opinions have
+been modified.
+
+I mention all this to explain why, in a private capacity, I often did
+what no English official would dare to do. A people who will send a
+policeman, without even a pistol to protect him, to arrest a desperate
+criminal in the most dangerous quarter of London, cannot be
+comprehended by any native of France, Italy, Spain, or Germany. When I
+began to succeed as a private detective in London, and had accumulated
+money enough for my project, I determined not to be hampered by this
+unexplainable softness of the English toward an accused person. I
+therefore reconstructed my flat, and placed in the centre of it a dark
+room strong as any Bastille cell. It was twelve feet square, and
+contained no furniture except a number of shelves, a lavatory in one
+corner, and a pallet on the floor. It was ventilated by two flues
+from the centre of the ceiling, in one of which operated an electric
+fan, which, when the room was occupied, sent the foul air up that
+flue, and drew down fresh air through the other. The entrance to this
+cell opened out from my bedroom, and the most minute inspection would
+have failed to reveal the door, which was of massive steel, and was
+opened and shut by electric buttons that were partially concealed by
+the head of my bed. Even if they had been discovered, they would have
+revealed nothing, because the first turn of the button lit the
+electric light at the head of my bed; the second turn put it out; and
+this would happen as often as the button was turned to the right. But
+turn it three times slowly to the left, and the steel door opened. Its
+juncture was completely concealed by panelling. I have brought many a
+scoundrel to reason within the impregnable walls of that small room.
+
+Those who know the building regulations of London will wonder how it
+was possible for me to delude the Government inspector during the
+erection of this section of the Bastille in the midst of the modern
+metropolis. It was the simplest thing in the world. Liberty of the
+subject is the first great rule with the English people, and thus many
+a criminal is allowed to escape. Here was I laying plans for the
+contravening of this first great rule, and to do so I took advantage
+of the second great rule of the English people, which is, that
+property is sacred. I told the building authorities I was a rich man
+with a great distrust of banks, and I wished to build in my flat a
+safe or strong-room in which to deposit my valuables. I built then
+such a room as may be found in every bank, and many private premises
+of the City, and a tenant might have lived in my flat for a year and
+never suspected the existence of this prison. A railway engine might
+have screeched its whistle within it, and not a sound would have
+penetrated the apartments that surrounded it unless the door were
+open.
+
+But besides M. Eugene Valmont, dressed in elegant attire as if he were
+still a boulevardier of Paris, occupier of the top floor in the
+Imperial Flats, there was another Frenchman in London to whom I must
+introduce you, namely, Professor Paul Ducharme, who occupied a squalid
+back room in the cheapest and most undesirable quarter of Soho.
+Valmont flatters himself he is not yet middle-aged, but poor Ducharme
+does not need his sparse gray beard to proclaim his advancing years.
+Valmont vaunts an air of prosperity; Ducharme wears the shabby
+habiliments and the shoulder-stoop of hopeless poverty. He shuffles
+cringingly along the street, a compatriot not to be proud of. There
+are so many Frenchmen anxious to give lessons in their language, that
+merely a small living is to be picked up by any one of them. You will
+never see the spruce Valmont walking alongside the dejected Ducharme.
+
+'Ah!' you exclaim, 'Valmont in his prosperity has forgotten those less
+fortunate of his nationality.'
+
+Pardon, my friends, it is not so. Behold, I proclaim to you, the
+exquisite Valmont and the threadbare Ducharme are one and the same
+person. That is why they do not promenade together. And, indeed, it
+requires no great histrionic art on my part to act the role of the
+miserable Ducharme, for when I first came to London, I warded off
+starvation in this wretched room, and my hand it was that nailed to
+the door the painted sign 'Professor Paul Ducharme, Teacher of the
+French Language'. I never gave up the room, even when I became
+prosperous and moved to Imperial Flats, with its concealed chamber of
+horrors unknown to British authority. I did not give up the Soho
+chamber principally for this reason: Paul Ducharme, if the truth were
+known about him, would have been regarded as a dangerous character;
+yet this was a character sometimes necessary for me to assume. He was
+a member of the very inner circle of the International, an anarchist
+of the anarchists. This malign organisation has its real headquarters
+in London, and we who were officials connected with the Secret Service
+of the Continent have more than once cursed the complacency of the
+British Government which allows such a nest of vipers to exist
+practically unmolested. I confess that before I came to know the
+English people as well as I do now, I thought that this complacency
+was due to utter selfishness, because the anarchists never commit an
+outrage in England. England is the one spot on the map of Europe where
+an anarchist cannot be laid by the heels unless there is evidence
+against him that will stand the test of open court. Anarchists take
+advantage of this fact, and plots are hatched in London which are
+executed in Paris, Berlin, Petersburg, or Madrid. I know now that this
+leniency on the part of the British Government does not arise from
+craft, but from their unexplainable devotion to their shibboleth--'The
+liberty of the subject.' Time and again France has demanded the
+extradition of an anarchist, always to be met with the question,--
+
+'Where is your proof?'
+
+I know many instances where our certainty was absolute, and also cases
+where we possessed legal proof as well, but legal proof which, for one
+reason or another, we dared not use in public; yet all this had no
+effect on the British authorities. They would never give up even the
+vilest criminal except on publicly attested legal evidence, and not
+even then, if the crime were political.
+
+During my term of office under the French Government, no part of my
+duties caused me more anxiety than that which pertained to the
+political secret societies. Of course, with a large portion of the
+Secret Service fund at my disposal, I was able to buy expert
+assistance, and even to get information from anarchists themselves.
+This latter device, however, was always more or less unreliable. I
+have never yet met an anarchist I could believe on oath, and when one
+of them offered to sell exclusive information to the police, we rarely
+knew whether he was merely trying to get a few francs to keep himself
+from starving, or whether he was giving us false particulars which
+would lead us into a trap. I have always regarded our dealings with
+nihilists, anarchists, or other secret associations for the
+perpetrating of murder as the most dangerous service a detective is
+called upon to perform. Yet it is absolutely necessary that the
+authorities should know what is going on in these secret conclaves.
+There are three methods of getting this intelligence. First,
+periodical raids upon the suspected, accompanied by confiscation and
+search of all papers found. This method is much in favour with the
+Russian police. I have always regarded it as largely futile; first,
+because the anarchists are not such fools, speaking generally, as to
+commit their purposes to writing; and, second, because it leads to
+reprisal. Each raid is usually followed by a fresh outbreak of
+activity on the part of those left free. The second method is to bribe
+an anarchist to betray his comrades. I have never found any difficulty
+in getting these gentry to accept money. They are eternally in need,
+but I usually find the information they give in return to be either
+unimportant or inaccurate. There remains, then, the third method,
+which is to place a spy among them. The spy battalion is the forlorn
+hope of the detective service. In one year I lost three men on
+anarchist duty, among the victims being my most valuable helper, Henri
+Brisson. Poor Brisson's fate was an example of how a man may follow a
+perilous occupation for months with safety, and then by a slight
+mistake bring disaster on himself. At the last gathering Brisson
+attended he received news of such immediate and fateful import that on
+emerging from the cellar where the gathering was held, he made
+directly for my residence instead of going to his own squalid room in
+the Rue Falgarie. My concierge said that he arrived shortly after one
+o'clock in the morning, and it would seem that at this hour he could
+easily have made himself acquainted with the fact that he was
+followed. Still, as there was on his track that human panther, Felini,
+it is not strange poor Brisson failed to elude him.
+
+Arriving at the tall building in which my flat was then situated,
+Brisson rang the bell, and the concierge, as usual, in that strange
+state of semi-somnolence which envelops concierges during the night,
+pulled the looped wire at the head of his bed, and unbolted the door.
+Brisson assuredly closed the huge door behind him, and yet the moment
+before he did so, Felini must have slipped in unnoticed to the
+stone-paved courtyard. If Brisson had not spoken and announced
+himself, the concierge would have been wide awake in an instant. If he
+had given a name unknown to the concierge, the same result would have
+ensued. As it was he cried aloud 'Brisson,' whereupon the concierge of
+the famous chief of the French detective staff, Valmont, muttered
+'_Bon_! and was instantly asleep again.
+
+Now Felini had known Brisson well, but it was under the name of
+Revensky, and as an exiled Russian. Brisson had spent all his early
+years in Russia, and spoke the language like a native. The moment
+Brisson had uttered his true name he had pronounced his own death
+warrant. Felini followed him up to the first landing--my rooms were on
+the second floor--and there placed his sign manual on the unfortunate
+man, which was the swift downward stroke of a long, narrow, sharp
+poniard, entering the body below the shoulders, and piercing the
+heart. The advantage presented by this terrible blow is that the
+victim sinks instantly in a heap at the feet of his slayer, without
+uttering a moan. The wound left is a scarcely perceptible blue mark
+which rarely even bleeds. It was this mark I saw on the body of the
+Maire of Marseilles, and afterwards on one other in Paris besides poor
+Brisson. It was the mark found on the man in Greenwich Park; always
+just below the left shoulder-blade, struck from behind. Felini's
+comrades claim that there was this nobility in his action, namely, he
+allowed the traitor to prove himself before he struck the blow. I
+should be sorry to take away this poor shred of credit from Felini's
+character, but the reason he followed Brisson into the courtyard was
+to give himself time to escape. He knew perfectly the ways of the
+concierge. He knew that the body would lie there until the morning, as
+it actually did, and that this would give him hours in which to effect
+his retreat. And this was the man whom British law warned not to
+incriminate himself! What a people! What a people!
+
+After Brisson's tragic death, I resolved to set no more valuable men
+on the track of the anarchists, but to place upon myself the task in
+my moments of relaxation. I became very much interested in the
+underground workings of the International. I joined the organisation
+under the name of Paul Ducharme, a professor of advanced opinions, who
+because of them had been dismissed his situation in Nantes. As a
+matter of fact there had been such a Paul Ducharme, who had been so
+dismissed, but he had drowned himself in the Loire, at Orleans, as the
+records show. I adopted the precaution of getting a photograph of this
+foolish old man from the police at Nantes, and made myself up to
+resemble him. It says much for my disguise that I was recognised as
+the professor by a delegate from Nantes, at the annual Convention held
+in Paris, which I attended, and although we conversed for some time
+together he never suspected that I was not the professor, whose fate
+was known to no one but the police of Orleans. I gained much credit
+among my comrades because of this encounter, which, during its first
+few moments, filled me with dismay, for the delegate from Nantes held
+me up as an example of a man well off, who had deliberately sacrificed
+his worldly position for the sake of principle. Shortly after this I
+was chosen delegate to carry a message to our comrades in London, and
+this delicate undertaking passed off without mishap.
+
+It was perhaps natural then, that when I came to London after my
+dismissal by the French Government, I should assume the name and
+appearance of Paul Ducharme, and adopt the profession of French
+teacher. This profession gave me great advantages. I could be absent
+from my rooms for hours at a time without attracting the least
+attention, because a teacher goes wherever there are pupils. If any of
+my anarchist comrades saw me emerging shabbily from the grand Imperial
+Flats where Valmont lived, he greeted me affably, thinking I was
+coming from a pupil.
+
+The sumptuous flat was therefore the office in which I received my
+rich clients, while the squalid room in Soho was often the workshop in
+which the tasks entrusted to me were brought to completion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I now come to very modern days indeed, when I spent much time with the
+emissaries of the International.
+
+It will be remembered that the King of England made a round of visits
+to European capitals, the far-reaching results of which in the
+interest of peace we perhaps do not yet fully understand and
+appreciate. His visit to Paris was the beginning of the present
+_entente cordiale_, and I betray no confidence when I say that this
+brief official call at the French capital was the occasion of great
+anxiety to the Government of my own country and also of that in which
+I was domiciled. Anarchists are against all government, and would like
+to see each one destroyed, not even excepting that of Great Britain.
+
+My task in connection with the visit of King Edward to Paris was
+entirely unofficial. A nobleman, for whom on a previous occasion I had
+been so happy as to solve a little mystery which troubled him,
+complimented me by calling at my flat about two weeks before the
+King's entry into the French capital. I know I shall be pardoned if I
+fail to mention this nobleman's name. I gathered that the intended
+visit of the King met with his disapproval. He asked if I knew
+anything, or could discover anything, of the purposes animating the
+anarchist clubs of Paris, and their attitude towards the royal
+function, which was now the chief topic in the newspapers. I replied
+that within four days I would be able to submit to him a complete
+report on the subject. He bowed coldly and withdrew. On the evening of
+the fourth day I permitted myself the happiness of waiting upon his
+lordship at his West End London mansion.
+
+'I have the honour to report to your lordship,' I began, 'that the
+anarchists of Paris are somewhat divided in their opinions regarding
+His Majesty's forthcoming progress through that city. A minority,
+contemptible in point of number, but important so far as the extremity
+of their opinions are concerned, has been trying--'
+
+'Excuse me,' interrupted the nobleman, with some severity of tone,
+'are they going to attempt to injure the King or not?'
+
+'They are not, your lordship,' I replied, with what, I trust, is my
+usual urbanity of manner, despite his curt interpolation. 'His most
+gracious Majesty will suffer no molestation, and their reason for
+quiescence--'
+
+'Their reasons do not interest me,' put in his lordship gruffly. 'You
+are sure of what you say?'
+
+'Perfectly sure, your lordship.'
+
+'No precautions need be taken?'
+
+'None in the least, your lordship.'
+
+'Very well,' concluded the nobleman shortly, 'if you tell my secretary
+in the next room as you go out how much I owe you, he will hand you a
+cheque,' and with that I was dismissed.
+
+I may say that, mixing as I do with the highest in two lands, and
+meeting invariably such courtesy as I myself am always eager to
+bestow, a feeling almost of resentment arose at this cavalier
+treatment. However, I merely bowed somewhat ceremoniously in silence,
+and availed myself of the opportunity in the next room to double my
+bill, which was paid without demur.
+
+Now, if this nobleman had but listened, he would have heard much that
+might interest an ordinary man, although I must say that during my
+three conversations with him his mind seemed closed to all outward
+impressions save and except the grandeur of his line, which he traced
+back unblemished into the northern part of my own country.
+
+The King's visit had come as a surprise to the anarchists, and they
+did not quite know what to do about it. The Paris Reds were rather in
+favour of a demonstration, while London bade them, in God's name, to
+hold their hands, for, as they pointed out, England is the only refuge
+in which an anarchist is safe until some particular crime can be
+imputed to him, and what is more, proven up to the hilt.
+
+It will be remembered that the visit of the King to Paris passed off
+without incident, as did the return visit of the President to London.
+On the surface all was peace and goodwill, but under the surface
+seethed plot and counterplot, and behind the scenes two great
+governments were extremely anxious, and high officials in the Secret
+Service spent sleepless nights. As no 'untoward incident' had
+happened, the vigilance of the authorities on both sides of the
+Channel relaxed at the very moment when, if they had known their
+adversaries, it should have been redoubled. Always beware of the
+anarchist when he has been good: look out for the reaction. It annoys
+him to be compelled to remain quiet when there is a grand opportunity
+for strutting across the world's stage, and when he misses the
+psychological moment, he is apt to turn 'nasty', as the English say.
+
+When it first became known that there was to be a Royal procession
+through the streets of Paris, a few fanatical hot-heads, both in that
+city and in London, wished to take action, but they were overruled by
+the saner members of the organisation. It must not be supposed that
+anarchists are a band of lunatics. There are able brains among them,
+and these born leaders as naturally assume control in the underground
+world of anarchy as would have been the case if they had devoted their
+talents to affairs in ordinary life. They were men whose minds, at one
+period, had taken the wrong turning. These people, although they
+calmed the frenzy of the extremists, nevertheless regarded the
+possible _rapprochement_ between England and France with grave
+apprehension. If France and England became as friendly as France and
+Russia, might not the refuge which England had given to anarchy become
+a thing of the past? I may say here that my own weight as an anarchist
+while attending these meetings in disguise under the name of Paul
+Ducharme was invariably thrown in to help the cause of moderation. My
+role, of course, was not to talk too much; not to make myself
+prominent, yet in such a gathering a man cannot remain wholly a
+spectator. Care for my own safety led me to be as inconspicuous as
+possible, for members of communities banded together against the laws
+of the land in which they live, are extremely suspicious of one
+another, and an inadvertent word may cause disaster to the person
+speaking it.
+
+Perhaps it was this conservatism on my part that caused my advice to
+be sought after by the inner circle; what you might term the governing
+body of the anarchists; for, strange as it may appear, this
+organisation, sworn to put down all law and order, was itself most
+rigidly governed, with a Russian prince elected as its chairman, a man
+of striking ability, who, nevertheless, I believe, owed his election
+more to the fact that he was a nobleman than to the recognition of his
+intrinsic worth. And another point which interested me much was that
+this prince ruled his obstreperous subjects after the fashion of
+Russian despotism, rather than according to the liberal ideas of the
+country in which he was domiciled. I have known him more than once
+ruthlessly overturn the action of the majority, stamp his foot, smite
+his huge fist on the table, and declare so and so should not be done,
+no matter what the vote was. And the thing was not done, either.
+
+At the more recent period of which I speak, the chairmanship of the
+London anarchists was held by a weak, vacillating man, and the mob had
+got somewhat out of hand. In the crisis that confronted us, I yearned
+for the firm fist and dominant boot of the uncompromising Russian. I
+spoke only once during this time, and assured my listeners that they
+had nothing to fear from the coming friendship of the two nations. I
+said the Englishman was so wedded to his grotesque ideas regarding the
+liberty of the subject he so worshipped absolute legal evidence, that
+we would never find our comrades disappear mysteriously from England
+as had been the case in continental countries.
+
+Although restless during the exchange of visits between King and
+President, I believe I could have carried the English phalanx with me,
+if the international courtesies had ended there. But after it was
+announced that members of the British Parliament were to meet the
+members of the French Legislature, the Paris circle became alarmed,
+and when that conference did not end the _entente_, but merely paved
+the way for a meeting of business men belonging to the two countries
+in Paris, the French anarchists sent a delegate over to us, who made a
+wild speech one night, waving continually the red flag. This aroused
+all our own malcontents to a frenzy. The French speaker practically
+charged the English contingent with cowardice; said that as they were
+safe from molestation, they felt no sympathy for their comrades in
+Paris, at any time liable to summary arrest and the torture of the
+secret cross-examination. This Anglo-French love-feast must be wafted
+to the heavens in a halo of dynamite. The Paris anarchists were
+determined, and although they wished the co-operation of their London
+brethren, yet if the speaker did not bring back with him assurance of
+such co-operation, Paris would act on its own initiative.
+
+The Russian despot would have made short work of this blood-blinded
+rhetoric, but alas, he was absent, and an overwhelming vote in favour
+of force was carried and accepted by the trembling chairman. My French
+_confrere_ took back with him to Paris the unanimous consent of the
+English comrades to whom he had appealed. All that was asked of the
+English contingent was that it should arrange for the escape and safe
+keeping of the assassin who flung the bomb into the midst of the
+English visitors, and after the oratorical madman had departed, I, to
+my horror, was chosen to arrange for the safe transport and future
+custody of the bomb-thrower. It is not etiquette in anarchist circles
+for any member to decline whatever task is given him by the vote of
+his comrades. He knows the alternative, which is suicide. If he
+declines the task and still remains upon earth, the dilemma is solved
+for him, as the Italian Felini solved it through the back of my
+unfortunate helper Brisson. I therefore accepted the unwelcome office
+in silence, and received from the treasurer the money necessary for
+carrying out the same.
+
+I realised for the first time since joining the anarchist association
+years before that I was in genuine danger. A single false step, a
+single inadvertent word, might close the career of Eugene Valmont, and
+at the same moment terminate the existence of the quiet, inoffensive
+Paul Ducharme, teacher of the French language. I knew perfectly well I
+should be followed. The moment I received the money the French
+delegate asked when they were to expect me in Paris. He wished to know
+so that all the resources of their organisation might be placed at my
+disposal. I replied calmly enough that I could not state definitely on
+what day I should leave England. There was plenty of time, as the
+business men's representatives from London would not reach Paris for
+another two weeks. I was well known to the majority of the Paris
+organisation, and would present myself before them on the first night
+of my arrival. The Paris delegate exhibited all the energy of a new
+recruit, and he seemed dissatisfied with my vagueness, but I went on
+without heeding his displeasure. He was not personally known to me,
+nor I to him, but if I may say so, Paul Ducharme was well thought of
+by all the rest of those present.
+
+I had learned a great lesson during the episode of the Queen's
+Necklace, which resulted in my dismissal by the French Government. I
+had learned that if you expect pursuit it is always well to leave a
+clue for the pursuer to follow. Therefore I continued in a low
+conversational tone:--
+
+'I shall want the whole of tomorrow for myself: I must notify my
+pupils of my absence. Even if my pupils leave me it will not so much
+matter. I can probably get others. But what does matter is my
+secretarial work with Monsieur Valmont of the Imperial Flats. I am
+just finishing for him the translation of a volume from French into
+English, and tomorrow I can complete the work, and get his permission
+to leave for a fortnight. This man, who is a compatriot of my own,
+has given me employment ever since I came to London. From him I have
+received the bulk of my income, and if it had not been for his
+patronage, I do not know what I should have done. I not only have no
+desire to offend him, but I wish the secretarial work to continue when
+I return to London.'
+
+There was a murmur of approval at this. It was generally recognised
+that a man's living should not be interfered with, if possible.
+Anarchists are not poverty-stricken individuals, as most people think,
+for many of them hold excellent situations, some occupying positions
+of great trust, which is rarely betrayed.
+
+It is recognised that a man's duty, not only to himself, but to the
+organisation, is to make all the money he can, and thus not be liable
+to fall back on the relief fund. This frank admission of my dependence
+on Valmont made it all the more impossible that anyone there listening
+should suspect that it was Valmont himself who was addressing the
+conclave.
+
+'You will then take the night train tomorrow for Paris?' persisted the
+inquisitive French delegate.
+
+'Yes, and no. I shall take the night train, and it shall be for Paris,
+but not from Charing Cross, Victoria, or Waterloo. I shall travel on
+the 8.30 Continental express from Liverpool Street to Harwich, cross
+to the Hook of Holland, and from there make my way to Paris through
+Holland and Belgium. I wish to investigate that route as a possible
+path for our comrade to escape. After the blow is struck, Calais,
+Boulogne, Dieppe, and Havre will be closely watched. I shall perhaps
+bring him to London by way of Antwerp and the Hook.'
+
+These amiable disclosures were so fully in keeping with Paul
+Ducharme's reputation for candour and caution that I saw they made an
+excellent impression on my audience, and here the chairman intervened,
+putting an end to further cross-examination by saying they all had the
+utmost confidence in the judgment of Monsieur Paul Ducharme, and the
+Paris delegate might advise his friends to be on the lookout for the
+London representative within the next three or four days.
+
+I left the meeting and went directly to my room in Soho, without even
+taking the trouble to observe whether I was watched or not. There I
+stayed all night, and in the morning quitted Soho as Ducharme, with a
+gray beard and bowed shoulders, walked west to the Imperial Flats,
+took the lift to the top, and, seeing the corridor was clear, let
+myself in to my own flat. I departed from my flat promptly at six
+o'clock, again as Paul Ducharme, carrying this time a bundle done up
+in brown paper under my arm, and proceeded directly to my room in
+Soho. Later I took a bus, still carrying my brown paper parcel, and
+reached Liverpool Street in ample time for the Continental train. By a
+little private arrangement with the guard, I secured a compartment for
+myself, although up to the moment the train left the station, I could
+not be sure but that I might be compelled to take the trip to the Hook
+of Holland after all. If any one had insisted on coming into my
+compartment, I should have crossed the North Sea that night. I knew I
+should be followed from Soho to the station, and that probably the spy
+would go as far as Harwich, and see me on the boat. It was doubtful if
+he would cross. I had chosen this route for the reason that we have no
+organisation in Holland: the nearest circle is in Brussels, and if
+there had been time, the Brussels circle would have been warned to
+keep an eye on me. There was, however, no time for a letter, and
+anarchists never use the telegraph, especially so far as the Continent
+is concerned, unless in cases of the greatest emergency. If they
+telegraphed my description to Brussels the chances were it would not
+be an anarchist who watched my landing, but a member of the Belgian
+police force.
+
+The 8.30 Continental express does not stop between Liverpool Street
+and Parkeston Quay, which it is timed to reach three minutes before
+ten. This gave me an hour and a half in which to change my apparel.
+The garments of the poor old professor I rolled up into a ball one by
+one and flung out through the open window, far into the marsh past
+which we were flying in a pitch dark night. Coat, trousers, and
+waistcoat rested in separate swamps at least ten miles apart. Gray
+whiskers and gray wig I tore into little pieces, and dropped the bits
+out of the open window.
+
+I had taken the precaution to secure a compartment in the front of
+the train, and when it came to rest at Parkeston Quay Station, the
+crowd, eager for the steamer, rushed past me, and I stepped out into
+the midst of it, a dapper, well-dressed young man, with black beard
+and moustaches, my own closely cropped black hair covered by a new
+bowler hat. Anyone looking for Paul Ducharme would have paid small
+attention to me, and to any friend of Valmont's I was equally
+unrecognisable.
+
+I strolled in leisurely manner to the Great Eastern Hotel on the Quay,
+and asked the clerk if a portmanteau addressed to Mr. John Wilkins had
+arrived that day from London. He said 'Yes,' whereupon I secured a
+room for the night, as the last train had already left for the
+metropolis.
+
+Next morning, Mr. John Wilkins, accompanied by a brand new and rather
+expensive portmanteau, took the 8.57 train for Liverpool Street, where
+he arrived at half-past ten, stepped into a cab, and drove to the
+Savoy Restaurant, lunching there with the portmanteau deposited in the
+cloak room. When John Wilkins had finished an excellent lunch in a
+leisurely manner at the Cafe Parisien of the Savoy, and had paid his
+bill, he did not go out into the Strand over the rubber-paved court by
+which he had entered, but went through the hotel and down the stairs,
+and so out into the thoroughfare facing the Embankment. Then turning
+to his right he reached the Embankment entrance of the Hotel Cecil.
+This leads into a long, dark corridor, at the end of which the lift
+may be rung for. It does not come lower than the floor above unless
+specially summoned. In this dark corridor, which was empty, John
+Wilkins took off the black beard and moustache, hid it in the inside
+pocket of his coat, and there went up into the lift a few moments
+later to the office floor, I, Eugene Valmont, myself for the first
+time in several days.
+
+Even then I did not take a cab to my flat, but passed under the arched
+Strand front of the 'Cecil' in a cab, bound for the residence of that
+nobleman who had formerly engaged me to see after the safety of the
+King.
+
+You will say that this was all very elaborate precaution to take when
+a man was not even sure he was followed. To tell you the truth, I do
+not know to this day whether anyone watched me or not, nor do I care.
+I live in the present: when once the past is done with, it ceases to
+exist for me. It is quite possible, nay, entirely probable, that no
+one tracked me farther than Liverpool Street Station the night before,
+yet it was for lack of such precaution that my assistant Brisson
+received the Italian's dagger under his shoulder blade fifteen years
+before. The present moment is ever the critical time; the future is
+merely for intelligent forethought. It was to prepare for the future
+that I was now in a cab on the way to my lord's residence. It was not
+the French anarchists I feared during the contest in which I was about
+to become engaged, but the Paris police. I knew French officialdom too
+well not to understand the futility of going to the authorities there
+and proclaiming my object. If I ventured to approach the chief of
+police with the information that I, in London, had discovered what it
+was his business in Paris to know, my reception would be far from
+cordial, even though, or rather because, I announced myself as Eugene
+Valmont. The exploits of Eugene had become part of the legends of
+Paris, and these legends were extremely distasteful to those men in
+power. My doings have frequently been made the subject of feuilletons
+in the columns of the Paris Press, and were, of course, exaggerated by
+the imagination of the writers, yet, nevertheless, I admit I did some
+good strokes of detection during my service with the French
+Government. It is but natural, then, that the present authorities
+should listen with some impatience when the name of Eugene Valmont is
+mentioned. I recognise this as quite in the order of things to be
+expected, and am honest enough to confess that in my own time I often
+hearkened to narratives regarding the performances of Lecocq with a
+doubting shrug of the shoulders.
+
+Now, if the French police knew anything of this anarchist plot, which
+was quite within the bounds of possibility, and if I were in
+surreptitious communication with the anarchists, more especially with
+the man who was to fling the bomb, there was every chance I might find
+myself in the grip of French justice. I must, then, provide myself
+with credentials to show that I was acting, not against the peace and
+quiet of my country, but on the side of law and order. I therefore
+wished to get from the nobleman a commission in writing, similar to
+that command which he had placed upon me during the King's visit. This
+commission I should lodge at my bank in Paris, to be a voucher for me
+at the last extremity. I had no doubt his lordship would empower me to
+act in this instance as I had acted on two former occasions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Perhaps if I had not lunched so well I might have approached his
+lordship with greater deference than was the case; but when ordering
+lunch I permitted a bottle of Chateau du Tertre, 1878, a most
+delicious claret, to be decanted carefully for my delectation at the
+table, and this caused a genial glow to permeate throughout my system,
+inducing a mental optimism which left me ready to salute the greatest
+of earth on a plane of absolute equality. Besides, after all, I am the
+citizen of a Republic.
+
+The nobleman received me with frigid correctness, implying disapproval
+of my unauthorised visit, rather than expressing it. Our interview was
+extremely brief.
+
+'I had the felicity of serving your lordship upon two occasions,' I
+began.
+
+'They are well within my recollection,' he interrupted, 'but I do not
+remember sending for you a third time.'
+
+'I have taken the liberty of coming unrequested, my lord, because of
+the importance of the news I carry. I surmise that you are interested
+in the promotion of friendship between France and England.'
+
+'Your surmise, sir, is incorrect. I care not a button about it. My
+only anxiety was for the safety of the King.'
+
+Even the superb claret was not enough to fortify me against words so
+harsh, and tones so discourteous, as those his lordship permitted
+himself to use.
+
+'Sir,' said I, dropping the title in my rising anger, 'it may interest
+you to know that a number of your countrymen run the risk of being
+blown to eternity by an anarchist bomb in less than two weeks from
+today. A party of business men, true representatives of a class to
+which the pre-eminence of your Empire is due, are about to proceed--'
+
+'Pray spare me,' interpolated his lordship wearily, 'I have read that
+sort of thing so often in the newspapers. If all these estimable City
+men are blown up, the Empire would doubtless miss them, as you hint,
+but I should not, and their fate does not interest me in the least,
+although you did me the credit of believing that it would. Thompson,
+you will show this person out? Sir, if I desire your presence here in
+future I will send for you.'
+
+'You may send for the devil!' I cried, now thoroughly enraged, the
+wine getting the better of me.
+
+'You express my meaning more tersely than I cared to do,' he replied
+coldly, and that was the last I ever saw of him.
+
+Entering the cab I now drove to my flat, indignant at the reception I
+had met with. However, I knew the English people too well to malign
+them for the action of one of their number, and resentment never
+dwells long with me. Arriving at my rooms I looked through the
+newspapers to learn all I could of the proposed business men's
+excursion to Paris, and in reading the names of those most prominent
+in carrying out the necessary arrangements, I came across that of W.
+Raymond White, which caused me to sit back in my chair and wrinkle my
+brow in an endeavour to stir my memory. Unless I was much mistaken, I
+had been so happy as to oblige this gentleman some dozen or thirteen
+years before. As I remembered him, he was a business man who engaged
+in large transactions with France, dealing especially in Lyons and
+that district. His address was given in the newspaper as Old Change,
+so at once I resolved to see him. Although I could not recall the
+details of our previous meeting, if, indeed, he should turn out to be
+the same person, yet the mere sight of the name had produced a mental
+pleasure, as a chance chord struck may bring a grateful harmony to the
+mind. I determined to get my credentials from Mr. White if possible,
+for his recommendation would in truth be much more valuable than that
+of the gruff old nobleman to whom I had first applied, because, if I
+got into trouble with the police of Paris, I was well enough
+acquainted with the natural politeness of the authorities to know that
+a letter from one of the city's guests would secure my instant
+release.
+
+I took a hansom to the head of that narrow thoroughfare known as Old
+Change, and there dismissed my cab. I was so fortunate as to recognise
+Mr. White coming out of his office. A moment later, and I should have
+missed him.
+
+'Mr. White,' I accosted him, 'I desire to enjoy both the pleasure and
+the honour of introducing myself to you.'
+
+'Monsieur,' replied Mr. White with a smile, 'the introduction is not
+necessary, and the pleasure and honour are mine. Unless I am very much
+mistaken, this is Monsieur Valmont of Paris?'
+
+'Late of Paris,' I corrected.
+
+'Are you no longer in Government service then?'
+
+'For a little more than ten years I have been a resident of London.'
+
+'What, and have never let me know? That is something the diplomatists
+call an unfriendly act, monsieur. Now, shall we return to my office,
+or go to a cafe?'
+
+'To your office, if you please, Mr. White. I come on rather important
+business.'
+
+Entering his private office the merchant closed the door, offered me a
+chair, and sat down himself by his desk. From the first he had
+addressed me in French, which he spoke with an accent so pure that it
+did my lonesome heart good to hear it.
+
+'I called upon you half a dozen years ago,' he went on, 'when I was
+over in Paris on a festive occasion, where I hoped to secure your
+company, but I could not learn definitely whether you were still with
+the Government or not.'
+
+'It is the way of the French officialism,' I replied. 'If they knew my
+whereabouts they would keep the knowledge to themselves.'
+
+'Well, if you have been ten years in London, Monsieur Valmont, we may
+now perhaps have the pleasure of claiming you as an Englishman; so I
+beg you will accompany us on another festive occasion to Paris next
+week. Perhaps you have seen that a number of us are going over there
+to make the welkin ring.'
+
+'Yes; I have read all about the business men's excursion to Paris, and
+it is with reference to this journey that I wish to consult you,' and
+here I gave Mr. White in detail the plot of the anarchists against the
+growing cordiality of the two countries. The merchant listened quietly
+without interruption until I had finished; then he said,--'I suppose
+it will be rather useless to inform the police of Paris?'
+
+'Indeed, Mr. White, it is the police of Paris I fear more than the
+anarchists. They would resent information coming to them from the
+outside, especially from an ex-official, the inference being that they
+were not up to their own duties. Friction and delay would ensue until
+the deed was inevitable. It is quite on the cards that the police of
+Paris may have some inkling of the plot, and in that case, just before
+the event, they are reasonably certain to arrest the wrong men. I
+shall be moving about Paris, not as Eugene Valmont, but as Paul
+Ducharme, the anarchist; therefore, there is some danger that as a
+stranger and a suspect I may be laid by the heels at the critical
+moment. If you would be so good as to furnish me with credentials
+which I can deposit somewhere in Paris in case of need, I may thus be
+able to convince the authorities that they have taken the wrong man.'
+
+Mr. White, entirely unperturbed by the prospect of having a bomb thrown
+at him within two weeks, calmly wrote several documents, then turned
+his untroubled face to me, and said, in a very confidential, winning
+tone:--'Monsieur Valmont, you have stated the case with that clear
+comprehensiveness pertaining to a nation which understands the
+meaning of words, and the correct adjustment of them; that felicity of
+language which has given France the first place in the literature of
+nations. Consequently, I think I see very clearly the delicacies of
+the situation. We may expect hindrances, rather than help, from
+officials on either side of the Channel. Secrecy is essential to
+success. Have you spoken of this to anyone but me?'
+
+'Only to Lord Blank,' I replied; 'and now I deeply regret having made
+a confidant of him.'
+
+'That does not in the least matter,' said Mr. White, with a smile;
+'Lord Blank's mind is entirely occupied by his own greatness. Chemists
+tell me that you cannot add a new ingredient to a saturated solution;
+therefore your revelation will have made no impression upon his
+lordship's intellect. He has already forgotten all about it. Am I
+right in supposing that everything hinges on the man who is to throw
+the bomb?'
+
+'Quite right, sir. He may be venal, he may be traitorous, he may be a
+coward, he may be revengeful, he may be a drunkard. Before I am in
+conversation with him for ten minutes, I shall know what his weak spot
+is. It is upon that spot I must act, and my action must be delayed
+till the very last moment; for, if he disappears too long before the
+event, his first, second, or third substitute will instantly step into
+his place.'
+
+'Precisely. So you cannot complete your plans until you have met this
+man?'
+
+'_Parfaitement._'
+
+'Then I propose,' continued Mr. White, 'that we take no one into our
+confidence. In a case like this there is little use in going before a
+committee. I can see that you do not need any advice, and my own part
+shall be to remain in the background, content to support the most
+competent man that could have been chosen to grapple with a very
+difficult crisis.'
+
+I bowed profoundly. There was a compliment in his glance as well as in
+his words. Never before had I met so charming a man.
+
+'Here,' he continued, handing me one of the papers he had written, 'is
+a letter to whom it may concern, appointing you my agent for the next
+three weeks, and holding myself responsible for all you see fit to do.
+Here,' he went on, passing to me a second sheet, 'is a letter of
+introduction to Monsieur Largent, the manager of my bank in Paris, a
+man well known and highly respected in all circles, both official and
+commercial. I suggest that you introduce yourself to him, and he will
+hold himself in readiness to respond to any call you may make, night
+or day. I assure you that his mere presence before the authorities
+will at once remove any ordinary difficulty. And now,' he added,
+taking in hand the third slip of paper, speaking with some hesitation,
+and choosing his words with care, 'I come to a point which cannot be
+ignored. Money is a magician's wand, which, like faith, will remove
+mountains. It may also remove an anarchist hovering about the route of
+a business man's procession.'
+
+He now handed to me what I saw was a draft on Paris for a thousand
+pounds.
+
+'I assure you, monsieur,' I protested, covered with confusion, 'that
+no thought of money was in my mind when I took the liberty of
+presenting myself to you. I have already received more than I could
+have expected in the generous confidence you were good enough to
+repose in me, as exhibited by these credentials, and especially the
+letter to your banker. Thanks to the generosity of your countrymen, Mr
+White, of which you are a most notable example, I am in no need of
+money.'
+
+'Monsieur Valmont, I am delighted to hear that you have got on well
+amongst us. This money is for two purposes. First, you will use what
+you need. I know Paris very well, monsieur, and have never found gold
+an embarrassment there. The second purpose is this: I suggest that
+when you present the letter of introduction to Monsieur Largent, you
+will casually place this amount to your account in his bank. He will
+thus see that besides writing you a letter of introduction, I transfer
+a certain amount of my own balance to your credit. That will do you no
+harm with him, I assure you. And now, Monsieur Valmont, it only
+remains for me to thank you for the opportunity you have given me, and
+to assure you that I shall march from the Gare du Nord without a
+tremor, knowing the outcome is in such capable custody.'
+
+And then this estimable man shook hands with me in action the most
+cordial. I walked away from Old Change as if I trod upon air; a
+feeling vastly different from that with which I departed from the
+residence of the old nobleman in the West End but a few hours before.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning I was in Paris, and next night I attended the underground
+meeting of the anarchists, held within a quarter of a mile of the
+Luxembourg. I was known to many there assembled, but my acquaintance
+of course was not so large as with the London circle. They had half
+expected me the night before, knowing that even going by the Hook of
+Holland I might have reached Paris in time for the conclave. I was
+introduced generally to the assemblage as the emissary from England,
+who was to assist the bomb-throwing brother to escape either to that
+country, or to such other point of safety as I might choose. No
+questions were asked me regarding my doings of the day before, nor was
+I required to divulge the plans for my fellow-member's escape. I was
+responsible; that was enough. If I failed through no fault of my own,
+it was but part of the ill-luck we were all prepared to face. If I
+failed through treachery, then a dagger in the back at the earliest
+possible moment. We all knew the conditions of our sinister contract,
+and we all recognised that the least said the better.
+
+The cellar was dimly lighted by one oil lamp depending from the
+ceiling. From this hung a cord attached to an extinguisher, and one
+jerk of the cord would put out the light. Then, while the main entry
+doors were being battered down by police, the occupants of the room
+escaped through one of three or four human rat-holes provided for that
+purpose.
+
+If any Parisian anarchist does me the honour to read these jottings, I
+beg to inform him that while I remained in office under the Government
+of France there was never a time when I did not know the exit of each
+of these underground passages, and could during any night there was
+conference have bagged the whole lot of those there assembled. It was
+never my purpose, however, to shake the anarchists' confidence in
+their system, for that merely meant the removal of the gathering to
+another spot, thus giving us the additional trouble of mapping out
+their new exits and entrances. When I did make a raid on anarchist
+headquarters in Paris, it was always to secure some particular man. I
+had my emissaries in plain clothes stationed at each exit. In any
+case, the rats were allowed to escape unmolested, sneaking forth with
+great caution into the night, but we always spotted the man we wanted,
+and almost invariably arrested him elsewhere, having followed him from
+his kennel. In each case my uniformed officers found a dark and empty
+cellar, and retired apparently baffled. But the coincidence that on
+the night of every raid some member there present was secretly
+arrested in another quarter of Paris, and perhaps given a free passage
+to Russia, never seemed to awaken suspicion in the minds of the
+conspirators.
+
+I think the London anarchists' method is much better, and I have ever
+considered the English nihilist the most dangerous of this fraternity,
+for he is cool-headed and not carried away by his own enthusiasm, and
+consequently rarely carried away by his own police. The authorities of
+London meet no opposition in making a raid. They find a well-lighted
+room containing a more or less shabby coterie playing cards at cheap
+pine tables. There is no money visible, and, indeed, very little coin
+would be brought to light if the whole party were searched; so the
+police are unable to convict the players under the Gambling Act.
+Besides, it is difficult in any case to obtain a conviction under the
+Gambling Act, because the accused has the sympathy of the whole
+country with him. It has always been to me one of the anomalies of the
+English nature that a magistrate can keep a straight face while he
+fines some poor wretch for gambling, knowing that next race day (if
+the court is not sitting) the magistrate himself, in correct sporting
+costume, with binoculars hanging at his hip, will be on the lawn by
+the course backing his favourite horse.
+
+After my reception at the anarchists' club of Paris, I remained seated
+unobtrusively on a bench waiting until routine business was finished,
+after which I expected an introduction to the man selected to throw
+the bomb. I am a very sensitive person, and sitting there quietly I
+became aware that I was being scrutinised with more than ordinary
+intensity by someone, which gave me a feeling of uneasiness. At last,
+in the semi-obscurity opposite me I saw a pair of eyes as luminous as
+those of a tiger peering fixedly at me. I returned the stare with such
+composure as I could bring to my aid, and the man, as if fascinated by
+a look as steady as his own, leaned forward, and came more and more
+into the circle of light.
+
+Then I received a shock which it required my utmost self-control to
+conceal. The face, haggard and drawn, was none other than that of
+Adolph Simard, who had been my second assistant in the Secret Service
+of France during my last year in office. He was a most capable and
+rising young man at that time, and, of course, he knew me well. Had
+he, then, penetrated my disguise? Such an event seemed impossible; he
+could not have recognised my voice, for I had said nothing aloud
+since entering the room, my few words to the president being spoken in
+a whisper. Simard's presence there bewildered me; by this time he
+should be high up in the Secret Service. If he were now a spy, he
+would, of course, wish to familiarise himself with every particular of
+my appearance, as in my hands lay the escape of the criminal. Yet, if
+such were his mission, why did he attract the attention of all members
+by this open-eyed scrutiny? That he recognised me as Valmont I had not
+the least fear; my disguise was too perfect; and, even if I were there
+in my own proper person, I had not seen Simard, nor he me, for ten
+years, and great changes occur in a man's appearance during so long a
+period. Yet I remembered with disquietude that Mr. White recognised me,
+and here tonight I had recognised Simard. I could not move my bench
+farther back because it stood already against the wall.
+
+Simard, on the contrary, was seated on one of the few chairs in the
+room, and this he periodically hitched forward, the better to continue
+his examination, which now attracted the notice of others besides
+myself. As he came forward, I could not help admiring the completeness
+of his disguise so far as apparel was concerned. He was a perfect
+picture of the Paris wastrel, and what was more, he wore on his head a
+cap of the Apaches, the most dangerous band of cut-throats that have
+ever cursed a civilised city. I could understand that even among
+lawless anarchists this badge of membership of the Apache band might
+well strike tenor. I felt that before the meeting adjourned I must
+speak with him, and I determined to begin our conversation by asking
+him why he stared so fixedly at me. Yet even then I should have made
+little progress. I did not dare to hint that he belonged to the Secret
+Service; nevertheless, if the authorities had this plot in charge, it
+was absolutely necessary we should work together, or, at least, that I
+should know they were in the secret, and steer my course accordingly.
+The fact that Simard appeared with undisguised face was not so
+important as might appear to an outsider.
+
+It is always safer for a spy to preserve his natural appearance if
+that is possible, because a false beard or false moustache or wig run
+the risk of being deranged or torn away. As I have said, an anarchist
+assemblage is simply a room filled with the atmosphere of suspicion. I
+have known instances where an innocent stranger was suddenly set upon
+in the midst of solemn proceedings by two or three impetuous
+fellow-members, who nearly jerked his own whiskers from his face
+under the impression that they were false. If Simard, therefore,
+appeared in his own scraggy beard and unkempt hair it meant that he
+communicated with headquarters by some circuitous route. I realised,
+therefore, that a very touchy bit of diplomacy awaited me if I was to
+learn from himself his actual status. While I pondered over this
+perplexity, it was suddenly dissolved by the action of the president,
+and another substituted for it.
+
+'Will Brother Simard come forward?' asked the president.
+
+My former subordinate removed his eyes from me, slowly rose from his
+chair, and shuffled up to the president's table.
+
+'Brother Ducharme,' said that official to me in a quiet tone, 'I
+introduce you to Brother Simard, whom you are commissioned to see into
+a place of safety when he has dispersed the procession.'
+
+Simard turned his fishy goggle eyes upon me, and a grin disclosed
+wolf-like teeth. He held out his hand, which, rising to my feet, I
+took. He gave me a flabby grasp, and all the time his inquiring eyes
+travelled over me.
+
+'You don't look up to much,' he said. 'What are you?'
+
+'I am a teacher of the French language in London.'
+
+'Umph!' growled Simard, evidently in no wise prepossessed by my
+appearance. 'I thought you weren't much of a fighter. The gendarmes
+will make short work of this fellow,' he growled to the chairman.
+
+'Brother Ducharme is vouched for by the whole English circle,' replied
+the president firmly.
+
+'Oh, the English! I think very little of them. Still, it doesn't
+matter,' and with a shrug of the shoulders he shuffled to his seat
+again, leaving me standing there in a very embarrassed state of mind;
+my brain in a whirl. That the man was present with his own face was
+bewildering enough, but that he should be here under his own name was
+simply astounding. I scarcely heard what the president said. It seemed
+to the effect that Simard would take me to his own room, where we
+might talk over our plans. And now Simard rose again from his chair,
+and said to the president that if nothing more were wanted of him, we
+should go. Accordingly we left the place of meeting together. I
+watched my comrade narrowly. There was now a trembling eagerness in
+his action, and without a word he hurried me to the nearest cafe,
+where we sat down before a little iron table on the pavement.
+
+'Garcon!' he shouted harshly, 'bring me four absinthes. What will you
+drink, Ducharme?',
+
+'A cafe-cognac, if you please.'
+
+'Bah!' cried Simard; 'better have absinthe.'
