Applying my hands to these, I easily pushed them out entirely, and looking through saw that they had fallen into the niche in which I had immured my lamented wife; facing the opening which their fall left, and at a distance of four feet, was the brickwork which my own hands had made for that unfortunate gentlewomans restraint. At this significant revelation I began a search of the wine cellar. Behind a row of casks I found four historically interesting but intrinsically valueless objects:
First, the mildewed remains of a ducal robe of state (Florentine) of the eleventh century; second, an illuminated vellum breviary with the name of Sir Aldebaran Turmore de Peters-Turmore inscribed in colors on the title page; third, a human skull fashioned into a drinking cup and deeply stained with wine; fourth, the iron cross of a Knight Commander of the Imperial Austrian Order of Assassins by Poison.
That was all not an object having commercial value, no papers nothing. But this was enough to clear up the mystery of the strong-room. My wife had early divined the existence and purpose of that apartment, and with the skill amounting to genius had effected an entrance by loosening the two stones in the wall.
Through that opening she had at several times abstracted the entire collection, which doubtless she had succeeded in converting into coin of the realm. When with an unconscious justice which deprives me of all satisfaction in the memory I decided to build her into the wall, by some malign fatality I selected that part of it in which were these movable stones, and doubtless before I had fairly finished my bricklaying she had removed them and, slipping through into the wine cellar, replaced them as they were originally laid. From the cellar she had easily escaped unobserved, to enjoy her infamous gains in distant parts. I have endeavored to procure a warrant, but the Lord High Baron of the Court of Indictment and Conviction reminds me that she is legally dead, and says my only course is to go before the Master in Cadavery and move for a writ of disinterment and constructive revival. So it looks as if I must suffer without redress this great wrong at the hands of a woman devoid alike of principle and shame.
Bret Harte
The Stolen Cigar Case
I found Hemlock Jones in the old Brook Street lodgings, musing before the fire. With the freedom of an old friend I at once threw myself in my usual familiar attitude at his feet, and gently caressed his boot. I was induced to do this for two reasons: one, that it enabled me to get a good look at his bent, concentrated face, and the other, that it seemed to indicate my reverence for his superhuman insight. So absorbed was he even then, in tracking some mysterious clue, that he did not seem to notice me. But therein I was wrong as I always was in my attempt to understand that powerful intellect.
It is raining, he said, without lifting his head.
You have been out, then? I said quickly.
No. But I see that your umbrella is wet, and that your overcoat has drops of water on it.
I sat aghast at his penetration. After a pause he said carelessly, as if dismissing the subject: Besides, I hear the rain on the window. Listen.
I listened. I could scarcely credit my ears, but there was the soft pattering of drops on the panes. It was evident there was no deceiving this man!
Have you been busy lately? I asked, changing the subject. What new problem given up by Scotland Yard as inscrutable has occupied that gigantic intellect?
He drew back his foot slightly, and seemed to hesitate ere he returned it to its original position. Then he answered wearily: Mere trifles nothing to speak of. The Prince Kupoli has been here to get my advice regarding the disappearance of certain rubies from the Kremlin; the Rajah of Pootibad, after vainly beheading his entire bodyguard, has been obliged to seek my assistance to recover a jeweled sword. The Grand Duchess of Pretzel-Brauntswig is desirous of discovering where her husband was on the night of February 14; and last night he lowered his voice slightly a lodger in this very house, meeting me on the stairs, wanted to know why they didnt answer his bell.
I could not help smiling until I saw a frown gathering on his inscrutable forehead.
Pray remember, he said coldly, that it was through such an apparently trivial question that I found out Why Paul Ferroll Killed His Wife, and What Happened to Jones!
I became dumb at once. He paused for a moment, and then suddenly changing back to his usual pitiless, analytical style, he said: When I say these are trifles, they are so in comparison to an affair that is now before me. A crime has been committed, and, singularly enough, against myself. You start, he said. You wonder who would have dared to attempt it. So did I; nevertheless, it has been done. I have been ROBBED!
YOU robbed! You, Hemlock Jones, the Terror of Peculators! I gasped in amazement, arising and gripping the table as I faced him.
Yes! Listen. I would confess it to no other. But YOU who have followed my career, who know my methods; you, for whom I have partly lifted the veil that conceals my plans from ordinary humanity, you, who have for years rapturously accepted my confidences, passionately admired my inductions and inferences, placed yourself at my beck and call, become my slave, groveled at my feet, given up your practice except those few unremunerative and rapidly decreasing patients to whom, in moments of abstraction over MY problems, you have administered strychnine for quinine and arsenic for Epsom salts; you, who have sacrificed anything and everybody to me, YOU I make my confidant!
