"The ice-water habit is evidence of a criminal nature, eh?" I queried.
"Not per se," said Holmes, gravely, "but in conjunctibus--if my Latin is
weak, please correct me--it is a very suspicious habit. When I see a man
drink ten glasses of water in two hours it indicates to my mind that there
is something in the water-cooler that takes his mind off his business. It is
not likely to be either the ice or the water, on the doctrine of
probabilities. Hence it must be something else. I caught him yesterday with
his hand in it."
"His hand? In the water-cooler?" I demanded.
"Yes," said Holmes. "He said he was fishing around for a little piece of ice
to cool his head, which ached, but I think differently. He got as pale as a
ghost when I started in to fish for a piece for myself because my head ached
too. I think he took the diamonds and has hid them there, but I'm not sure
yet, and in my business I can't afford to make mistakes. If my suspicions
are correct, he is merely awaiting his opportunity to fish them out and
light out with them."
"Then these," I said, "are--are they paste?"
"No, indeed, they're the real thing," said Raffles Holmes, holding up one of
the gems to the light, where it fairly coruscated with brilliance. "These
are the other two of the original quartet."
"Great Heavens, Holmes--do you mean to say that Gaffany & Co. permit you to
go about with things like this in your pocket?" I demanded.
"Not they," laughed Holmes. "They'd have a fit if they knew I had 'em, only
they don't know it."
"But how have you concealed the fact from them?" I persisted.
"Robinstein made me a pair exactly like them," said Holmes. "The paste ones
are now lying in the Gaffany safe, where I saw them placed before leaving
the shop to-night."
"You're too deep for me, Holmes," said I. "What's the game?"
"Now don't say game, Jenkins," he protested. "I never indulge in games. My
quarry is not a game, but a scheme. For the past two weeks, with three days
off, I have been acting as a workman in the Gaffany ship, with the
ostensible purpose of keeping my eye on certain employés who are under
suspicion. Each day the remaining two pendant-stones--these--have been
handed to me to work on, merely to carry out the illusion. The first day, in
odd moments, I made sketches of them, and on the night of the second I had
'em down in such detail as to cut and color, that Robinstein had no
difficulty in reproducing them in the materials at his disposal in Markoo's
shop. And to-night all I had to do to get them was to keep them and hand in
the Robinstein substitutes when the hour of closing came."
"So that now, in place of four $50,000 diamonds, Gaffany & Co. are in
possession of--"
"Two paste pendants, worth about $40 apiece," said Holmes. "If I fail to
find the originals I shall have to use the paste ones to carry the scheme
through, but I hate to do it. It's so confoundly inartistic and as old a
trick as the pyramids."
"And to-morrow--"
Raffles Holmes got up and paced the floor nervously.
"Ah, Jenkins," he said, with a heart-rending sigh, "that is the point. To-
morrow! Heavens! what will to-morrow's story be? I--I cannot tell."
"What's the matter, Holmes?" said. "Are you in danger?"
"Physically, no--morally, my God! Jenkins, yes. I shall need all of your
help," he cried.
"What can I do?" I asked. "You know you have only to command me."
"Don't leave me this night for a minute," he groaned. "If you do, I am lost.
The Raffles in me is rampant when I look at those jewels and think of what
they will mean if I keep them. An independent fortune forever. All I have to
do is to get aboard a ship and go to Japan and live in comfort the rest of
my days with the wealth in my possession, and all the instincts of honesty
that I possess, through the father in me, will be powerless to prevent my
indulgence in this crime. Keep me in sight, and if I show the slightest
inclination to give you the slip, knock me over the head, will you, for my
own good?"
I promised faithfully that I would do as he asked, but, as an easier way out
of an unpleasant situation, I drugged his Remsen cooler with a sleeping-
powder, and an hour later he was lying off on my divan lost to the world for
eight hours at least. As a further precaution I put the jewels in my own
safe.
The night's sleep had the desired effect, and with the returning day
Holmes's better nature asserted itself. Raffles was subdued, and he returned
to Gaffany's to put the finishing touches to his work.
"Here's your check, Jenkins," said Raffles Holmes, handing me a draft for
$5000. "The gems were found to-day in the water-cooler in the work-room, and
Gaffany & Co. paid up like gentlemen."
"And the thief?" I asked.
"Under arrest," said Raffles Holmes. "We caught him fishing for them."
"And your paste jewels, where are they?"
"I wish I knew," he answered, his face clouding over. "In the excitement of
the moment of the arrest I got 'em mixed with the originals I had last
night, and they didn't give me time or opportunity to pick 'em out. The four
were mounted immediately and sent under guard to the purchaser. Gaffany &
Co. didn't want to keep them a minute longer than was necessary. But the
purchaser is so rich he will never have to sell 'em--so, you see, Jenkins,
we're as safe as a church."