+
+Then he cursed the waiter for his slowness. When the absinthe came he
+grasped the half-full glass and swallowed the liquid raw, a thing I
+had never seen done before. Into the next measure of the wormwood he
+poured the water impetuously from the carafe, another thing I had
+never seen done before, and dropped two lumps of sugar into it. Over
+the third glass he placed a flat perforated plated spoon, piled the
+sugar on this bridge, and now quite expertly allowed the water to drip
+through, the proper way of concocting this seductive mixture.
+Finishing his second glass he placed the perforated spoon over the
+fourth, and began now more calmly sipping the third while the water
+dripped slowly into the last glass.
+
+Here before my eyes was enacted a more wonderful change than the
+gradual transformation of transparent absinthe into an opaque
+opalescent liquid. Simard, under the influence of the drink, was
+slowly becoming the Simard I had known ten years before. Remarkable!
+Absinthe having in earlier years made a beast of the man was now
+forming a man out of the beast. His staring eyes took on an expression
+of human comradeship. The whole mystery became perfectly clear to me
+without a question asked or an answer uttered. This man was no spy,
+but a genuine anarchist. However it happened, he had become a victim
+of absinthe, one of many with whom I was acquainted, although I never
+met any so far sunk as he. He was into his fourth glass, and had
+ordered two more when he began to speak.
+
+'Here's to us,' he cried, with something like a civilised smile on his
+gaunt face. 'You're not offended at what I said in the meeting, I
+hope?'
+
+'Oh, no,' I answered.
+
+'That's right. You see, I once belonged to the Secret Service, and if
+my chief was there today, we would soon find ourselves in a cool
+dungeon. We couldn't trip up Eugene Valmont.'
+
+At these words, spoken with sincerity, I sat up in my chair, and I am
+sure such an expression of enjoyment came into my face that if I had
+not instantly suppressed it, I might have betrayed myself.
+
+'Who was Eugene Valmont?' I asked, in a tone of assumed indifference.
+
+Mixing his fifth glass he nodded sagely.
+
+'You wouldn't ask that question if you'd been in Paris a dozen years
+ago. He was the Government's chief detective, and he knew more of
+anarchists, yes, and of Apaches, too, than either you or I do. He had
+more brains in his little finger than that whole lot babbling there
+tonight. But the Government being a fool, as all governments are,
+dismissed him, and because I was his assistant, they dismissed me as
+well. They got rid of all his staff. Valmont disappeared. If I could
+have found him, I wouldn't be sitting here with you tonight; but he
+was right to disappear. The Government did all they could against us
+who had been his friends, and I for one came through starvation, and
+was near throwing myself in the Seine, which sometimes I wish I had
+done. Here, garcon, another absinthe. But by-and-by I came to like the
+gutter, and here I am. I'd rather have the gutter and absinthe than
+the Luxembourg without it. I've had my revenge on the Government many
+times since, for I knew their ways, and often have I circumvented the
+police. That's why they respect me among the anarchists. Do you know
+how I joined? I knew all their passwords, and walked right into one of
+their meetings, alone and in rags.
+
+'"Here am I," I said; "Adolph Simard, late second assistant to Eugene
+Valmont, chief detective to the French Government."
+
+'There were twenty weapons covering me at once, but I laughed.
+
+'"I'm starving," I cried, "and I want something to eat, and more
+especially something to drink. In return for that I'll show you every
+rat-hole you've got. Lift the president's chair, and there's a
+trap-door that leads to the Rue Blanc. I'm one of you, and I'll tell
+you the tricks of the police."
+
+'Such was my initiation, and from that moment the police began to pick
+their spies out of the Seine, and now they leave us alone. Even
+Valmont himself could do nothing against the anarchists since I have
+joined them.'
+
+Oh, the incredible self-conceit of human nature! Here was this ruffian
+proclaiming the limitations of Valmont, who half an hour before had
+shaken his hand within the innermost circle of his order! Yet my heart
+warmed towards the wretch who had remembered me and my exploits.
+
+It now became my anxious and difficult task to lure Simard away from
+this cafe and its absinthe. Glass after glass of the poison had
+brought him up almost to his former intellectual level, but now it
+was shoving him rapidly down the hill again. I must know where his
+room was situated, yet if I waited much longer the man would be in a
+state of drunken imbecility which would not only render it impossible
+for him to guide me to his room, but likely cause both of us to be
+arrested by the police. I tried persuasion, and he laughed at me; I
+tried threats, whereat he scowled and cursed me as a renegade from
+England. At last the liquor overpowered him, and his head sunk on the
+metal table and the dark blue cap fell to the floor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was in despair, but now received a lesson which taught me that if a
+man leaves a city, even for a short time, he falls out of touch with
+its ways. I called the waiter, and said to him,--
+
+'Do you know my friend here?'
+
+'I do not know his name,' replied the garcon, 'but I have seen him
+many times at this cafe. He is usually in this state when he has
+money.'
+
+'Do you know where he lives? He promised to take me with him, and I am
+a stranger in Paris.'
+
+'Have no discontent, monsieur. Rest tranquil; I will intervene.'
+
+With this he stepped across the pavement in front of the cafe, into
+the street, and gave utterance to a low, peculiar whistle. The cafe
+was now nearly deserted, for the hour was very late, or, rather, very
+early. When the waiter returned I whispered to him in some anxiety,--
+
+'Not the police, surely?'
+
+'But no!' he cried in scorn; 'certainly not the police.'
+
+He went on unconcernedly taking in the empty chairs and tables. A few
+minutes later there swaggered up to the cafe two of the most
+disreputable, low-browed scoundrels I had ever seen, each wearing a
+dark-blue cap, with a glazed peak over the eyes; caps exactly similar
+to the one which lay in front of Simard. The band of Apaches which now
+permeates all Paris has risen since my time, and Simard had been
+mistaken an hour before in asserting that Valmont was familiar with
+their haunts. The present Chief of Police in Paris and some of his
+predecessors confess there is a difficulty in dealing with these
+picked assassins, but I should very much like to take a hand in the
+game on the side of law and order. However, that is not to be;
+therefore, the Apaches increase and prosper.
+
+The two vagabonds roughly smote Simard's cap on his prone head, and as
+roughly raised him to his feet.
+
+'He is a friend of mine,' I interposed, 'and promised to take me home
+with him.'
+
+'Good! Follow us,' said one of them; and now I passed through the
+morning streets of Paris behind three cut-throats, yet knew that I was
+safer than if broad daylight was in the thoroughfare, with a meridian
+sun shining down upon us. I was doubly safe, being in no fear of harm
+from midnight prowlers, and equally free from danger of arrest by the
+police. Every officer we met avoided us, and casually stepped to the
+other side of the street. We turned down a narrow lane, then through a
+still narrower one, which terminated at a courtyard. Entering a tall
+building, we climbed up five flights of stairs to a landing, where one
+of the scouts kicked open a door, into a room so miserable that there
+was not even a lock to protect its poverty. Here they allowed the
+insensible Simard to drop with a crash on the floor, thus they left us
+alone without even an adieu. The Apaches take care of their own--after
+a fashion.
+
+I struck a match, and found part of a bougie stuck in the mouth of an
+absinthe bottle, resting on a rough deal table. Lighting the bougie, I
+surveyed the horrible apartment. A heap of rags lay in a corner, and
+this was evidently Simard's bed. I hauled him to it, and there he lay
+unconscious, himself a bundle of rags. I found one chair, or, rather,
+stool, for it had no back. I drew the table against the lockless door,
+blew out the light, sat on the stool, resting my arms on the table,
+and my head on my arms, and slept peacefully till long after daybreak.
+
+Simard awoke in the worst possible humour. He poured forth a great
+variety of abusive epithets at me. To make himself still more
+agreeable, he turned back the rags on which he had slept, and brought
+to the light a round, black object, like a small cannon-ball, which he
+informed me was the picric bomb that was to scatter destruction among
+my English friends, for whom he expressed the greatest possible
+loathing and contempt. Then sitting up, he began playing with this
+infernal machine, knowing, as well as I, that if he allowed it to drop
+that was the end of us two.
+
+I shrugged my shoulders at this display, and affected a nonchalance I
+was far from feeling, but finally put an end to his dangerous
+amusement by telling him that if he came out with me I would pay for
+his breakfast, and give him a drink of absinthe.
+
+The next few days were the most anxious of my life. Never before had I
+lived on terms of intimacy with a picric bomb, that most deadly and
+uncertain of all explosive agencies. I speedily found that Simard was
+so absinthe-soaked I could do nothing with him. He could not be bribed
+or cajoled or persuaded or threatened. Once, indeed, when he talked
+with drunken affection of Eugene Valmont, I conceived a wild notion of
+declaring myself to him; but a moment's reflection showed the absolute
+uselessness of this course. It was not one Simard with whom I had to
+deal, but half a dozen or more. There was Simard, sober, half sober,
+quarter sober, drunk, half drunk, quarter drunk, or wholly drunk. Any
+bargain I might make with the one Simard would not be kept by any of
+the other six. The only safe Simard was Simard insensible through
+over-indulgence. I had resolved to get Simard insensibly drunk on the
+morning of the procession, but my plans were upset at a meeting of the
+anarchists, which luckily took place on an evening shortly after my
+arrival, and this gave me time to mature the plan which was actually
+carried out. Each member of the anarchists' club knew of Simard's
+slavery to absinthe, and fears were expressed that he might prove
+incapable on the day of the procession, too late for a substitute to
+take his place. It was, therefore, proposed that one or two others
+should be stationed along the route of the procession with bombs ready
+if Simard failed. This I strenuously opposed, and guaranteed that
+Simard would be ready to launch his missile. I met with little
+difficulty in persuading the company to agree, because, after all,
+every man among them feared he might be one of those selected, which
+choice was practically a sentence of death. I guaranteed that the bomb
+would be thrown, and this apparently was taken to mean that if Simard
+did not do the deed, I would.
+
+This danger over, I next took the measurements, and estimated the
+weight, of the picric bomb. I then sought out a most amiable and
+expert pyrotechnist, a capable workman of genius, who with his own
+hand makes those dramatic firework arrangements which you sometimes
+see in Paris. As Eugene Valmont, I had rendered a great service to
+this man, and he was not likely to have forgotten it. During one of
+the anarchist scares a stupid policeman had arrested him, and when I
+intervened the man was just on the verge of being committed for life.
+France trembled in one of her panics, or, rather, Paris did, and
+demanded victims. This blameless little workman had indeed contributed
+with both material and advice, but any fool might have seen that he
+had done this innocently. His assistance had been invoked and secured
+under the pretence that his clients were promoting an amateur firework
+display, which was true enough, but the display cost the lives of
+three men, and intentionally so. I cheered up the citizen in the
+moment of his utmost despair, and brought such proof of his innocence
+to the knowledge of those above me that he was most reluctantly
+acquitted. To this man I now went with my measurement of the bomb and
+the estimate of its weight.
+
+'Sir,' said I, 'do you remember Eugene Valmont?'
+
+'Am I ever likely to forget him?' he replied, with a fervour that
+pleased me.
+
+'He has sent me to you, and implores you to aid me, and that aid will
+wipe out the debt you owe him.'
+
+'Willingly, willingly,' cried the artisan, 'so long as it has nothing
+to do with the anarchists or the making of bombs.'
+
+'It has to do exactly with those two things. I wish you to make an
+innocent bomb which will prevent an anarchist outrage.'
+
+At this the little man drew back, and his face became pale.
+
+'It is impossible,' he protested; 'I have had enough of innocent
+bombs. No, no, and in any case how can I be sure you come from Eugene
+Valmont? No, monsieur, I am not to be trapped the second time.'
+
+At this I related rapidly all that Valmont had done for him, and even
+repeated Valmont's most intimate conversation with him. The man was
+nonplussed, but remained firm.
+
+'I dare not do it,' he said.
+
+We were alone in his back shop. I walked to the door and thrust in the
+bolt; then, after a moment's pause, turned round, stretched forth my
+right hand dramatically, and cried,--'Behold, Eugene Valmont!'
+
+My friend staggered against the wall in his amazement, and I continued
+in solemn tones,--'Eugene Valmont, who by this removal of his disguise
+places his life in your hands as your life was in his. Now, monsieur,
+what will you do?'
+
+He replied,--'Monsieur Valmont, I shall do whatever you ask. If I
+refused a moment ago, it was because I thought there was now in France
+no Eugene Valmont to rectify my mistake if I made one.'
+
+I resumed my disguise, and told him I wished an innocent substitute
+for this picric bomb, and he at once suggested an earthenware globe,
+which would weigh the same as the bomb, and which could be coloured to
+resemble it exactly.
+
+'And now, Monsieur Valmont, do you wish smoke to issue from this
+imitation bomb?'
+
+'Yes,' I said, 'in such quantity as you can compress within it.'
+
+'It is easily done,' he cried, with the enthusiasm of a true French
+artist. 'And may I place within some little design of my own which
+will astonish your friends the English, and delight my friends the
+French?'
+
+'Monsieur,' said I, 'I am in your hands. I trust the project entirely
+to your skill,' and thus it came about that four days later I
+substituted the bogus globe for the real one, and, unseen, dropped the
+picric bomb from one of the bridges into the Seine.
+
+On the morning of the procession I was compelled to allow Simard
+several drinks of absinthe to bring him up to a point where he could
+be depended on, otherwise his anxiety and determination to fling the
+bomb, his frenzy against all government, made it certain that he would
+betray both of us before the fateful moment came. My only fear was
+that I could not stop him drinking when once he began, but somehow our
+days of close companionship, loathsome as they were to me, seemed to
+have had the effect of building up again the influence I held over him
+in former days, and his yielding more or less to my wishes appeared to
+be quite unconscious on his part.
+
+The procession was composed entirely of carriages, each containing
+four persons--two Englishmen sat on the back seats, with two Frenchmen
+in front of them. A thick crowd lined each side of the thoroughfare,
+cheering vociferously. Right into the middle of the procession Simard
+launched his bomb. There was no crash of explosion. The missile simply
+went to pieces as if it were an earthenware jar, and there arose a
+dense column of very white smoke. In the immediate vicinity the
+cheering stopped at once, and the sinister word 'bomb' passed from lip
+to lip in awed whispers. As the throwing had been unnoticed in the
+midst of the commotion, I held Simard firmly by the wrist, determined
+he should not draw attention to himself by his panic-stricken desire
+for immediate flight.
+
+'Stand still, you fool!' I hissed into his ear and he obeyed
+trembling.
+
+The pair of horses in front of which the bomb fell rose for a moment
+on their hind legs, and showed signs of bolting, but the coachman held
+them firmly, and uplifted his hand so that the procession behind him
+came to a momentary pause. No one in the carriages moved a muscle,
+then suddenly the tension was broken by a great and simultaneous
+cheer. Wondering at this I turned my eyes from the frightened horses
+to the column of pale smoke in front of us, and saw that in some
+manner it had resolved itself into a gigantic calla lily, pure white,
+while from the base of this sprung the lilies of France, delicately
+tinted. Of course, this could not have happened if there had been the
+least wind, but the air was so still that the vibration of the
+cheering caused the huge lily to tremble gently as it stood there
+marvellously poised; the lily of peace, surrounded by the lilies of
+France! That was the design, and if you ask me how it was done, I can
+only refer you to my pyrotechnist, and say that whatever a Frenchman
+attempts to do he will accomplish artistically.
+
+And now these imperturbable English, who had been seated immobile when
+they thought a bomb was thrown, stood up in their carriages to get a
+better view of this aerial phenomenon, cheering and waving their hats.
+The lily gradually thinned and dissolved in little patches of cloud
+that floated away above our heads.
+
+'I cannot stay here longer,' groaned Simard, quaking, his nerves, like
+himself, in rags. 'I see the ghosts of those I have killed floating
+around me.'
+
+'Come on, then, but do not hurry.'
+
+There was no difficulty in getting him to London, but it was absinthe,
+absinthe, all the way, and when we reached Charing Cross, I was
+compelled to help him, partly insensible, into a cab. I took him
+direct to Imperial Flats, and up into my own set of chambers, where I
+opened my strong room, and flung him inside to sleep off his
+intoxication, and subsist on bread and water when he became sober.
+
+I attended that night a meeting of the anarchists, and detailed
+accurately the story of our escape from France. I knew we had been
+watched, and so skipped no detail. I reported that I had taken Simard
+directly to my compatriot's flat; to Eugene Valmont, the man who had
+given me employment, and who had promised to do what he could for
+Simard, beginning by trying to break him of the absinthe habit, as he
+was now a physical wreck through over-indulgence in that stimulant.
+
+It was curious to note the discussion which took place a few nights
+afterwards regarding the failure of the picric bomb. Scientists among
+us said that the bomb had been made too long; that a chemical reaction
+had taken place which destroyed its power. A few superstitious ones
+saw a miracle in what had happened, and they forthwith left our
+organisation. Then again, things were made easier by the fact that the
+man who constructed the bomb, evidently terror-stricken at what he had
+done, disappeared the day before the procession, and has never since
+been heard of. The majority of the anarchists believed he had made a
+bogus bomb, and had fled to escape their vengeance rather than to
+evade the justice of the law.
+
+Simard will need no purgatory in the next world. I kept him on bread
+and water for a month in my strong room, and at first he demanded
+absinthe with threats, then grovelled, begging and praying for it.
+After that a period of depression and despair ensued, but finally his
+naturally strong constitution conquered, and began to build itself up
+again. I took him from his prison one midnight, and gave him a bed in
+my Soho room, taking care in bringing him away that he would never
+recognise the place where he had been incarcerated. In my dealings
+with him I had always been that old man, Paul Ducharme. Next morning I
+said to him:--'You spoke of Eugene Valmont. I have learned that he
+lives in London, and I advise you to call upon him. Perhaps he can get
+you something to do.'
+
+Simard was overjoyed, and two hours later, as Eugene Valmont, I
+received him in my flat, and made him my assistant on the spot. From
+that time forward, Paul Ducharme, language teacher, disappeared from
+the earth, and Simard abandoned his two A's--anarchy and absinthe.
+
+
+
+
+3. _The Clue of the Silver Spoons_
+
+
+When the card was brought in to me, I looked upon it with some
+misgiving, for I scented a commercial transaction, and, although such
+cases are lucrative enough, nevertheless I, Eugene Valmont, formerly
+high in the service of the French Government, do not care to be
+connected with them. They usually pertain to sordid business affairs,
+presenting little that is of interest to a man who, in his time, has
+dealt with subtle questions of diplomacy upon which the welfare of
+nations sometimes turned.
+
+The name of Bentham Gibbes is familiar to everyone, connected as it is
+with the much-advertised pickles, whose glaring announcements in crude
+crimson and green strike the eye throughout Great Britain, and shock
+the artistic sense wherever seen. Me! I have never tasted them, and
+shall not so long as a French restaurant remains open in London. But I
+doubt not they are as pronounced to the palate as their advertisement
+is distressing to the eye. If then, this gross pickle manufacturer
+expected me to track down those who were infringing upon the recipes
+for making his so-called sauces, chutneys, and the like, he would find
+himself mistaken, for I was now in a position to pick and choose my
+cases, and a case of pickles did not allure me. 'Beware of
+imitations,' said the advertisement; 'none genuine without a facsimile
+of the signature of Bentham Gibbes.' Ah, well, not for me were either
+the pickles or the tracking of imitators. A forged cheque! yes, if you
+like, but the forged signature of Mr. Gibbes on a pickle bottle was out
+of my line. Nevertheless, I said to Armand:--
+
+'Show the gentleman in,' and he did so.
+
+To my astonishment there entered a young man, quite correctly dressed
+in the dark frock-coat, faultless waistcoat and trousers that
+proclaimed a Bond Street tailor. When he spoke his voice and language
+were those of a gentleman.
+
+'Monsieur Valmont?' he inquired.
+
+'At your service,' I replied, bowing and waving my hand as Armand
+placed a chair for him, and withdrew.
+
+'I am a barrister with chambers in the Temple,' began Mr. Gibbes, 'and
+for some days a matter has been troubling me about which I have now
+come to seek your advice, your name having been suggested by a friend
+in whom I confided.'
+
+'Am I acquainted with him?' I asked.
+
+'I think not,' replied Mr. Gibbes; 'he also is a barrister with
+chambers in the same building as my own. Lionel Dacre is his name.'
+
+'I never heard of him.'
+
+'Very likely not. Nevertheless, he recommended you as a man who could
+keep his own counsel, and if you take up this case I desire the utmost
+secrecy preserved, whatever may be the outcome.'
+
+I bowed, but made no protestation. Secrecy is a matter of course with
+me.
+
+The Englishman paused for a few moments as if he expected fervent
+assurances; then went on with no trace of disappointment on his
+countenance at not receiving them.
+
+'On the night of the twenty-third, I gave a little dinner to six
+friends of mine in my own rooms. I may say that so far as I am aware
+they are all gentlemen of unimpeachable character. On the night of the
+dinner I was detained later than I expected at a reception, and in
+driving to the Temple was still further delayed by a block of traffic
+in Piccadilly, so that when I arrived at my chambers there was barely
+time for me to dress and receive my guests. My man Johnson had
+everything laid out ready for me in my dressing-room, and as I passed
+through to it I hurriedly flung off the coat I was wearing and
+carelessly left it hanging over the back of a chair in the
+dining-room, where neither Johnson nor myself noticed it until my
+attention was called to it after the dinner was over, and everyone
+rather jolly with wine.
+
+'This coat contains an inside pocket. Usually any frock-coat I wear at
+an afternoon reception has not an inside pocket, but I had been rather
+on the rush all day.
+
+'My father is a manufacturer whose name may be familiar to you, and I
+am on the directors' board of his company. On this occasion I took a
+cab from the city to the reception I spoke of, and had not time to go
+and change at my rooms. The reception was a somewhat bohemian affair,
+extremely interesting, of course, but not too particular as to
+costume, so I went as I was. In this inside pocket rested a thin
+package, composed of two pieces of cardboard, and between them rested
+five twenty-pound Bank of England notes, folded lengthwise, held in
+place by an elastic rubber band. I had thrown the coat across the
+chair-back in such a way that the inside pocket was exposed, leaving
+the ends of the notes plainly recognisable.
+
+'Over the coffee and cigars one of my guests laughingly called
+attention to what he termed my vulgar display of wealth, and Johnson,
+in some confusion at having neglected to put away the coat, now picked
+it up, and took it to the reception-room where the wraps of my guests
+lay about promiscuously. He should, of course, have hung it up in my
+wardrobe, but he said afterwards he thought it belonged to the guest
+who had spoken. You see, Johnson was in my dressing-room when I threw
+my coat on the chair in the corner while making my way thither, and I
+suppose he had not noticed the coat in the hurry of arriving guests,
+otherwise he would have put it where it belonged. After everybody had
+gone Johnson came to me and said the coat was there, but the package
+was missing, nor has any trace of it been found since that night.'
+
+'The dinner was fetched in from outside, I suppose?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'How many waiters served it?'
+
+'Two. They are men who have often been in my employ on similar
+occasions, but, apart from that, they had left my chambers before the
+incident of the coat happened.'
+
+'Neither of them went into the reception-room, I take it?'
+
+'No. I am certain that not even suspicion can attach to either of the
+waiters.'
+
+'Your man Johnson--?'
+
+'Has been with me for years. He could easily have stolen much more
+than the hundred pounds if he had wished to do so, but I have never
+known him to take a penny that did not belong to him.'
+
+'Will you favour me with the names of your guests, Mr. Gibbes?'
+
+'Viscount Stern sat at my right hand, and at my left Lord Templemere;
+Sir John Sanclere next to him, and Angus McKeller next to Sanclere.
+After Viscount Stern was Lionel Dacre, and at his right, Vincent
+Innis.'
+
+On a sheet of paper I had written the names of the guests, and noted
+their places at the table.
+
+'Which guest drew your attention to the money?'
+
+'Lionel Dacre.'
+
+'Is there a window looking out from the reception-room?'
+
+'Two of them.'
+
+'Were they fastened on the night of the dinner party?'
+
+'I could not be sure; very likely Johnson would know. You are hinting
+at the possibility of a thief coming in through a reception-room
+window while we were somewhat noisy over our wine. I think such a
+solution highly improbable. My rooms are on the third floor, and a
+thief would scarcely venture to make an entrance when he could not but
+know there was a company being entertained. Besides this, the coat was
+there less than an hour, and it appears to me that whoever stole those
+notes knew where they were.'
+
+'That seems reasonable,' I had to admit. 'Have you spoken to any one
+of your loss?';
+
+'To no one but Dacre, who recommended me to see you. Oh, yes, and to
+Johnson, of course.'
+
+I could not help noting that this was the fourth or fifth time Dacre's
+name had come up during our conversation.
+
+'What of Dacre?' I asked.
+
+'Oh, well, you see, he occupies chambers in the same building on the
+ground floor. He is a very good fellow, and we are by way of being
+firm friends. Then it was he who had called attention to the money, so
+I thought he should know the sequel.'
+
+'How did he take your news?'
+
+'Now that you call attention to the fact, he seemed slightly troubled.
+I should like to say, however, that you must not be misled by that.
+Lionel Dacre could no more steal than he could lie.'
+
+'Did he show any surprise when you mentioned the theft?'
+
+Bentham Gibbes paused a moment before replying, knitting his brows in
+thought.
+
+'No,' he said at last; 'and, come to think of it, it appeared as if he
+had been expecting my announcement.'
+
+'Doesn't that strike you as rather strange, Mr. Gibbes?'
+
+'Really my mind is in such a whirl, I don't know what to think. But
+it's perfectly absurd to suspect Dacre. If you knew the man you would
+understand what I mean. He comes of an excellent family, and he
+is--oh! he is Lionel Dacre, and when you have said that you have made
+any suspicion absurd.'
+
+'I suppose you caused the rooms to be thoroughly searched. The packet
+didn't drop out and remain unnoticed in some corner?'
+
+'No; Johnson and myself examined every inch of the premises.'
+
+'Have you the numbers of the notes?'
+
+'Yes; I got them from the Bank next morning. Payment was stopped, and
+so far not one of the five has been presented. Of course, one or more
+may have been cashed at some shop, but none have been offered to any
+of the banks.'
+
+'A twenty-pound note is not accepted without scrutiny, so the chances
+are the thief may find some difficulty in disposing of them.'
+
+'As I told you, I don't mind the loss of the money at all. It is the
+uncertainty, the uneasiness caused by the incident which troubles me.
+You will comprehend how little I care about the notes when I say that
+if you are good enough to interest yourself in this case, I shall be
+disappointed if your fee does not exceed the amount I have lost.'
+
+Mr. Gibbes rose as he said this, and I accompanied him to the door
+assuring him that I should do my best to solve the mystery. Whether he
+sprang from pickles or not, I realised he was a polished and generous
+gentleman, who estimated the services of a professional expert like
+myself at their true value.
+
+I shall not set down the details of my researches during the following
+few days, because the trend of them must be gone over in the account
+of that remarkable interview in which I took part somewhat later.
+Suffice it to say that an examination of the rooms and a close
+cross-questioning of Johnson satisfied me he and the two waiters were
+innocent. I became certain no thief had made his way through the
+window, and finally I arrived at the conclusion that the notes were
+stolen by one of the guests. Further investigation convinced me that
+the thief was no other than Lionel Dacre, the only one of the six in
+pressing need of money at this time. I caused Dacre to be shadowed,
+and during one of his absences made the acquaintance of his man
+Hopper, a surly, impolite brute, who accepted my golden sovereign
+quickly enough, but gave me little in exchange for it. While I
+conversed with him, there arrived in the passage where we were talking
+together a huge case of champagne, bearing one of the best-known names
+in the trade, and branded as being of the vintage of '78. Now I knew
+that the product of Camelot Freres is not bought as cheaply as British
+beer, and I also had learned that two short weeks before Mr. Lionel
+Dacre was at his wits' end for money. Yet he was still the same
+briefless barrister he had ever been.
+
+On the morning after my unsatisfactory conversation with his man
+Hopper, I was astonished to receive the following note, written on a
+dainty correspondence card:--
+
+                                    '3 and 4 Vellum Buildings,
+                                             'Inner Temple, E.C.
+
+     'Mr. Lionel Dacre presents his compliments to Monsieur Eugene
+     Valmont, and would be obliged if Monsieur Valmont could make
+     it convenient to call upon him in his chambers tomorrow
+     morning at eleven.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Had the young man become aware that he was being shadowed, or had the
+surly servant informed him of the inquiries made? I was soon to know.
+I called punctually at eleven next morning, and was received with
+charming urbanity by Mr. Dacre himself. The taciturn Hopper had
+evidently been sent away for the occasion.
+
+'My dear Monsieur Valmont, I am delighted to meet you,' began the
+young man with more of effusiveness than I had ever noticed in an
+Englishman before, although his very next words supplied an
+explanation that did not occur to me until afterwards as somewhat
+far-fetched. 'I believe we are by way of being countrymen, and,
+therefore, although the hour is early, I hope you will allow me to
+offer you some of this bottled sunshine of the year '78 from _la belle
+France_, to whose prosperity and honour we shall drink together. For
+such a toast any hour is propitious,' and to my amazement he brought
+forth from the case I had seen arrive two days before, a bottle of
+that superb Camelot Freres '78.
+
+'Now,' said I to myself, 'it is going to be difficult to keep a clear
+head if the aroma of this nectar rises to the brain. But tempting as
+is the cup, I shall drink sparingly, and hope he may not be so
+judicious.'
+
+Sensitive, I already experienced the charm of his personality, and
+well understood the friendship Mr. Bentham Gibbes felt for him. But I
+saw the trap spread before me. He expected, under the influence of
+champagne and courtesy, to extract a promise from me which I must find
+myself unable to give.
+
+'Sir, you interest me by claiming kinship with France. I had
+understood that you belonged to one of the oldest families of
+England.'
+
+'Ah, England!' he cried, with an expressive gesture of outspreading
+hands truly Parisian in its significance. 'The trunk belongs to
+England, of course, but the root--ah! the root--Monsieur Valmont,
+penetrated the soil from which this wine of the gods has been drawn.'
+
+Then filling my glass and his own he cried:--
+
+'To France, which my family left in the year 1066!'
+
+I could not help laughing at his fervent ejaculation.
+
+'1066! With William the Conqueror! That is a long time ago, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'In years perhaps; in feelings but a day. My forefathers came over to
+steal, and, lord! how well they accomplished it. They stole the whole
+country--something like a theft, say I--under that prince of robbers
+whom you have well named the Conqueror. In our secret hearts we all
+admire a great thief, and if not a great one, then an expert one, who
+covers his tracks so perfectly that the hounds of justice are baffled
+in attempting to follow them. Now even you, Monsieur Valmont (I can
+see you are the most generous of men, with a lively sympathy found to
+perfection only in France), even you must suffer a pang of regret when
+you lay a thief by the heels who has done his task deftly.'
+
+'I fear, Mr. Dacre, you credit me with a magnanimity to which I dare
+not lay claim. The criminal is a danger to society.'
+
+'True, true, you are in the right, Monsieur Valmont Still, admit there
+are cases that would touch you tenderly. For example, a man,
+ordinarily honest; a great need; a sudden opportunity. He takes that
+of which another has abundance, and he, nothing. What then, Monsieur
+Valmont? Is the man to be sent to perdition for a momentary weakness?'
+
+His words astonished me. Was I on the verge of hearing a confession?
+It almost amounted to that already.
+
+'Mr. Dacre,' I said, 'I cannot enter into the subtleties you pursue. My
+duty is to find the criminal.'
+
+'Again I say you are in the right, Monsieur Valmont, and I am
+enchanted to find so sensible a head on French shoulders. Although you
+are a more recent arrival, if I may say so, than myself, you
+nevertheless already give utterance to sentiments which do honour to
+England. It is your duty to hunt down the criminal. Very well. In that
+I think I can aid you, and thus have taken the liberty of requesting
+your attendance here this morning. Let me fill your glass again,
+Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'No more, I beg of you, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'What, do you think the receiver is as bad as the thief?'
+
+I was so taken aback by this remark that I suppose my face showed the
+amazement within me. But the young man merely laughed with apparently
+free-hearted enjoyment, poured some wine into his own glass, and
+tossed it off. Not knowing what to say, I changed the current of
+conversation.
+
+'Mr. Gibbes said you had been kind enough to recommend me to his
+attention. May I ask how you came to hear of me?'
+
+'Ah! who has not heard of the renowned Monsieur Valmont,' and as he
+said this, for the first time, there began to grow a suspicion in my
+mind that he was chaffing me, as it is called in England--a procedure
+which I cannot endure. Indeed, if this gentleman practised such a
+barbarism in my own country he would find himself with a duel on his
+hands before he had gone far. However, the next instant his voice
+resumed its original fascination, and I listened to it as to some
+delicious melody.
+
+'I need only mention my cousin, Lady Gladys Dacre, and you will at
+once understand why I recommended you to my friend. The case of Lady
+Gladys, you will remember, required a delicate touch which is not
+always to be had in this land of England, except when those who
+possess the gift do us the honour to sojourn with us.'
+
+I noticed that my glass was again filled, and bowing an acknowledgment
+of his compliment, I indulged in another sip of the delicious wine. I
+sighed, for I began to realise it was going to be very difficult for
+me, in spite of my disclaimer, to tell this man's friend he had stolen
+the money. All this time he had been sitting on the edge of the table,
+while I occupied a chair at its end. He sat there in careless fashion,
+swinging a foot to and fro. Now he sprang to the floor, and drew up a
+chair, placing on the table a blank sheet of paper. Then he took from
+the mantelshelf a packet of letters, and I was astonished to see they
+were held together by two bits of cardboard and a rubber band similar
+to the combination that had contained the folded bank notes. With
+great nonchalance he slipped off the rubber band, threw it and the
+pieces of cardboard on the table before me, leaving the documents
+loose to his hand.
+
+'Now, Monsieur Valmont,' he cried jauntily, 'you have been occupied
+for several days on this case, the case of my dear friend Bentham
+Gibbes, who is one of the best fellows in the world.'
+
+'He said the same of you, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'I am gratified to hear it. Would you mind letting me know to what
+point your researches have led you?'
+
+'They have led me in a direction rather than to a point.'
+
+'Ah! In the direction of a man, of course?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'Who is he?'
+
+'Will you pardon me if I decline to answer this question at the
+present moment?'
+
+'That means you are not sure.'
+
+'It may mean, Mr. Dacre, that I am employed by Mr. Gibbes, and do not
+feel at liberty to disclose the results of my quest without his
+permission.'
+
+'But Mr. Bentham Gibbes and I are entirely at one in this matter.
+Perhaps you are aware that I am the only person with whom he has
+discussed the case beside yourself.'
+
+'That is undoubtedly true, Mr. Dacre; still, you see the difficulty of
+my position.'
+
+'Yes, I do, and so shall press you no further. But I also have been
+studying the problem in a purely amateurish way, of course. You will
+perhaps express no disinclination to learn whether or not my
+deductions agree with yours.'
+
+'None in the least. I should be very glad to know the conclusion at
+which you have arrived. May I ask if you suspect any one in
+particular?'
+
+'Yes, I do.'
+
+'Will you name him?'
+
+'No; I shall copy the admirable reticence you yourself have shown. And
+now let us attack this mystery in a sane and businesslike manner. You
+have already examined the room. Well, here is a rough sketch of it.
+There is the table; in this corner stood the chair on which the coat
+was flung. Here sat Gibbes at the head of the table. Those on the
+left-hand side had their backs to the chair. I, being on the centre to
+the right, saw the chair, the coat, and the notes, and called
+attention to them. Now our first duty is to find a motive. If it were
+a murder, our motive might be hatred, revenge, robbery--what you like.
+As it is simply the stealing of money, the man must have been either a
+born thief or else some hitherto innocent person pressed to the crime
+by great necessity. Do you agree with me, Monsieur Valmont?'
+
+'Perfectly. You follow exactly the line of my own reasoning.'
+
+'Very well. It is unlikely that a born thief was one of Mr. Gibbes's
+guests. Therefore we are reduced to look for a man under the spur of
+necessity; a man who has no money of his own but who must raise a
+certain amount, let us say, by a certain date. If we can find such a
+man in that company, do you not agree with me that he is likely to be
+the thief?'
+
+'Yes, I do.'
+
+'Then let us start our process of elimination. Out goes Viscount
+Stern, a lucky individual with twenty thousand acres of land, and God
+only knows what income. I mark off the name of Lord Templemere, one of
+His Majesty's judges, entirely above suspicion. Next, Sir John
+Sanclere; he also is rich, but Vincent Innis is still richer, so the
+pencil obliterates both names. Now we arrive at Angus McKeller, an
+author of some note, as you are well aware, deriving a good income
+from his books and a better one from his plays; a canny Scot, so we
+may rub his name from our paper and our memory. How do my erasures
+correspond with yours, Monsieur Valmont?'
+
+'They correspond exactly, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'I am flattered to hear it. There remains one name untouched, Mr
+Lionel Dacre, the descendant, as I have said, of robbers.'
+
+'I have not said so, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'Ah! my dear Valmont, the politeness of your country asserts itself.
+Let us not be deluded, but follow our inquiry wherever it leads. I
+suspect Lionel Dacre. What do you know of his circumstances before the
+dinner of the twenty-third?'
+
+As I made no reply he looked up at me with his frank, boyish face
+illumined by a winning smile.
+
+'You know nothing of his circumstances?' he asked.
+
+'It grieves me to state that I do. Mr. Lionel Dacre was penniless on
+the night of the dinner.'
+
+'Oh, don't exaggerate, Monsieur Valmont,' cried Dacre with a gesture
+of pathetic protest; 'his pocket held one sixpence, two pennies, and a
+halfpenny. How came you to suspect he was penniless?'
+
+'I knew he ordered a case of champagne from the London representative
+of Camelot Freres, and was refused unless he paid the money down.'
+
+'Quite right, and then when you were talking to Hopper you saw that
+case of champagne delivered. Excellent! excellent! Monsieur Valmont.
+But will a man steal, think you, even to supply himself with so
+delicious a wine as this we have been tasting? And, by the way,
+forgive my neglect, allow me to fill your glass, Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'Not another drop, if you will excuse me, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'Ah, yes, champagne should not be mixed with evidence. When we have
+finished, perhaps. What further proof have you discovered, monsieur?'
+
+'I hold proof that Mr. Dacre was threatened with bankruptcy, if, on the
+twenty-fourth, he did not pay a bill of seventy-eight pounds that had
+been long outstanding. I hold proof that this was paid, not on the
+twenty-fourth, but on the twenty-sixth. Mr. Dacre had gone to the
+solicitor and assured him he would pay the money on that date,
+whereupon he was given two days' grace.'
+
+'Ah, well, he was entitled to three, you know, in law. Yes, there,
+Monsieur Valmont, you touch the fatal point. The threat of bankruptcy
+will drive a man in Dacre's position to almost any crime. Bankruptcy
+to a barrister means ruin. It means a career blighted; it means a life
+buried, with little chance of resurrection. I see, you grasp the
+supreme importance of that bit of evidence. The case of champagne is
+as nothing compared with it, and this reminds me that in the crisis
+now upon us I shall take another sip, with your permission. Sure you
+won't join me?'
+
+'Not at this juncture, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'I envy your moderation. Here's to the success of our search, Monsieur
+Valmont.'
+
+I felt sorry for the gay young fellow as with smiling face he drank
+the champagne.
+
+'Now, Monsieur,' he went on, 'I am amazed to learn how much you have
+discovered. Really, I think tradespeople, solicitors, and all such
+should keep better guard on their tongues than they do. Nevertheless,
+these documents at my elbow, which I expected would surprise you, are
+merely the letters and receipts. Here is the communication from the
+solicitor threatening me with bankruptcy; here is his receipt dated
+the twenty-sixth; here is the refusal of the wine merchant, and here
+is his receipt for the money. Here are smaller bills liquidated. With
+my pencil we will add them up. Seventy-eight pounds--the principal
+debt--bulks large. We add the smaller items and it reaches a total of
+ninety-three pounds seven shillings and fourpence. Let us now examine
+my purse. Here is a five-pound note; there is a golden sovereign. I
+now count out and place on the table twelve and sixpence in silver and
+two pence in coppers. The purse thus becomes empty. Let us add the
+silver and copper to the amount on the paper. Do my eyes deceive me,
+or is the sum exactly a hundred pounds? There is your money fully
+accounted for.'
+
+'Pardon me, Mr. Dacre,' I said, 'but I observe a sovereign resting on
+the mantelpiece.'
+
+Dacre threw back his head and laughed with greater heartiness than I
+had yet known him to indulge in during our short acquaintance.
+
+'By Jove,' he cried, 'you've got me there. I'd forgotten entirely
+about that pound on the mantelpiece, which belongs to you.'
+
+'To me? Impossible!'
+
+'It does, and cannot interfere in the least with our century
+calculation. That is the sovereign you gave to my man Hopper, who,
+knowing me to be hard-pressed, took it and shamefacedly presented it
+to me, that I might enjoy the spending of it. Hopper belongs to our
+family, or the family belongs to him. I am never sure which. You must
+have missed in him the deferential bearing of a man-servant in Paris,
+yet he is true gold, like the sovereign you bestowed upon him, and he
+bestowed upon me. Now here, Monsieur, is the evidence of the theft,
+together with the rubber band and two pieces of cardboard. Ask my
+friend Gibbes to examine them minutely. They are all at your
+disposition, Monsieur, and thus you learn how much easier it is to
+deal with the master than with the servant. All the gold you possess
+would not have wrung these incriminating documents from old Hopper. I
+was compelled to send him away to the West End an hour ago, fearing
+that in his brutal British way he might assault you if he got an
+inkling of your mission.'
+
+'Mr. Dacre,' said I slowly, 'you have thoroughly convinced me--'
+
+'I thought I would,' he interrupted with a laugh.
+
+'--that you did _not_ take the money.'
+
+'Oho, this is a change of wind, surely. Many a man has been hanged on
+a chain of circumstantial evidence much weaker than this which I have
+exhibited to you. Don't you see the subtlety of my action? Ninety-nine
+persons in a hundred would say: "No man could be such a fool as to
+put Valmont on his own track, and then place in Valmont's hands such
+striking evidence." But there comes in my craftiness. Of course, the
+rock you run up against will be Gibbes's incredulity. The first
+question he will ask you may be this: "Why did not Dacre come and
+borrow the money from me?" Now there you find a certain weakness in
+your chain of evidence. I knew perfectly well that Gibbes would lend
+me the money, and he knew perfectly well that if I were pressed to the
+wall I should ask him.'
+
+'Mr. Dacre,' said I, 'you have been playing with me. I should resent
+that with most men, but whether it is your own genial manner or the
+effect of this excellent champagne, or both together, I forgive you.
+But I am convinced of another thing. You know who took the money.'
+
+'I don't know, but I suspect.'
+
+'Will you tell me whom you suspect?'
+
+'That would not be fair, but I shall now take the liberty of filling
+your glass with champagne.'
+
+'I am your guest, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'Admirably answered, monsieur,' he replied, pouring out the wine, 'and
+now I offer you a clue. Find out all about the story of the silver
+spoons.'
+
+'The story of the silver spoons! What silver spoons?'
+
+'Ah! That is the point. Step out of the Temple into Fleet Street,
+seize the first man you meet by the shoulder, and ask him to tell you
+about the silver spoons. There are but two men and two spoons
+concerned. When you learn who those two men are, you will know that
+one of them did not take the money, and I give you my assurance that
+the other did.'
+
+'You speak in mystery, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'But certainly, for I am speaking to Monsieur Eugene Valmont.'
+
+'I echo your words, sir. Admirably answered. You put me on my mettle,
+and I flatter myself that I see your kindly drift. You wish me to
+solve the mystery of this stolen money. Sir, you-do me honour, and I
+drink to your health.'
+
+'To yours, monsieur,' said Lionel Dacre, and thus we drank and parted.
+
+On leaving Mr. Dacre I took a hansom to a cafe in Regent Street, which
+is a passable imitation of similar places of refreshment in Paris.
+There, calling for a cup of black coffee, I sat down to think. The
+clue of the silver spoons! He had laughingly suggested that I should
+take by the shoulders the first man I met, and ask him what the story
+of the silver spoons was. This course naturally struck me as absurd,
+and he doubtless intended it to seem absurd. Nevertheless, it
+contained a hint. I must ask somebody, and that the right person, to
+tell me the tale of the silver spoons.
+
+Under the influence of the black coffee I reasoned it out in this way.
+On the night of the twenty-third one of the six guests there present
+stole a hundred pounds, but Dacre had said that an actor in the silver
+spoon episode was the actual thief. That person, then, must have been
+one of Mr. Gibbes's guests at the dinner of the twenty-third. Probably
+two of the guests were the participators in the silver spoon comedy,
+but, be that as it may, it followed that one at least of the men
+around Mr. Gibbes's table knew the episode of the silver spoons.
+Perhaps Bentham Gibbes himself was cognisant of it. It followed,
+therefore, that the easiest plan was to question each of the men who
+partook of that dinner. Yet if only one knew about the spoons, that
+one must also have some idea that these spoons formed the clue which
+attached him to the crime of the twenty-third, in which case he was
+little likely to divulge what he knew to an entire stranger.
+
+Of course, I might go to Dacre himself and demand the story of the
+silver spoons, but this would be a confession of failure on my part,
+and I rather dreaded Lionel Dacre's hearty laughter when I admitted
+that the mystery was too much for me. Besides this I was very well
+aware of the young man's kindly intentions towards me. He wished me to
+unravel the coil myself, and so I determined not to go to him except
+as a last resource.
+
+I resolved to begin with Mr. Gibbes, and, finishing my coffee, I got
+again into a hansom, and drove back to the Temple. I found Bentham
+Gibbes in his room, and after greeting me, his first inquiry was about
+the case.
+
+'How are you getting on?' he asked.
+
+'I think I'm getting on fairly well,' I replied, 'and expect to finish
+in a day or two, if you will kindly tell me the story of the silver
+spoons.'
+
+'The silver spoons?' he echoed, quite evidently not understanding me.
+
+'There happened an incident in which two men were engaged, and this
+incident related to a pair of silver spoons. I want to get the
+particulars of that.' 'I haven't the slightest idea what you are
+talking about,' replied Gibbes, thoroughly bewildered. 'You will need
+to be more definite, I fear, if you are to get any help from me.'
+
+'I cannot be more definite, because I have already told you all I
+know.'
+
+'What bearing has all this on our own case?'
+
+'I was informed that if I got hold of the clue of the silver spoons I
+should be in a fair way of settling our case.'
+
+'Who told you that?'
+
+'Mr. Lionel Dacre.'
+
+'Oh, does Dacre refer to his own conjuring?'
+
+'I don't know, I'm sure. What was his conjuring?'
+
+'A very clever trick he did one night at dinner here about two months
+ago.'
+
+'Had it anything to do with silver spoons?'
+
+'Well, it was silver spoons or silver forks, or something of that
+kind. I had entirely forgotten the incident. So far as I recollect at
+the moment there was a sleight-of-hand man of great expertness in one
+of the music halls, and the talk turned upon him. Then Dacre said the
+tricks he did were easy, and holding up a spoon or a fork, I don't
+remember which, he professed his ability to make it disappear before
+our eyes, to be found afterwards in the clothing of some one there
+present. Several offered to bet that he could do nothing of the kind,
+but he said he would bet with no one but Innis, who sat opposite him.
+Innis, with some reluctance, accepted the bet, and then Dacre, with a
+great show of the usual conjurer's gesticulations, spread forth his
+empty hands, and said we should find the spoon in Innis's pocket, and
+there, sure enough, it was. It seemed a proper sleight-of-hand trick,
+but we were never able to get him to repeat it.'