I arose and embraced him warmly, yet he was already so engrossed in thought that at the same moment he mechanically placed his hand upon his watch chain as if to consult the time. Sit down, he said. Have a cigar?
I have given up cigar smoking, I said.
Why? he asked.
I hesitated, and perhaps colored. I had really given it up because, with my diminished practice, it was too expensive. I could afford only a pipe. I prefer a pipe, I said laughingly. But tell me of this robbery. What have you lost?
He arose, and planting himself before the fire with his hands under his coattails, looked down upon me reflectively for a moment. Do you remember the cigar case presented to me by the Turkish Ambassador for discovering the missing favorite of the Grand Vizier in the fifth chorus girl at the Hilarity Theatre? It was that one. I mean the cigar case. It was incrusted with diamonds.
And the largest one had been supplanted by paste, I said.
Ah, he said, with a reflective smile, you know that?
You told me yourself. I remember considering it a proof of your extraordinary perception. But, by Jove, you dont mean to say you have lost it?
He was silent for a moment. No; it has been stolen, it is true, but I shall still find it. And by myself alone! In your profession, my dear fellow, when a member is seriously ill, he does not prescribe for himself, but calls in a brother doctor. Therein we differ. I shall take this matter in my own hands.
And where could you find better? I said enthusiastically. I should say the cigar case is as good as recovered already.
I shall remind you of that again, he said lightly. And now, to show you my confidence in your judgment, in spite of my determination to pursue this alone, I am willing to listen to any suggestions from you.
He drew a memorandum book from his pocket and, with a grave smile, took up his pencil.
I could scarcely believe my senses. He, the great Hemlock Jones, accepting suggestions from a humble individual like myself! I kissed his hand reverently, and began in a joyous tone:
First, I should advertise, offering a reward; I should give the same intimation in hand-bills, distributed at the pubs and the pastry-cooks. I should next visit the different pawnbrokers; I should give notice at the police station. I should examine the servants. I should thoroughly search the house and my own pockets. I speak relatively, I added, with a laugh. Of course I mean YOUR own.
He gravely made an entry of these details.
Perhaps, I added, you have already done this?
Perhaps, he returned enigmatically. Now, my dear friend, he continued, putting the note-book in his pocket and rising, would you excuse me for a few moments? Make yourself perfectly at home until I return; there may be some things, he added with a sweep of his hand toward his heterogeneously filled shelves, that may interest you and while away the time. There are pipes and tobacco in that corner.
Then nodding to me with the same inscrutable face he left the room. I was too well accustomed to his methods to think much of his unceremonious withdrawal, and made no doubt he was off to investigate some clue which had suddenly occurred to his active intelligence.
Left to myself I cast a cursory glance over his shelves. There were a number of small glass jars containing earthy substances, labeled Pavement and Road Sweepings, from the principal thoroughfares and suburbs of London, with the sub-directions for identifying foot-tracks. There were several other jars, labeled Fluff from Omnibus and Road Car Seats, Cocoanut Fibre and Rope Strands from Mattings in Public Places, Cigarette Stumps and Match Ends from Floor of Palace Theatre, Row A, 1 to 50. Everywhere were evidences of this wonderful mans system and perspicacity.
I was thus engaged when I heard the slight creaking of a door, and I looked up as a stranger entered. He was a rough-looking man, with a shabby overcoat and a still more disreputable muffler around his throat and the lower part of his face. Considerably annoyed at his intrusion, I turned upon him rather sharply, when, with a mumbled, growling apology for mistaking the room, he shuffled out again and closed the door. I followed him quickly to the landing and saw that he disappeared down the stairs. With my mind full of the robbery, the incident made a singular impression upon me. I knew my friends habit of hasty absences from his room in his moments of deep inspiration; it was only too probable that, with his powerful intellect and magnificent perceptive genius concentrated on one subject, he should be careless of his own belongings, and no doubt even forget to take the ordinary precaution of locking up his drawers. I tried one or two and found that I was right, although for some reason I was unable to open one to its fullest extent. The handles were sticky, as if some one had opened them with dirty fingers. Knowing Hemlocks fastidious cleanliness, I resolved to inform him of this circumstance, but I forgot it, alas! until but I am anticipating my story.