+
+'Thank you very much, Mr. Gibbes; I think I see daylight now.'
+
+'If you do you are cleverer than I by a long chalk,' cried Bentham
+Gibbes as I took my departure.
+
+I went directly downstairs, and knocked at Mr. Dacre's door once more.
+He opened the door himself, his man not yet having returned.
+
+'Ah, monsieur,' he cried, 'back already? You don't mean to tell me you
+have so soon got to the bottom of the silver spoon entanglement?'
+
+'I think I have, Mr. Dacre. You were sitting at dinner opposite Mr
+Vincent Innis. You saw him conceal a silver spoon in his pocket. You
+probably waited for some time to understand what he meant by this, and
+as he did not return the spoon to its place, you proposed a conjuring
+trick, made the bet with him, and thus the spoon was returned to the
+table.'
+
+'Excellent! excellent, monsieur! that is very nearly what occurred,
+except that I acted at once. I had had experiences with Mr. Vincent
+Innis before. Never did he enter these rooms of mine without my
+missing some little trinket after he was gone. Although Mr. Innis is a
+very rich person, I am not a man of many possessions, so if anything
+is taken, I meet little difficulty in coming to a knowledge of my
+loss. Of course, I never mentioned these abstractions to him. They
+were all trivial, as I have said, and so far as the silver spoon was
+concerned, it was of no great value either. But I thought the bet and
+the recovery of the spoon would teach him a lesson; it apparently has
+not done so. On the night of the twenty-third he sat at my right hand,
+as you will see by consulting your diagram of the table and the
+guests. I asked him a question twice, to which he did not reply, and
+looking at him I was startled by the expression in his eyes. They were
+fixed on a distant corner of the room, and following his gaze I saw
+what he was staring at with such hypnotising concentration. So
+absorbed was he in contemplation of the packet there so plainly
+exposed, now my attention was turned to it, that he seemed to be
+entirely oblivious of what was going on around him. I roused him from
+his trance by jocularly calling Gibbes's attention to the display of
+money. I expected in this way to save Innis from committing the act
+which he seemingly did commit. Imagine then the dilemma in which I was
+placed when Gibbes confided to me the morning after what had occurred
+the night before. I was positive Innis had taken the money, yet I
+possessed no proof of it. I could not tell Gibbes, and I dare not
+speak to Innis. Of course, monsieur, you do not need to be told that
+Innis is not a thief in the ordinary sense of the word. He has no need
+to steal, and yet apparently cannot help doing so. I am sure that no
+attempt has been made to pass those notes. They are doubtless resting
+securely in his house at Kensington. He is, in fact, a kleptomaniac,
+or a maniac of some sort. And now, monsieur, was my hint regarding the
+silver spoons of any value to you?'
+
+'Of the most infinite value, Mr. Dacre.'
+
+'Then let me make another suggestion. I leave it entirely to your
+bravery; a bravery which, I confess, I do not myself possess. Will
+you take a hansom, drive to Mr. Innis's house on the Cromwell Road,
+confront him quietly, and ask for the return of the packet? I am
+anxious to know what will happen. If he hands it to you, as I expect
+he will, then you must tell Mr. Gibbes the whole story.'
+
+'Mr. Dacre, your suggestion shall be immediately acted upon, and I
+thank you for your compliment to my courage.'
+
+I found that Mr. Innis inhabited a very grand house. After a time he
+entered the study on the ground floor, to which I had been conducted.
+He held my card in his hand, and was looking at it with some surprise.
+
+'I think I have not the pleasure of knowing you, Monsieur Valmont,' he
+said, courteously enough.
+
+'No. I ventured to call on a matter of business. I was once
+investigator for the French Government, and now am doing private
+detective work here in London.'
+
+'Ah! And how is that supposed to interest me? There is nothing that I
+wish investigated. I did not send for you, did I?'
+
+'No, Mr. Innis, I merely took the liberty of calling to ask you to let
+me have the package you took from Mr. Bentham Gibbes's frock-coat
+pocket on the night of the twenty-third.'
+
+'He wishes it returned, does he?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+Mr. Innis calmly walked to a desk, which he unlocked and opened,
+displaying a veritable museum of trinkets of one sort and another.
+Pulling out a small drawer he took from it the packet containing the
+five twenty-pound notes. Apparently it had never been opened. With a
+smile he handed it to me.
+
+'You will make my apologies to Mr. Gibbes for not returning it before.
+Tell him I have been unusually busy of late.'
+
+'I shall not fail to do so,' said I, with a bow.
+
+'Thanks so much. Good-morning, Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'Good-morning, Mr. Innis,'
+
+And so I returned the packet to Mr. Bentham Gibbes, who pulled the
+notes from between their pasteboard protection, and begged me to
+accept them.
+
+
+
+
+4. _Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune_
+
+
+The name of the late Lord Chizelrigg never comes to my mind without
+instantly suggesting that of Mr. T.A. Edison. I never saw the late Lord
+Chizelrigg, and I have met Mr. Edison only twice in my life, yet the
+two men are linked in my memory, and it was a remark the latter once
+made that in great measure enabled me to solve the mystery which the
+former had wrapped round his actions.
+
+There is no memorandum at hand to tell me the year in which those two
+meetings with Edison took place. I received a note from the Italian
+Ambassador in Paris requesting me to wait upon him at the Embassy. I
+learned that on the next day a deputation was to set out from the
+Embassy to one of the chief hotels, there to make a call in state upon
+the great American inventor, and formally present to him various
+insignia accompanying certain honours which the King of Italy had
+conferred upon him. As many Italian nobles of high rank had been
+invited, and as these dignitaries would not only be robed in the
+costumes pertaining to their orders, but in many cases would wear
+jewels of almost inestimable value, my presence was desired in the
+belief that I might perhaps be able to ward off any attempt on the
+part of the deft-handed gentry who might possibly make an effort to
+gain these treasures, and I may add, with perhaps some little
+self-gratification, no _contretemps_ occurred.
+
+Mr. Edison, of course, had long before received notification of the
+hour at which the deputation would wait upon him, but when we entered
+the large parlour assigned to the inventor, it was evident to me at a
+glance that the celebrated man had forgotten all about the function.
+He stood by a bare table, from which the cloth had been jerked and
+flung into a corner, and upon that table were placed several bits of
+black and greasy machinery--cog wheels, pulleys, bolts, etc. These
+seemingly belonged to a French workman who stood on the other side of
+the table, with one of the parts in his grimy hand. Edison's own hands
+were not too clean, for he had palpably been examining the material,
+and conversing with the workman, who wore the ordinary long blouse of
+an iron craftsman in a small way. I judged him to be a man with a
+little shop of his own in some back street, who did odd jobs of
+engineering, assisted perhaps by a skilled helper or two, and a few
+apprentices. Edison looked sternly towards the door as the solemn
+procession filed in, and there was a trace of annoyance on his face at
+the interruption, mixed with a shade of perplexity as to what this
+gorgeous display all meant. The Italian is as ceremonious as the
+Spaniard where a function is concerned, and the official who held the
+ornate box which contained the jewellery resting on a velvet cushion,
+stepped slowly forward, and came to a stand in front of the bewildered
+American. Then the Ambassador, in sonorous voice, spoke some gracious
+words regarding the friendship existing between the United States and
+Italy, expressed a wish that their rivalry should ever take the form
+of benefits conferred upon the human race, and instanced the honoured
+recipient as the most notable example the world had yet produced of a
+man bestowing blessings upon all nations in the arts of peace. The
+eloquent Ambassador concluded by saying that, at the command of his
+Royal master, it was both his duty and his pleasure to present, and so
+forth and so forth.
+
+Mr. Edison, visibly ill at ease, nevertheless made a suitable reply in
+the fewest possible words, and the _etalage_ being thus at an end, the
+noblemen, headed by their Ambassador, slowly retired, myself forming
+the tail of the procession. Inwardly I deeply sympathised with the
+French workman who thus unexpectedly found himself confronted by so
+much magnificence. He cast one wild look about him, but saw that his
+retreat was cut off unless he displaced some of these gorgeous
+grandees. He tried then to shrink into himself, and finally stood
+helpless like one paralysed. In spite of Republican institutions,
+there is deep down in every Frenchman's heart a respect and awe for
+official pageants, sumptuously staged and costumed as this one was.
+But he likes to view it from afar, and supported by his fellows, not
+thrust incongruously into the midst of things, as was the case with
+this panic-stricken engineer. As I passed out, I cast a glance over my
+shoulder at the humble artisan content with a profit of a few francs a
+day, and at the millionaire inventor opposite him, Edison's face,
+which during the address had been cold and impassive, reminding me
+vividly of a bust of Napoleon, was now all aglow with enthusiasm as he
+turned to his humble visitor. He cried joyfully to the workman:--
+
+'A minute's demonstration is worth an hour's explanation. I'll call
+round tomorrow at your shop, about ten o'clock, and show you how to
+make the thing work.'
+
+I lingered in the hall until the Frenchman came out, then, introducing
+myself to him, asked the privilege of visiting his shop next day at
+ten. This was accorded with that courtesy which you will always find
+among the industrial classes of France, and next day I had the
+pleasure of meeting Mr. Edison. During our conversation I complimented
+him on his invention of the incandescent electric light, and this was
+the reply that has ever remained in my memory:--
+
+'It was not an invention, but a discovery. We knew what we wanted; a
+carbonised tissue, which would withstand the electric current in a
+vacuum for, say, a thousand hours. If no such tissue existed, then the
+incandescent light, as we know it, was not possible. My assistants
+started out to find this tissue, and we simply carbonised everything
+we could lay our hands on, and ran the current through it in a vacuum.
+At last we struck the right thing, as we were bound to do if we kept
+on long enough, and if the thing existed. Patience and hard work will
+overcome any obstacle.'
+
+This belief has been of great assistance to me in my profession. I
+know the idea is prevalent that a detective arrives at his solutions
+in a dramatic way through following clues invisible to the ordinary
+man. This doubtless frequently happens, but, as a general thing, the
+patience and hard work which Mr. Edison commends is a much safer guide.
+Very often the following of excellent clues had led me to disaster, as
+was the case with my unfortunate attempt to solve the mystery of the
+five hundred diamonds.
+
+As I was saying, I never think of the late Lord Chizelrigg without
+remembering Mr. Edison at the same time, and yet the two were very
+dissimilar. I suppose Lord Chizelrigg was the most useless man that
+ever lived, while Edison is the opposite.
+
+One day my servant brought in to me a card on which was engraved 'Lord
+Chizelrigg.'
+
+'Show his lordship in,' I said, and there appeared a young man of
+perhaps twenty-four or twenty-five, well dressed, and of most charming
+manners, who, nevertheless, began his interview by asking a question
+such as had never before been addressed to me, and which, if put to a
+solicitor, or other professional man, would have been answered with
+some indignation. Indeed, I believe it is a written or unwritten law
+of the legal profession that the acceptance of such a proposal as
+Lord Chizelrigg made to me, would, if proved, result in the disgrace
+and ruin of the lawyer.
+
+'Monsieur Valmont,' began Lord Chizelrigg, 'do you ever take up cases
+on speculation?'
+
+'On speculation, sir? I do not think I understand you.'
+
+His lordship blushed like a girl, and stammered slightly as he
+attempted an explanation.
+
+'What I mean is, do you accept a case on a contingent fee? That is to
+say, monsieur--er--well, not to put too fine a point upon it, no
+results, no pay.'
+
+I replied somewhat severely:--
+
+'Such an offer has never been made to me, and I may say at once that I
+should be compelled to decline it were I favoured with the
+opportunity. In the cases submitted to me, I devote my time and
+attention to their solution. I try to deserve success, but I cannot
+command it, and as in the interim I must live, I am reluctantly
+compelled to make a charge for my time, at least. I believe the doctor
+sends in his bill, though the patient dies.'
+
+The young man laughed uneasily, and seemed almost too embarrassed to
+proceed, but finally he said:--
+
+'Your illustration strikes home with greater accuracy than probably
+you imagined when you uttered it. I have just paid my last penny to
+the physician who attended my late uncle, Lord Chizelrigg, who died
+six months ago. I am fully aware that the suggestion I made may seem
+like a reflection upon your skill, or rather, as implying a doubt
+regarding it. But I should be grieved, monsieur, if you fell into such
+an error. I could have come here and commissioned you to undertake
+some elucidation of the strange situation in which I find myself, and
+I make no doubt you would have accepted the task if your numerous
+engagements had permitted. Then, if you failed, I should have been
+unable to pay you, for I am practically bankrupt. My whole desire,
+therefore, was to make an honest beginning, and to let you know
+exactly how I stand. If you succeed, I shall be a rich man; if you do
+not succeed, I shall be what I am now, penniless. Have I made it plain
+now why I began with a question which you had every right to resent?'
+
+'Perfectly plain, my lord, and your candour does you credit.'
+
+I was very much taken with the unassuming manners of the young man,
+and his evident desire to accept no service under false pretences.
+When I had finished my sentence the pauper nobleman rose to his feet,
+and bowed.
+
+'I am very much your debtor, monsieur, for your courtesy in receiving
+me, and can only beg pardon for occupying your time on a futile quest.
+I wish you good-morning, monsieur.'
+
+'One moment, my lord,' I rejoined, waving him to his chair again.
+'Although I am unprepared to accept a commission on the terms you
+suggest, I may, nevertheless, be able to offer a hint or two that will
+prove of service to you. I think I remember the announcement of Lord
+Chizelrigg's death. He was somewhat eccentric, was he not?'
+
+'Eccentric?' said the young man, with a slight laugh, seating himself
+again--'well, _rather_!'
+
+'I vaguely remember that he was accredited with the possession of
+something like twenty thousand acres of land?'
+
+'Twenty-seven thousand, as a matter of fact,' replied my visitor.
+
+'Have you fallen heir to the lands as well as to the title?'
+
+'Oh, yes; the estate was entailed. The old gentleman could not divert
+it from me if he would, and I rather suspect that fact must have been
+the cause of some worry to him.'
+
+'But surely, my lord, a man who owns, as one might say, a principality
+in this wealthy realm of England, cannot be penniless?'
+
+Again the young man laughed.
+
+'Well, no,' he replied, thrusting his hand in his pocket and bringing
+to light a few brown coppers, and a white silver piece. 'I possess
+enough money to buy some food tonight, but not enough to dine at the
+Hotel Cecil. You see, it is like this. I belong to a somewhat ancient
+family, various members of whom went the pace, and mortgaged their
+acres up to the hilt. I could not raise a further penny on my estates
+were I to try my hardest, because at the time the money was lent, land
+was much more valuable than it is today. Agricultural depression, and
+all that sort of thing, have, if I may put it so, left me a good many
+thousands worse off than if I had no land at all. Besides this, during
+my late uncle's life, Parliament, on his behalf, intervened once or
+twice, allowing him in the first place to cut valuable timber, and in
+the second place to sell the pictures of Chizelrigg Chase at
+Christie's for figures which make one's mouth water.'
+
+'And what became of the money?' I asked, whereupon once more this
+genial nobleman laughed. 'That is exactly what I came up in the lift
+to learn if Monsieur Valmont could discover.'
+
+'My lord, you interest me,' I said, quite truly, with an uneasy
+apprehension that I should take up his case after all, for I liked the
+young man already. His lack of pretence appealed to me, and that
+sympathy which is so universal among my countrymen enveloped him, as I
+may say, quite independent of my own will.
+
+'My uncle,' went on Lord Chizelrigg, 'was somewhat of an anomaly in
+our family. He must have been a reversal to a very, very ancient type;
+a type of which we have no record. He was as miserly as his
+forefathers were prodigal. When he came into the title and estate some
+twenty years ago, he dismissed the whole retinue of servants, and,
+indeed, was defendant in several cases at law where retainers of our
+family brought suit against him for wrongful dismissal, or dismissal
+without a penny compensation in lieu of notice. I am pleased to say he
+lost all his cases, and when he pleaded poverty, got permission to
+sell a certain number of heirlooms, enabling him to make compensation,
+and giving him something on which to live. These heirlooms at auction
+sold so unexpectedly well, that my uncle acquired a taste, as it were,
+of what might be done. He could always prove that the rents went to
+the mortgagees, and that he had nothing on which to exist, so on
+several occasions he obtained permission from the courts to cut timber
+and sell pictures, until he denuded the estate and made an empty barn
+of the old manor house. He lived like any labourer, occupying himself
+sometimes as a carpenter, sometimes as a blacksmith; indeed, he made a
+blacksmith's shop of the library, one of the most noble rooms in
+Britain, containing thousands of valuable books which again and again
+he applied for permission to sell, but this privilege was never
+granted to him. I find on coming into the property that my uncle quite
+persistently evaded the law, and depleted this superb collection, book
+by book, surreptitiously through dealers in London. This, of course,
+would have got him into deep trouble if it had been discovered before
+his death, but now the valuable volumes are gone, and there is no
+redress. Many of them are doubtless in America, or in museums and
+collections of Europe.'
+
+'You wish me to trace them, perhaps?' I interpolated.
+
+'Oh, no; they are past praying for. The old man made tens of thousands
+by the sale of the timber, and other thousands by disposing of the
+pictures. The house is denuded of its fine old furniture, which was
+immensely valuable, and then the books, as I have said, must have
+brought in the revenue of a prince, if he got anything like their
+value, and you may be sure he was shrewd enough to know their worth.
+Since the last refusal of the courts to allow him further relief, as
+he termed it, which was some seven years ago, he had quite evidently
+been disposing of books and furniture by a private sale, in defiance
+of the law. At that time I was under age, but my guardians opposed his
+application to the courts, and demanded an account of the moneys
+already in his hands. The judges upheld the opposition of my
+guardians, and refused to allow a further spoliation of the estate,
+but they did not grant the accounting my guardians asked, because the
+proceeds of the former sales were entirely at the disposal of my
+uncle, and were sanctioned by the law to permit him to live as
+befitted his station. If he lived meagrely instead of lavishly, as my
+guardians contended, that, the judges said, was his affair, and there
+the matter ended.
+
+'My uncle took a violent dislike to me on account of this opposition
+to his last application, although, of course, I had nothing whatever
+to do with the matter. He lived like a hermit, mostly in the library,
+and was waited upon by an old man and his wife, and these three were
+the only inhabitants of a mansion that could comfortably house a
+hundred. He visited nobody, and would allow no one to approach
+Chizelrigg Chase. In order that all who had the misfortune to have
+dealing with him should continue to endure trouble after his death, he
+left what might be called a will, but which rather may be termed a
+letter to me. Here is a copy of it.
+
+     '"MY DEAR TOM,--You will find your fortune between a couple
+     of sheets of paper in the library.
+
+     '"Your affectionate uncle,
+         '"REGINALD MORAN, EARL OF CHIZELRIGG."'
+
+'I should doubt if that were a legal will,' said I.
+
+'It doesn't need to be,' replied the young man with a smile. 'I am
+next-of-kin, and heir to everything he possessed, although, of course,
+he might have given his money elsewhere if he had chosen to do so. Why
+he did not bequeath it to some institution, I do not know. He knew no
+man personally except his own servants, whom he misused and starved,
+but, as he told them, he misused and starved himself, so they had no
+cause to grumble. He said he was treating them like one of the family.
+I suppose he thought it would cause me more worry and anxiety if he
+concealed the money, and put me on the wrong scent, which I am
+convinced he has done, than to leave it openly to any person or
+charity.'
+
+'I need not ask if you have searched the library?'
+
+'Searched it? Why, there never was such a search since the world
+began!'
+
+'Possibly you put the task into incompetent hands?'
+
+'You are hinting, Monsieur Valmont, that I engaged others until my
+money was gone, then came to you with a speculative proposal. Let me
+assure you such is not the case. Incompetent hands, I grant you, but
+the hands were my own. For the past six months I have lived
+practically as my uncle lived. I have rummaged that library from floor
+to ceiling. It was left in a frightful state, littered with old
+newspapers, accounts, and what-not. Then, of course, there were the
+books remaining in the library, still a formidable collection.'
+
+'Was your uncle a religious man?'
+
+'I could not say. I surmise not. You see, I was unacquainted with him,
+and never saw him until after his death. I fancy he was not religious,
+otherwise he could not have acted as he did. Still, he proved himself
+a man of such twisted mentality that anything is possible.'
+
+'I knew a case once where an heir who expected a large sum of money
+was bequeathed a family Bible, which he threw into the fire, learning
+afterwards, to his dismay, that it contained many thousands of pounds
+in Bank of England notes, the object of the devisor being to induce
+the legatee to read the good Book or suffer through the neglect of
+it.'
+
+'I have searched the Scriptures,' said the youthful Earl with a laugh,
+'but the benefit has been moral rather than material.'
+
+'Is there any chance that your uncle has deposited his wealth in a
+bank, and has written a cheque for the amount, leaving it between two
+leaves of a book?'
+
+'Anything is possible, monsieur, but I think that highly improbable. I
+have gone through every tome, page by page, and I suspect very few of
+the volumes have been opened for the last twenty years.'
+
+'How much money do you estimate he accumulated?'
+
+'He must have cleared more than a hundred thousand pounds, but
+speaking of banking it, I would like to say that my uncle evinced a
+deep distrust of banks, and never drew a cheque in his life so far as
+I am aware. All accounts were paid in gold by this old steward, who
+first brought the receipted bill in to my uncle, and then received the
+exact amount, after having left the room, and waited until he was rung
+for, so that he might not learn the repository from which my uncle
+drew his store. I believe if the money is ever found it will be in
+gold, and I am very sure that this will was written, if we may call it
+a will, to put us on the wrong scent.'
+
+'Have you had the library cleared out?'
+
+'Oh, no, it is practically as my uncle left it. I realised that if I
+were to call in help, it would be well that the newcomer found it
+undisturbed.'
+
+'You were quite right, my lord. You say you examined all the papers?'
+
+'Yes; so far as that is concerned, the room has been very fairly gone
+over, but nothing that was in it the day my uncle died has been
+removed, not even his anvil.'
+
+'His anvil?'
+
+'Yes; I told you he made a blacksmith's shop, as well as bedroom, of
+the library. It is a huge room, with a great fireplace at one end
+which formed an excellent forge. He and the steward built the forge in
+the eastern fireplace of brick and clay, with their own hands, and
+erected there a second-hand blacksmith's bellows.'
+
+'What work did he do at his forge?'
+
+'Oh, anything that was required about the place. He seems to have been
+a very expert ironworker. He would never buy a new implement for the
+garden or the house so long as he could get one second-hand, and he
+never bought anything second-hand while at his forge he might repair
+what was already in use. He kept an old cob, on which he used to ride
+through the park, and he always put the shoes on this cob himself, the
+steward informs me, so he must have understood the use of blacksmith's
+tools. He made a carpenter's shop of the chief drawing-room and
+erected a bench there. I think a very useful mechanic was spoiled when
+my uncle became an earl.'
+
+'You have been living at the Chase since your uncle died?'
+
+'If you call it living, yes. The old steward and his wife have been
+looking after me, as they looked after my uncle, and, seeing me day
+after day, coatless, and covered with dust, I imagine they think me a
+second edition of the old man.'
+
+'Does the steward know the money is missing?'
+
+'No; no one knows it but myself. This will was left on the anvil, in
+an envelope addressed to me.'
+
+'Your statement is exceedingly clear, Lord Chizelrigg, but I confess I
+don't see much daylight through it. Is there a pleasant country around
+Chizelrigg Chase?'
+
+'Very; especially at this season of the year. In autumn and winter the
+house is a little draughty. It needs several thousand pounds to put it
+in repair.'
+
+'Draughts do not matter in the summer. I have been long enough in
+England not to share the fear of my countrymen for a _courant d'air._
+Is there a spare bed in the manor house, or shall I take down a cot
+with me, or let us say a hammock?'
+
+'Really,' stammered the earl, blushing again, 'you must not think I
+detailed all these circumstances in order to influence you to take up
+what may be a hopeless case. I, of course, am deeply interested, and,
+therefore, somewhat prone to be carried away when I begin a recital of
+my uncle's eccentricities. If I receive your permission, I will call
+on you again in a month or two. To tell you the truth, I borrowed a
+little money from the old steward, and visited London to see my legal
+advisers, hoping that in the circumstances I may get permission to
+sell something that will keep me from starvation. When I spoke of the
+house being denuded, I meant relatively, of course. There are still a
+good many antiquities which would doubtless bring me in a comfortable
+sum of money. I have been borne up by the belief that I should find my
+uncle's gold. Lately, I have been beset by a suspicion that the old
+gentleman thought the library the only valuable asset left, and for
+this reason wrote his note, thinking I would be afraid to sell
+anything from that room. The old rascal must have made a pot of money
+out of those shelves. The catalogue shows that there was a copy of the
+first book printed in England by Caxton, and several priceless
+Shakespeares, as well as many other volumes that a collector would
+give a small fortune for. All these are gone. I think when I show this
+to be the case, the authorities cannot refuse me the right to sell
+something, and, if I get this permission, I shall at once call upon
+you.'
+
+'Nonsense, Lord Chizelrigg. Put your application in motion, if you
+like. Meanwhile I beg of you to look upon me as a more substantial
+banker than your old steward. Let us enjoy a good dinner together at
+the Cecil tonight, if you will do me the honour to be my guest.
+Tomorrow we can leave for Chizelrigg Chase. How far is it?'
+
+'About three hours,' replied the young man, becoming as red as a new
+Queen Anne villa. 'Really, Monsieur Valmont, you overwhelm me with
+your kindness, but nevertheless I accept your generous offer.'
+
+'Then that's settled. What's the name of the old steward?'
+
+'Higgins.'
+
+'You are certain he has no knowledge of the hiding-place of this
+treasure?'
+
+'Oh, quite sure. My uncle was not a man to make a confidant of anyone,
+least of all an old babbler like Higgins.'
+
+'Well, I should like to be introduced to Higgins as a benighted
+foreigner. That will make him despise me and treat me like a child.'
+
+'Oh, I say,' protested the earl, 'I should have thought you'd lived
+long enough in England to have got out of the notion that we do not
+appreciate the foreigner. Indeed, we are the only nation in the world
+that extends a cordial welcome to him, rich or poor.'
+
+'_Certainement_, my lord, I should be deeply disappointed did you not
+take me at my proper valuation, but I cherish no delusions regarding
+the contempt with which Higgins will regard me. He will look upon me
+as a sort of simpleton to whom the Lord had been unkind by not making
+England my native land. Now, Higgins must be led to believe that I am
+in his own class; that is, a servant of yours. Higgins and I will
+gossip over the fire together, should these spring evenings prove
+chilly, and before two or three weeks are past I shall have learned a
+great deal about your uncle that you never dreamed of. Higgins will
+talk more freely with a fellow-servant than with his master, however
+much he may respect that master, and then, as I am a foreigner, he
+will babble down to my comprehension, and I shall get details that he
+never would think of giving to a fellow-countryman.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The young earl's modesty in such description of his home as he had
+given me, left me totally unprepared for the grandeur of the mansion,
+one corner of which he inhabited. It is such a place as you read of in
+romances of the Middle Ages; not a pinnacled or turreted French
+chateau of that period, but a beautiful and substantial stone manor
+house of a ruddy colour, whose warm hue seemed to add a softness to
+the severity of its architecture. It is built round an outer and an
+inner courtyard and could house a thousand, rather than the hundred
+with which its owner had accredited it. There are many stone-mullioned
+windows, and one at the end of the library might well have graced a
+cathedral. This superb residence occupies the centre of a heavily
+timbered park, and from the lodge at the gates we drove at least a
+mile and a half under the grandest avenue of old oaks I have ever
+seen. It seemed incredible that the owner of all this should actually
+lack the ready money to pay his fare to town!
+
+Old Higgins met us at the station with a somewhat rickety cart, to
+which was attached the ancient cob that the late earl used to shoe. We
+entered a noble hall, which probably looked the larger because of the
+entire absence of any kind of furniture, unless two complete suits of
+venerable armour which stood on either hand might be considered as
+furnishing. I laughed aloud when the door was shut, and the sound
+echoed like the merriment of ghosts from the dim timbered roof above
+me.
+
+'What are you laughing at?' asked the earl.
+
+'I am laughing to see you put your modern tall hat on that mediaeval
+helmet.'
+
+'Oh, that's it! Well, put yours on the other. I mean no disrespect to
+the ancestor who wore this suit, but we are short of the harmless,
+necessary hat-rack, so I put my topper on the antique helmet, and
+thrust the umbrella (if I have one) in behind here, and down one of
+his legs. Since I came in possession, a very crafty-looking dealer
+from London visited me, and attempted to sound me regarding the sale
+of these suits of armour. I gathered he would give enough money to
+keep me in new suits, London made, for the rest of my life, but when I
+endeavoured to find out if he had had commercial dealings with my
+prophetic uncle, he became frightened and bolted. I imagine that if I
+had possessed presence of mind enough to have lured him into one of
+our most uncomfortable dungeons, I might have learned where some of
+the family treasures went to. Come up these stairs, Monsieur Valmont,
+and I will show you your room.'
+
+We had lunched on the train coming down, so after a wash in my own
+room I proceeded at once to inspect the library. It proved, indeed, a
+most noble apartment, and it had been scandalously used by the old
+reprobate, its late tenant. There were two huge fireplaces, one in the
+middle of the north wall and the other at the eastern end. In the
+latter had been erected a rude brick forge, and beside the forge hung
+a great black bellows, smoky with usage. On a wooden block lay the
+anvil, and around it rested and rusted several hammers, large and
+small. At the western end was a glorious window filled with ancient
+stained glass, which, as I have said, might have adorned a cathedral.
+Extensive as the collection of books was, the great size of this
+chamber made it necessary that only the outside wall should be covered
+with book cases, and even these were divided by tall windows. The
+opposite wall was blank, with the exception of a picture here and
+there, and these pictures offered a further insult to the room, for
+they were cheap prints, mostly coloured lithographs that had appeared
+in Christmas numbers of London weekly journals, encased in
+poverty-stricken frames, hanging from nails ruthlessly driven in above
+them. The floor was covered with a litter of papers, in some places
+knee-deep, and in the corner farthest from the forge still stood the
+bed on which the ancient miser had died.
+
+'Looks like a stable, doesn't it?' commented the earl, when I had
+finished my inspection. 'I am sure the old boy simply filled it up
+with this rubbish to give me the trouble of examining it. Higgins
+tells me that up to within a month before he died the room was
+reasonably clear of all this muck. Of course it had to be, or the
+place would have caught fire from the sparks of the forge. The old man
+made Higgins gather all the papers he could find anywhere about the
+place, ancient accounts, newspapers, and what not, even to the brown
+wrapping paper you see, in which parcels came, and commanded him to
+strew the floor with this litter, because, as he complained, Higgins's
+boots on the boards made too much noise, and Higgins, who is not in
+the least of an inquiring mind, accepted this explanation as entirely
+meeting the case.'
+
+Higgins proved to be a garrulous old fellow, who needed no urging to
+talk about the late earl; indeed, it was almost impossible to deflect
+his conversation into any other channel. Twenty years' intimacy with
+the eccentric nobleman had largely obliterated that sense of deference
+with which an English servant usually approaches his master. An
+English underling's idea of nobility is the man who never by any
+possibility works with his hands. The fact that Lord Chizelrigg had
+toiled at the carpenter's bench; had mixed cement in the drawing-room;
+had caused the anvil to ring out till midnight, aroused no admiration
+in Higgins's mind. In addition to this, the ancient nobleman had been
+penuriously strict in his examination of accounts, exacting the
+uttermost farthing, so the humble servitor regarded his memory with
+supreme contempt. I realised before the drive was finished from the
+station to Chizelrigg Chase that there was little use of introducing
+me to Higgins as a foreigner and a fellow-servant. I found myself
+completely unable to understand what the old fellow said. His dialect,
+was as unknown to me as the Choctaw language would have been, and the
+young earl was compelled to act as interpreter on the occasions when
+we set this garrulous talking-machine going.
+
+The new Earl of Chizelrigg, with the enthusiasm of a boy, proclaimed
+himself my pupil and assistant, and said he would do whatever he was
+told. His thorough and fruitless search of the library had convinced
+him that the old man was merely chaffing him, as he put it, by leaving
+such a letter as he had written. His lordship was certain that the
+money had been hidden somewhere else; probably buried under one of the
+trees in the park. Of course this was possible, and represented the
+usual method by which a stupid person conceals treasure, yet I did not
+think it probable. All conversations with Higgins showed the earl to
+have been an extremely suspicious man; suspicious of banks, suspicious
+even of Bank of England notes, suspicious of every person on earth,
+not omitting Higgins himself. Therefore, as I told his nephew, the
+miser would never allow the fortune out of his sight and immediate
+reach.
+
+From the first the oddity of the forge and anvil being placed in his
+bedroom struck me as peculiar, and I said to the young man,--
+
+'I'll stake my reputation that forge or anvil, or both, contain the
+secret. You see, the old gentleman worked sometimes till midnight, for
+Higgins could hear his hammering. If he used hard coal on the forge
+the fire would last through the night, and being in continual terror
+of thieves, as Higgins says, barricading the castle every evening
+before dark as if it were a fortress, he was bound to place the
+treasure in the most unlikely spot for a thief to get at it. Now, the
+coal fire smouldered all night long, and if the gold was in the forge
+underneath the embers, it would be extremely difficult to get at. A
+robber rummaging in the dark would burn his fingers in more senses
+than one. Then, as his lordship kept no less than four loaded
+revolvers under his pillow, all he had to do, if a thief entered his
+room was to allow the search to go on until the thief started at the
+forge, then doubtless, as he had the range with reasonable accuracy
+night or day, he might sit up in bed and blaze away with revolver
+after revolver. There were twenty-eight shots that could be fired in
+about double as many seconds, so you see the robber stood little
+chance in the face of such a fusillade. I propose that we dismantle
+the forge.'
+
+Lord Chizelrigg was much taken by my reasoning, and one morning early
+we cut down the big bellows, tore it open, found it empty, then took
+brick after brick from the forge with a crowbar, for the old man had
+builded better than he knew with Portland cement. In fact, when we
+cleared away the rubbish between the bricks and the core of the
+furnace we came upon one cube of cement which was as hard as granite.
+With the aid of Higgins, and a set of rollers and levers, we managed
+to get this block out into the park, and attempted to crush it with
+the sledge-hammers belonging to the forge, in which we were entirely
+unsuccessful. The more it resisted our efforts, the more certain we
+became that the coins would be found within it. As this would not be
+treasure-trove in the sense that the Government might make a claim
+upon it, there was no particular necessity for secrecy, so we had up a
+man from the mines near by with drills and dynamite, who speedily
+shattered the block into a million pieces, more or less. Alas! there
+was no trace in its debris of 'pay dirt,' as the western miner puts
+it. While the dynamite expert was on the spot, we induced him to
+shatter the anvil as well as the block of cement, and then the
+workman, doubtless thinking the new earl was as insane as the old one
+had been, shouldered his tools, and went back to his mine.
+
+The earl reverted to his former opinion that the gold was concealed in
+the park, while I held even more firmly to my own belief that the
+fortune rested in the library.
+
+'It is obvious,' I said to him, 'that if the treasure is buried
+outside, someone must have dug the hole. A man so timorous and so
+reticent as your uncle would allow no one to do this but himself.
+Higgins maintained the other evening that all picks and spades were
+safely locked up by himself each night in the tool-house. The mansion
+itself was barricaded with such exceeding care that it would have been
+difficult for your uncle to get outside even if he wished to do so.
+Then such a man as your uncle is described to have been would
+continually desire ocular demonstration that his savings were intact,
+which would be practically impossible if the gold had found a grave in
+the park. I propose now that we abandon violence and dynamite, and
+proceed to an intellectual search of the library.'
+
+'Very well,' replied the young earl, 'but as I have already searched
+the library very thoroughly, your use of the word "intellectual",
+Monsieur Valmont, is not in accord with your customary politeness.
+However, I am with you. 'Tis for you to command, and me to obey.'
+
+'Pardon me, my lord,' I said, 'I used the word "intellectual" in
+contradistinction to the word "dynamite". It had no reference to your
+former search. I merely propose that we now abandon the use of
+chemical reaction, and employ the much greater force of mental
+activity. Did you notice any writing on the margins of the newspapers
+you examined?'
+
+'No, I did not.'
+
+'Is it possible that there may have been some communication on the
+white border of a newspaper?'
+
+'It is, of course, possible.'
+
+'Then will you set yourself to the task of glancing over the margin of
+every newspaper, piling them away in another room when your scrutiny
+of each is complete? Do not destroy anything, but we must clear out
+the library completely. I am interested in the accounts, and will
+examine them.'
+
+It was exasperatingly tedious work, but after several days my
+assistant reported every margin scanned without result, while I had
+collected each bill and memorandum, classifying them according to
+date. I could not get rid of a suspicion that the contrary old beast
+had written instructions for the finding of the treasure on the back
+of some account, or on the fly-leaf of a book, and as I looked at the
+thousands of volumes still left in the library, the prospect of such a
+patient and minute search appalled me. But I remembered Edison's words
+to the effect that if a thing exist, search, exhaustive enough, will
+find it. From the mass of accounts I selected several; the rest I
+placed in another room, alongside the heap of the earl's newspapers.
+
+'Now,' said I to my helper, 'if it please you, we will have Higgins
+in, as I wish some explanation of these accounts.'
+
+'Perhaps I can assist you,' suggested his lordship drawing up a chair
+opposite the table on which I had spread the statements. 'I have lived
+here for six months, and know as much about things as Higgins does. He
+is so difficult to stop when once he begins to talk. What is the first
+account you wish further light upon?'
+
+'To go back thirteen years I find that your uncle bought a second-hand
+safe in Sheffield. Here is the bill. I consider it necessary to find
+that safe.'
+
+'Pray forgive me, Monsieur Valmont,' cried the young man, springing to
+his feet and laughing; 'so heavy an article as a safe should not slip
+readily from a man's memory, but it did from mine. The safe is empty,
+and I gave no more thought to it.'
+
+Saying this the earl went to one of the bookcases that stood against
+the wall, pulled it round as if it were a door, books and all, and
+displayed the front of an iron safe, the door of which he also drew
+open, exhibiting the usual empty interior of such a receptacle.
+
+'I came on this,' he said, 'when I took down all these volumes. It
+appears that there was once a secret door leading from the library
+into an outside room, which has long since disappeared; the walls are
+very thick. My uncle doubtless caused this door to be taken off its
+hinges, and the safe placed in the aperture, the rest of which he then
+bricked up.'
+
+'Quite so,' said I, endeavouring to conceal my disappointment. 'As
+this strong box was bought second-hand and not made to order, I
+suppose there can be no secret crannies in it?'
+
+'It looks like a common or garden safe,' reported my assistant, 'but
+we'll have it out if you say so.'
+
+'Not just now,' I replied; 'we've had enough of dynamiting to make us
+feel like housebreakers already.'
+
+'I agree with you. What's the next item on the programme?'
+
+'Your uncle's mania for buying things at second-hand was broken in
+three instances so far as I have been able to learn from a scrutiny of
+these accounts. About four years ago he purchased a new book from
+Denny and Co., the well-known booksellers of the Strand. Denny and Co.
+deal only in new books. Is there any comparatively new volume in the
+library?'
+
+'Not one.'
+
+'Are you sure of that?'
+
+'Oh, quite; I searched all the literature in the house. What is the
+name of the volume he bought?'
+
+'That I cannot decipher. The initial letter looks like "M", but the rest
+is a mere wavy line. I see, however, that it cost twelve-and-sixpence,
+while the cost of carriage by parcel post was sixpence, which shows it
+weighed something under four pounds. This, with the price of the book,
+induces me to think that it was a scientific work, printed on heavy
+paper and illustrated.'
+
+'I know nothing of it,' said the earl.
+
+'The third account is for wallpaper; twenty-seven rolls of an
+expensive wallpaper, and twenty-seven rolls of a cheap paper, the
+latter being just half the price of the former. This wallpaper seems
+to have been supplied by a tradesman in the station road in the
+village of Chizelrigg.'
+
+'There's your wallpaper,' cried the youth, waving his hand; 'he was
+going to paper the whole house, Higgins told me, but got tired after
+he had finished the library, which took him nearly a year to
+accomplish, for he worked at it very intermittently, mixing the paste
+in the boudoir, a pailful at a time as he needed it. It was a
+scandalous thing to do, for underneath the paper is the most exquisite
+oak panelling, very plain, but very rich in colour.'
+
+I rose and examined the paper on the wall. It was dark brown, and
+answered the description of the expensive paper on the bill.
+
+'What became of the cheap paper?' I asked.
+
+'I don't know.'
+
+'I think,' said I, 'we are on the track of the mystery. I believe that
+paper covers a sliding panel or concealed door.'
+
+'It is very likely,' replied the earl. 'I intended to have the paper
+off, but I had no money to pay a workman, and I am not so industrious
+as was my uncle. What is your remaining account?'
+
+'The last also pertains to paper, but comes from a firm in Budge Row,
+London, E.C. He has had, it seems, a thousand sheets of it, and it
+appears to have been frightfully expensive. This bill is also
+illegible, but I take it a thousand sheets were supplied, although of
+course it may have been a thousand quires, which would be a little
+more reasonable for the price charged, or a thousand reams, which
+would be exceedingly cheap.'
+
+'I don't know anything about that. Let's turn on Higgins.'
+
+Higgins knew nothing of this last order of paper either. The wallpaper
+mystery he at once cleared up. Apparently the old earl had discovered
+by experiment that the heavy, expensive wallpaper would not stick to
+the glossy panelling, so he had purchased a cheaper paper, and had
+pasted that on first. Higgins said he had gone all over the panelling
+with a yellowish-white paper, and after that was dry, he pasted over
+it the more expensive rolls.
+
+'But,' I objected, 'the two papers were bought and delivered at the
+same time; therefore, he could not have found by experiment that the
+heavy paper would not stick.'
+
+'I don't think there is much in that,' commented the earl; 'the heavy
+paper may have been bought first, and found to be unsuitable, and then
+the coarse, cheap paper bought afterwards. The bill merely shows that
+the account was sent in on that date. Indeed, as the village of
+Chizelrigg is but a few miles away, it would have been quite possible
+for my uncle to have bought the heavy paper in the morning, tried it,
+and in the afternoon sent for the commoner lot; but in any case, the
+bill would not have been presented until months after the order, and
+the two purchases were thus lumped together.'
+
+I was forced to confess that this seemed reasonable.
+
+Now, about the book ordered from Denny's. Did Higgins remember
+anything regarding it? It came four years ago.
+
+Ah, yes, Higgins did; he remembered it very well indeed. He had come
+in one morning with the earl's tea, and the old man was sitting up in
+bed reading his volume with such interest that he was unaware of
+Higgins's knock, and Higgins himself, being a little hard of hearing,
+took for granted the command to enter. The earl hastily thrust the
+book under the pillow, alongside the revolvers, and rated Higgins in a
+most cruel way for entering the room before getting permission to do
+so. He had never seen the earl so angry before, and he laid it all to
+this book. It was after the book had come that the forge had been
+erected and the anvil bought. Higgins never saw the book again, but
+one morning, six months before the earl died, Higgins, in raking out
+the cinders of the forge, found what he supposed was a portion of the
+book's cover. He believed his master had burnt the volume.
+
+Having dismissed Higgins, I said to the earl,--
+
+'The first thing to be done is to enclose this bill to Denny and Co.,
+booksellers, Strand. Tell them you have lost the volume, and ask them
+to send another. There is likely someone in the shop who can decipher
+the illegible writing. I am certain the book will give us a clue. Now,
+I shall write to Braun and Sons, Budge Row. This is evidently a French
+company; in fact, the name as connected with paper-making runs in my
+mind, although I cannot at this moment place it. I shall ask them the
+use of this paper that they furnished to the late earl.'
+
+This was done accordingly, and now, as we thought, until the answers
+came, we were two men out of work. Yet the next morning, I am pleased
+to say, and I have always rather plumed myself on the fact, I solved
+the mystery before replies were received from London. Of course, both
+the book and the answer of the paper agents, by putting two and two
+together, would have given us the key.
+
+After breakfast, I strolled somewhat aimlessly into the library, whose
+floor was now strewn merely with brown wrapping paper, bits of string,
+and all that. As I shuffled among this with my feet, as if tossing
+aside dead autumn leaves in a forest path, my attention was suddenly
+drawn to several squares of paper, unwrinkled, and never used for
+wrapping. These sheets seemed to me strangely familiar. I picked one
+of them up, and at once the significance of the name Braun and Sons
+occurred to me. They are paper makers in France, who produce a smooth,
+very tough sheet, which, dear as it is, proves infinitely cheap
+compared with the fine vellum it deposed in a certain branch of
+industry. In Paris, years before, these sheets had given me the
+knowledge of how a gang of thieves disposed of their gold without
+melting it. The paper was used instead of vellum in the rougher
+processes of manufacturing gold-leaf. It stood the constant beating of
+the hammer nearly as well as the vellum, and here at once there
+flashed on me the secret of the old man's midnight anvil work. He was
+transforming his sovereigns into gold-leaf, which must have been of a
+rude, thick kind, because to produce the gold-leaf of commerce he
+still needed the vellum as well as a 'clutch' and other machinery, of
+which we had found no trace.
+
+'My lord,' I called to my assistant; he was at the other end of the
+room; 'I wish to test a theory on the anvil of your own fresh common
+sense.'
+
+'Hammer away,' replied the earl, approaching me with his usual
+good-natured, jocular expression.
+
+'I eliminate the safe from our investigations because it was purchased
+thirteen years ago, but the buying of the book, of wall covering, of
+this tough paper from France, all group themselves into a set of
+incidents occurring within the same month as the purchase of the anvil
+and the building of the forge; therefore, I think they are related to
+one another. Here are some sheets of paper he got from Budge Row. Have
+you ever seen anything like it? Try to tear this sample.'
+
+'It's reasonably tough,' admitted his lordship, fruitlessly
+endeavouring to rip it apart.
+
+'Yes. It was made in France, and is used in gold beating. Your uncle
+beat his sovereigns into gold-leaf. You will find that the book from
+Denny's is a volume on gold beating, and now as I remember that
+scribbled word which I could not make out, I think the title of the
+volume is "Metallurgy". It contains, no doubt, a chapter on the
+manufacture of gold-leaf.'
+
+'I believe you,' said the earl; 'but I don't see that the discovery
+sets us any further forward. We're now looking for gold-leaf instead
+of sovereigns.'
+
+'Let's examine this wallpaper,' said I.
+
+I placed my knife under a corner of it at the floor, and quite easily
+ripped off a large section. As Higgins had said, the brown paper was
+on top, and the coarse, light-coloured paper underneath. But even that
+came away from the oak panelling as easily as though it hung there
+from habit, and not because of paste.
+
+'Feel the weight of that,' I cried, handing him the sheet I had torn
+from the wall.
+
+'By Jove!' said the earl, in a voice almost of awe.
+
+I took it from him, and laid it, face downwards, on the wooden table,
+threw a little water on the back, and with a knife scraped away the
+porous white paper. Instantly there gleamed up at us the baleful
+yellow of the gold. I shrugged my shoulders and spread out my hands.
+The Earl of Chizelrigg laughed aloud and very heartily.
+
+'You see how it is,' I cried. 'The old man first covered the entire
+wall with this whitish paper. He heated his sovereigns at the forge
+and beat them out on the anvil, then completed the process rudely
+between the sheets of this paper from France. Probably he pasted the
+gold to the wall as soon as he shut himself in for the night, and
+covered it over with the more expensive paper before Higgins entered
+in the morning.'
+
+We found afterwards, however, that he had actually fastened the thick
+sheets of gold to the wall with carpet tacks.
+
+His lordship netted a trifle over a hundred and twenty-three thousand
+pounds through my discovery, and I am pleased to pay tribute to the
+young man's generosity by saying that his voluntary settlement made my
+bank account swell stout as a City alderman.
+
+
+
+
+5. _The Absent-Minded Coterie_
+
+
+Some years ago I enjoyed the unique experience of pursuing a man for
+one crime, and getting evidence against him of another. He was
+innocent of the misdemeanour, the proof of which I sought, but was
+guilty of another most serious offence, yet he and his confederates
+escaped scot-free in circumstances which I now purpose to relate.
+
+You may remember that in Rudyard Kipling's story, _Bedalia
+Herodsfoot_, the unfortunate woman's husband ran the risk of being
+arrested as a simple drunkard, at a moment when the blood of murder
+was upon his boots. The case of Ralph Summertrees was rather the
+reverse of this. The English authorities were trying to fasten upon
+him a crime almost as important as murder, while I was collecting
+evidence which proved him guilty of an action much more momentous than
+that of drunkenness.
+
+The English authorities have always been good enough, when they
+recognise my existence at all, to look down upon me with amused
+condescension. If today you ask Spenser Hale, of Scotland Yard, what
+he thinks of Eugene Valmont, that complacent man will put on the
+superior smile which so well becomes him, and if you are a very
+intimate friend of his, he may draw down the lid of his right eye, as
+he replies,--
+
+'Oh, yes, a very decent fellow, Valmont, but he's a Frenchman,' as if,
+that said, there was no need of further inquiry.
+
+Myself, I like the English detective very much, and if I were to be in
+a _melee_ tomorrow, there is no man I would rather find beside me than
+Spenser Hale. In any situation where a fist that can fell an ox is
+desirable, my friend Hale is a useful companion, but for
+intellectuality, mental acumen, finesse--ah, well! I am the most
+modest of men, and will say nothing.
+
+It would amuse you to see this giant come into my room during an
+evening, on the bluff pretence that he wishes to smoke a pipe with me.
+There is the same difference between this good-natured giant and
+myself as exists between that strong black pipe of his and my delicate
+cigarette, which I smoke feverishly when he is present, to protect
+myself from the fumes of his terrible tobacco. I look with delight
+upon the huge man, who, with an air of the utmost good humour, and a
+twinkle in his eye as he thinks he is twisting me about his finger,
+vainly endeavours to obtain a hint regarding whatever case is
+perplexing him at that moment. I baffle him with the ease that an
+active greyhound eludes the pursuit of a heavy mastiff, then at last I
+say to him with a laugh,--
+
+'Come _mon ami_ Hale, tell me all about it, and I will help you if I
+can.'
+
+Once or twice at the beginning he shook his massive head, and replied
+the secret was not his. The last time he did this I assured him that
+what he said was quite correct, and then I related full particulars of
+the situation in which he found himself, excepting the names, for
+these he had not mentioned. I had pieced together his perplexity from
+scraps of conversation in his half-hour's fishing for my advice,
+which, of course, he could have had for the plain asking. Since that
+time he has not come to me except with cases he feels at liberty to
+reveal, and one or two complications I have happily been enabled to
+unravel for him.
+
+But, staunch as Spenser Hale holds the belief that no detective
+service on earth can excel that centring in Scotland Yard, there is
+one department of activity in which even he confesses that Frenchmen
+are his masters, although he somewhat grudgingly qualifies his
+admission by adding that we in France are constantly allowed to do
+what is prohibited in England. I refer to the minute search of a house
+during the owner's absence. If you read that excellent story, entitled
+_The Purloined Letter_, by Edgar Allan Poe, you will find a record of
+the kind of thing I mean, which is better than any description I, who
+have so often taken part in such a search, can set down.
+
+Now, these people among whom I live are proud of their phrase, 'The
+Englishman's house is his castle,' and into that castle even a
+policeman cannot penetrate without a legal warrant. This may be all
+very well in theory, but if you are compelled to march up to a man's
+house, blowing a trumpet, and rattling a snare drum, you need not be
+disappointed if you fail to find what you are in search of when all
+the legal restrictions are complied with. Of course, the English are a
+very excellent people, a fact to which I am always proud to bear
+testimony, but it must be admitted that for cold common sense the
+French are very much their superiors. In Paris, if I wish to obtain an
+incriminating document, I do not send the possessor a _carte postale_
+to inform him of my desire, and in this procedure the French people
+sanely acquiesce. I have known men who, when they go out to spend an
+evening on the boulevards, toss their bunch of keys to the concierge,
+saying,--
+
+'If you hear the police rummaging about while I'm away, pray assist
+them, with an expression of my distinguished consideration.'
+
+I remember while I was chief detective in the service of the French
+Government being requested to call at a certain hour at the private
+hotel of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was during the time that
+Bismarck meditated a second attack upon my country, and I am happy to
+say that I was then instrumental in supplying the Secret Bureau with
+documents which mollified that iron man's purpose, a fact which I
+think entitled me to my country's gratitude, not that I ever even
+hinted such a claim when a succeeding ministry forgot my services. The
+memory of a republic, as has been said by a greater man than I, is
+short. However, all that has nothing to do with the incident I am
+about to relate. I merely mention the crisis to excuse a momentary
+forgetfulness on my part which in any other country might have been
+followed by serious results to myself. But in France--ah, we
+understand those things, and nothing happened.
+
+I am the last person in the world to give myself away, as they say in
+the great West. I am usually the calm, collected Eugene Valmont whom
+nothing can perturb, but this was a time of great tension, and I had
+become absorbed. I was alone with the minister in his private house,
+and one of the papers he desired was in his bureau at the Ministry for
+Foreign Affairs; at least, he thought so, and said,--
+
+'Ah, it is in my desk at the bureau. How annoying! I must send for
+it!'
+
+'No, Excellency,' I cried, springing up in a self-oblivion the most
+complete, 'it is here.' Touching the spring of a secret drawer, I
+opened it, and taking out the document he wished, handed it to him.
+
+It was not until I met his searching look, and saw the faint smile on
+his lips that I realised what I had done.
+
+'Valmont,' he said quietly, 'on whose behalf did you search my house?'
+
+'Excellency,' I replied in tones no less agreeable than his own,
+'tonight at your orders I pay a domiciliary visit to the mansion of
+Baron Dumoulaine, who stands high in the estimation of the President
+of the French Republic. If either of those distinguished gentlemen
+should learn of my informal call and should ask me in whose interests
+I made the domiciliary visit, what is it you wish that I should
+reply?'
+
+'You should reply, Valmont, that you did it in the interests of the
+Secret Service.'
+
+'I shall not fail to do so, Excellency, and in answer to your question
+just now, I had the honour of searching this mansion in the interests
+of the Secret Service of France.'
+
+The Minister for Foreign Affairs laughed; a hearty laugh that
+expressed no resentment.
+
+'I merely wished to compliment you, Valmont, on the efficiency of your
+search, and the excellence of your memory. This is indeed the document
+which I thought was left in my office.'
+
+I wonder what Lord Lansdowne would say if Spenser Hale showed an equal
+familiarity with his private papers! But now that we have returned to
+our good friend Hale, we must not keep him waiting any longer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I well remember the November day when I first heard of the Summertrees
+case, because there hung over London a fog so thick that two or three
+times I lost my way, and no cab was to be had at any price. The few
+cabmen then in the streets were leading their animals slowly along,
+making for their stables. It was one of those depressing London days
+which filled me with ennui and a yearning for my own clear city of
+Paris, where, if we are ever visited by a slight mist, it is at least
+clean, white vapour, and not this horrible London mixture saturated
+with suffocating carbon. The fog was too thick for any passer to read
+the contents bills of the newspapers plastered on the pavement, and as
+there were probably no races that day the newsboys were shouting what
+they considered the next most important event--the election of an
+American President. I bought a paper and thrust it into my pocket. It
+was late when I reached my flat, and, after dining there, which was an
+unusual thing for me to do, I put on my slippers, took an easy-chair
+before the fire, and began to read my evening journal. I was
+distressed to learn that the eloquent Mr. Bryan had been defeated. I
+knew little about the silver question, but the man's oratorical powers
+had appealed to me, and my sympathy was aroused because he owned many
+silver mines, and yet the price of the metal was so low that
+apparently he could not make a living through the operation of them.
+But, of course, the cry that he was a plutocrat, and a reputed
+millionaire over and over again, was bound to defeat him in a
+democracy where the average voter is exceedingly poor and not
+comfortably well-to-do as is the case with our peasants in France. I
+always took great interest in the affairs of the huge republic to the
+west, having been at some pains to inform myself accurately regarding
+its politics, and although, as my readers know, I seldom quote
+anything complimentary that is said of me, nevertheless, an American
+client of mine once admitted that he never knew the true inwardness--I
+think that was the phrase he used--of American politics until he heard
+me discourse upon them. But then, he added, he had been a very busy
+man all his life.
+
+I had allowed my paper to slip to the floor, for in very truth the fog
+was penetrating even into my flat, and it was becoming difficult to
+read, notwithstanding the electric light. My man came in, and
+announced that Mr. Spenser Hale wished to see me, and, indeed, any
+night, but especially when there is rain or fog outside, I am more
+pleased to talk with a friend than to read a newspaper.
+
+'_Mon Dieu_, my dear Monsieur Hale, it is a brave man you are to
+venture out in such a fog as is abroad tonight.'
+
+'Ah, Monsieur Valmont,' said Hale with pride, 'you cannot raise a fog
+like this in Paris!'
+
+'No. There you are supreme,' I admitted, rising and saluting my
+visitor, then offering him a chair.
+
+'I see you are reading the latest news,' he said, indicating my
+newspaper, 'I am very glad that man Bryan is defeated. Now we shall
+have better times.'
+
+I waved my hand as I took my chair again. I will discuss many things
+with Spenser Hale, but not American politics; he does not understand
+them. It is a common defect of the English to suffer complete
+ignorance regarding the internal affairs of other countries.
+
+'It is surely an important thing that brought you out on such a night
+as this. The fog must be very thick in Scotland Yard.'
+
+This delicate shaft of fancy completely missed him, and he answered
+stolidly,--
+
+'It's thick all over London, and, indeed, throughout most of England.'
+
+'Yes, it is,' I agreed, but he did not see that either.
+
+Still a moment later he made a remark which, if it had come from some
+people I know, might have indicated a glimmer of comprehension.
+
+'You are a very, very clever man, Monsieur Valmont, so all I need say
+is that the question which brought me here is the same as that on
+which the American election was fought. Now, to a countryman, I should
+be compelled to give further explanation, but to you, monsieur, that
+will not be necessary.'
+
+There are times when I dislike the crafty smile and partial closing of
+the eyes which always distinguishes Spenser Hale when he places on the
+table a problem which he expects will baffle me. If I said he never
+did baffle me, I would be wrong, of course, for sometimes the utter
+simplicity of the puzzles which trouble him leads me into an intricate
+involution entirely unnecessary in the circumstances.
+
+I pressed my fingertips together, and gazed for a few moments at the
+ceiling. Hale had lit his black pipe, and my silent servant placed at
+his elbow the whisky and soda, then tiptoed out of the room. As the
+door closed my eyes came from the ceiling to the level of Hale's
+expansive countenance.
+
+'Have they eluded you?' I asked quietly.
+
+'Who?'
+
+'The coiners.'
+
+Hale's pipe dropped from his jaw, but he managed to catch it before it
+reached the floor. Then he took a gulp from the tumbler.
+
+'That was just a lucky shot,' he said.
+
+'_Parfaitement_,' I replied carelessly.
+
+'Now, own up, Valmont, wasn't it?'
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. A man cannot contradict a guest in his own
+house.
+
+'Oh, stow that!' cried Hale impolitely. He is a trifle prone to strong
+and even slangy expressions when puzzled. 'Tell me how you guessed
+it.'
+
+'It is very simple, _mon ami_. The question on which the American
+election was fought is the price of silver, which is so low that it
+has ruined Mr. Bryan, and threatens to ruin all the farmers of the west
+who possess silver mines on their farms. Silver troubled America, ergo
+silver troubles Scotland Yard.
+
+'Very well, the natural inference is that someone has stolen bars of
+silver. But such a theft happened three months ago, when the metal
+was being unloaded from a German steamer at Southampton, and my dear
+friend Spenser Hale ran down the thieves very cleverly as they were
+trying to dissolve the marks off the bars with acid. Now crimes do not
+run in series, like the numbers in roulette at Monte Carlo. The
+thieves are men of brains. They say to themselves, "What chance is
+there successfully to steal bars of silver while Mr. Hale is at
+Scotland Yard?" Eh, my good friend?'
+
+'Really, Valmont,' said Hale, taking another sip, 'sometimes you
+almost persuade me that you have reasoning powers.'
+
+'Thanks, comrade. Then it is not a _theft_ of silver we have now to
+deal with. But the American election was fought on the _price_ of
+silver. If silver had been high in cost, there would have been no
+silver question. So the crime that is bothering you arises through the
+low price of silver, and this suggests that it must be a case of
+illicit coinage, for there the low price of the metal comes in. You
+have, perhaps, found a more subtle illegitimate act going forward than
+heretofore. Someone is making your shillings and your half-crowns from
+real silver, instead of from baser metal, and yet there is a large
+profit which has not hitherto been possible through the high price of
+silver. With the old conditions you were familiar, but this new
+element sets at nought all your previous formulae. That is how I
+reasoned the matter out.'
+
+'Well, Valmont, you have hit it. I'll say that for you; you have hit
+it. There is a gang of expert coiners who are putting out real silver
+money, and making a clear shilling on the half-crown. We can find no
+trace of the coiners, but we know the man who is shoving the stuff.'
+
+'That ought to be sufficient,' I suggested.
+
+'Yes, it should, but it hasn't proved so up to date. Now I came
+tonight to see if you would do one of your French tricks for us, right
+on the quiet.'
+
+'What French trick, Monsieur Spenser Hale?' I inquired with some
+asperity, forgetting for the moment that the man invariably became
+impolite when he grew excited.
+
+'No offence intended,' said this blundering officer, who really is a
+good-natured fellow, but always puts his foot in it, and then
+apologises. 'I want someone to go through a man's house without a
+search warrant, spot the evidence, let me know, and then we'll rush
+the place before he has time to hide his tracks.'
+
+'Who is this man, and where does he live?'
+
+'His name is Ralph Summertrees, and he lives in a very natty little
+bijou residence, as the advertisements call it, situated in no less a
+fashionable street than Park Lane.'
+
+'I see. What has aroused your suspicions against him?'
+
+'Well, you know, that's an expensive district to live in; it takes a
+bit of money to do the trick. This Summertrees has no ostensible
+business, yet every Friday he goes to the United Capital Bank in
+Piccadilly, and deposits a bag of swag, usually all silver coin.'
+
+'Yes, and this money?'
+
+'This money, so far as we can learn, contains a good many of these new
+pieces which never saw the British Mint.'
+
+'It's not all the new coinage, then?'
+
+'Oh, no, he's a bit too artful for that. You see, a man can go round
+London, his pockets filled with new coinage five-shilling pieces, buy
+this, that, and the other, and come home with his change in legitimate
+coins of the realm--half-crowns, florins, shillings, sixpences, and
+all that.'
+
+'I see. Then why don't you nab him one day when his pockets are
+stuffed with illegitimate five-shilling pieces?'
+
+'That could be done, of course, and I've thought of it, but you see,
+we want to land the whole gang. Once we arrested him, without knowing
+where the money came from, the real coiners would take flight.'
+
+'How do you know he is not the real coiner himself?'
+
+Now poor Hale is as easy to read as a book. He hesitated before
+answering this question, and looked confused as a culprit caught in
+some dishonest act.
+
+'You need not be afraid to tell me,' I said soothingly after a pause.
+'You have had one of your men in Mr. Summertrees' house, and so learned
+that he is not the coiner. But your man has not succeeded in getting
+you evidence to incriminate other people.'
+
+'You've about hit it again, Monsieur Valmont. One of my men has been
+Summertrees' butler for two weeks, but, as you say, he has found no
+evidence.'
+
+'Is he still butler?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Now tell me how far you have got. You know that Summertrees deposits
+a bag of coin every Friday in the Piccadilly bank, and I suppose the
+bank has allowed you to examine one or two of the bags.'
+
+'Yes, sir, they have, but, you see, banks are very difficult to treat
+with. They don't like detectives bothering round, and whilst they do
+not stand out against the law, still they never answer any more
+questions than they're asked, and Mr. Summertrees has been a good
+customer at the United Capital for many years.'
+
+'Haven't you found out where the money comes from?'
+
+'Yes, we have; it is brought there night after night by a man who
+looks like a respectable city clerk, and he puts it into a large safe,
+of which he holds the key, this safe being on the ground floor, in the
+dining-room.'
+
+'Haven't you followed the clerk?'
+
+'Yes. He sleeps in the Park Lane house every night, and goes up in the
+morning to an old curiosity shop in Tottenham Court Road, where he
+stays all day, returning with his bag of money in the evening.'
+
+'Why don't you arrest and question him?'
+
+'Well, Monsieur Valmont, there is just the same objection to his
+arrest as to that of Summertrees himself. We could easily arrest both,
+but we have not the slightest evidence against either of them, and
+then, although we put the go-betweens in clink, the worst criminals of
+the lot would escape.'
+
+'Nothing suspicious about the old curiosity shop?'
+
+'No. It appears to be perfectly regular.'
+
+'This game has been going on under your noses for how long?'
+
+'For about six weeks.'
+
+'Is Summertrees a married man?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Are there any women servants in the house?'
+
+'No, except that three charwomen come in every morning to do up the
+rooms.'
+
+'Of what is his household comprised?'
+
+'There is the butler, then the valet, and last, the French cook.'
+
+'Ah,' cried I, 'the French cook! This case interests me. So
+Summertrees has succeeded in completely disconcerting your man? Has he
+prevented him going from top to bottom of the house?'
+
+'Oh no, he has rather assisted him than otherwise. On one occasion he
+went to the safe, took out the money, had Podgers--that's my chap's
+name--help him to count it, and then actually sent Podgers to the bank
+with the bag of coin.'
+
+'And Podgers has been all over the place?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Saw no signs of a coining establishment?'
+
+'No. It is absolutely impossible that any coining can be done there.
+Besides, as I tell you, that respectable clerk brings him the money.'
+
+'I suppose you want me to take Podgers' position?'
+
+'Well, Monsieur Valmont, to tell you the truth, I would rather you
+didn't. Podgers has done everything a man can do, but I thought if you
+got into the house, Podgers assisting, you might go through it night
+after night at your leisure.'
+
+'I see. That's just a little dangerous in England. I think I should
+prefer to assure myself the legitimate standing of being the amiable
+Podgers' successor. You say that Summertrees has no business?'
+
+'Well, sir, not what you might call a business. He is by the way of
+being an author, but I don't count that any business.'
+
+'Oh, an author, is he? When does he do his writing?'
+
+'He locks himself up most of the day in his study.'
+
+'Does he come out for lunch?'
+
+'No; he lights a little spirit lamp inside, Podgers tells me, and
+makes himself a cup of coffee, which he takes with a sandwich or two.'
+
+'That's rather frugal fare for Park Lane.'
+
+'Yes, Monsieur Valmont, it is, but he makes it up in the evening, when
+he has a long dinner with all them foreign kickshaws you people like,
+done by his French cook.'
+
+'Sensible man! Well, Hale, I see I shall look forward with pleasure to
+making the acquaintance of Mr. Summertrees. Is there any restriction on
+the going and coming of your man Podgers?'
+
+'None in the least. He can get away either night or day.'
+
+'Very good, friend Hale, bring him here tomorrow, as soon as our
+author locks himself up in his study, or rather, I should say, as soon
+as the respectable clerk leaves for Tottenham Court Road, which I
+should guess, as you put it, is about half an hour after his master
+turns the key of the room in which he writes.'
+
+'You are quite right in that guess, Valmont. How did you hit it?'
+
+'Merely a surmise, Hale. There is a good deal of oddity about that
+Park Lane house, so it doesn't surprise me in the least that the
+master gets to work earlier in the morning than the man. I have also
+a suspicion that Ralph Summertrees knows perfectly well what the
+estimable Podgers is there for.'
+
+'What makes you think that?'
+
+'I can give no reason except that my opinion of the acuteness of
+Summertrees has been gradually rising all the while you were speaking,
+and at the same time my estimate of Podgers' craft has been as
+steadily declining. However, bring the man here tomorrow, that I may
+ask him a few questions.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next day, about eleven o'clock, the ponderous Podgers, hat in hand,
+followed his chief into my room. His broad, impassive, immobile smooth
+face gave him rather more the air of a genuine butler than I had
+expected, and this appearance, of course, was enhanced by his livery.
+His replies to my questions were those of a well-trained servant who
+will not say too much unless it is made worth his while. All in all,
+Podgers exceeded my expectations, and really my friend Hale had some
+justification for regarding him, as he evidently did, a triumph in his
+line.
+
+'Sit down, Mr. Hale, and you, Podgers.'
+
+The man disregarded my invitation, standing like a statue until his
+chief made a motion; then he dropped into a chair. The English are
+great on discipline.
+
+'Now, Mr. Hale, I must first congratulate you on the make-up of
+Podgers. It is excellent. You depend less on artificial assistance
+than we do in France, and in that I think you are right.'
+
+'Oh, we know a bit over here, Monsieur Valmont,' said Hale, with
+pardonable pride.
+
+'Now then, Podgers, I want to ask you about this clerk. What time does
+he arrive in the evening?'
+
+'At prompt six, sir.'
+
+'Does he ring, or let himself in with a latchkey?'
+
+'With a latchkey, sir.'
+
+'How does he carry the money?'
+
+'In a little locked leather satchel, sir, flung over his shoulder.'
+
+'Does he go direct to the dining-room?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Have you seen him unlock the safe and put in the money?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Does the safe unlock with a word or a key?'
+
+'With a key, sir. It's one of the old-fashioned kind.'
+
+'Then the clerk unlocks his leather money bag?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'That's three keys used within as many minutes. Are they separate or
+in a bunch?'
+
+'In a bunch, sir.'
+
+'Did you ever see your master with this bunch of keys?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'You saw him open the safe once, I am told?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Did he use a separate key, or one of a bunch?'
+
+Podgers slowly scratched his head, then said,--
+
+'I don't just remember, sir.'
+
+'Ah, Podgers, you are neglecting the big things in that house. Sure
+you can't remember?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'Once the money is in and the safe locked up, what does the clerk do?'
+
+'Goes to his room, sir.'
+
+'Where is this room?'
+
+'On the third floor, sir.'
+
+'Where do you sleep?'
+
+'On the fourth floor with the rest of the servants, sir.'
+
+'Where does the master sleep?'
+
+'On the second floor, adjoining his study.'
+
+'The house consists of four stories and a basement, does it?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'I have somehow arrived at the suspicion that it is a very narrow
+house. Is that true?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Does the clerk ever dine with your master?'
+
+'No, sir. The clerk don't eat in the house at all, sir.'
+
+'Does he go away before breakfast?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'No one takes breakfast to his room?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'What time does he leave the house?'
+
+'At ten o'clock, sir.'
+
+'When is breakfast served?'
+
+'At nine o'clock, sir.'
+
+'At what hour does your master retire to his study?'
+
+'At half-past nine, sir.'
+
+'Locks the door on the inside?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Never rings for anything during the day?'
+
+'Not that I know of, sir.'
+
+'What sort of a man is he?'
+
+Here Podgers was on familiar ground, and he rattled off a description
+minute in every particular.
+
+'What I meant was, Podgers, is he silent, or talkative, or does he get
+angry? Does he seem furtive, suspicious, anxious, terrorised, calm,
+excitable, or what?'
+
+'Well, sir, he is by way of being very quiet, never has much to say
+for himself; never saw him angry, or excited.'
+
+'Now, Podgers, you've been at Park Lane for a fortnight or more. You
+are a sharp, alert, observant man. What happens there that strikes you
+as unusual?'
+
+'Well, I can't exactly say, sir,' replied Podgers, looking rather
+helplessly from his chief to myself, and back again.
+
+'Your professional duties have often compelled you to enact the part
+of butler before, otherwise you wouldn't do it so well. Isn't that the
+case.'
+
+Podgers did not reply, but glanced at his chief. This was evidently a
+question pertaining to the service, which a subordinate was not
+allowed to answer. However, Hale said at once,--
+
+'Certainly. Podgers has been in dozens of places.'
+
+'Well, Podgers, just call to mind some of the other households where
+you have been employed, and tell me any particulars in which Mr
+Summertrees' establishment differs from them.'
+
+Podgers pondered a long time.
+
+'Well, sir, he do stick to writing pretty close.'
+
+'Ah, that's his profession, you see, Podgers. Hard at it from
+half-past nine till towards seven, I imagine?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Anything else, Podgers? No matter how trivial.'
+
+'Well, sir, he's fond of reading too; leastways, he's fond of
+newspapers.'
+
+'When does he read?'
+
+'I've never seen him read 'em, sir; indeed, so far as I can tell, I
+never knew the papers to be opened, but he takes them all in, sir.'
+
+'What, all the morning papers?'
+
+'Yes, sir, and all the evening papers too.'
+
+'Where are the morning papers placed?'
+
+'On the table in his study, sir.'
+
+'And the evening papers?'
+
+'Well, sir, when the evening papers come, the study is locked. They
+are put on a side table in the dining-room, and he takes them upstairs
+with him to his study.'
+
+'This has happened every day since you've been there?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'You reported that very striking fact to your chief, of course?'
+
+'No, sir, I don't think I did,' said Podgers, confused.
+
+'You should have done so. Mr. Hale would have known how to make the
+most of a point so vital.'
+
+'Oh, come now, Valmont,' interrupted Hale, 'you're chaffing us. Plenty
+of people take in all the papers!'
+
+'I think not. Even clubs and hotels subscribe to the leading journals
+only. You said _all_, I think, Podgers?'
+
+'Well, _nearly_ all, sir.'
+
+'But which is it? There's a vast difference.'
+
+'He takes a good many, sir.'
+
+'How many?'
+
+'I don't just know, sir.'
+
+'That's easily found out, Valmont,' cried Hale, with some impatience,
+'if you think it really important.'
+
+'I think it so important that I'm going back with Podgers myself. You
+can take me into the house, I suppose, when you return?'
+
+'Oh, yes, sir.'
+
+'Coming back to these newspapers for a moment, Podgers. What is done
+with them?'
+
+'They are sold to the ragman, sir, once a week.'
+
+'Who takes them from the study?'
+
+'I do, sir.'
+
+'Do they appear to have been read very carefully?'
+
+'Well, no, sir; leastways, some of them seem never to have been
+opened, or else folded up very carefully again.'
+
+'Did you notice that extracts have been clipped from any of them?'
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'Does Mr. Summertrees keep a scrapbook?'
+
+'Not that I know of, sir.'
+
+'Oh, the case is perfectly plain,' said I, leaning back in my chair,
+and regarding the puzzled Hale with that cherubic expression of
+self-satisfaction which I know is so annoying to him.
+
+'_What's_ perfectly plain?' he demanded, more gruffly perhaps than
+etiquette would have sanctioned.
+
+'Summertrees is no coiner, nor is he linked with any band of coiners.'
+
+'What is he, then?'
+
+'Ah, that opens another avenue of enquiry. For all I know to the
+contrary, he may be the most honest of men. On the surface it would
+appear that he is a reasonably industrious tradesman in Tottenham
+Court Road, who is anxious that there should be no visible connection
+between a plebian employment and so aristocratic a residence as that
+in Park Lane.'
+
+At this point Spenser Hale gave expression to one of those rare
+flashes of reason which are always an astonishment to his friends.
+
+'That is nonsense, Monsieur Valmont,' he said, 'the man who is ashamed
+of the connection between his business and his house is one who is
+trying to get into Society, or else the women of his family are trying
+it, as is usually the case. Now Summertrees has no family. He himself
+goes nowhere, gives no entertainments, and accepts no invitations. He
+belongs to no club, therefore to say that he is ashamed of his
+connection with the Tottenham Court Road shop is absurd. He is
+concealing the connection for some other reason that will bear looking
+into.'
+
+'My dear Hale, the goddess of Wisdom herself could not have made a
+more sensible series of remarks. Now, _mon ami_, do you want my
+assistance, or have you enough to go on with?'
+
+'Enough to go on with? We have nothing more than we had when I called
+on you last night.'
+
+'Last night, my dear Hale, you supposed this man was in league with
+coiners. Today you know he is not.'
+
+'I know you _say_ he is not.'
+
+I shrugged my shoulders, and raised my eyebrows, smiling at him.
+
+'It is the same thing, Monsieur Hale.'
+
+'Well, of all the conceited--' and the good Hale could get no further.
+
+'If you wish my assistance, it is yours.'
+
+'Very good. Not to put too fine a point upon it, I do.'
+
+'In that case, my dear Podgers, you will return to the residence of
+our friend Summertrees, and get together for me in a bundle all of
+yesterday's morning and evening papers, that were delivered to the
+house. Can you do that, or are they mixed up in a heap in the coal
+cellar?'
+
+'I can do it, sir. I have instructions to place each day's papers in a
+pile by itself in case they should be wanted again. There is always
+one week's supply in the cellar, and we sell the papers of the week
+before to the rag men.'
+
+'Excellent. Well, take the risk of abstracting one day's journals, and
+have them ready for me. I will call upon you at half-past three
+o'clock exactly, and then I want you to take me upstairs to the
+clerk's bedroom in the third story, which I suppose is not locked
+during the daytime?'
+
+'No, sir, it is not.'
+
+With this the patient Podgers took his departure. Spenser Hale rose
+when his assistant left.
+
+'Anything further I can do?' he asked.
+
+'Yes; give me the address of the shop in Tottenham Court Road. Do you
+happen to have about you one of those new five-shilling pieces which
+you believe to be illegally coined?'
+
+He opened his pocket-book, took out the bit of white metal, and handed
+it to me.
+
+'I'm going to pass this off before evening,' I said, putting it in my
+pocket, 'and I hope none of your men will arrest me.'
+
+'That's all right,' laughed Hale as he took his leave.
+
+At half-past three Podgers was waiting for me, and opened the front
+door as I came up the steps, thus saving me the necessity of ringing.
+The house seemed strangely quiet. The French cook was evidently down
+in the basement, and we had probably all the upper part to ourselves,
+unless Summertrees was in his study, which I doubted. Podgers led me
+directly upstairs to the clerk's room on the third floor, walking on
+tiptoe, with an elephantine air of silence and secrecy combined, which
+struck me as unnecessary.
+
+'I will make an examination of this room,' I said. 'Kindly wait for me
+down by the door of the study.'
+
+The bedroom proved to be of respectable size when one considers the
+smallness of the house. The bed was all nicely made up, and there were
+two chairs in the room, but the usual washstand and swing-mirror were
+not visible. However, seeing a curtain at the farther end of the room,
+I drew it aside, and found, as I expected, a fixed lavatory in an
+alcove of perhaps four feet deep by five in width. As the room was
+about fifteen feet wide, this left two-thirds of the space unaccounted
+for. A moment later, I opened a door which exhibited a closet filled
+with clothes hanging on hooks. This left a space of five feet between
+the clothes closet and the lavatory. I thought at first that the
+entrance to the secret stairway must have issued from the lavatory,
+but examining the boards closely, although they sounded hollow to the
+knuckles, they were quite evidently plain matchboarding, and not a
+concealed door. The entrance to the stairway, therefore, must issue
+from the clothes closet. The right hand wall proved similar to the
+matchboarding of the lavatory as far as the casual eye or touch was
+concerned, but I saw at once it was a door. The latch turned out to be
+somewhat ingeniously operated by one of the hooks which held a pair of
+old trousers. I found that the hook, if pressed upward, allowed the
+door to swing outward, over the stairhead. Descending to the second
+floor, a similar latch let me in to a similar clothes closet in the
+room beneath. The two rooms were identical in size, one directly above
+the other, the only difference being that the lower room door gave
+into the study, instead of into the hall, as was the case with the
+upper chamber.
+
+The study was extremely neat, either not much used, or the abode of a
+very methodical man. There was nothing on the table except a pile of
+that morning's papers. I walked to the farther end, turned the key in
+the lock, and came out upon the astonished Podgers.
+
+'Well, I'm blowed!' exclaimed he.
+
+'Quite so,' I rejoined, 'you've been tiptoeing past an empty room for
+the last two weeks. Now, if you'll come with me, Podgers, I'll show
+you how the trick is done.'
+
+When he entered the study, I locked the door once more, and led the
+assumed butler, still tiptoeing through force of habit, up the stair
+into the top bedroom, and so out again, leaving everything exactly as
+we found it. We went down the main stair to the front hall, and there
+Podgers had my parcel of papers all neatly wrapped up. This bundle I
+carried to my flat, gave one of my assistants some instructions, and
+left him at work on the papers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I took a cab to the foot of Tottenham Court Road, and walked up that
+street till I came to J. Simpson's old curiosity shop. After gazing at
+the well-filled windows for some time, I stepped aside, having
+selected a little iron crucifix displayed behind the pane; the work of
+some ancient craftsman.
+
+I knew at once from Podgers's description that I was waited upon by
+the veritable respectable clerk who brought the bag of money each
+night to Park Lane, and who I was certain was no other than Ralph
+Summertrees himself.
+
+There was nothing in his manner differing from that of any other quiet
+salesman. The price of the crucifix proved to be seven-and-six, and I
+threw down a sovereign to pay for it.
+
+'Do you mind the change being all in silver, sir?' he asked, and I
+answered without any eagerness, although the question aroused a
+suspicion that had begun to be allayed,--
+
+'Not in the least.'
+
+He gave me half-a-crown, three two-shilling pieces, and four separate
+shillings, all the coins being well-worn silver of the realm, the
+undoubted inartistic product of the reputable British Mint. This
+seemed to dispose of the theory that he was palming off illegitimate
+money. He asked me if I were interested in any particular branch of
+antiquity, and I replied that my curiosity was merely general, and
+exceedingly amateurish, whereupon he invited me to look around. This I
+proceeded to do, while he resumed the addressing and stamping of some
+wrapped-up pamphlets which I surmised to be copies of his catalogue.
+
+He made no attempt either to watch me or to press his wares upon me. I
+selected at random a little ink-stand, and asked its price. It was two
+shillings, he said, whereupon I produced my fraudulent five-shilling
+piece. He took it, gave me the change without comment, and the last
+doubt about his connection with coiners flickered from my mind.
+
+At this moment a young man came in, who, I saw at once, was not a
+customer. He walked briskly to the farther end of the shop, and
+disappeared behind a partition which had one pane of glass in it that
+gave an outlook towards the front door.
+
+'Excuse me a moment,' said the shopkeeper, and he followed the young
+man into the private office.
+
+As I examined the curious heterogeneous collection of things for sale,
+I heard the clink of coins being poured out on the lid of a desk or an
+uncovered table, and the murmur of voices floated out to me. I was now
+near the entrance of the shop, and by a sleight-of-hand trick, keeping
+the corner of my eye on the glass pane of the private office, I
+removed the key of the front door without a sound, and took an
+impression of it in wax, returning the key to its place unobserved. At
+this moment another young man came in, and walked straight past me
+into the private office. I heard him say,--
+
+'Oh, I beg pardon, Mr. Simpson. How are you, Rogers?'
+
+'Hallo, Macpherson,' saluted Rogers, who then came out, bidding
+good-night to Mr. Simpson, and departed whistling down the street, but
+not before he had repeated his phrase to another young man entering,
+to whom he gave the name of Tyrrel.
+
+I noted these three names in my mind. Two others came in together, but
+I was compelled to content myself with memorising their features, for
+I did not learn their names. These men were evidently collectors, for
+I heard the rattle of money in every case; yet here was a small shop,
+doing apparently very little business, for I had been within it for
+more than half an hour, and yet remained the only customer. If credit
+were given, one collector would certainly have been sufficient, yet
+five had come in, and had poured their contributions into the pile
+Summertrees was to take home with him that night.
+
+I determined to secure one of the pamphlets which the man had been
+addressing. They were piled on a shelf behind the counter, but I had
+no difficulty in reaching across and taking the one on top, which I
+slipped into my pocket. When the fifth young man went down the street
+Summertrees himself emerged, and this time he carried in his hand the
+well-filled locked leather satchel, with the straps dangling. It was
+now approaching half-past five, and I saw he was eager to close up and
+get away.
+
+'Anything else you fancy, sir?' he asked me.
+
+'No, or rather yes and no. You have a very interesting collection
+here, but it's getting so dark I can hardly see.'
+
+'I close at half-past five, sir.'
+
+'Ah, in that case,' I said, consulting my watch, 'I shall be pleased
+to call some other time.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' replied Summertrees quietly, and with that I took my
+leave.
+
+From the corner of an alley on the other side of the street I saw him
+put up the shutters with his own hands, then he emerged with overcoat
+on, and the money satchel slung across his shoulder. He locked the
+door, tested it with his knuckles, and walked down the street,
+carrying under one arm the pamphlets he had been addressing. I
+followed him some distance, saw him drop the pamphlets into the box at
+the first post office he passed, and walk rapidly towards his house in
+Park Lane.
+
+When I returned to my flat and called in my assistant, he said,--
+
+'After putting to one side the regular advertisements of pills, soap,
+and what not, here is the only one common to all the newspapers,
+morning and evening alike. The advertisements are not identical, sir,
+but they have two points of similarity, or perhaps I should say three.
+They all profess to furnish a cure for absent-mindedness; they all ask
+that the applicant's chief hobby shall be stated, and they all bear
+the same address: Dr. Willoughby, in Tottenham Court Road.'
+
+'Thank you,' said I, as he placed the scissored advertisements before
+me.
+
+I read several of the announcements. They were all small, and perhaps
+that is why I had never noticed one of them in the newspapers, for
+certainly they were odd enough. Some asked for lists of absent-minded
+men, with the hobbies of each, and for these lists, prizes of from one
+shilling to six were offered. In other clippings Dr. Willoughby
+professed to be able to cure absent-mindedness. There were no fees, and
+no treatment, but a pamphlet would be sent, which, if it did not benefit
+the receiver, could do no harm. The doctor was unable to meet patients
+personally, nor could he enter into correspondence with them. The
+address was the same as that of the old curiosity shop in Tottenham
+Court Road. At this juncture I pulled the pamphlet from my pocket, and
+saw it was entitled _Christian Science and Absent-Mindedness_, by Dr.
+Stamford Willoughby, and at the end of the article was the statement
+contained in the advertisements, that Dr Willoughby would neither see
+patients nor hold any correspondence with them.
+
+I drew a sheet of paper towards me, wrote to Dr. Willoughby alleging
+that I was a very absent-minded man, and would be glad of his
+pamphlet, adding that my special hobby was the collecting of first
+editions. I then signed myself, 'Alport Webster, Imperial Flats,
+London, W.'
+
+I may here explain that it is often necessary for me to see people
+under some other name than the well-known appellation of Eugene
+Valmont. There are two doors to my flat, and on one of these is
+painted, 'Eugene Valmont'; on the other there is a receptacle, into
+which can be slipped a sliding panel bearing any _nom de guerre_ I
+choose. The same device is arranged on the ground floor, where the
+names of all the occupants of the building appear on the right-hand
+wall.
+
+I sealed, addressed, and stamped my letter, then told my man to put
+out the name of Alport Webster, and if I did not happen to be in when
+anyone called upon that mythical person, he was to make an appointment
+for me.
+
+It was nearly six o'clock next afternoon when the card of Angus
+Macpherson was brought in to Mr. Alport Webster. I recognised the young
+man at once as the second who had entered the little shop carrying his
+tribute to Mr. Simpson the day before. He held three volumes under his
+arm, and spoke in such a pleasant, insinuating sort of way, that I
+knew at once he was an adept in his profession of canvasser.
+
+'Will you be seated, Mr. Macpherson? In what can I serve you?'
+
+He placed the three volumes, backs upward, on my table.
+
+'Are you interested at all in first editions, Mr. Webster?'
+
+'It is the one thing I am interested in,' I replied; 'but
+unfortunately they often run into a lot of money.'
+
+'That is true,' said Macpherson sympathetically, 'and I have here
+three books, one of which is an exemplification of what you say. This
+one costs a hundred pounds. The last copy that was sold by auction in
+London brought a hundred and twenty-three pounds. This next one is
+forty pounds, and the third ten pounds. At these prices I am certain
+you could not duplicate three such treasures in any book shop in
+Britain.'
+
+I examined them critically, and saw at once that what he said was
+true. He was still standing on the opposite side of the table.
+
+'Please take a chair, Mr. Macpherson. Do you mean to say you go round
+London with a hundred and fifty pounds worth of goods under your arm
+in this careless way?'
+
+The young man laughed.
+
+'I run very little risk, Mr. Webster. I don't suppose anyone I meet
+imagines for a moment there is more under my arm than perhaps a trio
+of volumes I have picked up in the fourpenny box to take home with
+me.'
+
+I lingered over the volume for which he asked a hundred pounds, then
+said, looking across at him:--
+
+'How came you to be possessed of this book, for instance?'
+
+He turned upon me a fine, open countenance, and answered without
+hesitation in the frankest possible manner,--
+
+'I am not in actual possession of it, Mr. Webster. I am by way of being
+a connoisseur in rare and valuable books myself, although, of course,
+I have little money with which to indulge in the collection of them. I
+am acquainted, however, with the lovers of desirable books in
+different quarters of London. These three volumes, for instance, are
+from the library of a private gentleman in the West End. I have sold
+many books to him, and he knows I am trustworthy. He wishes to dispose
+of them at something under their real value, and has kindly allowed me
+to conduct the negotiation. I make it my business to find out those
+who are interested in rare books, and by such trading I add
+considerably to my income.'
+
+'How, for instance, did you learn that I was a bibliophile?'
+
+Mr. Macpherson laughed genially.
+
+'Well, Mr. Webster, I must confess that I chanced it. I do that very
+often. I take a flat like this, and send in my card to the name on the
+door. If I am invited in, I ask the occupant the question I asked you
+just now: "Are you interested in rare editions?" If he says no, I
+simply beg pardon and retire. If he says yes, then I show my wares.'
+
+'I see,' said I, nodding. What a glib young liar he was, with that
+innocent face of his, and yet my next question brought forth the
+truth.
+
+'As this is the first time you have called upon me, Mr. Macpherson,
+you have no objection to my making some further inquiry, I suppose.
+Would you mind telling me the name of the owner of these books in the
+West End?'
+
+'His name is Mr. Ralph Summertrees, of Park Lane.'
+
+'Of Park Lane? Ah, indeed.'
+
+'I shall be glad to leave the books with you, Mr. Webster, and if you
+care to make an appointment with Mr. Summertrees, I am sure he will not
+object to say a word in my favour.'
+
+'Oh, I do not in the least doubt it, and should not think of troubling
+the gentleman.'
+
+'I was going to tell you,' went on the young man, 'that I have a
+friend, a capitalist, who, in a way, is my supporter; for, as I said,
+I have little money of my own. I find it is often inconvenient for
+people to pay down any considerable sum. When, however, I strike a
+bargain, my capitalist buys the book, and I make an arrangement with
+my customer to pay a certain amount each week, and so even a large
+purchase is not felt, as I make the instalments small enough to suit
+my client.'
+
+'You are employed during the day, I take it?'
+
+'Yes, I am a clerk in the City.'
+
+Again we were in the blissful realms of fiction!
+
+'Suppose I take this book at ten pounds, what instalment should I have
+to pay each week?'
+
+'Oh, what you like, sir. Would five shillings be too much?'
+
+'I think not.'
+
+'Very well, sir, if you pay me five shillings now, I will leave the
+book with you, and shall have pleasure in calling this day week for
+the next instalment.'
+
+I put my hand into my pocket, and drew out two half-crowns, which I
+passed over to him.
+
+'Do I need to sign any form or undertaking to pay the rest?'
+
+The young man laughed cordially.
+
+'Oh, no, sir, there is no formality necessary. You see, sir, this is
+largely a labour of love with me, although I don't deny I have my eye
+on the future. I am getting together what I hope will be a very
+valuable connection with gentlemen like yourself who are fond of
+books, and I trust some day that I may be able to resign my place with
+the insurance company and set up a choice little business of my own,
+where my knowledge of values in literature will prove useful.'
+
+And then, after making a note in a little book he took from his
+pocket, he bade me a most graceful good-bye and departed, leaving me
+cogitating over what it all meant.
+
+Next morning two articles were handed to me. The first came by post
+and was a pamphlet on _Christian Science and Absent-Mindedness_,
+exactly similar to the one I had taken away from the old curiosity
+shop; the second was a small key made from my wax impression that
+would fit the front door of the same shop--a key fashioned by an
+excellent anarchist friend of mine in an obscure street near Holborn.
+
+That night at ten o'clock I was inside the old curiosity shop, with a
+small storage battery in my pocket, and a little electric glow-lamp at
+my buttonhole, a most useful instrument for either burglar or
+detective.
+
+I had expected to find the books of the establishment in a safe,
+which, if it was similar to the one in Park Lane, I was prepared to
+open with the false keys in my possession or to take an impression of
+the keyhole and trust to my anarchist friend for the rest. But to my
+amazement I discovered all the papers pertaining to the concern in a
+desk which was not even locked. The books, three in number, were the
+ordinary day book, journal, and ledger referring to the shop;
+book-keeping of the older fashion; but in a portfolio lay half a dozen
+foolscap sheets, headed 'Mr. Rogers's List', 'Mr. Macpherson's', 'Mr
+Tyrrel's', the names I had already learned, and three others. These
+lists contained in the first column, names; in the second column,
+addresses; in the third, sums of money; and then in the small, square
+places following were amounts ranging from two-and-sixpence to a
+pound. At the bottom of Mr. Macpherson's list was the name Alport
+Webster, Imperial Flats, L10; then in the small, square place, five
+shillings. These six sheets, each headed by a canvasser's name, were
+evidently the record of current collections, and the innocence of the
+whole thing was so apparent that if it were not for my fixed rule
+never to believe that I am at the bottom of any case until I have come
+on something suspicious, I would have gone out empty-handed as I came
+in.
+
+The six sheets were loose in a thin portfolio, but standing on a shelf
+above the desk were a number of fat volumes, one of which I took down,
+and saw that it contained similar lists running back several years. I
+noticed on Mr. Macpherson's current list the name of Lord Semptam, an
+eccentric old nobleman whom I knew slightly. Then turning to the list
+immediately before the current one the name was still there; I traced
+it back through list after list until I found the first entry, which
+was no less than three years previous, and there Lord Semptam was down
+for a piece of furniture costing fifty pounds, and on that account he
+had paid a pound a week for more than three years, totalling a hundred
+and seventy pounds at the least, and instantly the glorious simplicity
+of the scheme dawned upon me, and I became so interested in the
+swindle that I lit the gas, fearing my little lamp would be exhausted
+before my investigation ended, for it promised to be a long one.
+
+In several instances the intended victim proved shrewder than old
+Simpson had counted upon, and the word 'Settled' had been written on
+the line carrying the name when the exact number of instalments was
+paid. But as these shrewd persons dropped out, others took their
+places, and Simpson's dependence on their absent-mindedness seemed to
+be justified in nine cases out of ten. His collectors were collecting
+long after the debt had been paid. In Lord Semptam's case, the payment
+had evidently become chronic, and the old man was giving away his
+pound a week to the suave Macpherson two years after his debt had been
+liquidated.
+
+From the big volume I detached the loose leaf, dated 1893, which
+recorded Lord Semptam's purchase of a carved table for fifty pounds,
+and on which he had been paying a pound a week from that time to the
+date of which I am writing, which was November, 1896. This single
+document taken from the file of three years previous, was not likely
+to be missed, as would have been the case if I had selected a current
+sheet. I nevertheless made a copy of the names and addresses of
+Macpherson's present clients; then, carefully placing everything
+exactly as I had found it, I extinguished the gas, and went out of the
+shop, locking the door behind me. With the 1893 sheet in my pocket I
+resolved to prepare a pleasant little surprise for my suave friend
+Macpherson when he called to get his next instalment of five
+shillings.
+
+Late as was the hour when I reached Trafalgar Square, I could not
+deprive myself of the felicity of calling on Mr. Spenser Hale, who I
+knew was then on duty. He never appeared at his best during office
+hours, because officialism stiffened his stalwart frame. Mentally he
+was impressed with the importance of his position, and added to this
+he was not then allowed to smoke his big, black pipe and terrible
+tobacco. He received me with the curtness I had been taught to expect
+when I inflicted myself upon him at his office. He greeted me abruptly
+with,--
+
+'I say, Valmont, how long do you expect to be on this job?'
+
+'What job?' I asked mildly.
+
+'Oh, you know what I mean: the Summertrees affair.'
+
+'Oh, _that_!' I exclaimed, with surprise. 'The Summertrees case is
+already completed, of course. If I had known you were in a hurry, I
+should have finished up everything yesterday, but as you and Podgers,
+and I don't know how many more, have been at it sixteen or seventeen
+days, if not longer, I thought I might venture to take as many hours,
+as I am working entirely alone. You said nothing about haste, you
+know.'
+
+'Oh, come now, Valmont, that's a bit thick. Do you mean to say you
+have already got evidence against the man?'
+
+'Evidence absolute and complete.'
+
+'Then who are the coiners?'
+
+'My most estimable friend, how often have I told you not to jump at
+conclusions? I informed you when you first spoke to me about the
+matter that Summertrees was neither a coiner nor a confederate of
+coiners. I secured evidence sufficient to convict him of quite another
+offence, which is probably unique in the annals of crime. I have
+penetrated the mystery of the shop, and discovered the reason for all
+those suspicious actions which quite properly set you on his trail.
+Now I wish you to come to my flat next Wednesday night at a quarter to
+six, prepared to make an arrest.'
+
+'I must know who I am to arrest, and on what counts.'
+
+'Quite so, _mon ami_ Hale; I did not say you were to make an arrest,
+but merely warned you to be prepared. If you have time now to listen
+to the disclosures, I am quite at your service. I promise you there
+are some original features in the case. If, however, the present
+moment is inopportune, drop in on me at your convenience, previously
+telephoning so that you may know whether I am there or not, and thus
+your valuable time will not be expended purposelessly.'
+
+With this I presented to him my most courteous bow, and although his
+mystified expression hinted a suspicion that he thought I was chaffing
+him, as he would call it, official dignity dissolved somewhat, and he
+intimated his desire to hear all about it then and there. I had
+succeeded in arousing my friend Hale's curiosity. He listened to the
+evidence with perplexed brow, and at last ejaculated he would be
+blessed.
+
+'This young man,' I said, in conclusion, 'will call upon me at six on
+Wednesday afternoon, to receive his second five shillings. I propose
+that you, in your uniform, shall be seated there with me to receive
+him, and I am anxious to study Mr. Macpherson's countenance when he
+realises he has walked in to confront a policeman. If you will then
+allow me to cross-examine him for a few moments, not after the manner
+of Scotland Yard, with a warning lest he incriminate himself, but in
+the free and easy fashion we adopt in Paris, I shall afterwards turn
+the case over to you to be dealt with at your discretion.'
+
+'You have a wonderful flow of language, Monsieur Valmont,' was the
+officer's tribute to me. 'I shall be on hand at a quarter to six on
+Wednesday.'
+
+'Meanwhile,' said I, 'kindly say nothing of this to anyone. We must
+arrange a complete surprise for Macpherson. That is essential. Please
+make no move in the matter at all until Wednesday night.'
+
+Spenser Hale, much impressed, nodded acquiescence, and I took a polite
+leave of him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The question of lighting is an important one in a room such as mine,
+and electricity offers a good deal of scope to the ingenious. Of this
+fact I have taken full advantage. I can manipulate the lighting of my
+room so that any particular spot is bathed in brilliancy, while the
+rest of the space remains in comparative gloom, and I arranged the
+lamps so that the full force of their rays impinged against the door
+that Wednesday evening, while I sat on one side of the table in
+semi-darkness and Hale sat on the other, with a light beating down on
+him from above which gave him the odd, sculptured look of a living
+statue of Justice, stern and triumphant. Anyone entering the room
+would first be dazzled by the light, and next would see the gigantic
+form of Hale in the full uniform of his order.
+
+When Angus Macpherson was shown into this room he was quite visibly
+taken aback, and paused abruptly on the threshold, his gaze riveted on
+the huge policeman. I think his first purpose was to turn and run, but
+the door closed behind him, and he doubtless heard, as we all did,
+the sound of the bolt being thrust in its place, thus locking him in.
+
+'I--I beg your pardon,' he stammered, 'I expected to meet Mr. Webster.'
+
+As he said this, I pressed the button under my table, and was
+instantly enshrouded with light. A sickly smile overspread the
+countenance of Macpherson as he caught sight of me, and he made a very
+creditable attempt to carry off the situation with nonchalance.
+
+'Oh, there you are, Mr. Webster; I did not notice you at first.'
+
+It was a tense moment. I spoke slowly and impressively.
+
+'Sir, perhaps you are not unacquainted with the name of Eugene
+Valmont.'
+
+He replied brazenly,--
+
+'I am sorry to say, sir, I never heard of the gentleman before.'
+
+At this came a most inopportune 'Haw-haw' from that blockhead Spenser
+Hale, completely spoiling the dramatic situation I had elaborated with
+such thought and care. It is little wonder the English possess no
+drama, for they show scant appreciation of the sensational moments in
+life.
+
+'Haw-haw,' brayed Spenser Hale, and at once reduced the emotional
+atmosphere to a fog of commonplace. However, what is a man to do? He
+must handle the tools with which it pleases Providence to provide him.
+I ignored Hale's untimely laughter.
+
+'Sit down, sir,' I said to Macpherson, and he obeyed.
+
+'You have called on Lord Semptam this week,' I continued sternly.
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'And collected a pound from him?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'In October, 1893, you sold Lord Semptam a carved antique table for
+fifty pounds?'
+
+'Quite right, sir.'
+
+'When you were here last week you gave me Ralph Summertrees as the
+name of a gentleman living in Park Lane. You knew at the time that
+this man was your employer?'
+
+Macpherson was now looking fixedly at me, and on this occasion made no
+reply. I went on calmly:--
+
+'You also knew that Summertrees, of Park Lane, was identical with
+Simpson, of Tottenham Court Road?'
+
+'Well, sir,' said Macpherson, 'I don't exactly see what you're
+driving at, but it's quite usual for a man to carry on a business
+under an assumed name. There is nothing illegal about that.'
+
+'We will come to the illegality in a moment, Mr. Macpherson. You, and
+Rogers, and Tyrrel, and three others, are confederates of this man
+Simpson.'
+
+'We are in his employ; yes, sir, but no more confederates than clerks
+usually are.'
+
+'I think, Mr. Macpherson, I have said enough to show you that the game
+is, what you call, up. You are now in the presence of Mr. Spenser Hale,
+from Scotland Yard, who is waiting to hear your confession.'
+
+Here the stupid Hale broke in with his--
+
+'And remember, sir, that anything you say will be--'
+
+'Excuse me, Mr. Hale,' I interrupted hastily, 'I shall turn over the
+case to you in a very few moments, but I ask you to remember our
+compact, and to leave it for the present entirely in my hands. Now, Mr
+Macpherson, I want your confession, and I want it at once.'
+
+'Confession? Confederates?' protested Macpherson with admirably
+simulated surprise. 'I must say you use extraordinary terms,
+Mr--Mr--What did you say the name was?'
+
+'Haw-haw,' roared Hale. 'His name is Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'I implore you, Mr. Hale, to leave this man to me for a very few
+moments. Now, Macpherson, what have you to say in your defence?'
+
+'Where nothing criminal has been alleged, Monsieur Valmont, I see no
+necessity for defence. If you wish me to admit that somehow you have
+acquired a number of details regarding our business, I am perfectly
+willing to do so, and to subscribe to their accuracy. If you will be
+good enough to let me know of what you complain, I shall endeavour to
+make the point clear to you if I can. There has evidently been some
+misapprehension, but for the life of me, without further explanation,
+I am as much in a fog as I was on my way coming here, for it is
+getting a little thick outside.'
+
+Macpherson certainly was conducting himself with great discretion, and
+presented, quite unconsciously, a much more diplomatic figure than my
+friend, Spenser Hale, sitting stiffly opposite me. His tone was one of
+mild expostulation, mitigated by the intimation that all
+misunderstanding speedily would be cleared away. To outward view he
+offered a perfect picture of innocence, neither protesting too much
+nor too little. I had, however, another surprise in store for him, a
+trump card, as it were, and I played it down on the table.
+
+'There!' I cried with vim, 'have you ever seen that sheet before?'
+
+He glanced at it without offering to take it in his hand.
+
+'Oh, yes,' he said, 'that has been abstracted from our file. It is
+what I call my visiting list.'
+
+'Come, come, sir,' I cried sternly, 'you refuse to confess, but I warn
+you we know all about it. You never heard of Dr. Willoughby, I
+suppose?'
+
+'Yes, he is the author of the silly pamphlet on Christian Science.'
+
+'You are in the right, Mr. Macpherson; on Christian Science and
+Absent-Mindedness.'
+
+'Possibly. I haven't read it for a long while.'
+
+'Have you ever met this learned doctor, Mr. Macpherson?'
+
+'Oh, yes. Dr. Willoughby is the pen-name of Mr. Summertrees. He believes
+in Christian Science and that sort of thing, and writes about it.'
+
+'Ah, really. We are getting your confession bit by bit, Mr. Macpherson.
+I think it would be better to be quite frank with us.'
+
+'I was just going to make the same suggestion to you, Monsieur
+Valmont. If you will tell me in a few words exactly what is your
+charge against either Mr. Summertrees or myself, I will know then what
+to say.'
+
+'We charge you, sir, with obtaining money under false pretences, which
+is a crime that has landed more than one distinguished financier in
+prison.'
+
+Spenser Hale shook his fat forefinger at me, and said,--
+
+'Tut, tut, Valmont; we mustn't threaten, we mustn't threaten, you
+know;' but I went on without heeding him.
+
+'Take for instance, Lord Semptam. You sold him a table for fifty
+pounds, on the instalment plan. He was to pay a pound a week, and in
+less than a year the debt was liquidated. But he is an absent-minded
+man, as all your clients are. That is why you came to me. I had
+answered the bogus Willoughby's advertisement. And so you kept on
+collecting and collecting for something more than three years. Now do
+you understand the charge?'
+
+Mr. Macpherson's head during this accusation was held slightly inclined
+to one side. At first his face was clouded by the most clever
+imitation of anxious concentration of mind I had ever seen, and this
+was gradually cleared away by the dawn of awakening perception. When I
+had finished, an ingratiating smile hovered about his lips.
+
+'Really, you know,' he said, 'that is rather a capital scheme. The
+absent-minded league, as one might call them. Most ingenious.
+Summertrees, if he had any sense of humour, which he hasn't, would be
+rather taken by the idea that his innocent fad for Christian Science
+had led him to be suspected of obtaining money under false pretences.
+But, really, there are no pretensions about the matter at all. As I
+understand it, I simply call and receive the money through the
+forgetfulness of the persons on my list, but where I think you would
+have both Summertrees and myself, if there was anything in your
+audacious theory, would be an indictment for conspiracy. Still, I
+quite see how the mistake arises. You have jumped to the conclusion
+that we sold nothing to Lord Semptam except that carved table three
+years ago. I have pleasure in pointing out to you that his lordship is
+a frequent customer of ours, and has had many things from us at one
+time or another. Sometimes he is in our debt; sometimes we are in his.
+We keep a sort of running contract with him by which he pays us a
+pound a week. He and several other customers deal on the same plan,
+and in return for an income that we can count upon, they get the first
+offer of anything in which they are supposed to be interested. As I
+have told you, we call these sheets in the office our visiting lists,
+but to make the visiting lists complete you need what we term our
+encyclopaedia. We call it that because it is in so many volumes; a
+volume for each year, running back I don't know how long. You will
+notice little figures here from time to time above the amount stated
+on this visiting list. These figures refer to the page of the
+encyclopaedia for the current year, and on that page is noted the new
+sale, and the amount of it, as it might be set down, say, in a
+ledger.'
+
+'That is a very entertaining explanation, Mr. Macpherson. I suppose
+this encyclopaedia, as you call it, is in the shop at Tottenham Court
+Road?'
+
+'Oh, no, sir. Each volume of the encyclopaedia is self-locking. These
+books contain the real secret of our business, and they are kept in
+the safe at Mr. Summertrees' house in Park Lane. Take Lord Semptam's
+account, for instance. You will find in faint figures under a certain
+date, 102. If you turn to page 102 of the encyclopaedia for that year,
+you will then see a list of what Lord Semptam has bought, and the
+prices he was charged for them. It is really a very simple matter. If
+you will allow me to use your telephone for a moment, I will ask Mr
+Summertrees, who has not yet begun dinner, to bring with him here the
+volume for 1893, and, within a quarter of an hour, you will be
+perfectly satisfied that everything is quite legitimate.'
+
+I confess that the young man's naturalness and confidence staggered
+me, the more so as I saw by the sarcastic smile on Hale's lips that he
+did not believe a single word spoken. A portable telephone stood on
+the table, and as Macpherson finished his explanation, he reached over
+and drew it towards him. Then Spenser Hale interfered.
+
+'Excuse _me_,' he said, 'I'll do the telephoning. What is the call
+number of Mr. Summertrees?'
+
+'140 Hyde Park.'
+
+Hale at once called up Central, and presently was answered from Park
+Lane. We heard him say,--
+
+'Is this the residence of Mr. Summertrees? Oh, is that you, Podgers? Is
+Mr. Summertrees in? Very well. This is Hale. I am in Valmont's
+flat--Imperial Flats--you know. Yes, where you went with me the other
+day. Very well, go to Mr. Summertrees, and say to him that Mr
+Macpherson wants the encyclopaedia for 1893. Do you get that? Yes,
+encyclopaedia. Oh, he'll understand what it is. Mr. Macpherson. No,
+don't mention my name at all. Just say Mr. Macpherson wants the
+encyclopaedia for the year 1893, and that you are to bring it. Yes,
+you may tell him that Mr. Macpherson is at Imperial Flats, but don't
+mention my name at all. Exactly. As soon as he gives you the book, get
+into a cab, and come here as quickly as possible with it. If
+Summertrees doesn't want to let the book go, then tell him to come
+with you. If he won't do that, place him under arrest, and bring both
+him and the book here. All right. Be as quick as you can; we're
+waiting.'
+
+Macpherson made no protest against Hale's use of the telephone; he
+merely sat back in his chair with a resigned expression on his face
+which, if painted on canvas, might have been entitled 'The Falsely
+Accused.' When Hale rang off, Macpherson said,--
+
+'Of course you know your own business best, but if your man arrests
+Summertrees, he will make you the laughing-stock of London. There is
+such a thing as unjustifiable arrest, as well as getting money under
+false pretences, and Mr. Summertrees is not the man to forgive an
+insult. And then, if you will allow me to say so, the more I think
+over your absent-minded theory, the more absolutely grotesque it
+seems, and if the case ever gets into the newspapers, I am sure, Mr
+Hale, you'll experience an uncomfortable half-hour with your chiefs at
+Scotland Yard.'
+
+'I'll take the risk of that, thank you,' said Hale stubbornly.
+
+'Am I to consider myself under arrest?' inquired the young man.
+
+'No, sir.'
+
+'Then, if you will pardon me, I shall withdraw. Mr. Summertrees will
+show you everything you wish to see in his books, and can explain his
+business much more capably than I, because he knows more about it;
+therefore, gentlemen, I bid you good-night.'
+
+'No you don't. Not just yet awhile,' exclaimed Hale, rising to his
+feet simultaneously with the young man.
+
+'Then I _am_ under arrest,' protested Macpherson.
+
+'You're not going to leave this room until Podgers brings that book.'
+
+'Oh, very well,' and he sat down again.
+
+And now, as talking is dry work, I set out something to drink, a box
+of cigars, and a box of cigarettes. Hale mixed his favourite brew, but
+Macpherson, shunning the wine of his country, contented himself with a
+glass of plain mineral water, and lit a cigarette. Then he awoke my
+high regard by saying pleasantly as if nothing had happened,--
+
+'While we are waiting, Monsieur Valmont, may I remind you that you owe
+me five shillings?'
+
+I laughed, took the coin from my pocket, and paid him, whereupon he
+thanked me.
+
+'Are you connected with Scotland Yard, Monsieur Valmont?' asked
+Macpherson, with the air of a man trying to make conversation to
+bridge over a tedious interval; but before I could reply, Hale blurted
+out,--
+
+'Not likely!'
+
+'You have no official standing as a detective, then, Monsieur
+Valmont?'
+
+'None whatever,' I replied quickly, thus getting in my oar ahead of
+Hale.
+
+'This is a loss to our country,' pursued this admirable young man,
+with evident sincerity.
+
+I began to see I could make a good deal of so clever a fellow if he
+came under my tuition.
+
+'The blunders of our police', he went on, 'are something deplorable.
+If they would but take lessons in strategy, say, from France, their
+unpleasant duties would be so much more acceptably performed, with
+much less discomfort to their victims.'
+
+'France,' snorted Hale in derision, 'why, they call a man guilty there
+until he's proven innocent.'
+
+'Yes, Mr. Hale, and the same seems to be the case in Imperial Flats.
+You have quite made up your mind that Mr. Summertrees is guilty, and
+will not be content until he proves his innocence. I venture to
+predict that you will hear from him before long in a manner that may
+astonish you.'
+
+Hale grunted and looked at his watch. The minutes passed very slowly
+as we sat there smoking, and at last even I began to get uneasy.
+Macpherson, seeing our anxiety, said that when he came in the fog was
+almost as thick as it had been the week before, and that there might
+be some difficulty in getting a cab. Just as he was speaking the door
+was unlocked from the outside, and Podgers entered, bearing a thick
+volume in his hand. This he gave to his superior, who turned over its
+pages in amazement, and then looked at the back, crying,--
+
+'_Encyclopaedia of Sport_, 1893! What sort of a joke is this,
+Mr. Macpherson?'
+
+There was a pained look on Mr. Macpherson's face as he reached forward
+and took the book. He said with a sigh,--
+
+'If you had allowed me to telephone, Mr. Hale, I should have made it
+perfectly plain to Summertrees what was wanted. I might have known
+this mistake was liable to occur. There is an increasing demand for
+out-of-date books of sport, and no doubt Mr. Summertrees thought this
+was what I meant. There is nothing for it but to send your man back to
+Park Lane and tell Mr. Summertrees that what we want is the locked
+volume of accounts for 1893, which we call the encyclopaedia. Allow me
+to write an order that will bring it. Oh, I'll show you what I have
+written before your man takes it,' he said, as Hale stood ready to
+look over his shoulder.
+
+On my notepaper he dashed off a request such as he had outlined, and
+handed it to Hale, who read it and gave it to Podgers.
+
+'Take that to Summertrees, and get back as quickly as possible. Have
+you a cab at the door?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'Is it foggy outside?'
+
+'Not so much, sir, as it was an hour ago. No difficulty about the
+traffic now, sir.'
+
+'Very well, get back as soon as you can.'
+
+Podgers saluted, and left with the book under his arm. Again the door
+was locked, and again we sat smoking in silence until the stillness
+was broken by the tinkle of the telephone. Hale put the receiver to
+his ear.
+
+'Yes, this is the Imperial Flats. Yes. Valmont. Oh, yes; Macpherson is
+here. What? Out of what? Can't hear you. Out of print. What, the
+encyclopaedia's out of print? Who is that speaking? Dr. Willoughby;
+thanks.'
+
+Macpherson rose as if he would go to the telephone, but instead (and
+he acted so quietly that I did not notice what he was doing until the
+thing was done), he picked up the sheet which he called his visiting
+list, and walking quite without haste, held it in the glowing coals of
+the fireplace until it disappeared in a flash of flame up the chimney.
+I sprang to my feet indignant, but too late to make even a motion
+outwards saving the sheet. Macpherson regarded us both with that
+self-deprecatory smile which had several times lighted up his face.
+
+'How dared you burn that sheet?' I demanded.
+
+'Because, Monsieur Valmont, it did not belong to you; because you do
+not belong to Scotland Yard; because you stole it; because you had no
+right to it; and because you have no official standing in this
+country. If it had been in Mr. Hale's possession I should not have
+dared, as you put it, to destroy the sheet, but as this sheet was
+abstracted from my master's premises by you, an entirely unauthorised
+person, whom he would have been justified in shooting dead if he had
+found you housebreaking and you had resisted him on his discovery, I
+took the liberty of destroying the document. I have always held that
+these sheets should not have been kept, for, as has been the case, if
+they fell under the scrutiny of so intelligent a person as Eugene
+Valmont, improper inferences might have been drawn. Mr. Summertrees,
+however, persisted in keeping them, but made this concession, that if
+I ever telegraphed him or telephoned him the word "Encyclopaedia", he
+would at once burn these records, and he, on his part, was to
+telegraph or telephone to me "The _Encyclopaedia_ is out of print,"
+whereupon I would know that he had succeeded.
+
+'Now, gentlemen, open this door, which will save me the trouble of
+forcing it. Either put me formally under arrest, or cease to restrict
+my liberty. I am very much obliged to Mr. Hale for telephoning, and I
+have made no protest to so gallant a host as Monsieur Valmont is,
+because of the locked door. However, the farce is now terminated. The
+proceedings I have sat through were entirely illegal, and if you will
+pardon me, Mr. Hale, they have been a little too French to go down here
+in old England, or to make a report in the newspapers that would be
+quite satisfactory to your chiefs. I demand either my formal arrest,
+or the unlocking of that door.'
+
+In silence I pressed a button, and my man threw open the door.
+Macpherson walked to the threshold, paused, and looked back at Spenser
+Hale, who sat there silent as a sphinx.
+
+'Good-evening, Mr. Hale.'
+
+There being no reply, he turned to me with the same ingratiating
+smile,--
+
+'Good-evening, Monsieur Eugene Valmont,' he said, 'I shall give myself
+the pleasure of calling next Wednesday at six for my five shillings.'
+
+
+
+
+6. _The Ghost with the Club-Foot_
+
+
+Celebrated critics have written with scorn of what they call 'the long
+arm of coincidence' in fiction. Coincidence is supposed to be the
+device of a novelist who does not possess ingenuity enough to
+construct a book without it. In France our incomparable writers pay no
+attention to this, because they are gifted with a keener insight into
+real life than is the case with the British. The superb Charles
+Dickens, possibly as well known in France as he is wherever the
+English language is read, and who loved French soil and the French
+people, probably probed deeper into the intricacies of human character
+than any other novelist of modern times, and if you read his works,
+you will see that he continually makes use of coincidence. The
+experience that has come to me throughout my own strange and varied
+career convinces me that coincidence happens in real life with
+exceeding frequency, and this fact is especially borne in upon me when
+I set out to relate my conflict with the Rantremly ghost, which
+wrought startling changes upon the lives of two people, one an
+objectionable, domineering man, and the other a humble and crushed
+woman. Of course, there was a third person, and the consequences that
+came to him were the most striking of all, as you will learn if you do
+me the honour to read this account of the episode.
+
+So far as coincidence is concerned, there was first the arrival of the
+newspaper clipping, then the coming of Sophia Brooks, and when that
+much-injured woman left my flat I wrote down this sentence on a sheet
+of paper:--
+
+'Before the week is out, I predict that Lord Rantremly himself will
+call to see me.'
+
+Next day my servant brought in the card of Lord Rantremly.
+
+I must begin with the visit of Sophia Brooks, for though that comes
+second, yet I had paid no attention in particular to the newspaper
+clipping until the lady told her story. My man brought me a
+typewritten sheet of paper on which were inscribed the words:--
+
+'Sophia Brooks, Typewriting and Translating Office, First Floor, No. 51
+Beaumont Street, Strand, London, W.C.'
+
+I said to my servant,--
+
+'Tell the lady as kindly as possible that I have no typewriting work
+to give out, and that, in fact, I keep a stenographer and typewriting
+machine on the premises.'
+
+A few moments later my man returned, and said the lady wished to see
+me, not about typewriting, but regarding a case in which she hoped to
+interest me. I was still in some hesitation about admitting her, for
+my transactions had now risen to a higher plane than when I was new to
+London. My expenses were naturally very heavy, and it was not possible
+for me, in justice to myself, to waste time in commissions from the
+poor, which even if they resulted successfully meant little money
+added to my banking account, and often nothing at all, because the
+client was unable to pay. As I remarked before, I possess a heart the
+most tender, and therefore must greatly to my grief, steel myself
+against the enlisting of my sympathy, which, alas! has frequently led
+to my financial loss. Still, sometimes the apparently poor are
+involved in matters of extreme importance, and England is so eccentric
+a country that one may find himself at fault if he closes his door too
+harshly. Indeed, ever since my servant, in the utmost good faith,
+threw downstairs the persistent and tattered beggar-man, who he
+learned later to his sorrow was actually his Grace the Duke of
+Ventnor, I have always cautioned my subordinates not to judge too
+hastily from appearances.
+
+'Show the lady in,' I said, and there came to me, hesitating,
+backward, abashed, a middle-aged woman, dressed with distressing
+plainness, when one thinks of the charming costumes to be seen on a
+Parisian boulevard. Her subdued manner was that of one to whom the
+world had been cruel. I rose, bowed profoundly, and placed a chair at
+her disposal, with the air I should have used if my caller had been a
+Royal Princess. I claim no credit for this; it is of my nature. There
+you behold Eugene Valmont. My visitor was a woman. _Voila!_
+
+'Madam,' I said politely, 'in what may I have the pleasure of serving
+you?'
+
+The poor woman seemed for the moment confused, and was, I feared, on
+the verge of tears, but at last she spoke, and said,--
+
+'Perhaps you have read in the newspapers of the tragedy at Rantremly
+Castle?'
+
+'The name, madam, remains in my memory, associated elusively with some
+hint of seriousness. Will you pardon me a moment?' and a vague thought
+that I had seen the castle mentioned either in a newspaper, or a
+clipping from one, caused me to pick up the latest bunch which had
+come from my agent. I am imbued with no vanity at all; still it is
+amusing to note what the newspapers say of one, and therefore I have
+subscribed to a clipping agency. In fact, I indulge in two
+subscriptions--one personal; the other calling for any pronouncement
+pertaining to the differences between England and France; for it is my
+determination yet to write a book on the comparative characteristics
+of the two people. I hold a theory that the English people are utterly
+incomprehensible to the rest of humanity, and this will be duly set
+out in my forthcoming volume.
+
+I speedily found the clipping I was in search of. It proved to be a
+letter to the _Times_, and was headed: 'Proposed Destruction of
+Rantremly Castle'. The letter went on to say that this edifice was one
+of the most noted examples of Norman architecture in the north of
+England; that Charles II had hidden there for some days after his
+disastrous defeat at Worcester. Part of the castle had been battered
+down by Cromwell, and later it again proved the refuge of a Stuart
+when the Pretender made it a temporary place of concealment. The new
+Lord Rantremly, it seemed, had determined to demolish this ancient
+stronghold, so interesting architecturally and historically, and to
+build with its stones a modern residence. Against this act of
+vandalism the writer strongly protested, and suggested that England
+should acquire the power which France constantly exerts, in making an
+historical monument of an edifice so interwoven with the fortunes of
+the country.
+
+'Well, madam,' I said, 'all this extract alludes to is the coming
+demolition of Rantremly Castle. Is that the tragedy of which you
+speak?'
+
+'Oh no,' she exclaimed; 'I mean the death of the eleventh Lord
+Rantremly about six weeks ago. For ten years Lord Rantremly lived
+practically alone in the castle. Servants would not remain there
+because the place was haunted, and well it may be, for a terrible
+family the Rantremlys have been, and a cruel, as I shall be able to
+tell you. Up to a month and a half ago Lord Rantremly was waited on by
+a butler older than himself, and if possible, more wicked. One morning
+this old butler came up the stairs from the kitchen, with Lord
+Rantremly's breakfast on a silver tray, as was his custom. His
+lordship always partook of breakfast in his own room. It is not known
+how the accident happened, as the old servant was going up the stairs
+instead of coming down, but the steps are very smooth and slippery,
+and without a carpet; at any rate, he seems to have fallen from the
+top to the bottom, and lay there with a broken neck. Lord Rantremly,
+who was very deaf, seemingly did not hear the crash, and it is
+supposed that after ringing and ringing in vain, and doubtless working
+himself into a violent fit of temper--alas! too frequent an
+occurrence--the old nobleman got out of bed, and walked barefooted
+down the stair, coming at last upon the body of his ancient servant.
+There the man who arrived every morning to light the fires found them,
+the servant dead, and Lord Rantremly helpless from an attack of
+paralysis. The physicians say that only his eyes seemed alive, and
+they were filled with a great fear, and indeed that is not to be
+wondered at, after his wicked, wicked life. His right hand was but
+partially disabled, and with that he tried to scribble something which
+proved indecipherable. And so he died, and those who attended him at
+his last moments say that if ever a soul had a taste of future
+punishment before it left this earth, it was the soul of Lord
+Rantremly as it shone through those terror-stricken eyes.'
+
+Here the woman stopped, with a catch in her breath, as if the fear of
+that grim death-bed had communicated itself to her. I interjected
+calmness into an emotional situation by remarking in a commonplace
+tone,--'And it is the present Lord Rantremly who proposes to destroy
+the Castle, I suppose?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Is he the son of the late lord?'
+
+'No; he is a distant relative. The branch of the family to which he
+belongs has been engaged in commerce, and, I believe, its members are
+very wealthy.'
+
+'Well, madam, no doubt this is all extremely interesting, and rather
+gruesome. In what way are you concerned in these occurrences?'
+
+'Ten years ago I replied to an advertisement, there being required one
+who knew shorthand, who possessed a typewriting machine and a
+knowledge of French, to act as secretary to a nobleman. I was at that
+time twenty-three years old, and for two years had been trying to earn
+my living in London through the typing of manuscript. But I was making
+a hard struggle of it, so I applied for this position and got it.
+There are in the library of Rantremly Castle many documents relating
+to the Stuart exile in France. His lordship wished these documents
+sorted and catalogued, as well as copies taken of each. Many of the
+letters were in the French language, and these I was required to
+translate and type. It was a sombre place of residence, but the salary
+was good, and I saw before me work enough to keep me busy for years.
+Besides this, the task was extremely congenial, and I became absorbed
+in it, being young and romantically inclined. Here I seemed to live in
+the midst of these wonderful intrigues of long ago. Documents passed
+through my hands whose very possession at one period meant capital
+danger, bringing up even now visions of block, axe, and masked
+headsman. It seemed strange to me that so sinister a man as Lord
+Rantremly, who, I had heard, cared for nothing but drink and gambling,
+should have desired to promote this historical research, and, indeed,
+I soon found he felt nothing but contempt for it. However, he had
+undertaken it at the instance of his only son, then a young man of my
+own age, at Oxford University.
+
+'Lord Rantremly at that time was sixty-five years old. His countenance
+was dark, harsh, and imperious, and his language brutal. He indulged
+in frightful outbursts of temper, but he paid so well for service that
+there was no lack of it, as there has been since the ghost appeared
+some years ago. He was very tall, and of commanding appearance, but
+had a deformity in the shape of a club-foot, and walked with the
+halting step of those so afflicted. There were at that time servants
+in plenty at the castle, for although a tradition existed that the
+ghost of the founder of the house trod certain rooms, this ghost, it
+was said, never demonstrated its presence when the living
+representative of the family was a man with a club-foot. Tradition
+further affirmed that if this club-footed ghost allowed its halting
+footsteps to be heard while the reigning lord possessed a similar
+deformity, the conjunction foreshadowed the passing of title and
+estates to a stranger. The ghost haunted the castle only when it was
+occupied by a descendant whose two feet were normal. It seems that the
+founder of the house was a club-footed man, and this disagreeable
+peculiarity often missed one generation, and sometimes two, while at
+other times both father and son had club-feet, as was the case with
+the late Lord Rantremly and the young man at Oxford. I am not a
+believer in the supernatural, of course, but nevertheless it is
+strange that within the past few years everyone residing in the castle
+has heard the club-footed ghost, and now title and estates descend to
+a family that were utter strangers to the Rantremlys.'
+
+'Well, madam, this also sounds most alluring, and were my time not
+taken up with affairs more material than those to which you allude, I
+should be content to listen all day, but as it is--' I spread my hands
+and shrugged my shoulders.
+
+The woman with a deep sigh said,--
+
+'I am sorry to have taken so long, but I wished you to understand the
+situation, and now I will come direct to the heart of the case. I
+worked alone in the library, as I told you, much interested in what I
+was doing. The chaplain, a great friend of Lord Rantremly's son, and,
+indeed, a former tutor of his, assisted me with the documents that
+were in Latin, and a friendship sprang up between us. He was an
+elderly man, and extremely unworldly. Lord Rantremly never concealed
+his scorn of this clergyman, but did not interfere with him because of
+the son.
+
+'My work went on very pleasantly up to the time that Reginald, the
+heir of his lordship, came down from Oxford. Then began the happiest
+days of a life that has been otherwise full of hardships and distress.
+Reginald was as different as possible from his father. In one respect
+only did he bear any resemblance to that terrible old man, and this
+resemblance was the deformity of a club-foot, a blemish which one soon
+forgot when one came to know the gentle and high-minded nature of the
+young man. As I have said, it was at his instance that Lord Rantremly
+had engaged me to set in order those historical papers. Reginald
+became enthusiastic at the progress I had made, and thus the young
+nobleman, the chaplain, and myself continued our work together with
+ever-increasing enthusiasm.
+
+'To cut short a recital which must be trying to your patience, but
+which is necessary if you are to understand the situation, I may say
+that our companionship resulted in a proposal of marriage to me, which
+I, foolishly, perhaps, and selfishly, it may be, accepted. Reginald
+knew that his father would never consent, but we enlisted the sympathy
+of the chaplain, and he, mild, unworldly man, married us one day in
+the consecrated chapel of the castle.
+
+'As I have told you, the house at that time contained many servants,
+and I think, without being sure, that the butler, whom I feared even
+more than Lord Rantremly himself, got some inkling of what was going
+forward. But, be that as it may, he and his lordship entered the
+chapel just as the ceremony was finished, and there followed an
+agonising scene. His lordship flung the ancient chaplain from his
+place, and when Reginald attempted to interfere, the maddened nobleman
+struck his son full in the face with his clenched fist, and my husband
+lay as one dead on the stone floor of the chapel. By this time the
+butler had locked the doors, and had rudely torn the vestments from
+the aged, half-insensible clergyman, and with these tied him hand and
+foot. All this took place in a very few moments, and I stood there as
+one paralysed, unable either to speak or scream, not that screaming
+would have done me any good in that horrible place of thick walls. The
+butler produced a key, and unlocked a small, private door at the side
+of the chapel which led from the apartments of his lordship to the
+family pew. Then taking my husband by feet and shoulders, Lord
+Rantremly and the butler carried him out, locking the door, and
+leaving the clergyman and me prisoners in the chapel. The reverend old
+gentleman took no notice of me. He seemed to be dazed, and when at
+last I found my voice and addressed him, he merely murmured over and
+over texts of Scripture pertaining to the marriage service.
+
+'In a short time I heard the key turn again in the lock of the private
+door, and the butler entered alone. He unloosened the bands around the
+clergyman's knees, escorted him out, and once more locked the door
+behind him. A third time that terrible servant came back, grasped me
+roughly by the wrist, and without a word dragged me with him, along a
+narrow passage, up a stair, and finally to the main hall, and so to my
+lord's private study, which adjoined his bedroom, and there on a table
+I found my typewriting machine brought up from the library.
+
+'I have but the most confused recollection of what took place. I am
+not a courageous woman, and was in mortal terror both of Lord
+Rantremly and his attendant. His lordship was pacing up and down the
+room, and, when I came in, used the most unseemly language to me; then
+ordered me to write at his dictation, swearing that if I did not do
+exactly as he told me, he would finish his son, as he put it. I sat
+down at the machine, and he dictated a letter to himself, demanding
+two thousand pounds to be paid to me, otherwise I should claim that I
+was the wife of his son, secretly married. This, placing pen and ink
+before me, he compelled me to sign, and when I had done so, pleading
+to be allowed to see my husband, if only for a moment, I thought he
+was going to strike me, for he shook his fist in my face, and used
+words which were appalling to hear. That was the last I ever saw of
+Lord Rantremly, my husband, the clergyman, or the butler. I was at
+once sent off to London with my belongings, the butler himself buying
+my ticket, and flinging a handful of sovereigns into my lap as the
+train moved out.'
+
+Here the woman stopped, buried her face in her hands, and began to
+weep.
+
+'Have you done nothing about this for the past ten years?'
+
+She shook her head.
+
+'What could I do?' she gasped. 'I had little money, and no friends.
+Who would believe my story? Besides this, Lord Rantremly retained
+possession of a letter, signed by myself, that would convict me of
+attempted blackmail, while the butler would swear to anything against
+me.'
+
+'You have no marriage certificate, of course?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'What has become of the clergyman?'
+
+'I do not know.'
+
+'And what of Lord Rantremly's son?'
+
+'It was announced that he had gone on a voyage to Australia for his
+health in a sailing ship, which was wrecked on the African coast, and
+everyone on board lost.'
+
+'What is your own theory?'
+
+'Oh, my husband was killed by the blow given him in the chapel.'
+
+'Madam, that does not seem credible. A blow from the fist seldom
+kills.'
+
+'But he fell backwards, and his head struck the sharp stone steps at
+the foot of the altar. I know my husband was dead when the butler and
+his father carried him out.'
+
+'You think the clergyman was also murdered?'
+
+'I am sure of it. Both master and servant were capable of any crime or
+cruelty.'
+
+'You received no letters from the young man?'
+
+'No. You see, during our short friendship we were constantly together,
+and there was no need of correspondence.'
+
+'Well, madam, what do you expect of me?'
+
+'I hoped you would investigate, and find perhaps where Reginald and
+the clergyman are buried. I realise that I have no proof, but in that
+way my strange story will be corroborated.'
+
+I leaned back in my chair and looked at her. Truth to tell, I only
+partially credited her story myself, and yet I was positive she
+believed every word of it. Ten years brooding on a fancied injustice
+by a woman living alone, and doubtless often in dire poverty, had
+mixed together the actual and the imaginary until now, what had
+possibly been an aimless flirtation on the part of the young man,
+unexpectedly discovered by the father, had formed itself into the
+tragedy which she had told me.
+
+'Would it not be well,' I suggested, 'to lay the facts before the
+present Lord Rantremly?'
+
+'I have done so,' she answered simply.
+
+'With what result?'
+
+'His lordship said my story was preposterous. In examining the late
+lord's private papers, he discovered the letter which I typed and
+signed. He said very coldly that the fact that I had waited until
+everyone who could corroborate or deny my story was dead, united with
+the improbability of the narrative itself, would very likely consign
+me to prison if I made public a statement so incredible.'
+
+'Well, you know, madam, I think his lordship is right.'
+
+'He offered me an annuity of fifty pounds, which I refused.'
+
+'In that refusal, madam, I think you are wrong. If you take my advice,
+you will accept the annuity.'
+
+The woman rose slowly to her feet.
+
+'It is not money I am after,' she said, 'although, God knows, I have
+often been in sore need of it. But I am the Countess of Rantremly, and
+I wish my right to that name acknowledged. My character has been under
+an impalpable shadow for ten years. On several occasions mysterious
+hints have reached me that in some manner I left the castle under a
+cloud. If Lord Rantremly will destroy the letter which I was compelled
+to write under duress, and if he will give me written acknowledgment
+that there was nothing to be alleged against me during my stay in the
+castle, he may enjoy his money in peace for all of me. I want none of
+it.'
+
+'Have you asked him to do this?'
+
+'Yes. He refuses to give up or destroy the letter, although I told him
+in what circumstances it had been written. But, desiring to be fair,
+he said he would allow me a pound a week for life, entirely through
+his own generosity.'
+
+'And this you refused?'
+
+'Yes, I refused.'
+
+'Madam, I regret to say that I cannot see my way to do anything with
+regard to what I admit is very unjust usage. We have absolutely
+nothing to go upon except your unsupported word. Lord Rantremly was
+perfectly right when he said no one would credit your story. I could
+not go down to Rantremly Castle and make investigations there. I
+should have no right upon the premises at all, and would get into
+instant trouble as an interfering trespasser. I beg you to heed my
+advice, and accept the annuity.'
+
+Sophia Brooks, with that mild obstinacy of which I had received
+indications during her recital, slowly shook her head.
+
+'You have been very kind to listen for so long,' she said, and then,
+with a curt 'Good-day!' turned and left the room. On the sheet of
+paper underneath her address, I wrote this prophecy: 'Before the week
+is out, I predict that Lord Rantremly himself will call to see me.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning, at almost the same hour that Miss Brooks had arrived the
+day before, the Earl of Rantremly's card was brought in to me.
+
+His lordship proved to be an abrupt, ill-mannered, dapper business
+man; purse-proud, I should call him, as there was every reason he
+should be, for he had earned his own fortune. He was doubtless equally
+proud of his new title, which he was trying to live up to, assuming
+now and then a haughty, domineering attitude, and again relapsing into
+the keen, incisive manner of the man of affairs; shrewd financial
+sense waging a constant struggle with the glamour of an ancient name.
+I am sure he would have shone to better advantage either as a
+financier or as a nobleman, but the combination was too much for him.
+I formed an instinctive dislike to the man, which probably would not
+have happened had he been wearing the title for twenty years, or had I
+met him as a business man, with no thought of the aristocratic honour
+awaiting him. There seemed nothing in common between him and the
+former holder of the title. He had keen, ferrety eyes, a sharp
+financial nose, a thin-lipped line of mouth which indicated little of
+human kindness. He was short of stature, but he did not possess the
+club-foot, which was one advantage. He seated himself before I had
+time to offer him a chair, and kept on his hat in my presence, which
+he would not have done if he had either been a genuine nobleman or a
+courteous business man.
+
+'I am Lord Rantremly,' he announced pompously, which announcement was
+quite unnecessary, because I held his card in my hand.
+
+'Quite so, my lord. And you have come to learn whether or no I can lay
+the ghost in that old castle to the north which bears your name?'
+
+'Well, I'm blessed!' cried his lordship, agape. 'How could you guess
+that?'
+
+'Oh, it is not a guess, but rather a choice of two objects, either of
+which might bring you to my rooms. I chose the first motive because I
+thought you might prefer to arrange the second problem with your
+solicitor, and he doubtless told you that Miss Sophia Brooks's claim
+was absurd; that you were quite right in refusing to give up or
+destroy the typewritten letter she had signed ten years ago, and that
+it was weakness on your part, without consulting him, to offer her an
+annuity of fifty-two pounds a year.'
+
+Long before this harangue was finished, which I uttered in an easy and
+nonchalant tone of voice, as if reciting something that everybody
+knew, his lordship stood on his feet again, staring at me like a man
+thunderstruck. This gave me the opportunity of exercising that
+politeness which his abrupt entrance and demeanour had forestalled. I
+rose, and bowing, said,--
+
+'I pray you to be seated, my lord.'
+
+He dropped into the chair, rather than sat down in it.
+
+'And now,' I continued, with the utmost suavity, stretching forth my
+hand, 'may I place your hat on this shelf out of the way, where it
+will not incommode you during our discourse?'
+
+Like a man in a dream, he took his hat from his head, and passively
+handed it to me, and after placing it in safety I resumed my chair
+with the comfortable feeling that his lordship and I were much nearer
+a plane of equality than when he entered the room.
+
+'How about the ghost with a club-foot, my lord?' said I genially. 'May
+I take it that in the City, that sensible, commercial portion of
+London, no spirits are believed in except those sold over the bars?'
+
+'If you mean,' began his lordship, struggling to reach his dignity
+once more, 'if you mean to ask if there is any man fool enough to
+place credit in the story of a ghost, I answer no. I am a practical
+man, sir. I now possess in the north property representing, in farming
+lands, in shooting rights, and what not, a locked-up capital of many
+a thousand pounds. As you seem to know everything, sir, perhaps you
+are aware that I propose to build a modern mansion on the estate.'
+
+'Yes; I saw the letter in the _Times_.'
+
+'Very well, sir. It has come to a fine pass if, in this country of law
+and the rights of property, a man may not do what he pleases with his
+own.'
+
+'I think, my lord, cases may be cited where the decisions of your
+courts have shown a man may not do what he likes with his own.
+Nevertheless, I am quite certain that if you level Rantremly Castle
+with the ground, and build a modern mansion in its place, the law will
+not hinder you.'
+
+'I should hope not, sir, I should hope not,' said his lordship
+gruffly. 'Nevertheless, I am not one who wishes to ride roughshod over
+public opinion.
+
+'I am chairman of several companies which depend more or less on
+popular favour for success. I deplore unnecessary antagonism.
+Technically, I might assert my right to destroy this ancient
+stronghold tomorrow if I wished to do so, and if that right were
+seriously disputed, I should, of course, stand firm. But it is not
+seriously disputed. The British nation, sir, is too sensible a people
+to object to the removal of an antiquated structure that has long
+outlived its usefulness, and the erection of a mansion replete with
+all modern improvements would be a distinct addition to the country,
+sir. A few impertinent busybodies protest against the demolition of
+Rantremly Castle, but that is all.'
+
+'Ah, then you _do_ intend to destroy it?' I rejoined, and it is
+possible that a touch of regret was manifest in my tones.
+
+'Not just at present; not until this vulgar clamour has had time to
+subside. Nevertheless, as a business man, I am forced to recognise
+that a large amount of unproductive capital is locked up in that
+property.'
+
+'And why is it locked up?'
+
+'Because of an absurd belief that the place is haunted. I could let it
+tomorrow at a good figure, if it were not for that rumour.'
+
+'But surely sensible men do not pay any attention to such a rumour.'
+
+'Sensible men may not, but sensible men are often married to silly
+women, and the women object. It is only the other day that I was in
+negotiation with Bates, of Bates, Sturgeon and Bates, a very wealthy
+man, quite able and willing to pay the price I demanded. He cared
+nothing about the alleged ghost, but his family absolutely refused to
+have anything to do with the place, and so the arrangement fell
+through.'
+
+'What is your theory regarding this ghost, my lord?'
+
+He answered me with some impatience.
+
+'How can a sane man hold a theory about a ghost? I can, however,
+advance a theory regarding the noises heard in the castle. For years
+that place has been the resort of questionable characters.'
+
+'I understand the Rantremly family is a very old one,' I commented
+innocently, but his lordship did not notice the innuendo.
+
+'Yes, we are an old family,' he went on with great complacency. 'The
+castle, as perhaps you are aware, is a huge, ramshackle place,
+honeycombed underneath with cellars. I dare say in the old days some
+of these cellars and caves were the resort of smugglers, and the
+receptacle of their contraband wares, doubtless with the full
+knowledge of my ancestors, who, I regret to admit, as a business man,
+were not too particular in their respect for law. I make no doubt that
+the castle is now the refuge of a number of dangerous characters, who,
+knowing the legends of the place, frighten away fools by impersonating
+ghosts.'
+
+'You wish me to uncover their retreat, then?'
+
+'Precisely.'
+
+'Could I get accommodation in the castle itself?'
+
+'Lord bless you, no! Nor within two miles of it. You might secure bed
+and board at the porter's lodge, perhaps, or in the village, which is
+three miles distant.'
+
+'I should prefer to live in the castle night and day, until the
+mystery is solved.'
+
+'Ah, you are a practical man. That is a very sensible resolution. But
+you can persuade no one in that neighbourhood to bear you company. You
+would need to take some person down with you from London, and the
+chances are, that person will not stay long.'
+
+'Perhaps, my lord, if you used your influence, the chief of police in
+the village might allow a constable to bear me company. I do not mind
+roughing it in the least, but I should like someone to prepare my
+meals, and to be on hand in case of a struggle, should your surmise
+concerning the ghost prove correct.'
+
+'I regret to inform you,' said his lordship, 'that the police in that
+barbarous district are as superstitious as the peasantry. I, myself,
+told the chief constable my theory, and for six weeks he has been
+trying to run down the miscreants, who, I am sure, are making a
+rendezvous of the castle. Would you believe it, sir, that the
+constabulary, after a few nights' experience in the castle, threatened
+to resign in a body if they were placed on duty at Rantremly? They
+said they heard groans and shrieks, and the measured beat of a
+club-foot on the oaken floors. Perfectly absurd, of course, but there
+you are! Why, I cannot even get a charwoman or labourer to clear up
+the evidences of the tragedy which took place there six weeks ago. The
+beds are untouched, the broken china and the silver tray lie today at
+the foot of the stairway, and everything remains just as it was when
+the inquest took place.'
+
+'Very well, my lord, the case presents many difficulties, and so,
+speaking as one business man to another, you will understand that my
+compensation must be correspondingly great.'
+
+All the assumed dignity which straightened up this man whenever I
+addressed him as 'my lord', instantly fell from him when I enunciated
+the word 'compensation'. His eyes narrowed, and all the native
+shrewdness of an adept skinflint appeared in his face. I shall do him
+the justice to say that he drove the very best bargain he could with
+me, and I, on my part, very deftly concealed from him the fact that I
+was so much interested in the affair that I should have gone down to
+Rantremly for nothing rather than forgo the privilege of ransacking
+Rantremly Castle.
+
+When the new earl had taken his departure, walking to the door with
+the haughty air of a nobleman, then bowing to me with the affability
+of a business man, I left my flat, took a cab, and speedily found
+myself climbing the stair to the first floor of 51 Beaumont Street,
+Strand. As I paused at the door on which were painted the words, 'S.
+Brooks, Stenography, Typewriting, Translation', I heard the rapid
+click-click of a machine inside. Knocking at the door the writing
+ceased, and I was bidden to enter. The room was but meagrely
+furnished, and showed scant signs of prosperity. On a small
+side-table, clean, but uncovered, the breakfast dishes, washed, but
+not yet put away, stood, and the kettle on the hob by the dying fire
+led me to infer that the typewriting woman was her own cook. I
+suspected that the awkward-looking sofa which partly occupied one side
+of the room, concealed a bed. By the lone front window stood the
+typewriting machine on a small stand, and in front of it sat the woman
+who had visited me the morning before. She was now gazing at me,
+probably hoping I was a customer, for there was no recognition in her
+eyes.
+
+'Good-morning, Lady Rantremly,' was my greeting, which caused her to
+spring immediately to her feet, with a little exclamation of surprise.
+
+'Oh,' she said at last, 'you are Monsieur Valmont. Excuse me that I am
+so stupid. Will you take a chair?'
+
+'Thank you, madam. It is I who should ask to be excused for so
+unceremonious a morning call. I have come to ask you a question. Can
+you cook?'
+
+The lady looked at me with some surprise, mingled perhaps with so much
+of indignation as such a mild person could assume. She did not reply,
+but, glancing at the kettle, and then turning towards the breakfast
+dishes on the table by the wall, a slow flush of colour suffused her
+wan cheeks.
+
+'My lady,' I said at last, as the silence became embarrassing, 'you
+must pardon the impulse of a foreigner who finds himself constantly
+brought into conflict with prejudices which he fails to understand.
+You are perhaps offended at my question. The last person of whom I
+made that inquiry was the young and beautiful Madame la Comtesse de
+Valerie-Moberanne, who enthusiastically clapped her hands with delight
+at the compliment, and replied impulsively,--
+
+'"Oh, Monsieur Valmont, let me compose for you an omelette which will
+prove a dream," and she did. One should not forget that Louis XVIII
+himself cooked the _truffes a la puree d'ortolans_ that caused the Duc
+d'Escars, who partook of the royal dish, to die of an indigestion.
+Cooking is a noble, yes, a regal art. I am a Frenchman, my lady, and,
+like all my countrymen, regard the occupation of a cuisiniere as
+infinitely superior to the manipulation of that machine, which is your
+profession, or the science of investigation, which is mine.'
+
+'Sir,' she said, quite unmollified by my harangue, speaking with a
+lofty pride which somehow seemed much more natural than that so
+intermittently assumed by my recent visitor, 'Sir, have you come to
+offer me a situation as cook?'
+
+'Yes, madam, at Rantremly Castle.'
+
+'You are going there?' she demanded, almost breathlessly.
+
+'Yes, madam, I leave on the ten o'clock train tomorrow morning. I am
+commissioned by Lord Rantremly to investigate the supposed presence of
+the ghost in that mouldering dwelling. I am allowed to bring with me
+whatever assistants I require, and am assured that no one in the
+neighbourhood can be retained who dare sleep in the castle. You know
+the place very well, having lived there, so I shall be glad of your
+assistance if you will come. If there is any person whom you can
+trust, and who is not afraid of ghosts, I shall be delighted to escort
+you both to Rantremly Castle tomorrow.'
+
+'There is an old woman,' she said, 'who comes here to clear up my
+room, and do whatever I wish done. She is so deaf that she will hear
+no ghosts, and besides, monsieur, she can cook.'
+
+I laughed in acknowledgment of this last sly hit at me, as the English
+say.
+
+'That will do excellently,' I replied, rising, and placing a ten-pound
+note before her. 'I suggest, madam, that you purchase with this
+anything you may need. My man has instructions to send by passenger
+train a huge case of provisions, which should arrive there before us.
+If you could make it convenient to meet me at Euston Station about a
+quarter of an hour before the train leaves, we may be able to discover
+all you wish to know regarding the mystery of Rantremly Castle.'
+
+Sophia Brooks accepted the money without demur, and thanked me. I
+could see that her thin hands were trembling with excitement as she
+put the crackling banknote into her purse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Darkness was coming on next evening before we were installed in the
+grim building, which at first sight seemed more like a fortress than a
+residence. I had telegraphed from London to order a wagonette for us,
+and in this vehicle we drove to the police station, where I presented
+the written order from Lord Rantremly for the keys of the castle. The
+chief constable himself, a stolid, taciturn person, exhibited,
+nevertheless, some interest in my mission, and he was good enough to
+take the fourth seat in the wagonette, and accompany us through the
+park to the castle, returning in that conveyance to the village as
+nightfall approached, and I could not but notice that this grave
+official betrayed some uneasiness to get off before dusk had
+completely set in. Silent as he was, I soon learned that he entirely
+disbelieved Lord Rantremly's theory that the castle harboured
+dangerous characters, yet so great was his inherent respect for the
+nobility that I could not induce him to dispute with any decisiveness
+his lordship's conjecture. It was plain to be seen, however, that the
+chief constable believed implicitly in the club-footed ghost. I asked
+him to return the next morning, as I should spend the night in
+investigation, and might possibly have some questions to ask him,
+questions which none but the chief constable could answer. The good
+man promised, and left us rather hurriedly, the driver of the
+wagonette galloping his horse down the long, sombre avenue towards the
+village outside the gates.
+
+I found Sophia Brooks but a doleful companion, and of very little
+assistance that evening. She seemed overcome by her remembrances. She
+had visited the library where her former work was done, doubtless the
+scene of her brief love episode, and she returned with red eyes and
+trembling chin, telling me haltingly that the great tome from which
+she was working ten years ago, and which had been left open on the
+solid library table, was still there exactly as she had placed it
+before being forced to abandon her work. For a decade apparently no
+one had entered that library. I could not but sympathise with the poor
+lady, thus revisiting, almost herself like a ghost, the haunted arena
+of her short happiness. But though she proved so dismal a companion,
+the old woman who came with her was a treasure. Having lived all her
+life in some semi-slum near the Strand, and having rarely experienced
+more than a summer's-day glimpse of the country, the long journey had
+delighted her, and now this rambling old castle in the midst of the
+forest seemed to realise all the dreams which a perusal of halfpenny
+fiction had engendered in her imagination. She lit a fire, and cooked
+for us a very creditable supper, bustling about the place, singing to
+herself in a high key.
+
+Shortly after supper Sophia Brooks, exhausted as much by her emotions
+and memories as by her long journey of that day, retired to rest.
+After being left to myself I smoked some cigarettes, and finished a
+bottle of superb claret which stood at my elbow. A few hours before I
+had undoubtedly fallen in the estimation of the stolid constable when,
+instead of asking him questions regarding the tragedy, I had inquired
+the position of the wine cellar, and obtained possession of the key
+that opened its portal. The sight of bin after bin of dust-laden,
+cobwebbed bottles, did more than anything else to reconcile me to my
+lonely vigil. There were some notable vintages represented in that
+dismal cavern.
+
+It was perhaps half-past ten or eleven o'clock when I began my
+investigations. I had taken the precaution to provide myself with half
+a dozen so-called electric torches before I left London. These give
+illumination for twenty or thirty hours steadily, and much longer if
+the flash is used only now and then. The torch is a thick tube,
+perhaps a foot and a half long, with a bull's-eye of glass at one end.
+By pressing a spring the electric rays project like the illumination
+of an engine's headlight. A release of the spring causes instant
+darkness. I have found this invention useful in that it concentrates
+the light on any particular spot desired, leaving all the surroundings
+in gloom, so that the mind is not distracted, even unconsciously, by
+the eye beholding more than is necessary at the moment. One pours a
+white light over any particular substance as water is poured from the
+nozzle of a hose.
+
+The great house was almost painfully silent. I took one of these
+torches, and went to the foot of the grand staircase where the wicked
+butler had met his death. There, as his lordship had said, lay the
+silver tray, and nearby a silver jug, a pair of spoons, a knife and
+fork, and scattered all around the fragments of broken plates, cups,
+and saucers. With an exclamation of surprise at the stupidity of the
+researchers who had preceded me, I ran up the stair two steps at a
+time, turned to the right, and along the corridor until I came to the
+room occupied by the late earl. The coverings of the bed lay turned
+down just as they were when his lordship sprang to the floor,
+doubtless, in spite of his deafness, having heard faintly the fatal
+crash at the foot of the stairs. A great oaken chest stood at the head
+of the bed, perhaps six inches from the wall. Leaning against this
+chest at the edge of the bed inclined a small, round table, and the
+cover of the table had slipped from its sloping surface until it
+partly concealed the chest lid. I mounted on this carven box of old
+black oak and directed the rays of electric light into the chasm
+between it and the wall. Then I laughed aloud, and was somewhat
+startled to hear another laugh directly behind me. I jumped down on
+the floor again, and swung round my torch like a searchlight on a
+battleship at sea. There was no human presence in that chamber except
+myself. Of course, after my first moment of surprise, I realised that
+the laugh was but an echo of my own. The old walls of the old house
+were like sounding-boards. The place resembled an ancient fiddle,
+still tremulous with the music that had been played on it. It was easy
+to understand how a superstitious population came to believe in its
+being haunted; in fact, I found by experiment that if one trod quickly
+along the uncovered floor of the corridor, and stopped suddenly, one
+seemed to hear the sound of steps still going on.
+
+I now returned to the stair head, and examined the bare polished
+boards with most gratifying results. Amazed at having learnt so much
+in such a short time, I took from my pocket the paper on which the
+dying nobleman had attempted to write with his half-paralysed hand.
+The chief constable had given the document to me, and I sat on the
+stair head, spread it out on the floor and scrutinised it. It was all
+but meaningless. Apparently two words and the initial letter of a
+third had been attempted. Now, however grotesque a piece of writing
+may be, you can sometimes decipher it by holding it at various angles,
+as those puzzles are solved which remain a mystery when gazed at
+direct. By partially closing the eyes you frequently catch the intent,
+as in those pictures where a human figure is concealed among the
+outlines of trees and leaves. I held the paper at arm's length, and
+with the electric light gleaming upon it, examined it at all angles,
+with eyes wide open, and eyes half closed. At last, inclining it away
+from me, I saw that the words were intended to mean, 'The Secret'. The
+secret, of course, was what he was trying to impart, but he had
+apparently got no further than the title of it. Deeply absorbed in my
+investigation, I was never more startled in my life than to hear in
+the stillness down the corridor the gasped words, '_Oh, God!_'
+
+I swept round my light, and saw leaning against the wall, in an almost
+fainting condition, Sophia Brooks, her eyes staring like those of a
+demented person, and her face white as any ghost's could have been.
+Wrapped round her was a dressing-gown. I sprang to my feet.
+
+'What are you doing there?' I cried.
+
+'Oh, is that you, Monsieur Valmont? Thank God, thank God! I thought I
+was going insane. I saw a hand, a bodiless hand, holding a white sheet
+of paper.'
+
+'The hand was far from bodiless, madam, for it belonged to me. But why
+are you here? It must be near midnight.'
+
+'It _is_ midnight,' answered the woman; 'I came here because I heard
+my husband call me three times distinctly, "Sophia, Sophia, Sophia!"
+just like that.'
+
+'Nonsense, madam,' I said, with an asperity I seldom use where the
+fair sex is concerned; but I began to see that this hysterical
+creature was going to be in the way during a research that called for
+coolness and calmness. I was sorry I had invited her to come.
+'Nonsense, madam, you have been dreaming.'
+
+'Indeed, Monsieur Valmont, I have not. I have not even been asleep,
+and I heard the words quite plainly. You must not think I am either
+mad or superstitious.'
+
+I thought she was both, and next moment she gave further evidence of
+it, running suddenly forward, and clutching me by the arm.
+
+'Listen! listen!' she whispered. 'You hear nothing?'
+
+'Nonsense!' I cried again, almost roughly for my patience was at an
+end, and I wished to go on with my inquiry undisturbed.
+
+'Hist, hist!' she whispered; 'listen!' holding up her finger. We both
+stood like statues, and suddenly I felt that curious creeping of the
+scalp which shows that even the most civilised among us have not yet
+eliminated superstitious fear. In the tense silence I heard someone
+slowly coming up the stair; I heard the halting step of a lame man. In
+the tension of the moment I had allowed the light to go out; now
+recovering myself, I pressed the spring, and waved its rays backward
+and forward down the stairway. The space was entirely empty, yet the
+hesitating footsteps approached us, up and up. I could almost have
+sworn on which step they last struck. At this interesting moment
+Sophia Brooks uttered a piercing shriek and collapsed into my arms,
+sending the electric torch rattling down the steps, and leaving us in
+impenetrable darkness. Really, I profess myself to be a gallant man,
+but there are situations which have a tendency to cause annoyance. I
+carried the limp creature cautiously down the stairs, fearing the fate
+of the butler, and at last got her into the dining-room, where I lit a
+candle, which gave a light less brilliant, perhaps, but more steady
+than my torch. I dashed some water in her face, and brought her to her
+senses, then uncorking another bottle of wine, I bade her drink a
+glassful, which she did.
+
+'What was it?' she whispered.
+
+'Madam, I do not know. Very possibly the club-footed ghost of
+Rantremly.'
+
+'Do you believe in ghosts, Monsieur Valmont?'
+
+'Last night I did not, but at this hour I believe in only one thing,
+which is that it is time everyone was asleep.'
+
+She rose to her feet at this, and with a tremulous little laugh
+apologised for her terror, but I assured her that for the moment there
+were two panic-stricken persons at the stair head. Taking the candle,
+and recovering my electric torch, which luckily was uninjured by its
+roll down the incline the butler had taken, I escorted the lady to the
+door of her room, and bade her good-night, or rather, good-morning.
+
+The rising sun dissipated a slight veil of mist which hung over the
+park, and also dissolved, so far as I was concerned, the phantoms
+which my imagination had conjured up at midnight. It was about
+half-past ten when the chief constable arrived. I flatter myself I put
+some life into that unimaginative man before I was done with him.
+
+'What made you think that the butler was mounting the stair when he
+fell?'
+
+'He was going up with my lord's breakfast,' replied the chief.
+
+'Then did it not occur to you that if such were the case, the silver
+pitcher would not have been empty, and, besides the broken dishes,
+there would have been the rolls, butter, toast, or what not, strewn
+about the floor?'
+
+The chief constable opened his eyes.
+
+'There was no one else for him to bring breakfast to,' he objected.
+
+'That is where you are very much mistaken. Bring me the boots the
+butler wore.'
+
+'He did not wear boots, sir. He wore a pair of cloth slippers.'
+
+'Do you know where they are?'
+
+'Yes; they are in the boot closet.'
+
+'Very well, bring them out, examine their soles, and sticking in one
+of them you will find a short sliver of pointed oak.'
+
+The constable, looking slightly more stupefied than ever, brought the
+slippers, and I heard him ejaculate: 'Well, I'm blowed!' as he
+approached me. He handed me the slippers soles upward, and there, as I
+have stated, was the fragment of oak, which I pulled out.
+
+'Now, if you take this piece of oak to the top of the stair, you will
+see that it fits exactly a slight interstice at the edge of one of the
+planks. It is as well to keep one's eyes open, constable, when
+investigating a case like this.'
+
+'Well, I'm blowed!' he said again, as we walked up the stair
+together.
+
+I showed him that the sliver taken from the slipper fitted exactly the
+interstice I had indicated.
+
+'Now,' said I to him, 'the butler was not going up the stairs, but was
+coming down. When he fell headlong he must have made a fearful
+clatter. Shuffling along with his burden, his slipper was impaled by
+this sliver, and the butler's hands being full, he could not save
+himself, but went head foremost down the stair. The startling point,
+however, is the fact that he was _not_ carrying my lord's breakfast to
+him, or taking it away from him, but that there is someone else in the
+castle for whom he was caterer. Who is that person?'
+
+'I'm blessed if I know,' said the constable, 'but I think you are
+wrong there. He may not have been carrying up the breakfast, but he
+certainly was taking away the tray, as is shown by the empty dishes,
+which you have just a moment ago pointed out.'
+
+'No, constable; when his lordship heard the crash, and sprang
+impulsively from his bed, he upset the little table on which had been
+placed his own tray; it shot over the oaken chest at the head of the
+bed, and if you look between it and the wall you will find tray,
+dishes, and the remnants of a breakfast.'
+
+'Well, I'm blessed!' exclaimed the chief constable once again.
+
+'The main point of all this,' I went on calmly, 'is not the disaster
+to the butler, nor even the shock to his lordship, but the fact that
+the tray the serving man carried brought food to a prisoner, who
+probably for six weeks has been without anything to eat.'
+
+'Then,' said the constable, 'he is a dead man.'
+
+'I find it easier,' said I, 'to believe in a living man than in a dead
+man's ghost. I think I heard his footsteps at midnight, and they
+seemed to me the footsteps of a person very nearly exhausted.
+Therefore, constable, I have awaited your arrival with some
+impatience. The words his late lordship endeavoured to write on the
+paper were "The Secret". I am sure that the hieroglyphics with which
+he ended his effort stood for the letter "R", and if he finished his
+sentence, it would have stood: "The secret room". Now, constable, it
+is a matter of legend that a secret room exists in this castle. Do you
+know where it is?'
+
+'No one knows where the secret room is, or the way to enter it, except
+the Lords of Rantremly.'
+
+'Well, I can assure you that the Lord of Rantremly who lives in London
+knows nothing about it. I have been up and about since daylight,
+taking some rough measurements by stepping off distances. I surmise
+that the secret room is to the left of this stairway. Probably a whole
+suite of rooms exists, for there is certainly a stair coinciding with
+this one, and up that stair at midnight I heard a club-footed man
+ascend. Either that, or the ghost that has frightened you all, and, as
+I have said, I believe in the man.'
+
+Here the official made the first sensible remark I had yet heard him
+utter:--
+
+'If the walls are so thick that a prisoner's cry has not been heard,
+how could you hear his footsteps, which make much less noise?'
+
+'That is very well put, constable, and when the same thing occurred to
+me earlier this morning, I began to study the architecture of this
+castle. In the first place, the entrance hall is double as wide at the
+big doors as it is near the stairway. If you stand with your back to
+the front door you will at once wonder why the builders made this
+curious and unnecessary right angle, narrowing the farther part of the
+hall to half its width. Then, as you gaze at the stair, and see that
+marvellous carved oak newel post standing like a monumental column,
+you guess, if you have any imagination, that the stairway, like the
+hall, was once double as wide as it is now. We are seeing only half of
+it, and doubtless we shall find a similar newel post within the hidden
+room. You must remember, constable, that these secret apartments are
+no small added chambers. Twice they have sheltered a king.'
+
+The constable's head bent low at the mention of royalty. I saw that
+his insular prejudice against me and my methods was vanishing, and
+that he had come to look upon me with greater respect than was shown
+at first.
+
+'The walls need not be thick to be impenetrable to sound. Two courses
+of brick, and a space between filled with deafening would do it. The
+secret apartment has been cut off from the rest of the house since the
+castle was built, and was not designed by the original architect. The
+partition was probably built in a hurry to fulfil a pressing need, and
+it was constructed straight up the middle of the stair, leaving the
+stout planks intact, each step passing thus, as it were, through the
+wall. Now, when a man walks up the secret stairway, his footsteps
+reverberate until one would swear that some unseen person was treading
+the visible boards on the outside.'
+
+'By Jove!' said the constable, in an awed tone of voice.
+
+'Now, officer, I have here a pickaxe and a crowbar. I propose that we
+settle the question at once.'
+
+But to this proposal the constable demurred.
+
+'You surely would not break the wall without permission from his
+lordship in London?'
+
+'Constable, I suspect there is no Lord Rantremly in London, and that
+we will find a very emaciated but genuine Lord Rantremly within ten
+feet of us. I need not tell you that if you are instrumental in his
+immediate rescue without the exercise of too much red tape, your
+interests will not suffer because you the more speedily brought food
+and drink to the lord paramount of your district.'
+
+'Right you are,' cried the constable, with an enthusiasm for which I
+was not prepared. 'Where shall we begin?'
+
+'Oh, anywhere; this wall is all false from the entrance hall to some
+point up here. Still, as the butler was carrying the meal upstairs I
+think we shall save time if we begin on the landing.'
+
+I found the constable's brawn much superior to his brain. He worked
+like a sansculotte on a barricade. When we had torn down part of the
+old oak panelling, which it seemed such a pity to mutilate with axe
+and crowbar, we came upon a brick wall, that quickly gave way before
+the strength of the constable. Then we pulled out some substance like
+matting, and found a second brick wall, beyond which was a further
+shell of panelling. The hole we made revealed nothing but darkness
+inside, and although we shouted, there was no answer. At last, when we
+had hewn it large enough for a man to enter, I took with me an
+electric torch, and stepped inside, the constable following, with
+crowbar still in hand. I learned, as I had surmised, that we were in
+the upper hall of a staircase nearly as wide as the one on the
+outside. A flash of the light showed a door corresponding with the
+fireplace of the upper landing, and this door not being locked, we
+entered a large room, rather dimly lighted by strongly barred windows
+that gave into a blind courtyard, of which there had been no
+indication heretofore, either outside or inside the castle. Broken
+glass crunched under our feet, and I saw that the floor was strewn
+with wine bottles whose necks had been snapped off to save the pulling
+of the cork. On a mattress at the farther end of the room lay a man
+with gray hair, and shaggy, unkempt iron-gray beard. He seemed either
+asleep or dead, but when I turned my electric light full on his face
+he proved to be still alive, for he rubbed his eyes languidly, and
+groaned, rather than spoke:--
+
+'Is that you at last, you beast of a butler? Bring me something to
+eat, in Heaven's name!'
+
+I shook him wider awake. He seemed to be drowsed with drink, and was
+fearfully emaciated. When I got him on his feet, I noticed then the
+deformity that characterised one of them. We assisted him through the
+aperture, and down into the dining-room, where he cried out
+continually for something to eat, but when we placed food before him,
+he could scarcely touch it. He became more like a human being when he
+had drunk two glasses of wine, and I saw at once he was not as old as
+his gray hair seemed to indicate. There was a haunted look in his
+eyes, and he watched the door as if apprehensive.
+
+'Where is that butler?' he asked at last.
+
+'Dead,' I replied.
+
+'Did I kill him?'
+
+'No; he fell down the stairway and broke his neck.'
+
+The man laughed harshly.
+
+'Where is my father?'
+
+'Who is your father?'
+
+'Lord Rantremly.'
+
+'He is dead also.'
+
+'How came he to die?'
+
+'He died from a stroke of paralysis on the morning the butler was
+killed.'
+
+The rescued man made no comment on this, but turned and ate a little
+more of his food. Then he said to me:--
+
+'Do you know a girl named Sophia Brooks?'
+
+'Yes. For ten years she thought you dead.'
+
+'Ten years! Good God, do you mean to say I've been in there only ten
+years? Why, I'm an old man. I must be sixty at least.'
+
+'No; you're not much over thirty.'
+
+'Is Sophia--' He stopped, and the haunted look came into his eyes
+again.
+
+'No. She is all right, and she is here.'
+
+'Here?'
+
+'Somewhere in the grounds. I sent her and the servant out for a walk,
+and told them not to return till luncheon time, as the constable and I
+had something to do, and did not wish to be interrupted.'
+
+The man ran his hand through his long tangled beard.
+
+'I should like to be trimmed up a bit before I see Sophia,' he said.
+
+'I can do that for you, my lord,' cried the constable.
+
+'My lord?' echoed the man. 'Oh, yes, I understand. You are a
+policeman, are you not?'
+
+'Yes, my lord, chief constable.'
+
+'Then I shall give myself up to you. I killed the butler.'
+
+'Oh, impossible, my lord!'
+
+'No, it isn't. The beast, as I called him, was getting old, and one
+morning he forgot to close the door behind him. I followed him
+stealthily out, and at the head of the stair planted my foot in the
+small of his back, which sent him headlong. There was an infernal
+crash. I did not mean to kill the brute, but merely to escape, and
+just as I was about to run down the stairway, I was appalled to see my
+father looking like--looking like--well, I won't attempt to say what
+he looked like; but all my old fear of him returned. As he strode
+towards me, along the corridor, I was in such terror that I jumped
+through the secret door and slammed it shut.'
+
+'Where is the secret door?' I asked.
+
+'The secret door is that fireplace. The whole fireplace moves inward
+if you push aside the carved ornament at the left-hand corner.'
+
+'Is it a dummy fireplace, then?'
+
+'No, you may build a fire in it, and the smoke will escape up the
+chimney. But I killed the butler, constable, though not intending it,
+I swear.'
+
+And now the constable shone forth like the real rough diamond he was.
+
+'My lord, we'll say nothing about that. Legally you didn't do it. You
+see, there's been an inquest on the butler and the jury brought in the
+verdict, "Death by accident, through stumbling from the top of the
+stair." You can't go behind a coroner's inquest, my lord.'
+
+'Indeed,' said his lordship, with the first laugh in which he had
+indulged for many a year. 'I don't want to go behind anything,
+constable, I've been behind that accursed chimney too long to wish any
+further imprisonment.'
+
+
+
+
+7. _The Liberation of Wyoming Ed_
+
+
+A man should present the whole truth to his doctor, his lawyer, or his
+detective. If a doctor is to cure, he must be given the full
+confidence of the patient; if a lawyer is to win a case he needs to
+know what tells against his client as well as the points in his
+favour; if a secret agent is to solve a mystery all the cards should
+be put on the table. Those who half trust a professional man need not
+be disappointed when results prove unsatisfactory.
+
+A partial confidence reposed in me led to the liberation of a
+dangerous criminal, caused me to associate with a robber much against
+my own inclination, and brought me within danger of the law. Of
+course, I never pretend to possess that absolute confidence in the law
+which seems to be the birthright of every Englishman. I have lived too
+intimately among the machinery of the law, and have seen too many of
+its ghastly mistakes, to hold it in that blind esteem which appears to
+be prevalent in the British Isles.
+
+There is a doggerel couplet which typifies this spirit better than
+anything I can write, and it runs:--
+
+    No rogue e'er felt the halter draw,
+    With a good opinion of the law.
+
+Those lines exemplify the trend of British thought in this direction.
+If you question a verdict of their courts you are a rogue, and that
+ends the matter. And yet when an Englishman undertakes to circumvent
+the law, there is no other man on earth who will go to greater
+lengths. An amazing people! Never understandable by the sane of other
+countries.
+
+It was entirely my own fault that I became involved in affairs which
+were almost indefensible and wholly illegal.
+
+My client first tried to bribe me into compliance with his wishes,
+which bribe I sternly refused. Then he partially broke down and, quite
+unconsciously as I take it, made an appeal to the heart--a strange
+thing for an Englishman to do. My kind heart has ever been my most
+vulnerable point. We French are sentimentalists. France has before now
+staked its very existence for an ideal, while other countries fight
+for continents, cash, or commerce. You cannot pierce me with a lance
+of gold, but wave a wand of sympathy, and I am yours.
+
+There waited upon me in my flat a man who gave his name as Douglas
+Sanderson, which may or may not have been his legitimate title. This
+was a question into which I never probed, and at the moment of writing
+am as ignorant of his true cognomen, if that was not it, as on the
+morning he first met me. He was an elderly man of natural dignity and
+sobriety, slow in speech, almost sombre in dress. His costume was not
+quite that of a professional man, and not quite that of a gentleman. I
+at once recognised the order to which he belonged, and a most
+difficult class it is to deal with. He was the confidential servant or
+steward of some ancient and probably noble family, embodying in
+himself all the faults and virtues, each a trifle accentuated, of the
+line he served, and to which, in order to produce him and his like,
+his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had doubtless been
+attached. It is frequently the case that the honour of the house he
+serves is more dear to him than it is to the representative of that
+house. Such a man is almost always the repository of family secrets; a
+repository whose inviolability gold cannot affect, threats sway, or
+cajolery influence.
+
+I knew, when I looked at him, that practically I was looking at his
+master, for I have known many cases where even the personal appearance
+of the two was almost identical, which may have given rise to the
+English phrase, 'Like master, like man.' The servant was a little more
+haughty, a little less kind, a little more exclusive, a little less
+confidential, a little more condescending, a little less human, a
+little more Tory, and altogether a little less pleasant and easy
+person to deal with.
+
+'Sir,' he began, when I had waved him to a seat, 'I am a very rich
+man, and can afford to pay well for the commission I request you to
+undertake. To ask you to name your own terms may seem unbusinesslike,
+so I may say at the outset I am not a business man. The service I
+shall ask will involve the utmost secrecy, and for that I am willing
+to pay. It may expose you to risk of limb or liberty, and for that I
+am willing to pay. It will probably necessitate the expenditure of a
+large sum of money; that sum is at your disposal.'
+
+Here he paused; he had spoken slowly and impressively, with a touch of
+arrogance in his tone which aroused to his prejudice, the
+combativeness latent in my nature. However, at this juncture I merely
+bowed my head, and replied in accents almost as supercilious as his
+own:--
+
+'The task must either be unworthy or unwelcome. In mentioning first
+the compensation, you are inverting the natural order of things. You
+should state at the outset what you expect me to do, then, if I accept
+the commission, it is time to discuss the details of expenditure.'
+
+Either he had not looked for such a reply, or was loath to open his
+budget, for he remained a few moments with eyes bent upon the floor,
+and lips compressed in silence. At last he went on, without change of
+inflection, without any diminution of that air of condescension, which
+had so exasperated me in the beginning, and which was preparing a
+downfall for himself that would rudely shake the cold dignity which
+encompassed him like a cloak:--
+
+'It is difficult for a father to confide in a complete stranger the
+vagaries of a beloved son, and before doing so you must pledge your
+word that my communication will be regarded as strictly confidential.'
+
+'_Cela va sans dire_.'
+
+'I do not understand French,' said Mr. Sanderson severely, as if the
+use of the phrase were an insult to him.
+
+I replied nonchalantly,--
+
+'It means, as a matter of course; that goes without saying. Whatever
+you care to tell me about your son will be mentioned to no one. Pray
+proceed, without further circumlocution, for my time is valuable.'
+
+'My son was always a little wild and impatient of control. Although
+everything he could wish was at his disposal here at home, he chose to
+visit America, where he fell into bad company. I assure you there is
+no real harm in the boy, but he became implicated with others, and has
+suffered severely for his recklessness. For five years he has been an
+inmate of a prison in the West. He was known and convicted under the
+name of Wyoming Ed.'
+
+'What was his crime?'
+
+'His alleged crime was the stopping, and robbing, of a railway train.'
+
+'For how long was he sentenced?'
+
+'He was sentenced for life.'
+
+'What do you wish me to do?'
+
+'Every appeal has been made to the governor of the State in an
+endeavour to obtain a pardon. These appeals have failed. I am informed
+that if money enough is expended it may be possible to arrange my
+son's escape.'
+
+'In other words, you wish me to bribe the officials of the jail?'
+
+'I assure you the lad is innocent.'
+
+For the first time a quiver of human emotion came into the old man's
+voice.
+
+'Then, if you can prove that, why not apply for a new trial?'
+
+'Unfortunately, the circumstances of the case, of his arrest on the
+train itself, the number of witnesses against him, give me no hope
+that a new trial would end in a different verdict, even if a new trial
+could be obtained, which I am informed is not possible. Every legal
+means tending to his liberation has already been tried.'
+
+'I see. And now you are determined to adopt illegal means? I refuse to
+have anything to do with the malpractice you propose. You objected to
+a phrase in French, Mr. Sanderson, perhaps one in Latin will please you
+better. It is "_Veritas praevalebit_," which means, "Truth will
+prevail." I shall set your mind entirely at rest regarding your son.
+Your son at this moment occupies a humble, if honourable, position in
+the great house from which you came, and he hopes in time worthily to
+fill his father's shoes, as you have filled the shoes of your father.
+You are not a rich man, but a servant. Your son never was in America,
+and never will go there. It is your master's son, the heir to great
+English estates, who became the Wyoming Ed of the Western prison. Even
+from what you say, I do not in the least doubt he was justly
+convicted, and you may go back to your master and tell him so. You
+came here to conceal the shameful secret of a wealthy and noble house;
+you may return knowing that secret has been revealed, and that the
+circumstances in which you so solemnly bound me to secrecy never
+existed. Sir, that is the penalty of lying.'
+
+The old man's contempt for me had been something to be felt, so
+palpable was it. The armour of icy reserve had been so complete that
+actually I had expected to see him rise with undiminished hauteur, and
+leave the room, disdaining further parley with one who had insulted
+him. Doubtless that is the way in which his master would have acted,
+but even in the underling I was unprepared for the instantaneous
+crumbling of this monument of pomp and pride. A few moments after I
+began to speak in terms as severe as his own, his trembling hands
+grasped the arms of the chair in which he sat, and his ever-widening
+eyes, which came to regard me with something like superstitious dread
+as I went on, showed me I had launched my random arrow straight at the
+bull's-eye of fact. His face grew mottled and green rather than pale.
+When at last I accused him of lying, he arose slowly, shaking like a
+man with a palsy, but, unable to support himself erect, sank
+helplessly back into his chair again. His head fell forward to the
+table before him, and he sobbed aloud.
+
+'God help me!' he cried, 'it is not my own secret I am trying to
+guard.'
+
+I sprang to the door, and turned the key in the lock so that by no
+chance might we be interrupted; then, going to the sideboard, I poured
+him out a liqueur glass full of the finest Cognac ever imported from
+south of the Loire, and tapping him on the shoulder, said brusquely:--
+
+'Here, drink this. The case is no worse than it was half an hour ago.
+I shall not betray the secret.'
+
+He tossed off the brandy, and with some effort regained his
+self-control.
+
+'I have done my errand badly,' he wailed. 'I don't know what I have
+said that has led you to so accurate a statement of the real
+situation, but I have been a blundering fool. God forgive me, when so
+much depended on my making no mistake.'
+
+'Don't let that trouble you,' I replied; 'nothing you said gave me the
+slightest clue.'
+
+'You called me a liar,' he continued, 'and that is a hard word from
+one man to another, but I would not lie for myself, and when I do it
+for one I revere and respect, my only regret is that I have done it
+without avail.'
+
+'My dear sir,' I assured him, 'the fault is not with yourself at all.
+You were simply attempting the impossible. Stripped and bare, your
+proposal amounts to this. I am to betake myself to the United States,
+and there commit a crime, or a series of crimes, in bribing sworn
+officials to turn traitor to their duty and permit a convict to
+escape.'
+
+'You put it very harshly, sir. You must admit that, especially in new
+countries, there is lawlessness within the law as well as outside of
+it. The real criminals in the robbery of the railway train escaped; my
+young master, poor fellow, was caught. His father, one of the proudest
+men in England, has grown prematurely old under the burden of this
+terrible dishonour. He is broken-hearted, and a dying man, yet he
+presents an impassive front to the world, with all the ancient courage
+of his race. My young master is an only son, and failing his
+appearance, should his father die, title and estate will pass to
+strangers. Our helplessness in this situation adds to its horror. We
+dare not make any public move. My old master is one with such
+influence among the governing class of this country, of which he has
+long been a member, that the average Englishman, if his name were
+mentioned, would think his power limitless. Yet that power he dare not
+exert to save his own son from a felon's life and death. However much
+he or another may suffer, publicity must be avoided, and this is a
+secret which cannot safely be shared with more than those who know it
+now.'
+
+'How many know it?'
+
+'In this country, three persons. In an American prison, one.'
+
+'Have you kept up communication with the young man?'
+
+'Oh, yes.'
+
+'Direct?'
+
+'No; through a third person. My young master has implored his father
+not to write to him direct.'
+
+'This go-between, as we may call him, is the third person in the
+secret? Who is he?'
+
+'That I dare not tell you!'
+
+'Mr. Sanderson, it would be much better for your master and his son
+that you should be more open with me. These half-confidences are
+misleading. Has the son made any suggestion regarding his release?'
+
+'Oh yes, but not the suggestion I have put before you. His latest
+letter was to the effect that within six months or so there is to be
+an election for governor. He proposes that a large sum of money shall
+be used to influence this election so that a man pledged to pardon him
+may sit in the governor's chair.'
+
+'I see. And this sum of money is to be paid to the third person you
+referred to?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'May I take it that this third person is the one to whom various sums
+have been paid during the last five years in order to bribe the
+governor to pardon the young man?'
+
+Sanderson hesitated a moment before answering; in fact, he appeared so
+torn between inclination and duty; anxious to give me whatever
+information I deemed necessary, yet hemmed in by the instructions
+with which his master had limited him, that at last I waved my hand
+and said:--
+
+'You need not reply, Mr. Sanderson. That third party is the crux of the
+situation. I strongly suspect him of blackmail. If you would but name
+him, and allow me to lure him to these rooms, I possess a little
+private prison of my own into which I could thrust him, and I venture
+to say that before he had passed a week in darkness, on bread and
+water, we should have the truth about this business.'
+
+Look you now the illogical nature of an Englishman! Poor old
+Sanderson, who had come to me with a proposal to break the law of
+America, seemed horror-stricken when I airily suggested the immuring
+of a man in a dungeon here in England. He gazed at me in amazement,
+then cast his eyes furtively about him, as if afraid a trap door would
+drop beneath him, and land him in my private _oubliette_.
+
+'Do not be alarmed, Mr. Sanderson, you are perfectly safe. You are
+beginning at the wrong end of this business, and it seems to me five
+years of contributions to this third party without any result might
+have opened the eyes of even the most influential nobleman in England,
+not to mention those of his faithful servant.'
+
+'Indeed, sir,' said Sanderson, 'I must confess to you that I have long
+had a suspicion of this third person, but my master has clung to him
+as his only hope, and if this third person were interfered with, I may
+tell you that he has deposited in London at some place unknown to us,
+a full history of the case, and if it should happen that he disappears
+for more than a week at a time, this record will be brought to light.'
+
+'My dear Mr. Sanderson, that device is as old as Noah and his ark. I
+should chance that. Let me lay this fellow by the heels, and I will
+guarantee that no publicity follows.'
+
+Sanderson sadly shook his head.
+
+'Everything might happen as you say, sir, but all that would put us no
+further forward. The only point is the liberation of my young master.
+It is possible that the person unmentioned, whom we may call Number
+Three, has been cheating us throughout, but that is a matter of no
+consequence.'
+
+'Pardon me, but I think it is. Suppose your young master here, and at
+liberty. This Number Three would continue to maintain the power over
+him which he seems to have held over his father for the last five
+years.'
+
+'I think we can prevent that, sir, if my plan is carried out.'
+
+'The scheme for bribing the American officials is yours, then?'
+
+'Yes, sir, and I may say I am taking a great deal upon myself in
+coming to you. I am, in fact, disobeying the implied commands of my
+master, but I have seen him pay money, and very large sums of money,
+to this Number Three for the last five years and nothing has come of
+it. My master is an unsuspicious man, who has seen little of the real
+world, and thinks everyone as honest as himself.'
+
+'Well, that may be, Mr. Sanderson, but permit me to suggest that the
+one who proposes a scheme of bribery, and, to put it mildly, an
+evasion of the law, shows some knowledge of the lower levels of this
+world, and is not quite in a position to plume himself on his own
+honesty.'
+
+'I am coming to that, Mr. Valmont. My master knows nothing whatever of
+my plan. He has given me the huge sum of money demanded by Number
+Three, and he supposes that amount has been already paid over. As a
+matter of fact, it has not been paid over, and will not be until my
+suggestion has been carried out, and failed. In fact, I am about to
+use this money, all of it if necessary, if you will undertake the
+commission. I have paid Number Three his usual monthly allowance, and
+will continue to do so. I have told him my master has his proposal
+under consideration; that there are still six months to come and go
+upon, and that my master is not one who decides in a hurry.'
+
+'Number Three says there is an election in six months for governor.
+What is the name of the state?'
+
+Sanderson informed me. I walked to my book-case, and took down a
+current American Year Book, consulted it, and returned to the table.
+
+'There is no election in that State, Mr. Sanderson, for eighteen
+months. Number Three is simply a blackmailer, as I have suspected.'
+
+'Quite so, sir,' replied Sanderson, taking a newspaper from his
+pocket. 'I read in this paper an account of a man immured in a Spanish
+dungeon. His friends arranged it with the officials in this way: The
+prisoner was certified to have died, and his body was turned over to
+his relatives. Now, if that could be done in America, it would serve
+two purposes. It would be the easiest way to get my young master out
+of the jail. It would remain a matter of record that he had died,
+therefore there could be no search for him, as would be the case if he
+simply escaped. If you were so good as to undertake this task you
+might perhaps see my young master in his cell, and ask him to write to
+this Number Three with whom he is in constant communication, telling
+him he was very ill. Then you could arrange with the prison doctor
+that this person was informed of my young master's death.'
+
+'Very well, we can try that, but a blackmailer is not so easily thrown
+off the scent. Once he has tasted blood he is a human man-eating
+tiger. But still, there is always my private dungeon in the
+background, and if your plan for silencing him fails, I guarantee that
+my more drastic and equally illegal method will be a success.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It will be seen that my scruples concerning the acceptance of this
+commission, and my first dislike for the old man had both faded away
+during the conversation which I have set down in the preceding
+chapter. I saw him under the stress of deep emotion, and latterly
+began to realise the tremendous chances he was taking in contravening
+the will of his imperious master. If the large sum of money was long
+withheld from the blackmailer, Douglas Sanderson ran the risk of
+Number Three opening up communication direct with his master.
+Investigation would show that the old servant had come perilously near
+laying himself open to a charge of breach of trust, and even of
+defalcation with regard to the money, and all this danger he was
+heroically incurring for the unselfish purpose of serving the
+interests of his employer. During our long interview old Sanderson
+gradually became a hero in my eyes, and entirely in opposition to the
+resolution I had made at the beginning, I accepted his commission at
+the end of it.
+
+Nevertheless, my American experiences are those of which I am least
+proud, and all I care to say upon the subject is that my expedition
+proved completely successful. The late convict was my companion on the
+_Arontic_, the first steamship sailing for England after we reached
+New York from the west. Of course I knew that two or three years
+roughing it in mining camps and on ranches, followed by five years in
+prison, must have produced a radical effect not only on the character,
+but also in the personal appearance of a man who had undergone these
+privations. Nevertheless, making due allowance for all this, I could
+not but fear that the ancient English family, of which this young man
+was the hope and pride, would be exceedingly disappointed with him. In
+spite of the change which grooming and the wearing of a civilised
+costume made, Wyoming Ed still looked much more the criminal than the
+gentleman. I considered myself in honour bound not to make any
+inquiries of the young man regarding his parentage. Of course, if I
+had wished to possess myself of the secret, I had but to touch a
+button under the table when Sanderson left my rooms in the Imperial
+Flats, which would have caused him to be shadowed and run to earth. I
+may also add that the ex-prisoner volunteered no particulars about
+himself or his family. Only once on board ship did he attempt to
+obtain some information from me as we walked up and down the deck
+together.
+
+'You are acting for someone else, I suppose?' he said.
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'For someone in England?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'He put up the money, did he?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+There was a pause, during which we took two or three turns in silence.
+
+'Of course, there's no secret about it,' he said at last. 'I expected
+help from the other side, but Colonel Jim has been so mighty long
+about it, I was afraid he'd forgotten me.'
+
+'Who is Colonel Jim?'
+
+'Colonel Jim Baxter. Wasn't it him gave you the money?'
+
+'I never heard of the man before.'
+
+'Then who put up the coin?'
+
+'Douglas Sanderson,' I replied, looking at him sidewise as I mentioned
+the name. It had apparently no effect upon him. He wrinkled his brow
+for a moment, then said:--
+
+'Well, if you never heard of Baxter, I never heard of Sanderson.'
+
+This led me to suspect that Douglas Sanderson did not give me his own
+name, and doubtless the address with which he had furnished me was
+merely temporary. I did not cable to him from America regarding the
+success of the expedition, because I could not be certain it was a
+success until I was safely on English ground, and not even then, to
+tell the truth. Anyhow, I wished to leave no trail behind me, but the
+moment the _Arontic_ reached Liverpool, I telegraphed Sanderson to
+meet us that evening at my flat.
+
+He was waiting for me when Wyoming Ed and I entered together. The old
+man was quite evidently in a state of nervous tension. He had been
+walking up and down the room with hands clenched behind his back, and
+now stood at the end farthest from the door as he heard us approach,
+with his hands still clasped behind his back, and an expression of
+deep anxiety upon his rugged face. All the electric lamps were turned
+on, and the room was bright as day.
+
+'Have you not brought him with you?' he cried.
+
+'Brought him with me?' I echoed. 'Here is Wyoming Ed!'
+
+The old man glared at him for a moment or two stupefied, then
+moaned:--
+
+'Oh, my God, my God, that is not the man!'
+
+I turned to my short-haired fellow traveller.
+
+'You told me you were Wyoming Ed!'
+
+He laughed uneasily.
+
+'Well, in a manner of speaking, so I have been for the last five
+years, but I wasn't Wyoming Ed before that. Say, old man, are you
+acting for Colonel Jim Baxter?'
+
+Sanderson, on whom a dozen years seemed to have fallen since we
+entered the room, appeared unable to speak, and merely shook his head
+in a hopeless sort of way.
+
+'I say, boys,' ejaculated the ex-convict, with an uneasy laugh,
+half-comic, half-bewildered, 'this is a sort of mix-up, isn't it? I
+wish Colonel Jim was here to explain. I say, Boss,' he cried suddenly,
+turning sharp on me, 'this here misfit's not my fault. I didn't change
+the children in the cradle. You don't intend to send me back to that
+hell-hole, do you?'
+
+'No,' I said, 'not if you tell the truth. Sit down.'
+
+The late prisoner seated himself in a chair as close to the door as
+possible, hitching a little nearer as he sat down. His face had taken
+on a sharp, crafty aspect like that of a trapped rat.
+
+'You are perfectly safe,' I assured him. 'Sit over here by the table.
+Even if you bolted through that door, you couldn't get out of this
+flat. Mr. Sanderson, take a chair.'
+
+The old man sank despondently into the one nearest at hand. I pressed
+a button, and when my servant entered, I said to him:--
+
+'Bring some Cognac and Scotch whisky, glasses, and two syphons of
+soda.'
+
+'You haven't got any Kentucky or Canadian?' asked the prisoner,
+moistening his lips. The jail whiteness in his face was now
+accentuated by the pallor of fear, and the haunted look of the escaped
+convict glimmered from his eyes. In spite of the comfort I had
+attempted to bestow upon him, he knew that he had been rescued in
+mistake for another, and for the first time since he left prison
+realised he was among strangers, and not among friends. In his trouble
+he turned to the beverage of his native continent.
+
+'Bring a bottle of Canadian whisky,' I said to the servant, who
+disappeared, and shortly returned with what I had ordered. I locked
+the door after him, and put the key in my pocket.
+
+'What am I to call you?' I asked the ex-convict.
+
+With a forced laugh he said; 'You can call me Jack for short.'
+
+'Very well, Jack, help yourself,' and he poured out a very liberal
+glass of the Dominion liquor, refusing to dilute it with soda.
+Sanderson took Scotch, and I helped myself to a _petit verre_ of
+brandy.
+
+'Now, Jack,' I began, 'I may tell you plainly that if I wished to send
+you back to prison, I could not do so without incriminating myself.
+You are legally dead, and you have now a chance to begin life anew, an
+opportunity of which I hope you will take advantage. If you were to
+apply three weeks from today at the prison doors, they would not dare
+admit you. You are dead. Does that console you?'
+
+'Well, squire, you can bet your bottom dollar I never thought I'd be
+pleased to hear I was dead, but I'm glad if it's all fixed as you say,
+and you can bet your last pair of boots I'm going to keep out of the
+jug in future if I can.'
+
+'That's right. Now, I can promise that if you answer all my questions
+truthfully, you shall be given money enough to afford you a new
+beginning in life.'
+
+'Good enough,' said Jack briefly.
+
+'You were known in prison as Wyoming Ed?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'If that was not your name, why did you use it?'
+
+'Because Colonel Jim, on the train, asked me to do that. He said it
+would give him a pull in England to get me free.'
+
+'Did you know Wyoming Ed?'
+
+'Yes, sir, he was one of us three that held up the train.'
+
+'What became of him?'
+
+'He was shot dead.'
+
+'By one of the passengers?'
+
+There was silence, during which the old man groaned, and bowed his
+head. Jack was studying the floor. Then he looked up at me and said:--
+
+'You don't expect me to give a pal away, do you?'
+
+'As that pal has given you away for the last five years, it seems to
+me you need not show very much consideration for him.'
+
+'I'm not so sure he did.'
+
+'I am; but never mind that point. Colonel Jim Baxter shot Wyoming Ed
+and killed him. Why?'
+
+'See here, my friend, you're going a little too fast. I didn't say
+that.'
+
+He reached somewhat defiantly for the bottle from Canada.
+
+'Pardon me,' I said, rising quietly, and taking possession of the
+bottle myself, 'it grieves me more than I can say to restrict my
+hospitality. I have never done such a thing in my life before, but
+this is not a drinking bout; it is a very serious conference. The
+whisky you have already taken has given you a bogus courage, and a
+false view of things. Are you going to tell me the truth, or are you
+not?'
+
+Jack pondered on this for a while, then he said:--
+
+'Well, sir, I'm perfectly willing to tell you the truth as far as it
+concerns myself, but I don't want to rat on a friend.'
+
+'As I have said, he isn't your friend. He told you to take the name of
+Wyoming Ed, so that he might blackmail the father of Wyoming Ed. He
+has done so for the last five years, living in luxury here in London,
+and not moving a finger to help you. In fact, nothing would appal him
+more than to learn that you are now in this country. By this time he
+has probably received the news from the prison doctor that you are
+dead, and so thinks himself safe for ever.'
+
+'If you can prove that to me--' said Jack.
+
+'I can and will,' I interrupted; then, turning to Sanderson, I
+demanded:--
+
+'When are you to meet this man next?'
+
+'Tonight, at nine o'clock,' he answered. 'His monthly payment is due,
+and he is clamouring for the large sum I told you of.'
+
+'Where do you meet him? In London?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'At your master's town house?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Will you take us there, and place us where we can see him and he
+can't see us?'
+
+'Yes. I trust to your honour, Mr. Valmont. A closed carriage will call
+for me at eight, and you can accompany me. Still, after all, Mr
+Valmont, we have no assurance that he is the same person this young
+man refers to.'
+
+'I am certain he is. He does not go under the name of Colonel Jim
+Baxter, I suppose?'
+
+'No.'
+
+The convict had been looking from one to the other of us during this
+colloquy. Suddenly he drew his chair up closer to the table.
+
+'Look here,' he said, 'you fellows are square, I can see that, and
+after all's said and done, you're the man that got me out of clink.
+Now, I half suspicion you're right about Colonel Jim, but, anyhow,
+I'll tell you exactly what happened. Colonel Jim was a Britisher, and
+I suppose that's why he and Wyoming Ed chummed together a good deal.
+We called Jim Baxter Colonel, but he never said he was a colonel or
+anything else. I was told he belonged to the British army, and that
+something happened in India so that he had to light out He never
+talked about himself, but he was a mighty taking fellow when he laid
+out to please anybody. We called him Colonel because he was so
+straight in the back, and walked as if he were on parade. When this
+young English tenderfoot came out, he and the Colonel got to be as
+thick as thieves, and the Colonel won a good deal of money from him at
+cards, but that didn't make any difference in their friendship. The
+Colonel most always won when he played cards, and perhaps that's what
+started the talk about why he left the British army. He was the
+luckiest beggar I ever knew in that line of business. We all met in
+the rush to the new goldfields, which didn't pan out worth a cent, and
+one after another of the fellows quit and went somewhere else. But
+Wyoming Ed, he held on, even after Colonel Jim wanted to quit. As long
+as there were plenty of fellows there, Colonel Jim never lacked money,
+although he didn't dig it out of the ground, but when the population
+thinned down to only a few of us, then we all struck hard times. Now,
+I knew Colonel Jim was going to hold up a train. He asked me if I
+would join him, and I said I would if there wasn't too many in the
+gang. I'd been into that business afore, and I knew there was no
+greater danger than to have a whole mob of fellows. Three men can hold
+up a train better than three dozen. Everybody's scared except the
+express messenger, and it's generally easy to settle him, for he
+stands where the light is, and we shoot from the dark. Well, I
+thought at first Wyoming Ed was on to the scheme, because when we were
+waiting in the cut to signal the train he talked about us going on
+with her to San Francisco, but I thought he was only joking. I guess
+that Colonel Jim imagined that when it came to the pinch, Ed wouldn't
+back out and leave us in the lurch: he knew Ed was as brave as a lion.
+In the cut, where the train would be on the up grade, the Colonel got
+his lantern ready, lit it, and wrapped a thin red silk handkerchief
+round it. The express was timed to pass up there about midnight, but
+it was near one o'clock when her headlight came in sight. We knew all
+the passengers would be in bed in the sleepers, and asleep in the
+smoking car and the day coach. We didn't intend to meddle with them.
+The Colonel had brought a stick or two of dynamite from the mines, and
+was going to blow open the safe in the express car, and climb out with
+whatever was inside.
+
+'The train stopped to the signal all right, and the Colonel fired a
+couple of shots just to let the engineer know we meant business. The
+engineer and fireman at once threw up their hands, then the Colonel
+turns to Ed, who was standing there like a man pole-axed, and says to
+him mighty sharp, just like if he was speaking to a regiment of
+soldiers:--
+
+'"You keep these two men covered. Come on, Jack!" he says to me, and
+then we steps up to the door of the express car, which the fellow
+inside had got locked and bolted. The Colonel fires his revolver in
+through the lock, then flung his shoulder agin the door, and it went
+in with a crash, which was followed instantly by another crash, for
+the little expressman was game right through. He had put out the
+lights and was blazing away at the open door. The Colonel sprang for
+cover inside the car, and wasn't touched, but one of the shots took me
+just above the knee, and broke my leg, so I went down in a heap. The
+minute the Colonel counted seven shots he was on to that express
+messenger like a tiger, and had him tied up in a hard knot before you
+could shake a stick. Then, quick as a wink he struck a match, and lit
+the lamp. Plucky as the express messenger was, he looked scared to
+death, and now, when Colonel Jim held a pistol to his head, he gave up
+the keys and told him how to open the safe. I had fallen back against
+the corner of the car, inside, and was groaning with Pain. Colonel Jim
+was scooping out the money from the shelves of the safe, and stuffing
+it into a sack.
+
+'"Are you hurt, Jack?" he cried.
+
+'"Yes, my leg's broke."
+
+'"Don't let that trouble you; we'll get you clear all right. Do you
+think you can ride your horse?"
+
+'"I don't believe it," said I. "I guess I'm done for," and I thought I
+was.
+
+'Colonel Jim never looked round, but he went through that safe in a
+way that'd make your hair curl, throwing aside the bulky packages
+after tearing them open, taking only cash, which he thrust into a bag
+he had with him, till he was loaded like a millionaire. Then suddenly
+he swore, for the train began to move.
+
+'"What is that fool Ed doing?" he shouted, rising to his feet.
+
+'At that minute Ed came in, pistol in each hand, and his face ablaze.
+
+'"Here, you cursed thief!" he cried, "I didn't come with you to rob a
+train!"
+
+'"Get outside, you fool!" roared Colonel Jim, "get outside and stop
+this train. Jack has got his leg broke. Don't come another step
+towards me, or I'll kill you!"
+
+'But Ed, he walked right on, Colonel Jim backing, then there was a
+shot that rang like cannon fire in the closed car, and Ed fell forward
+on his face. Colonel Jim turned him over, and I saw he had been hit
+square in the middle of the forehead. The train was now going at good
+speed, and we were already miles away from where our horses were tied.
+I never heard a man swear like Colonel Jim. He went through the
+pockets of Ed, and took a bundle of papers that was inside his coat,
+and this he stuffed away in his own clothes. Then he turned to me, and
+his voice was like a lamb.
+
+'"Jack, old man," he said, "I can't help you. They're going to nab
+you, but not for murder. The expressman there will be your witness. It
+isn't murder anyhow on my part, but self-defence. You saw he was
+coming at me when I warned him to keep away."
+
+'All this he said in a loud voice, for the expressman to hear, then he
+bent over to me and whispered:--
+
+'"I'll get the best lawyer I can for you, but I'm afraid they're bound
+to convict you, and if they do, I will spend every penny of this money
+to get you free. You call yourself Wyoming Ed at the trial. I've taken
+all this man's papers so that he can't be identified. And don't you
+worry if you're sentenced, for remember I'll be working night and day
+for you, and if money can get you out, you'll be got out, because
+these papers will help me to get the cash required. Ed's folks are
+rich in England, so they'll fork over to get you out if you pretend to
+be him." With that he bade me good-bye and jumped off the train.
+There, gentlemen, that's the whole story just as it happened, and
+that's why I thought it was Colonel Jim had sent you to get me free.'
+
+There was not the slightest doubt in my mind that the convict had told
+the exact truth, and that night, at nine o'clock, he identified Major
+Renn as the former Colonel Jim Baxter. Sanderson placed us in a
+gallery where we could see, but could not hear. The old man seemed
+determined that we should not know where we were, and took every
+precaution to keep us in the dark. I suppose he put us out of earshot,
+so that if the Major mentioned the name of the nobleman we should not
+be any the wiser. We remained in the gallery for some time after the
+major had left before Sanderson came to us again, carrying with him a
+packet.
+
+'The carriage is waiting at the door,' he said, 'and with your
+permission, Monsieur Valmont, I will accompany you to your flat.'
+
+I smiled at the old man's extreme caution, but he continued very
+gravely:--
+
+'It is not that, Monsieur Valmont. I wish to consult with you, and if
+you will accept it, I have another commission to offer.'
+
+'Well,' said I, 'I hope it is not so unsavoury as the last.' But to
+this the old man made no response.
+
+There was silence in the carriage as we drove back to my flat.
+Sanderson had taken the precaution of pulling down the blinds of the
+carriage, which he need not have troubled to do, for, as I have said,
+it would have been the simplest matter in the world for me to have
+discovered who his employer was, if I had desired to know. As a matter
+of fact, I do not know to this day whom he represented.
+
+Once more in my room with the electric light turned on, I was shocked
+and astonished to see the expression on Sanderson's face. It was the
+face of a man who would grimly commit murder and hang for it. If ever
+the thirst for vengeance was portrayed on a human countenance, it was
+on his that night. He spoke very quietly, laying down the packet
+before him on the table.
+
+'I think you will agree with me,' he said, 'that no punishment on
+earth is too severe for that creature calling himself Major Renn.'
+
+'I'm willing to shoot him dead in the streets of London tomorrow,'
+said the convict, 'if you give the word.'
+
+Sanderson went on implacably: 'He not only murdered the son, but for
+five years has kept the father in an agony of sorrow and apprehension,
+bleeding him of money all the time, which was the least of his crimes.
+Tomorrow I shall tell my master that his son has been dead these five
+years, and heavy as that blow must prove, it will be mitigated by the
+fact that his son died an honest and honourable man. I thank you for
+offering to kill this vile criminal. I intend that he shall die, but
+not so quickly or so mercifully.'
+
+Here he untied the packet, and took from it a photograph, which he
+handed to the convict.
+
+'Do you recognise that?'
+
+'Oh yes; that's Wyoming Ed as he appeared at the mine; as, indeed, he
+appeared when he was shot.'
+
+The photograph Sanderson then handed to me.
+
+'An article that I read about you in the paper, Monsieur Valmont, said
+you could impersonate anybody. Can you impersonate this young man?'
+
+'There's no difficulty in that,' I replied.
+
+'Then will you do this? I wish you two to dress in that fashion. I
+shall give you particulars of the haunts of Major Renn. I want you to
+meet him together and separately, as often as you can, until you drive
+him mad or to suicide. He believes you to be dead,' said Sanderson,
+addressing Jack. 'I am certain he has the news, by his manner tonight.
+He is extremely anxious to get the lump sum of money which I have been
+holding back from him. You may address him, for he will recognise your
+voice as well as your person, but Monsieur Valmont had better not
+speak, as then he might know it was not the voice of my poor young
+master. I suggest that you meet him first together, always at night.
+The rest I leave in your hands, Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+With that the old man rose and left us.
+
+Perhaps I should stop this narration here, for I have often wondered
+if practically I am guilty of manslaughter.
+
+We did not meet Major Renn together, but arranged that he should
+encounter Jack under one lamp-post, and me under the next. It was just
+after midnight, and the streets were practically deserted. The theatre
+crowds had gone, and the traffic was represented by the last 'buses,
+and a belated cab now and then. Major Renn came down the steps of his
+club, and under the first lamp-post, with the light shining full upon
+him, Jack the convict stepped forth.
+
+'Colonel Jim,' he said, 'Ed and I are waiting for you. There were
+three in that robbery, and one was a traitor. His dead comrades ask
+the traitor to join them.'
+
+The Major staggered back against the lamp-post, drew his hand across
+his brow, and muttered, Jack told me afterwards:--
+
+'I must stop drinking! I must stop drinking!'
+
+Then he pulled himself together, and walked rapidly towards the next
+lamp-post. I stood out square in front of him, but made no sound. He
+looked at me with distended eyes, while Jack shouted out in his
+boisterous voice, that had no doubt often echoed over the plain:--
+
+'Come on, Wyoming Ed, and never mind him. He must follow.'
+
+Then he gave a war whoop. The Major did not turn round, but continued
+to stare at me, breathing stertorously like a person with apoplexy. I
+slowly pushed back my hat, and on my brow he saw the red mark of a
+bullet hole. He threw up his hands and fell with a crash to the
+pavement.
+
+'Heart failure' was the verdict of the coroner's jury.
+
+
+
+
+8. _Lady Alicia's Emeralds_
+
+
+Many Englishmen, if you speak to them of me, indulge themselves in a
+detraction that I hope they will not mind my saying is rarely graced
+by the delicacy of innuendo with which some of my own countrymen
+attempt to diminish whatever merit I may possess. Mr. Spenser Hale, of
+Scotland Yard, whose lack of imagination I have so often endeavoured
+to amend, alas! without perceptible success, was good enough to say,
+after I had begun these reminiscences, which he read with affected
+scorn, that I was wise in setting down my successes, because the life
+of Methuselah himself would not be long enough to chronicle my
+failures, and the man to whom this was said replied that it was only
+my artfulness, a word of which these people are very fond; that I
+intended to use my successes as bait, issue a small pamphlet filled
+with them, and then record my failures in a thousand volumes, after
+the plan of a Chinese encyclopaedia, selling these to the public on
+the instalment plan.
+
+Ah, well; it is not for me to pass comment on such observations. Every
+profession is marred by its little jealousies, and why should the
+coterie of detection be exempt? I hope I may never follow an example
+so deleterious, and thus be tempted to express my contempt for the
+stupidity with which, as all persons know, the official detective
+system of England is imbued. I have had my failures, of course. Did I
+ever pretend to be otherwise than human? But what has been the cause
+of these failures? They have arisen through the conservatism of the
+English. When there is a mystery to be solved, the average Englishman
+almost invariably places it in the hands of the regular police. When
+these good people are utterly baffled; when their big boots have
+crushed out all evidences that the grounds may have had to offer to a
+discerning mind; when their clumsy hands have obliterated the clues
+which are everywhere around them, I am at last called in, and if I
+fail, they say:--
+
+'What could you expect; he is a Frenchman.'
+
+This was exactly what happened in the case of Lady Alicia's emeralds.
+For two months the regular police were not only befogged, but they
+blatantly sounded the alarm to every thief in Europe. All the
+pawnbrokers' shops of Great Britain were ransacked, as if a robber of
+so valuable a collection would be foolish enough to take it to a
+pawnbroker. Of course, the police say that they thought the thief
+would dismantle the cluster, and sell the gems separately. As to this
+necklace of emeralds, possessing as it does an historical value which
+is probably in excess of its intrinsic worth, what more natural than
+that the holder of it should open negotiations with its rightful
+owner, and thus make more money by quietly restoring it than by its
+dismemberment and sale piecemeal? But such a fuss was kicked up, such
+a furore created, that it is no wonder the receiver of the goods lay
+low, and said nothing. In vain were all ports giving access to the
+Continent watched; in vain were the police of France, Belgium, and
+Holland warned to look out for this treasure. Two valuable months were
+lost, and then the Marquis of Blair sent for me! I maintain that the
+case was hopeless from the moment I took it up.
+
+It may be asked why the Marquis of Blair allowed the regular police to
+blunder along for two precious months, but anyone who is acquainted
+with that nobleman will not wonder that he clung so long to a forlorn
+hope. Very few members of the House of Peers are richer than Lord
+Blair, and still fewer more penurious. He maintained that, as he paid
+his taxes, he was entitled to protection from theft; that it was the
+duty of the Government to restore the gems, and if this proved
+impossible, to make compensation for them. This theory is not
+acceptable in the English Courts, and while Scotland Yard did all it
+could during those two months, what but failure was to be expected
+from its limited mental equipment?
+
+When I arrived at the Manor of Blair, as his lordship's very ugly and
+somewhat modern mansion house is termed, I was instantly admitted to
+his presence. I had been summoned from London by a letter in his
+lordship's own hand, on which the postage was not paid. It was late in
+the afternoon when I arrived, and our first conference was what might
+be termed futile. It was take up entirely with haggling about terms,
+the marquis endeavouring to beat down the price of my services to a
+sum so insignificant that it would barely have paid my expenses from
+London to Blair and back. Such bargaining is intensely distasteful to
+me. When the marquis found all his offers declined with a politeness
+which left no opening for anger on his part, he endeavoured to induce
+me to take up the case on a commission contingent upon my recovery of
+the gems, and as I had declined this for the twentieth time, darkness
+had come on, and the gong rang for dinner. I dined alone in the _salle
+a manger_, which appeared to be set apart for those calling at the
+mansion on business, and the meagreness of the fare, together with the
+indifferent nature of the claret, strengthened my determination to
+return to London as early as possible next morning.
+
+When the repast was finished, the dignified servingman said gravely to
+me,--
+
+'The Lady Alicia asks if you will be good enough to give her a few
+moments in the drawing-room, sir.'
+
+I followed the man to the drawing-room, and found the young lady
+seated at the piano, on which she was strumming idly and
+absentmindedly, but with a touch, nevertheless, that indicated
+advanced excellence in the art of music. She was not dressed as one
+who had just risen from the dining table, but was somewhat grimly and
+commonly attired, looking more like a cottager's daughter than a
+member of the great country family. Her head was small, and crowned
+with a mass of jet black hair. My first impression on entering the
+large, rather dimly lighted room was unfavourable, but that vanished
+instantly under the charm of a manner so graceful and vivacious, that
+in a moment I seemed to be standing in a brilliant Parisian _salon_
+rather than in the sombre drawing-room of an English country house.
+Every poise of her dainty head; every gesture of those small, perfect
+hands; every modulated tone of the voice, whether sparkling with
+laughter or caressing in confidential speech, reminded me of the
+_grandes dames_ of my own land. It was strange to find this perfect
+human flower amidst the gloomy ugliness of a huge square house built
+in the time of the Georges; but I remembered now that the Blairs are
+the English equivalent of the de Bellairs of France, from which family
+sprang the fascinating Marquise de Bellairs, who adorned the Court of
+Louis XIV. Here, advancing towards me, was the very reincarnation of
+the lovely marquise, who gave lustre to this dull world nearly three
+hundred years ago. Ah, after all, what are the English but a conquered
+race! I often forget this, and I trust I never remind them of it, but
+it enables one to forgive them much. A vivid twentieth-century
+marquise was Lady Alicia, in all except attire. What a dream some of
+our Parisian dress artists could have made of her, and here she was
+immured in this dull English house in the high-necked costume of a
+labourer's wife. 'Welcome, Monsieur Valmont,' she cried, in French of
+almost faultless intonation. 'I am so glad you have arrived,' and she
+greeted me as if I were an old friend of the family. There was nothing
+of condescension in her manner; no display of her own affability,
+while at the same time teaching me my place, and the difference in our
+stations of life. I can stand the rudeness of the nobility, but I
+detest their condescension. No; Lady Alicia was a true de Bellairs,
+and in my confusion, bending over her slender hand, I said:--
+
+'Madame la Marquise, it is a privilege to extend to you my most
+respectful salutations.'
+
+She laughed at this quietly, with the melting laugh of the
+nightingale.
+
+'Monsieur, you mistake my title. Although my uncle is a marquis, I am
+but Lady Alicia.'
+
+'Your pardon, my lady. For the moment I was back in that scintillating
+Court which surrounded Louis le Grand.'
+
+'How flatteringly you introduce yourself, monsieur. In the gallery
+upstairs there is a painting of the Marquise de Bellairs, and when I
+show it to your tomorrow, you will then understand how charmingly you
+have pleased a vain woman by your reference to that beautiful lady.
+But I must not talk in this frivolous strain, monsieur. There is
+serious business to be considered, and I assure you I looked forward
+to your coming, monsieur, with the eagerness of Sister Anne in the
+tower of Bluebeard.'
+
+I fear my expression as I bowed to her must have betrayed my
+gratification at hearing these words, so confidentially uttered by
+lips so sweet, while the glance of her lovely eyes was even more
+eloquent than her words. Instantly I felt ashamed of my chaffering
+over terms with her uncle; instantly I forgot my resolution to depart
+on the morrow; instantly I resolved to be of what assistance I could
+to this dainty lady. Alas! the heart of Valmont is today as
+unprotected against the artillery of inspiring eyes as ever it was in
+his extreme youth.
+
+'This house,' she continued vivaciously, 'has been practically in a
+state of siege for two months. I could take none of my usual walks in
+the gardens, on the lawns, or through the park, without some clumsy
+policeman in uniform crashing his way through the bushes, or some
+detective in plain clothes accosting me and questioning me under the
+pretence that he was a stranger who had lost his way. The lack of all
+subtlety in our police is something deplorable. I am sure the real
+criminal might have passed through their hands a dozen times
+unmolested, while our poor innocent servants, and the strangers within
+our gates, were made to feel that the stern eye of the law was upon
+them night and day.'
+
+The face of the young lady was an entrancing picture of animated
+indignation as she gave utterance to this truism which her countrymen
+are so slow to appreciate. I experienced a glow of satisfaction.
+
+'Yes,' she went on, 'they sent down from London an army of stupid men,
+who have kept our household in a state of abject terror for eight long
+weeks, and where are the emeralds?'
+
+As she suddenly asked this question, in the most Parisian of accents,
+with a little outward spreading of the hand, a flash of the eye, and a
+toss of the head, the united effect was something indescribable
+through the limitations of the language I am compelled to use.
+
+'Well, monsieur, your arrival has put to flight this tiresome brigade,
+if, indeed, the word flight is not too airy a term to use towards a
+company so elephantine, and I assure you a sigh of relief has gone up
+from the whole household with the exception of my uncle. I said to him
+at dinner tonight: "If Monsieur Valmont had been induced to take an
+interest in the case at first, the jewels would have been in my
+possession long before tonight."'
+
+'Ah, my lady,' I protested, 'I fear you overrate my poor ability. It
+is quite true that if I had been called in on the night of the
+robbery, my chances of success would have been infinitely greater than
+they are now.'
+
+'Monsieur,' she cried, clasping her hands over her knees, and leaning
+towards me, hypnotising me with those starry eyes, 'Monsieur, I am
+perfectly confident that before a week is past you will restore the
+necklace, if such restoration be possible. I have said so from the
+first. Now, am I right in my conjecture, monsieur, that you come here
+alone; that you bring with you no train of followers and assistants?'
+
+'That is as you have stated it, my lady.'
+
+'I was sure of it. It is to be a contest of trained mentality in
+opposition to our two months' experience of brute force.'
+
+Never before had I felt such ambition to succeed, and a determination
+not to disappoint took full possession of me. Appreciation is a needed
+stimulant, and here it was offered to me in its most intoxicating
+form. Ah, Valmont, Valmont, will you never grow old! I am sure that
+at this moment, if I had been eighty, the same thrill of enthusiasm
+would have tingled to my fingers' ends. Leave the Manor of Blair in
+the morning? Not for the Bank of France!
+
+'Has my uncle acquainted you with particulars of the robbery?'
+
+'No, madame, we were talking of other things.'
+
+The lady leaned back in her low chair, partially closed her eyes, and
+breathed a deep sigh.
+
+'I can well imagine the subject of your conversation,' she said at
+last. 'The Marquis of Blair was endeavouring to impose usurer's terms
+upon you, while you, nobly scorning such mercenary considerations, had
+perhaps resolved to leave us at the earliest opportunity.'
+
+'I assure you, my lady, that if any such conclusion had been arrived
+at on my part, it vanished the moment I was privileged to set foot in
+this drawing-room.'
+
+'It is kind of you to say that, monsieur, but you must not allow your
+conversation with my uncle to prejudice you against him. He is an old
+man now, and, of course, has his fancies. You would think him
+mercenary, perhaps, and so he is; but then so, too, am I. Oh, yes, I
+am, monsieur, frightfully mercenary. To be mercenary, I believe, means
+to be fond of money. No one is fonder of money than I, except,
+perhaps, my uncle; but you see, monsieur, we occupy the two extremes.
+He is fond of money to hoard it; I am fond of money to spend it. I am
+fond of money for the things it will buy. I should like to scatter
+largesse as did my fair ancestress in France. I should love a manor
+house in the country, and a mansion in Mayfair. I could wish to make
+everyone around me happy if the expenditure of money would do it.'
+
+'That is a form of money-love, Lady Alicia, which will find a
+multitude of admirers.'
+
+The girl shook her head and laughed merrily.
+
+'I should so dislike to forfeit your esteem, Monsieur Valmont, and
+therefore I shall not reveal the depth of my cupidity. You will learn
+that probably from my uncle, and then you will understand my extreme
+anxiety for the recovery of these jewels.'
+
+'Are they very valuable?'
+
+'Oh, yes; the necklace consists of twenty stones, no one of which
+weighs less than an ounce. Altogether, I believe, they amount to two
+thousand four hundred or two thousand five hundred carats, and their
+intrinsic value is twenty pounds a carat at least. So you see that
+means nearly fifty thousand pounds, yet even this sum is trivial
+compared with what it involves. There is something like a million at
+stake, together with my coveted manor house in the country, and my
+equally coveted mansion in Mayfair. All this is within my grasp if I
+can but recover the emeralds.'
+
+The girl blushed prettily as she noticed how intently I regarded her
+while she evolved this tantalising mystery. I thought there was a
+trace of embarrassment in her laugh when she cried:--
+
+'Oh, what will you think of me when you understand the situation?
+Pray, pray do not judge me harshly. I assure you the position I aim at
+will be used for the good of others as well as for my own pleasure. If
+my uncle does not make a confidant of you, I must take my courage in
+both hands, and give you all the particulars, but not tonight. Of
+course, if one is to unravel such a snarl as that in which we find
+ourselves, he must be made aware of every particular, must he not?'
+
+'Certainly, my lady.'
+
+'Very well, Monsieur Valmont, I shall supply any deficiencies that
+occur in my uncle's conversation with you. There is one point on which
+I should like to warn you. Both my uncle and the police have made up
+their minds that a certain young man is the culprit. The police found
+several clues which apparently led in his direction, but they were
+unable to find enough to justify his arrest. At first I could have
+sworn he had nothing whatever to do with the matter, but lately I am
+not so sure. All I ask of you until we secure another opportunity of
+consulting together is to preserve an open mind. Please do not allow
+my uncle to prejudice you against him.'
+
+'What is the name of this young man?'
+
+'He is the Honourable John Haddon.'
+
+'The Honourable! Is he a person who could do so dishonourable an
+action?'
+
+The young lady shook her head.
+
+'I am almost sure he would not, and yet one never can tell. I think at
+the present moment there are one or two noble lords in prison, but
+their crimes have not been mere vulgar housebreaking.'
+
+'Am I to infer, Lady Alicia, that you are in possession of certain
+facts unknown either to your uncle or the police?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Pardon me, but do these facts tend to incriminate the young man?'
+Again the young lady leaned back in her chair, and gazed past me, a
+wrinkle of perplexity on her fair brow. Then she said very slowly:--
+
+'You will understand, Monsieur Valmont, how loath I am to speak
+against one who was formerly a friend. If he had been content to
+remain a friend, I am sure this incident, which has caused us all such
+worry and trouble, would never have happened. I do not wish to dwell
+on what my uncle will tell you was a very unpleasant episode, but the
+Honourable John Haddon is a poor man, and it is quite out of the
+question for one brought up as I have been to marry into poverty. He
+was very headstrong and reckless about the matter, and involved my
+uncle in a bitter quarrel while discussing it, much to my chagrin and
+disappointment. It is as necessary for him to marry wealth as it is
+for me to make a good match, but he could not be brought to see that.
+Oh, he is not at all a sensible young man, and my former friendship
+for him has ceased. Yet I should dislike very much to take any action
+that might harm him, therefore I have spoken to no one but you about
+the evidence that is in my hands, and this you must treat as entirely
+confidential, giving no hint to my uncle, who is already bitter enough
+against Mr. Haddon.'
+
+'Does this evidence convince you that he stole the necklace?'
+
+'No; I do not believe that he actually stole it, but I am persuaded he
+was an accessory after the fact--is that the legal term? Now, Monsieur
+Valmont, we will say no more tonight. If I talk any longer about this
+crisis, I shall not sleep, and I wish, assured of your help, to attack
+the situation with a very clear mind tomorrow.'
+
+When I retired to my room, I found that I, too, could not sleep,
+although I needed a clear mind to face the problem of tomorrow. It is
+difficult for me to describe accurately the effect this interview had
+upon my mind, but to use a bodily simile, I may say that it seemed as
+if I had indulged too freely in a subtle champagne which appeared
+exceedingly excellent at first, but from which the exhilaration had
+now departed. No man could have been more completely under a spell
+than I was when Lady Alicia's eyes first told me more than her lips
+revealed; but although I had challenged her right to the title
+'mercenary' when she applied it to herself, I could not but confess
+that her nonchalant recital regarding the friend who desired to be a
+lover jarred upon me. I found my sympathy extending itself to that
+unknown young man, on whom it appeared the shadow of suspicion already
+rested. I was confident that if he had actually taken the emeralds it
+was not at all from motives of cupidity. Indeed that was practically
+shown by the fact that Scotland Yard found itself unable to trace the
+jewels, which at least they might have done if the necklace had been
+sold either as a whole or dismembered. Of course, an emerald weighing
+an ounce is by no means unusual. The Hope emerald, for example, weighs
+six ounces, and the gem owned by the Duke of Devonshire measures two
+and a quarter inches through its greatest diameter. Nevertheless, such
+a constellation as the Blair emeralds was not to be disposed of very
+easily, and I surmised no attempt had been made either to sell them or
+to raise money upon them. Now that I had removed myself from the
+glamour of her presence, I began to suspect that the young lady, after
+all, although undoubtedly possessing the brilliancy of her jewels,
+retained also something of their hardness. There had been no
+expression of sympathy for the discarded friend; it was too evident,
+recalling what had latterly passed between us, that the young woman's
+sole desire, and a perfectly natural desire, was to recover her
+missing treasure. There was something behind all this which I could
+not comprehend, and I resolved in the morning to question the Marquis
+of Blair as shrewdly as he cared to allow. Failing him, I should
+cross-question the niece in a somewhat dryer light than that which had
+enshrouded me during this interesting evening. I care not who knows
+it, but I have been befooled more than once by a woman, but I
+determined that in clear daylight I should resist the hypnotising
+influence of those glorious eyes. _Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu_! how easy it is
+for me to make good resolutions when I am far from temptation!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was ten o'clock next morning when I was admitted to the study of
+the aged bachelor Marquis of Blair. His keen eyes looked through and
+through me as I seated myself before him.
+
+'Well!' he said shortly.
+
+'My lord,' I began deliberately, 'I know nothing more of the case than
+was furnished by the accounts I have read in the newspapers. Two
+months have elapsed since the robbery. Every day that passed made the
+detection of the criminal more difficult. I do not wish to waste
+either my time or your money on a forlorn hope. If, therefore, you
+will be good enough to place me in possession of all the facts known
+to you, I shall tell you at once whether or not I can take up the
+case.'
+
+'Do you wish me to give you the name of the criminal?' asked his
+lordship.
+
+'Is his name known to you?' I asked in return.
+
+'Yes. John Haddon stole the necklace.'
+
+'Did you give that name to the police?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Why didn't they arrest him?'
+
+'Because the evidence against him is so small, and the improbability
+of his having committed the crime is so great.'
+
+'What is the evidence against him?'
+
+His lordship spoke with the dry deliberation of an aged solicitor.
+
+'The robbery was committed on the night of October the fifth. All day
+there had been a heavy rain, and the grounds were wet. For reasons
+into which I do not care to enter, John Haddon was familiar with this
+house, and with our grounds. He was well known to my servants, and,
+unfortunately, popular with them, for he is an openhanded spendthrift.
+The estate of his elder brother, Lord Steffenham, adjoins my own to
+the west, and Lord Steffenham's house is three miles from where we
+sit. On the night of the fifth a ball was given in the mansion of Lord
+Steffenham, to which, of course, my niece and myself were invited, and
+which invitation we accepted. I had no quarrel with the elder brother.
+It was known to John Haddon that my niece intended to wear her
+necklace of emeralds. The robbery occurred at a time when most crimes
+of that nature are committed in country houses, namely, while we were
+at dinner, an hour during which the servants are almost invariably in
+the lower part of the house. In October the days are getting short.
+The night was exceptionally dark, for, although the rain had ceased,
+not a star was visible. The thief placed a ladder against the sill of
+one of the upper windows, opened it, and came in. He must have been
+perfectly familiar with the house, for there are evidences that he
+went direct to the boudoir where the jewel case had been carelessly
+left on my niece's dressing table when she came down to dinner. It had
+been taken from the strong room about an hour before. The box was
+locked, but, of course, that made no difference. The thief wrenched
+the lid off, breaking the lock, stole the necklace, and escaped by the
+way he came.'
+
+'Did he leave the window open, and the ladder in place?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Doesn't that strike you as very extraordinary?'
+
+'No. I do not assert that he is a professional burglar, who would take
+all the precautions against the discovery that might have been
+expected from one of the craft. Indeed, the man's carelessness in
+going straight across the country to his brother's house, and leaving
+footsteps in the soft earth, easily traceable almost to the very
+boundary fence, shows he is incapable of any serious thought.'
+
+'Is John Haddon rich?'
+
+'He hasn't a penny.'
+
+'Did you go to the ball that night?'
+
+'Yes, I had promised to go.'
+
+'Was John Haddon there?'
+
+'Yes; but he appeared late. He should have been present at the
+opening, and his brother was seriously annoyed by his absence. When he
+did come he acted in a wild and reckless manner, which gave the guests
+the impression that he had been drinking. Both my niece and myself
+were disgusted with his actions.'
+
+'Do you think your niece suspects him?'
+
+'She certainly did not at first, and was indignant when I told her,
+coming home from the ball, that her jewels were undoubtedly in
+Steffenham House, even though they were not round her neck, but
+latterly I think her opinion has changed.'
+
+'To go back a moment. Did any of your servants see him prowling about
+the place?'
+
+'They all say they didn't, but I myself saw him, just before dusk,
+coming across the fields towards this house, and next morning we found
+the same footprints both going and coming. It seems to me the
+circumstantial evidence is rather strong.'
+
+'It's a pity that no one but yourself saw him. What more evidence are
+the authorities waiting for?'
+
+'They are waiting until he attempts to dispose of the jewels.'
+
+'You think, then, he has not done so up to date?'
+
+'I think he will never do so.'
+
+'Then why did he steal them?'
+
+'To prevent the marriage of my niece with Jonas Carter, of Sheffield,
+to whom she is betrothed. They were to be married early in the New
+Year.'
+
+'My lord, you amaze me. If Mr. Carter and Lady Alicia are engaged, why
+should the theft of the jewels interfere with the ceremony?'
+
+'Mr. Jonas Carter is a most estimable man, who, however, does not move
+in our sphere of life. He is connected with the steel or cutlery
+industry, and is a person of great wealth, rising upwards of a
+million, with a large estate in Derbyshire, and a house fronting Hyde
+Park, in London. He is a very strict business man, and both my niece
+and myself agree that he is also an eligible man. I myself am rather
+strict in matters of business, and I must admit that Mr. Carter showed
+a very generous spirit in arranging the preliminaries of the
+engagement with me. When Alicia's father died he had run through all
+the money he himself possessed or could borrow from his friends.
+Although a man of noble birth, I never liked him. He was married to my
+only sister. The Blair emeralds, as perhaps you know, descend down the
+female line. They, therefore, came to my niece from her mother. My
+poor sister had long been disillusioned before death released her from
+the titled scamp she had married, and she very wisely placed the
+emeralds in my custody to be held in trust for her daughter. They
+constitute my niece's only fortune, and would produce, if offered in
+London today, probably seventy-five or a hundred thousand pounds,
+although actually they are not worth so much. Mr. Jonas Carter very
+amiably consented to receive my niece with a dowry of only fifty
+thousand pounds, and that money I offered to advance, if I was allowed
+to retain the jewels as security. This was arranged between Mr. Carter
+and myself.'
+
+'But surely Mr. Carter does not refuse to carry out his engagement
+because the jewels have been stolen?'
+
+'He does. Why should he not?'
+
+'Then surely you will advance the fifty thousand necessary?'
+
+'I will not. Why should I?'
+
+'Well, it seems to me,' said I, with a slight laugh, 'the young man
+has very definitely checkmated both of you.'
+
+'He has, until I have laid him by the heels, which I am determined to
+do if he were the brother of twenty Lord Steffenhams.'
+
+'Please answer one more question. Are you determined to put the young
+man in prison, or would you be content with the return of the emeralds
+intact?'
+
+'Of course I should prefer to put him in prison and get the emeralds
+too, but if there's no choice in the matter, I must content myself
+with the necklace.'
+
+'Very well, my lord, I will undertake the case.'
+
+This conference had detained us in the study till after eleven, and
+then, as it was a clear, crisp December morning, I went out through
+the gardens into the park, that I might walk along the well-kept
+private road and meditate upon my course of action, or, rather, think
+over what had been said, because I could not map my route until I had
+heard the secret which the Lady Alicia promised to impart. As at
+present instructed, it seemed to me the best way to go direct to the
+young man, show him as effectively as I could the danger in which he
+stood, and, if possible, persuade him to deliver up the necklace to
+me. As I strolled along under the grand old leafless trees, I suddenly
+heard my name called impulsively two or three times, and turning round
+saw the Lady Alicia running toward me. Her cheeks were bright with
+Nature's rouge, and her eyes sparkled more dazzlingly than any emerald
+that ever tempted man to wickedness.
+
+'Oh, Monsieur Valmont, I have been waiting for you, and you escaped
+me. Have you seen my uncle?'
+
+'Yes, I have been with him since ten o'clock.'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'Your ladyship, that is exactly the word with which he accosted me.'
+
+'Ah, you see an additional likeness between my uncle and myself this
+morning, then? Has he told you about Mr. Carter?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'So now you understand how important it is that I should regain
+possession of my property?'
+
+'Yes,' I said with a sigh; 'the house near Hyde Park and the great
+estate in Derbyshire.'
+
+She clapped her hands with glee, eyes and feet dancing in unison, as
+she capered along gaily beside me; a sort of skippety-hop,
+skippety-hop, sideways, keeping pace with my more stately step, as if
+she were a little girl of six instead of a young woman of twenty.
+
+'Not only that!' she cried, 'but one million pounds to spend! Oh,
+Monsieur Valmont, you know Paris, and yet you do not seem to
+comprehend what that plethora of money means!'
+
+'Well, madame, I have seen Paris, and I have seen a good deal of the
+world, but I am not so certain you will secure the million to spend.'
+
+'What!' she cried, stopping short, that little wrinkle which betokened
+temper appearing on her brow. 'Do you think we won't get the emeralds
+then?'
+
+'Oh, I am sure we will get the emeralds. I, Valmont, pledge you my
+word. But if Mr. Jonas Carter before marriage calls a halt upon the
+ceremony until your uncle places fifty thousand pounds upon the table,
+I confess I am very pessimistic about your obtaining control of the
+million afterwards.'
+
+All her vivacity instantaneously returned.
+
+'Pooh!' she cried, dancing round in front of me, and standing there
+directly in my path, so that I came to a stand. 'Pooh!' she repeated,
+snapping her fingers, with an inimitable gesture of that lovely hand.
+'Monsieur Valmont, I am disappointed in you. You are not nearly so
+nice as you were last evening. It is very uncomplimentary in you to
+intimate that when once I am married to Mr. Jonas I shall not wheedle
+from him all the money I want. Do not rest your eyes on the ground;
+look at me and answer!'
+
+I glanced up at her, and could not forbear laughing. The witchery of
+the wood was in that girl; yes, and a perceptible trace of the Gallic
+devil flickered in those enchanting eyes of hers. I could not help
+myself.
+
+'Ah, Madame la Marquise de Bellairs, how jauntily you would scatter
+despair in that susceptible Court of Louis!'
+
+'Ah, Monsieur Eugene de Valmont,' she cried, mimicking my tones, and
+imitating my manner with an exactitude that amazed me, 'you are once
+more my dear de Valmont of last night. I dreamed of you, I assure you
+I did, and now to find you in the morning, oh, so changed!' She
+clasped her little hands and inclined her head, while the sweet voice
+sank into a cadence of melancholy which seemed so genuine that the
+mocking ripple of a laugh immediately following was almost a shock to
+me. Where had this creature of the dull English countryside learnt all
+such frou-frou of gesture and tone?
+
+'Have you ever seen Sarah Bernhardt?' I asked.
+
+Now the average English woman would have inquired the genesis of so
+inconsequent a question, but Lady Alicia followed the trend of my
+thought, and answered at once as if my query had been quite
+expected:--
+
+'_Mais non_, monsieur. Sarah the Divine! Ah, she comes with my million
+a year and the house of Hyde Park. No, the only inhabitant of my real
+world whom I have yet seen is Monsieur Valmont, and he, alas! I find
+so changeable. But now, adieu frivolity, we must be serious,' and she
+walked sedately by my side.
+
+'Do you know where you are going, monsieur? You are going to church.
+Oh, do not look frightened, not to a service. I am decorating the
+church with holly, and you shall help me and get thorns in your poor
+fingers.'
+
+The private road, which up to this time had passed through a forest,
+now reached a secluded glade in which stood a very small, but
+exquisite, church, evidently centuries older than the mansion we had
+left. Beyond it were gray stone ruins, which Lady Alicia pointed out
+to me as remnants of the original mansion that had been built in the
+reign of the second Henry. The church, it was thought, formed the
+private chapel to the hall, and it had been kept in repair by the
+various lords of the manor.
+
+'Now hearken to the power of the poor, and learn how they may flout
+the proud marquis,' cried Lady Alicia gleefully; 'the poorest man in
+England may walk along this private road on Sunday to the church, and
+the proud marquis is powerless to prevent him. Of course, if the poor
+man prolongs his walk then is he in danger from the law of trespass.
+On weekdays, however, this is the most secluded spot on the estate,
+and I regret to say that my lordly uncle does not trouble it even on
+Sundays. I fear we are a degenerate race, Monsieur Valmont, for
+doubtless a fighting and deeply religious ancestor of mine built this
+church, and to think that when the useful masons cemented those stones
+together, Madame la Marquise de Bellairs or Lady Alicia were alike
+unthought of, and though three hundred years divide them this ancient
+chapel makes them seem, as one might say, contemporaries. Oh, Monsieur
+Valmont, what is the use of worrying about emeralds or anything else?
+As I look at this beautiful old church, even the house of Hyde Park
+appears as naught,' and to my amazement, the eyes that Lady Alicia
+turned upon me were wet.
+
+The front door was unlocked, and we walked into the church in silence.
+Around the pillars holly and ivy were twined. Great armfuls of the
+shrubs had been flung here and there along the walls in heaps, and a
+step-ladder stood in one of the aisles, showing that the decoration of
+the edifice was not yet complete. A subdued melancholy had settled
+down on my erstwhile vivacious companion, the inevitable reaction so
+characteristic of the artistic temperament, augmented doubtless by the
+solemnity of the place, around whose walls in brass and marble were
+sculptured memorials of her ancient race.
+
+'You promised,' I said at last, 'to tell me how you came to suspect--'
+
+'Not here, not here,' she whispered; then rising from the pew in which
+she had seated herself, she said:--
+
+'Let us go, I am in no mood for working this morning. I shall finish
+the decoration in the afternoon.'
+
+We came out into the cool and brilliant sunlight again, and as we
+turned homeward, her spirits immediately began to rise.
+
+'I am anxious to know,' I persisted, 'why you came to suspect a man
+whom at first you believed innocent.'
+
+'I am not sure but I believe him innocent now, although I am forced to
+the conclusion that he knows where the treasure is.'
+
+'What forces you to that conclusion, my lady?'
+
+'A letter I received from himself, in which he makes a proposal so
+extraordinary that I am almost disinclined to accede to it, even
+though it leads to the discovery of my necklace. However, I am
+determined to leave no means untried if I receive the support of my
+friend, Monsieur Valmont.'
+
+'My lady,' said I, with a bow, 'it is but yours to command, mine to
+obey. What were the contents of that letter?'
+
+'Read it,' she replied, taking the folded sheet from her pocket, and
+handing it to me.
+
+She had been quite right in characterising the note as an
+extraordinary epistle. The Honourable John Haddon had the temerity to
+propose that she should go through a form of marriage with him in the
+old church we had just left. If she did that, he said, it would
+console him for the mad love he felt for her. The ceremony would have
+no binding force upon her whatever, and she might bring whom she
+pleased to perform it. If she knew no one that she could trust, he
+would invite an old college chum, and bring him to the church next
+morning at half-past seven o'clock. Even if an ordained clergyman
+performed the ceremony, it would not be legal unless it took place
+between the hours of eight in the morning, and three in the
+afternoon. If she consented to this, the emeralds were hers once more.
+
+'This is the proposal of a madman,' said I, as I handed back the
+letter.
+
+'Well,' she replied, with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, 'he has
+always said he was madly in love with me, and I quite believe it. Poor
+young man, if this mummery were to console him for the rest of his
+life, why should I not indulge him in it?'
+
+'Lady Alicia, surely you would not countenance the profaning of that
+lovely old edifice with a mock ceremonial? No man in his senses could
+suggest such a thing!'
+
+Once more her eyes were twinkling with merriment.
+
+'But the Honourable John Haddon, as I have told you, is not in his
+senses.'
+
+'Then why should you indulge him?'
+
+'Why? How can you ask such a question? Because of the emeralds. It is
+only a mad lark, after all, and no one need know of it. Oh, Monsieur
+Valmont,' she cried pleadingly, clasping her hands, and yet it seemed
+to me with an undercurrent of laughter in her beseeching tones, 'will
+you not enact for us the part of clergyman? I am sure if your face
+were as serious as it is at this moment, the robes of a priest would
+become you.'
+
+'Lady Alicia, you are incorrigible. I am somewhat of a man of the
+world, yet I should not dare to counterfeit the sacred office, and I
+hope you but jest. In fact, I am sure you do, my lady.'
+
+She turned away from me with a very pretty pout.
+
+'Monsieur Valmont, your knighthood is, after all, but surface deep.
+'Tis not mine to command, and yours to obey. Certainly I did but jest.
+John shall bring his own imitation clergyman with him.'
+
+'Are you going to meet him tomorrow?'
+
+'Certainly I am. I have promised. I must secure my necklace.'
+
+'You seem to place great confidence in the belief that he will produce
+it.'
+
+'If he fails to do so, then I play Monsieur Valmont as my trump card.
+But, monsieur, although you quite rightly refuse to comply with my
+first request, you will surely not reject my second. Please meet me
+tomorrow at the head of the avenue, promptly at a quarter-past seven,
+and escort me to the church.'
+
+For a moment the negative trembled on my tongue's end, but she turned
+those enchanting eyes upon me, and I was undone.
+
+'Very well,' I answered.
+
+She seized both my hands, like a little girl overjoyed at a promised
+excursion.
+
+'Oh, Monsieur Valmont, you are a darling! I feel as if I'd known you
+all my life. I am sure you will never regret having humoured me,' then
+added a moment later, 'if we get the emeralds.'
+
+'Ah,' said I, '_if_ we get the emeralds.'
+
+We were now within sight of the house, and she pointed out our
+rendezvous for the following day, and with that I bade her good-bye.
+
+It was shortly after seven o'clock next morning when I reached the
+meeting-place. The Lady Alicia was somewhat long in coming, but when
+she arrived her face was aglow with girlish delight at the solemn
+prank she was about to play.
+
+'You have not changed your mind?' I asked, after the morning's
+greetings.
+
+'Oh, no, Monsieur Valmont,' she replied, with a bright laugh. 'I am
+determined to recover those emeralds.'
+
+'We must hurry, Lady Alicia, or we will be too late.'
+
+'There is plenty of time,' she remarked calmly; and she proved to be
+right, because when we came in sight of the church, the clock pointed
+to the hour of half-past seven.
+
+'Now,' she said 'I shall wait here until you steal up to the church
+and look in through one of the windows that do not contain stained
+glass. I should not for the world arrive before Mr. Haddon and his
+friend are there.'
+
+I did as requested, and saw two young men standing together in the
+centre aisle, one in the full robes of a clergyman, the other in his
+ordinary dress, whom I took to be the Honourable John Haddon. His
+profile was toward me, and I must admit there was very little of the
+madman in his calm countenance. His was a well-cut face, clean shaven,
+and strikingly manly. In one of the pews was seated a woman--I learned
+afterwards she was Lady Alicia's maid, who had been instructed to come
+and go from the house by a footpath, while we had taken the longer
+road. I returned and escorted Lady Alicia to the church, and there was
+introduced to Mr. Haddon and his friend, the made-up divine. The
+ceremony was at once performed, and, man of the world as I professed
+myself to be, this enacting of private theatricals in a church grated
+upon me. When the maid and I were asked to sign the book as witnesses,
+I said:--
+
+'Surely this is carrying realism a little too far?'
+
+Mr. Haddon smiled, and replied:--
+
+'I am amazed to hear a Frenchman objecting to realism going to its
+full length, and speaking for myself, I should be delighted to see the
+autograph of the renowned Eugene Valmont,' and with that he proffered
+me the pen, whereupon I scrawled my signature. The maid had already
+signed, and disappeared. The reputed clergyman bowed us out of the
+church, standing in the porch to see us walk up the avenue.
+
+'Ed,' cried John Haddon, I'll be back within half an hour, and we'll
+attend to the clock. You won't mind waiting?'
+
+'Not in the least, dear boy. God bless you both,' and the tremor in
+his voice seemed to me carrying realism one step further still.
+
+The Lady Alicia, with downcast head, hurried us on until we were
+within the gloom of the forest, and then, ignoring me, she turned
+suddenly to the young man, and placed her two hands on his shoulders.
+
+'Oh, Jack, Jack!' she cried.
+
+He kissed her twice on the lips.
+
+'Jack, Monsieur Valmont insists on the emeralds.'
+
+The young man laughed. Her ladyship stood fronting him with her back
+towards me. Tenderly the young man unfastened something at the throat
+of that high-necked dress of hers, then there was a snap, and he drew
+out an amazing, dazzling, shimmering sheen of green, that seemed to
+turn the whole bleak December landscape verdant as with a touch of
+spring. The girl hid her rosy face against him, and over her shoulder,
+with a smile, he handed me the celebrated Blair emeralds.
+
+'There is the treasure, Valmont,' he cried, 'on condition that you do
+not molest the culprit.'
+
+'Or the accessory after the fact,' gurgled Lady Alicia in smothered
+tones, with a hand clasping together her high-necked dress at the
+throat.
+
+'We trust to your invention, Valmont, to deliver that necklace to
+uncle with a detective story that will thrill him to his very heart.'
+
+We heard the clock strike eight; then a second later smaller bells
+chimed a quarter-past, and another second after they tinkled the
+half-hour. 'Hallo!' cried Haddon, 'Ed has attended to the clock
+himself. What a good fellow he is.'
+
+'I looked at my watch; it was twenty-five minutes to nine.
+
+'Was the ceremony genuine then?' I asked.
+
+'Ah, Valmont,' said the young man, patting his wife affectionately on
+the shoulder, 'nothing on earth can be more genuine than that ceremony
+was.'
+
+And the volatile Lady Alicia snuggled closer to him.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX: TWO SHERLOCK HOLMES PARODIES
+
+
+1. The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs
+
+(With apologies to Dr. Conan Doyle, and his excellent book, 'A Study in
+Scarlet'.)
+
+
+I dropped in on my friend, Sherlaw Kombs, to hear what he had to say
+about the Pegram mystery, as it had come to be called in the
+newspapers. I found him playing the violin with a look of sweet peace
+and serenity on his face, which I never noticed on the countenances of
+those within hearing distance. I knew this expression of seraphic calm
+indicated that Kombs had been deeply annoyed about something. Such,
+indeed, proved to be the case, for one of the morning papers had
+contained an article eulogising the alertness and general competence
+of Scotland Yard. So great was Sherlaw Kombs's contempt for Scotland
+Yard that he never would visit Scotland during his vacations, nor
+would he ever admit that a Scotchman was fit for anything but export.
+
+He generously put away his violin, for he had a sincere liking for me,
+and greeted me with his usual kindness.
+
+'I have come,' I began, plunging at once into the matter on my mind,
+'to hear what you think of the great Pegram mystery.'
+
+'I haven't heard of it,' he said quietly, just as if all London were
+not talking of that very thing. Kombs was curiously ignorant on some
+subjects, and abnormally learned on others. I found, for instance,
+that political discussion with him was impossible, because he did not
+know who Salisbury and Gladstone were. This made his friendship a
+great boon.
+
+'The Pegram mystery has baffled even Gregory, of Scotland Yard.'
+
+'I can well believe it,' said my friend, calmly. 'Perpetual motion, or
+squaring the circle, would baffle Gregory. He's an infant, is
+Gregory.'
+
+This was one of the things I always liked about Kombs. There was no
+professional jealousy in him, such as characterises so many other men.
+
+He filled his pipe, threw himself into his deep-seated armchair,
+placed his feet on the mantel, and clasped his hands behind his head.
+
+'Tell me about it,' he said simply.
+
+'Old Barrie Kipson,' I began, 'was a stockbroker in the City. He lived
+in Pegram, and it was his custom to--'
+
+'COME IN!' shouted Kombs, without changing his position, but with a
+suddenness that startled me. I had heard no knock.
+
+'Excuse me,' said my friend, laughing, 'my invitation to enter was a
+trifle premature. I was really so interested in your recital that I
+spoke before I thought, which a detective should never do. The fact
+is, a man will be here in a moment who will tell me all about this
+crime, and so you will be spared further effort in that line.'
+
+'Ah, you have an appointment. In that case I will not intrude,' I
+said, rising.
+
+'Sit down; I have no appointment. I did not know until I spoke that he
+was coming.'
+
+I gazed at him in amazement. Accustomed as I was to his extraordinary
+talents, the man was a perpetual surprise to me. He continued to smoke
+quietly, but evidently enjoyed my consternation.
+
+'I see you are surprised. It is really too simple to talk about, but,
+from my position opposite the mirror, I can see the reflection of
+objects in the street. A man stopped, looked at one of my cards, and
+then glanced across the street. I recognised my card, because, as you
+know, they are all in scarlet. If, as you say, London is talking of
+this mystery, it naturally follows that _he_ will talk of it, and the
+chances are he wished to consult with me upon it. Anyone can see that,
+besides there is always--_Come in!_
+
+There was a rap at the door this time.
+
+A stranger entered. Sherlaw Kombs did not change his lounging
+attitude.
+
+'I wish to see Mr. Sherlaw Kombs, the detective,' said the stranger,
+coming within the range of the smoker's vision.
+
+'This is Mr. Kombs,' I remarked at last, as my friend smoked quietly,
+and seemed half-asleep.
+
+'Allow me to introduce myself,' continued the stranger, fumbling for a
+card.
+
+'There is no need. You are a journalist,' said Kombs.
+
+'Ah,' said the stranger, somewhat taken aback, 'you know me, then.'
+
+'Never saw or heard of you in my life before.'
+
+'Then how in the world--'
+
+'Nothing simpler. You write for an evening paper. You have written an
+article slating the book of a friend. He will feel badly about it, and
+you will condole with him. He will never know who stabbed him unless I
+tell him.'
+
+'The devil!' cried the journalist, sinking into a chair and mopping
+his brow, while his face became livid.
+
+'Yes,' drawled Kombs, 'it is a devil of a shame that such things are
+done. But what would you? as we say in France.'
+
+When the journalist had recovered his second wind he pulled himself
+together somewhat. 'Would you object to telling me how you know these
+particulars about a man you say you have never seen?'
+
+'I rarely talk about these things,' said Kombs with great composure.
+'But as the cultivation of the habit of observation may help you in
+your profession, and thus in a remote degree benefit me by making
+your paper less deadly dull, I will tell you. Your first and second
+fingers are smeared with ink, which shows that you write a great deal.
+This smeared class embraces two sub-classes, clerks or accountants,
+and journalists. Clerks have to be neat in their work. The ink smear
+is slight in their case. Your fingers are badly and carelessly
+smeared; therefore, you are a journalist. You have an evening paper in
+your pocket. Anyone might have any evening paper, but yours is a
+Special Edition, which will not be on the streets for half-an-hour
+yet. You must have obtained it before you left the office, and to do
+this you must be on the staff. A book notice is marked with a blue
+pencil. A journalist always despises every article in his own paper
+not written by himself; therefore, you wrote the article you have
+marked, and doubtless are about to send it to the author of the book
+referred to. Your paper makes a speciality of abusing all books not
+written by some member of its own staff. That the author is a friend
+of yours, I merely surmised. It is all a trivial example of ordinary
+observation.'
+
+'Really, Mr. Kombs, you are the most wonderful man on earth. You are
+the equal of Gregory, by Jove, you are.'
+
+A frown marred the brow of my friend as he placed his pipe on the
+sideboard and drew his self-cocking six-shooter.
+
+'Do you mean to insult me, sir?'
+
+'I do not--I--I assure you. You are fit to take charge of Scotland
+Yard tomorrow ----. I am in earnest, indeed I am, sir.'
+
+'Then heaven help you,' cried Kombs, slowly raising his right arm.
+
+I sprang between them.
+
+'Don't shoot!' I cried. 'You will spoil the carpet. Besides, Sherlaw,
+don't you see the man means well. He actually thinks it is a
+compliment!'
+
+'Perhaps you are right,' remarked the detective, flinging his revolver
+carelessly beside his pipe, much to the relief of the third party.
+Then, turning to the journalist, he said, with his customary bland
+courtesy--
+
+'You wanted to see me, I think you said. What can I do for you, Mr
+Wilber Scribbings?'
+
+The journalist started.
+
+'How do you know my name?' he gasped.
+
+Kombs waved his hand impatiently.
+
+'Look inside your hat if you doubt your own name.'
+
+I then noticed for the first time that the name was plainly to be seen
+inside the top-hat Scribbings held upside down in his hands.
+
+'You have heard, of course, of the Pegram mystery--'
+
+'Tush,' cried the detective; 'do not, I beg of you, call it a mystery.
+There is no such thing. Life would become more tolerable if there ever
+_was_ a mystery. Nothing is original. Everything has been done before.
+What about the Pegram affair?'
+
+'The Pegram--ah--case has baffled everyone. The _Evening Blade_ wishes
+you to investigate, so that it may publish the result. It will pay you
+well. Will you accept the commission?'
+
+'Possibly. Tell me about the case.'
+
+'I thought everybody knew the particulars. Mr. Barrie Kipson lived at
+Pegram. He carried a first-class season ticket between the terminus
+and that station. It was his custom to leave for Pegram on the 5.30
+train each evening. Some weeks ago, Mr. Kipson was brought down by the
+influenza. On his first visit to the City after his recovery, he drew
+something like L300 in notes, and left the office at his usual hour to
+catch the 5.30. He was never seen again alive, as far as the public
+have been able to learn. He was found at Brewster in a first-class
+compartment on the Scotch Express, which does not stop between London
+and Brewster. There was a bullet in his head, and his money was gone,
+pointing plainly to murder and robbery.'
+
+'And where is the mystery, might I ask?'
+
+'There are several unexplainable things about the case. First, how
+came he on the Scotch Express, which leaves at six, and does not stop
+at Pegram? Second, the ticket examiners at the terminus would have
+turned him out if he showed his season ticket; and all the tickets
+sold for the Scotch Express on the 21st are accounted for. Third, how
+could the murderer have escaped? Fourth, the passengers in the two
+compartments on each side of the one where the body was found heard no
+scuffle and no shot fired.'
+
+'Are you sure the Scotch Express on the 21st did not stop between
+London and Brewster?'
+
+'Now that you mention the fact, it did. It was stopped by signal just
+outside of Pegram. There was a few moments' pause, when the line was
+reported clear, and it went on again. This frequently happens, as
+there is a branch line beyond Pegram.'
+
+Mr. Sherlaw Kombs pondered for a few moments, smoking his pipe
+silently.
+
+'I presume you wish the solution in time for tomorrow's paper?'
+
+'Bless my soul, no. The editor thought if you evolved a theory in a
+month you would do well.'
+
+'My dear sir, I do not deal with theories, but with facts. If you can
+make it convenient to call here tomorrow at 8 a.m. I will give you the
+full particulars early enough for the first edition. There is no sense
+in taking up much time over so simple an affair as the Pegram case.
+Good afternoon, sir.'
+
+Mr. Scribbings was too much astonished to return the greeting. He left
+in a speechless condition, and I saw him go up the street with his hat
+still in his hand.
+
+Sherlaw Kombs relapsed into his old lounging attitude, with his hands
+clasped behind his head. The smoke came from his lips in quick puffs
+at first, then at longer intervals. I saw he was coming to a
+conclusion, so I said nothing.
+
+Finally he spoke in his most dreamy manner. 'I do not wish to seem to
+be rushing things at all, Whatson, but I am going out tonight on the
+Scotch Express. Would you care to accompany me?'
+
+'Bless me!' I cried, glancing at the clock, 'you haven't time, it is
+after five now.'
+
+'Ample time, Whatson--ample,' he murmured, without changing his
+position. 'I give myself a minute and a half to change slippers and
+dressing-gown for boots and coat, three seconds for hat, twenty-five
+seconds to the street, forty-two seconds waiting for a hansom, and
+then seven minutes at the terminus before the express starts. I shall
+be glad of your company.'
+
+I was only too happy to have the privilege of going with him. It was
+most interesting to watch the workings of so inscrutable a mind. As we
+drove under the lofty iron roof of the terminus I noticed a look of
+annoyance pass over his face.
+
+'We are fifteen seconds ahead of our time,' he remarked, looking at
+the big clock. 'I dislike having a miscalculation of that sort occur.'
+
+The great Scotch Express stood ready for its long journey. The
+detective tapped one of the guards on the shoulder.
+
+'You have heard of the so-called Pegram mystery, I presume?'
+
+'Certainly, sir. It happened on this very train, sir.'
+
+'Really? Is the same carriage still on the train?'
+
+'Well, yes, sir, it is,' replied the guard, lowering his voice, 'but
+of course, sir, we have to keep very quiet about it. People wouldn't
+travel in it, else, sir.'
+
+'Doubtless. Do you happen to know if anybody occupies the compartment
+in which the body was found?'
+
+'A lady and gentleman, sir; I put 'em in myself, sir.'
+
+'Would you further oblige me,' said the detective, deftly slipping
+half-a-sovereign into the hand of the guard, 'by going to the window
+and informing them in an offhand casual sort of way that the tragedy
+took place in that compartment?'
+
+'Certainly, sir.'
+
+We followed the guard, and the moment he had imparted his news there
+was a suppressed scream in the carriage. Instantly a lady came out,
+followed by a florid-faced gentleman, who scowled at the guard. We
+entered the now empty compartment, and Kombs said:
+
+'We would like to be alone here until we reach Brewster.'
+
+'I'll see to that, sir,' answered the guard, locking the door.
+
+When the official moved away, I asked my friend what he expected to
+find in the carriage that would cast any light on the case.
+
+'Nothing,' was his brief reply.
+
+'Then why do you come?'
+
+'Merely to corroborate the conclusions I have already arrived at.'
+
+'And might I ask what those conclusions are?'
+
+'Certainly,' replied the detective, with a touch of lassitude in his
+voice. 'I beg to call your attention, first, to the fact that this
+train stands between two platforms, and can be entered from either
+side. Any man familiar with the station for years would be aware of
+that fact. This shows how Mr. Kipson entered the train just before it
+started.'
+
+'But the door on this side is locked,' I objected, trying it.
+
+'Of course. But every season ticket-holder carries a key. This
+accounts for the guard not seeing him, and for the absence of a
+ticket. Now let me give you some information about the influenza. The
+patient's temperature rises several degrees above normal, and he has a
+fever. When the malady has run its course, the temperature falls to
+three-quarters of a degree below normal. These facts are unknown to
+you, I imagine, because you are a doctor.'
+
+I admitted such was the case.
+
+'Well, the consequence of this fall in temperature is that the
+convalescent's mind turns towards thoughts of suicide. Then is the
+time he should be watched by his friends. Then was the time Mr. Barrie
+Kipson's friends did _not_ watch him. You remember the 21st, of
+course. No? It was a most depressing day. Fog all around and mud under
+foot. Very good. He resolves on suicide. He wishes to be unidentified,
+if possible, but forgets his season ticket. My experience is that a
+man about to commit a crime always forgets something.'
+
+'But how do you account for the disappearance of the money?'
+
+'The money has nothing to do with the matter. If he was a deep man,
+and knew the stupidness of Scotland Yard, he probably sent the notes
+to an enemy. If not, they may have been given to a friend. Nothing is
+more calculated to prepare the mind for self-destruction than the
+prospect of a night ride on the Scotch express, and the view from the
+windows of the train as it passes through the northern part of London
+is particularly conducive to thoughts of annihilation.'
+
+'What became of the weapon?'
+
+'That is just the point on which I wish to satisfy myself. Excuse me
+for a moment.'
+
+Mr. Sherlaw Kombs drew down the window on the right hand side, and
+examined the top of the casing minutely with a magnifying glass.
+Presently he heaved a sigh of relief, and drew up the sash.
+
+'Just as I expected,' he remarked, speaking more to himself than to
+me. 'There is a slight dent on the top of the window-frame. It is of
+such a nature as to be made only by the trigger of a pistol falling
+from the nerveless hand of a suicide. He intended to throw the weapon
+far out of the window, but had not the strength. It might have fallen
+into the carriage. As a matter of fact, it bounced away from the line
+and lies among the grass about ten feet six inches from the outside
+rail. The only question that now remains is where the deed was
+committed, and the exact present position of the pistol reckoned in
+miles from London, but that, fortunately, is too simple to even need
+explanation.'
+
+'Great heavens, Sherlaw!' I cried. 'How can you call that simple? It
+seems to me impossible to compute.'
+
+We were now flying over Northern London, and the great detective
+leaned back with every sign of _ennui_, closing his eyes. At last he
+spoke wearily:
+
+'It is really too elementary, Whatson, but I am always willing to
+oblige a friend. I shall be relieved, however, when you are able to
+work out the ABC of detection for yourself, although I shall never
+object to helping you with the words of more than three syllables.
+Having made up his mind to commit suicide, Kipson naturally intended
+to do it before he reached Brewster, because tickets are again
+examined at that point. When the train began to stop at the signal
+near Pegram, he came to the false conclusion that it was stopping at
+Brewster. The fact that the shot was not heard is accounted for by the
+screech of the air-brake, added to the noise of the train. Probably
+the whistle was also sounding at the same moment. The train being a
+fast express would stop as near the signal as possible. The air-brake
+will stop a train in twice its own length. Call it three times in this
+case. Very well. At three times the length of this train from the
+signal-post towards London, deducting half the length of the train, as
+this carriage is in the middle, you will find the pistol.'
+
+'Wonderful!' I exclaimed.
+
+'Commonplace,' he murmured.
+
+At this moment the whistle sounded shrilly, and we felt the grind of
+the air-brakes.
+
+'The Pegram signal again,' cried Kombs, with something almost like
+enthusiasm. 'This is indeed luck. We will get out here, Whatson, and
+test the matter.'
+
+As the train stopped, we got out on the right-hand side of the line.
+The engine stood panting impatiently under the red light, which
+changed to green as I looked at it. As the train moved on with
+increasing speed, the detective counted the carriages, and noted down
+the number. It was now dark, with the thin crescent of the moon
+hanging in the western sky throwing a weird half-light on the shining
+metals. The rear lamps of the train disappeared around a curve, and
+the signal stood at baleful red again. The black magic of the lonesome
+night in that strange place impressed me, but the detective was a most
+practical man. He placed his back against the signal-post, and paced
+up the line with even strides, counting his steps. I walked along the
+permanent way beside him silently. At last he stopped, and took a
+tape-line from his pocket. He ran it out until the ten feet six inches
+were unrolled, scanning the figures in the wan light of the new moon.
+Giving me the end, he placed his knuckles on the metals, motioning me
+to proceed down the embankment. I stretched out the line, and then
+sank my hand in the damp grass to mark the spot.
+
+'Good God!' I cried, aghast, 'what is this?'
+
+'It is the pistol,' said Kombs quietly.
+
+It was!!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Journalistic London will not soon forget the sensation that was caused
+by the record of the investigations of Sherlaw Kombs, as printed at
+length in the next day's _Evening Blade_. Would that my story ended
+here. Alas! Kombs contemptuously turned over the pistol to Scotland
+Yard. The meddlesome officials, actuated, as I always hold, by
+jealousy, found the name of the seller upon it. They investigated. The
+seller testified that it had never been in the possession of Mr
+Kipson, as far as he knew. It was sold to a man whose description
+tallied with that of a criminal long watched by the police. He was
+arrested, and turned Queen's evidence in the hope of hanging his pal.
+It seemed that Mr. Kipson, who was a gloomy, taciturn man, and usually
+came home in a compartment by himself, thus escaping observation, had
+been murdered in the lane leading to his house. After robbing him, the
+miscreants turned their thoughts towards the disposal of the body--a
+subject that always occupies a first-class criminal mind before the
+deed is done. They agreed to place it on the line, and have it mangled
+by the Scotch Express, then nearly due. Before they got the body
+half-way up the embankment the express came along and stopped. The
+guard got out and walked along the other side to speak with the
+engineer. The thought of putting the body into an empty first-class
+carriage instantly occurred to the murderers. They opened the door
+with the deceased's key. It is supposed that the pistol dropped when
+they were hoisting the body in the carriage.
+
+The Queen's evidence dodge didn't work, and Scotland Yard ignobly
+insulted my friend Sherlaw Kombs by sending him a pass to see the
+villains hanged.
+
+
+
+
+2. The Adventure of the Second Swag
+
+
+The time was Christmas Eve, 1904. The place was an ancient, secluded
+manor house, built so far back in the last century as 1896. It stood
+at the head of a profound valley; a valley clothed in ferns waist
+deep, and sombrely guarded by ancient trees, the remnants of a
+primeval forest. From this mansion no other human habitation could be
+seen. The descending road which connected the king's highway with the
+stronghold was so sinuous and precipitate that more than once the grim
+baronet who owned it had upset his automobile in trying to negotiate
+the dangerous curves. The isolated situation and gloomy architecture
+of this venerable mansion must have impressed the most casual observer
+with the thought that here was the spot for the perpetration of dark
+deeds, were it not for the fact that the place was brilliantly
+illumined with electricity, while the silence was emphasised rather
+than disturbed by the monotonous, regular thud of an accumulator
+pumping the subtle fluid into a receptive dynamo situated in an
+outhouse to the east.
+
+The night was gloomy and lowering after a day of rain, but the very
+sombreness of the scene made the brilliant stained glass windows stand
+out like the radiant covers of a Christmas number. Such was the
+appearance presented by 'Undershaw', the home of Sir Arthur Conan
+Doyle, situated among the wilds of Hindhead, some forty or fifty miles
+from London. Is it any wonder that at a spot so remote from
+civilisation law should be set at defiance, and that the one lone
+policeman who perambulates the district should tremble as he passed
+the sinister gates of 'Undershaw'?
+
+In a large room of this manor house, furnished with a luxuriant
+elegance one would not have expected in a region so far from
+humanising influences, sat two men. One was a giant in stature, whose
+broad brow and smoothly shaven strong chin gave a look of
+determination to his countenance, which was further enhanced by the
+heavy black moustache which covered his upper lip. There was something
+of the dragoon in his upright and independent bearing. He had, in
+fact, taken part in more than one fiercely fought battle, and was a
+member of several military clubs; but it was plain to be seen that his
+ancestors had used war clubs, and had transmitted to him the physique
+of a Hercules. One did not need to glance at the Christmas number of
+the _Strand_, which he held in his hand, nor read the name printed
+there in large letters, to know that he was face to face with Sir
+Arthur Conan Doyle.
+
+His guest, an older man, yet still in the prime of life, whose beard
+was tinged with grey, was of less warlike bearing than the celebrated
+novelist, belonging, as he evidently did, to the civil and not the
+military section of life. He had about him the air of a prosperous man
+of affairs, shrewd, good-natured, conciliatory, and these two
+strongly contrasting personages are types of the men to whom England
+owes her greatness. The reader of the Christmas number will very
+probably feel disappointed when he finds, as he supposes, merely two
+old friends sitting amicably in a country house after dinner. There
+seems, to his jaded taste, no element of tragedy in such a situation.
+These two men appear comfortable enough, and respectable enough. It is
+true that there is whisky and soda at hand, and the box of cigars is
+open, yet there are latent possibilities of passion under the most
+placid natures, revealed only to writers of fiction in our halfpenny
+Press. Let the reader wait, therefore, till he sees these two men
+tried as by fire under a great temptation, and then let him say
+whether even the probity of Sir George Newnes comes scathless from the
+ordeal.
+
+'Have you brought the swag, Sir George?' asked the novelist, with some
+trace of anxiety in his voice.
+
+'Yes,' replied the great publisher; 'but before proceeding to the
+count would it not be wise to give orders that will insure our being
+left undisturbed?'
+
+'You are right,' replied Doyle, pressing an electric button.
+
+When the servant appeared he said: 'I am not at home to anyone. No
+matter who calls, or what excuse is given, you must permit none to
+approach this room.'
+
+When the servant had withdrawn, Doyle took the further precaution of
+thrusting in place one of the huge bolts which ornamented the massive
+oaken door studded with iron knobs. Sir George withdrew from the tail
+pocket of his dress coat two canvas bags, and, untying the strings,
+poured the rich red gold on the smooth table.
+
+'I think you will find that right,' he said; 'six thousand pounds in
+all.'
+
+The writer dragged his heavy chair nearer the table, and began to
+count the coins two by two, withdrawing each pair from the pile with
+his extended forefingers in the manner of one accustomed to deal with
+great treasure. For a time the silence was unbroken, save by the chink
+of gold, when suddenly a high-keyed voice outside penetrated even the
+stout oak of the huge door. The shrill exclamation seemed to touch a
+chord of remembrance in the mind of Sir George Newnes. Nervously he
+grasped the arms of his chair, sitting very bolt upright, muttering:--
+
+'Can it be he, of all persons, at this time, of all times?'
+
+Doyle glanced up with an expression of annoyance on his face,
+murmuring, to keep his memory green:--
+
+'A hundred and ten, a hundred and ten, a hundred and ten.'
+
+'Not at home?' cried the vibrant voice. 'Nonsense! Everybody is at
+home on Christmas Eve!'
+
+'_You_ don't seem to be,' he heard the servant reply.
+
+'Me? Oh, I have no home, merely rooms in Baker Street. I must see your
+master, and at once.'
+
+'Master left in his motor car half an hour ago to attend the county
+ball, given tonight, at the Royal Huts Hotel, seven miles away,'
+answered the servant, with that glib mastery of fiction which
+unconsciously comes to those who are members, even in a humble
+capacity, of a household devoted to the production of imaginative art.
+
+'Nonsense, I say again,' came the strident voice. 'It is true that the
+tracks of an automobile are on the ground in front of your door, but
+if you will notice the markings of the puncture-proof belt, you will
+see that the automobile is returning and not departing. It went to the
+station before the last shower to bring back a visitor, and since its
+arrival there has been no rain. That suit of armour in the hall
+spattered with mud shows it to be the casing the visitor wore. The
+blazonry upon it of a pair of scissors above an open book resting upon
+a printing press, indicates that the wearer is first of all an editor;
+second, a publisher; and third, a printer. The only baronet in England
+whose occupation corresponds with this heraldic device is Sir George
+Newnes.'
+
+'You forget Sir Alfred Harmsworth,' said the servant, whose hand held
+a copy of _Answers_.
+
+If the insistent visitor was taken aback by this unlooked-for
+rejoinder, his manner showed no trace of embarrassment, and he went on
+unabashed.
+
+'As the last shower began at ten minutes to six, Sir George must have
+arrived at Haslemere station on the 6.19 from Waterloo. He has had
+dinner, and at this moment is sitting comfortably with Sir Arthur
+Conan Doyle, doubtless in the front room, which I see is so
+brilliantly lighted. Now if you will kindly take in my card--'
+
+'But I tell you,' persisted the perplexed servant, 'that the master
+left in his motor car for the county ball at the Royal--'
+
+'Oh, I know, I know. There stands his suit of armour, too, newly
+blackleaded, whose coat of arms is a couchant typewriter on an
+automobile rampant.'
+
+'Great heavens!' cried Sir George, his eyes brightening with the light
+of unholy desire, 'you have material enough there, Doyle, for a story
+in our January number. What do you say?'
+
+A deep frown marred the smoothness of the novelist's brow.
+
+'I say,' he replied sternly, 'that this man has been sending
+threatening letters to me. I have had enough of his menaces.'
+
+'Then triply bolt the door,' advised Newnes, with a sigh of
+disappointment, leaning back in his chair.
+
+'Do you take me for a man who bolts when his enemy appears?' asked
+Doyle fiercely, rising to his feet. 'No, I will unbolt. He shall meet
+the Douglas in his hall!'
+
+'Better have him in the drawing-room, where it's warm,' suggested Sir
+George, with a smile, diplomatically desiring to pour oil on the
+troubled waters.
+
+The novelist, without reply, spread a copy of that evening's
+_Westminster Gazette_ over the pile of gold, strode to the door, threw
+it open, and said coldly:--
+
+'Show the gentleman in, please.'
+
+There entered to them a tall, self-possessed, calm man, with
+clean-shaven face, eagle eye, and inquisitive nose.
+
+Although the visit was most embarrassing at that particular juncture,
+the natural courtesy of the novelist restrained him from giving
+utterance to his resentment of the intrusion, and he proceeded to
+introduce the bidden to the unbidden guest as if each were equally
+welcome.
+
+'Mr. Sherlock Holmes, permit me to present to you Sir George--'
+
+'It is quite superfluous,' said the newcomer, in an even voice of
+exasperating tenor, 'for I perceive at once that one who wears a green
+waistcoat must be a Liberal of strong Home Rule opinions, or the
+editor of several publications wearing covers of emerald hue. The
+shamrock necktie, in addition to the waistcoat, indicates that the
+gentleman before me is both, and so I take it for granted that this is
+Sir George Newnes. How is your circulation, Sir George?'
+
+'Rapidly rising,' replied the editor.
+
+'I am glad of that,' asserted the intruder, suavely, 'and can assure
+you that the temperature outside is as rapidly falling.'
+
+The great detective spread his hands before the glowing electric fire,
+and rubbed them vigorously together.
+
+'I perceive through that evening paper the sum of six thousand pounds
+in gold.'
+
+Doyle interrupted him with some impatience.
+
+'You didn't see it _through_ the paper; you saw it _in_ the paper.
+Goodness knows, it's been mentioned in enough of the sheets.'
+
+'As I was about to remark,' went on Sherlock Holmes imperturbably, 'I
+am amazed that a man whose time is so valuable should waste it in
+counting the money. You are surely aware that a golden sovereign
+weighs 123.44 grains, therefore, if I were you, I should have up the
+kitchen scales, dump in the metal, and figure out the amount with a
+lead pencil. You brought the gold in two canvas bags, did you not, Sir
+George?'
+
+'In the name of all that's wonderful, how do you know that?' asked the
+astonished publisher.
+
+Sherlock Holmes, with a superior smile, casually waved his hand toward
+the two bags which still lay on the polished table.
+
+'Oh, I'm tired of this sort of thing,' said Doyle wearily, sitting
+down in the first chair that presented itself. 'Can't you be honest,
+even on Christmas Eve? You know the oracles of old did not try it on
+with each other.'
+
+'That is true,' said Sherlock Holmes. 'The fact is, I followed Sir
+George Newnes into the Capital and Counties Bank this afternoon, where
+he demanded six thousand pounds in gold; but when he learned this
+would weigh ninety-six pounds seven ounces avoirdupois weight, and
+that even troy weight would make the sum no lighter, he took two small
+bags of gold and the rest in Bank of England notes. I came from London
+on the same train with him, but he was off in the automobile before I
+could make myself known, and so I had to walk up. I was further
+delayed by taking the wrong turning on the top and finding myself at
+that charming spot in the neighbourhood where a sailor was murdered by
+two ruffians a century or so ago.'
+
+There was a note of warning in Doyle's voice when he said:--'Did that
+incident teach you no lesson? Did you not realise that you are in a
+dangerous locality?'
+
+'And likely to fall in with two ruffians?' asked Holmes, slightly
+elevating his eyebrows, while the same sweet smile hovered round his
+thin lips. 'No; the remembrance of the incident encouraged me. It was
+the man who had the money that was murdered. I brought no coin with
+me, although I expect to bear many away.'
+
+'Would you mind telling us, without further circumlocution, what
+brings you here so late at night?'
+
+Sherlock Holmes heaved a sigh, and mournfully shook his head very
+slowly.
+
+'After all the teaching I have bestowed upon you, Doyle, is it
+possible that you cannot deduct even so simple a thing as that? Why am
+I here? Because Sir George made a mistake about those bags. He was
+quite right in taking one of them to 'Undershaw', but he should have
+left the other at 221B, Baker Street. I call this little trip 'The
+Adventure of the Second Swag'. Here is the second swag on the table.
+The first swag you received long ago, and all I had for my share was
+some honeyed words of compliment in the stories you wrote. Now, it is
+truly said that soft words butter no parsnips, and, in this instance,
+they do not even turn away wrath. So far as the second swag is
+concerned, I have come to demand half of it.'
+
+'I am not so poor at deduction as you seem to imagine,' said Doyle,
+apparently nettled at the other's slighting reference to his powers.
+'I was well aware, when you came in, what your errand was. I deduced
+further that if you saw Sir George withdraw gold from the bank, you
+also followed him to Waterloo station.'
+
+'Quite right.'
+
+'When he purchased his ticket for Haslemere, you did the same.'
+
+'I did.'
+
+'When you arrived at Haslemere, you sent a telegram to your friend, Dr
+Watson, telling him of your whereabouts.'
+
+'You are wrong there; I ran after the motor car.'
+
+'You certainly sent a telegram from somewhere, to someone, or at least
+dropped a note in the post-box. There are signs, which I need not
+mention, that point irrevocably to such a conclusion.'
+
+The doomed man, ruined by his own self-complacency, merely smiled in
+his superior manner, not noticing the eager look with which Doyle
+awaited his answer.
+
+'Wrong entirely. I neither wrote any telegram, nor spoke any message,
+since I left London.'
+
+'Ah, no,' cried Doyle. 'I see where I went astray. You merely inquired
+the way to my house.'
+
+'I needed to make no inquiries. I followed the rear light of the
+automobile part way up the hill, and, when that disappeared, I turned
+to the right instead of the left, as there was no one out on such a
+night from whom I could make inquiry.'
+
+'My deductions, then, are beside the mark,' said Doyle hoarsely, in an
+accent which sent cold chills up and down the spine of his invited
+guest, but conveyed no intimation of his fate to the self-satisfied
+later arrival.
+
+'Of course they were,' said Holmes, with exasperating self-assurance.
+
+'Am I also wrong in deducting that you have had nothing to eat since
+you left London?'
+
+'No, you are quite right there.'
+
+'Well, oblige me by pressing that electric button.'
+
+Holmes did so with much eagerness, but, although the trio waited some
+minutes in silence, there was no response.
+
+'I deduct from that,' said Doyle, 'that the servants have gone to bed.
+After I have quite satisfied all your claims in the way of hunger for
+food and gold, I shall take you back in my motor car, unless you
+prefer to stay here the night.'
+
+'You are very kind,' said Sherlock Holmes.
+
+'Not at all,' replied Doyle. 'Just take that chair, draw it up to the
+table and we will divide the second swag.'
+
+The chair indicated differed from all others in the room. It was
+straight-backed, and its oaken arms were covered by two plates,
+apparently of German silver. When Holmes clutched it by the arms to
+drag it forward, he gave one half-articulate gasp, and plunged
+headlong to the floor, quivering. Sir George Newnes sprang up standing
+with a cry of alarm. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remained seated, a
+seraphic smile of infinite satisfaction playing about his lips.
+
+'Has he fainted?' cried Sir George.
+
+'No, merely electrocuted. A simple device the Sheriff of New York
+taught me when I was over there last.'
+
+'Merciful heavens! Cannot he be resuscitated?'
+
+'My dear Newnes,' said Doyle, with the air of one from whose shoulders
+a great weight is lifted, 'a man may fall into the chasm at the foot
+of the Reichenbach Fall and escape to record his adventures later, but
+when two thousand volts pass through the human frame, the person who
+owns that frame is dead.'
+
+'You don't mean to say you've murdered him?' asked Sir George, in an
+awed whisper.
+
+'Well, the term you use is harsh, still it rather accurately sums up
+the situation. To speak candidly, Sir George, I don't think they can
+indite us for anything more than manslaughter. You see, this is a
+little invention for the reception of burglars. Every night before the
+servants go to bed, they switch on the current to this chair. That's
+why I asked Holmes to press the button. I place a small table beside
+the chair, and put on it a bottle of wine, whisky and soda, and
+cigars. Then, if any burglar comes in, he invariably sits down in the
+chair to enjoy himself, and so you see, that piece of furniture is an
+effective method of reducing crime. The number of burglars I have
+turned over to the parish to be buried will prove that this taking off
+of Holmes was not premeditated by me. This incident, strictly
+speaking, is not murder, but manslaughter. We shouldn't get more than
+fourteen years apiece, and probably that would be cut down to seven on
+the ground that we had performed an act for the public benefit.'
+
+'Apiece!' cried Sir George. 'But what have I had to do with it?'
+
+'Everything, my dear sir, everything. As that babbling fool talked, I
+saw in your eye the gleam which betokens avarice for copy. Indeed, I
+think you mentioned the January number. You were therefore accessory
+before the fact. I simply had to slaughter the poor wretch.'
+
+Sir George sank back in his chair wellnigh breathless with horror.
+Publishers are humane men who rarely commit crimes; authors, however,
+are a hardened set who usually perpetrate a felony every time they
+issue a book. Doyle laughed easily.
+
+'I'm used to this sort of thing,' he said. 'Remember how I killed off
+the people in "The White Company". Now, if you will help me to get rid
+of the body, all may yet be well. You see, I learned from the
+misguided simpleton himself that nobody knows where he is today. He
+often disappears for weeks at a time, so there really is slight danger
+of detection. Will you lend a hand?'
+
+'I suppose I must,' cried the conscience-stricken man.
+
+Doyle at once threw off the lassitude which the coming of Sherlock
+Holmes had caused, and acted now with an energy which was
+characteristic of him. Going to an outhouse, he brought the motor car
+to the front door, then, picking up Holmes and followed by his
+trembling guest, he went outside and flung the body into the tonneau
+behind. He then threw a spade and a pick into the car, and covered
+everything up with a water-proof spread. Lighting the lamps, he bade
+his silent guest get up beside him, and so they started on their
+fateful journey, taking the road past the spot where the sailor had
+been murdered, and dashing down the long hill at fearful speed toward
+London.
+
+'Why do you take this direction?' asked Sir George. 'Wouldn't it be
+more advisable to go further into the country?'
+
+Doyle laughed harshly.
+
+'Haven't you a place on Wimbledon Common? Why not bury him in your
+garden?'
+
+'Merciful motors!' cried the horrified man. 'How can you propose such
+a thing? Talking of gardens, why not have buried him in your own,
+which was infinitely safer than going forward at this pace.'
+
+'Have no fear,' said Doyle reassuringly, 'we shall find him a suitable
+sepulchre without disturbing either of our gardens. I'll be in the
+centre of London within two hours.'
+
+Sir George stared in affright at the demon driver. The man had
+evidently gone mad. To London, of all places in the world. Surely that
+was the one spot on earth to avoid.
+
+'Stop the motor and let me off,' he cried. 'I'm going to wake up the
+nearest magistrate and confess.'
+
+'You'll do nothing of the sort,' said Doyle. 'Don't you see that no
+person on earth would suspect two criminals of making for London when
+they have the whole country before them? Haven't you read my stories?
+The moment a man commits a crime he tries to get as far away from
+London as possible. Every policeman knows that, therefore, two men
+coming into London are innocent strangers, according to Scotland
+Yard.'
+
+'But then we may be taken up for fast driving, and think of the
+terrible burden we carry.'
+
+'We're safe on the country roads, and I'll slow down when we reach the
+suburbs.'
+
+It was approaching three o'clock in the morning when a huge motor car
+turned out of Trafalgar Square, and went eastward along the Strand.
+The northern side of the Strand was up, as it usually is, and the
+motor, skilfully driven, glided past the piles of wood-paving blocks,
+great sombre kettles holding tar and the general _debris_ of a
+re-paving convulsion. Opposite Southampton Street, at the very spot so
+graphically illustrated by George C. Haite on the cover of the _Strand
+Magazine_, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stopped his motor. The Strand was
+deserted. He threw pick and shovel into the excavation, and curtly
+ordered his companion to take his choice of weapons. Sir George
+selected the pick, and Doyle vigorously plied the spade. In almost
+less time than it takes to tell it, a very respectable hole had been
+dug, and in it was placed the body of the popular private detective.
+Just as the last spadeful was shovelled in place the stern voice of a
+policeman awoke the silence, and caused Sir George to drop his pick
+from nerveless hands.
+
+'What are you two doing down there?'
+
+'That's all right, officer,' said Doyle glibly, as one who had
+foreseen every emergency. 'My friend here is controller of the Strand.
+When the Strand is up he is responsible, and it has the largest
+circulation in the--I mean it's up oftener than any other street in
+the world. We cannot inspect the work satisfactorily while traffic is
+on, and so we have been examining it in the night-time. I am his
+secretary; I do the writing, you know.'
+
+'Oh, I see,' replied the constable. 'Well, gentlemen, good morning to
+you, and merry Christmas.'
+
+'The same to you, constable. Just lend a hand, will you?'
+
+The officer of the law helped each of the men up to the level of the
+road.
+
+As Doyle drove away from the ill-omened spot he said:--
+
+'Thus have we disposed of poor Holmes in the busiest spot on earth,
+where no one will ever think of looking for him, and we've put him
+away without even a Christmas box around him. We have buried him for
+ever in the _Strand_.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont, by Robert Barr
+
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