"Your friend Robinstein was a character, Holmes," said I.
"Yes," sighed Holmes. "Poor chap--he was a great loss to his friends. He
taught me the art of making paste gems when I was in Paris. I miss him like
the dickens."
"Miss him!" said I, getting anxious for Robinstein. "What happened? He
isn't--"
"Dead," said Holmes. "Two years ago--dear old chap."
"Oh, come now, Holmes," I said. "What new game is this you are rigging on
me? I met him only five nights ago--and you know it."
"Oh--that one," said Raffles Holmes, with a laugh. "_I_ was that
Robinstein."
"You?" I cried.
"Yes, me," said Holmes. "You don't suppose I'd let a third party into our
secret, do you?"
And then he gave me one of those sweet, wistful smiles that made the wonder
of the man all the greater.
"I wish to the dickens I knew whether these were real or paste!" he
muttered, taking the extra pendants from his wallet as he spoke. "I don't
dare ask anybody, and I haven't got any means of telling myself."
"Give them to me," said I, sternly, noting a glitter in his eye that
suggested the domination for the moment of the Raffles in him.
"Tush, Jenkins," he began, uneasily.
"Give them to me, or I'll brain you, Holmes," said I, standing over him with
a soda-water bottle gripped in my right hand, "for your own good. Come, give
up."
He meekly obeyed.
"Come now, get on your hat," said I. "I want you to go out with me."
"What for, Jenkins?" he almost snarled.
"You'll see what for," said I.
And Raffles Holmes obeying, we walked down to the river's edge, where I
stood for a moment, and then hurled the remaining stones far out into the
waters.
Holmes gave a gasp and then a sigh of relief.
"There," I said. "It doesn't matter much to us now whether the confounded
things were real or not."
V
THE ADVENTURE OF THE BRASS CHECK
"Jenkins," said Raffles Holmes to me the other night as we sat in my den
looking over the criminal news in the evening papers, in search of some
interesting material for him to work on, "this paper says that Mrs.
Wilbraham Ward-Smythe has gone to Atlantic City for a week, and will lend
her gracious presence to the social functions of the Hotel Garrymore, at
that interesting city by the sea, until Monday, the 27th, when she will
depart for Chicago, where her sister is to be married on the 29th. How would
you like to spend the week with me at the Garrymore?"
"It all depends upon what we are going for," said I. "Also, what in thunder
has Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe got to do with us, or we with her?"
"Nothing at all," said Holmes. "That is, nothing much."
"Who is she?" I asked, eying him suspiciously.
"All I know is what I have seen in the papers," said Holmes. "She came in on
the _Altruria_ two weeks ago, and attracted considerable attention by
declaring $130,000 worth of pearl rope that she bought in Paris, instead of,
woman-like, trying to smuggle it through the custom-house. It broke the
heart of pretty nearly every inspector in the service. She'd been watched
very carefully by the detective bureau in Paris, and when she purchased the
rope there, the news of it was cabled over in cipher, so that they'd all be
on the lookout for it when she came in. The whole force on the pier was on
the qui vive, and one of the most expert women searchers on the pay-roll was
detailed to give her special attention the minute she set foot on shore; but
instead of doing as they all believed she would do, and giving the
inspectors a chance to catch her at trying to evade the duties, to their
very great profit, she calmly and coolly declared the stuff, paid her little
sixty-five per cent. like a major, and drove off to the Castoria in full
possession of her jewels. The Collector of the Port had all he could do to
keep 'em from draping the custom-house for thirty days, they were all so
grief-stricken. She'll probably take the rope to Atlantic City with her."
"Aha!" said I. "That's the milk in the cocoanut, is it? You're after that
pearl rope, are you, Raffles?"
"On my honor as a Holmes," said he, "I am not. I shall not touch the pearl
rope, although I have no doubt that I shall have some unhappy moments during
the week that I am in the same hotel with it. That's one reason why I'd like
to have you go along, Jenkins--just to keep me out of temptation. Raffles
may need more than Holmes to keep him out of mischief. I am confident,
however, that with you to watch out for me, I shall be able to suppress the
strong tendency towards evil which at times besets me."
"We'd better keep out of it altogether, Holmes," said I, not liking the
weight of responsibility for his good behavior that more than once he had
placed on my shoulders. "You don't deny, I suppose, that the pearl rope is a
factor in your intentions, whatever they may be."
"Of course I don't, Jenkins," was his response. "If it were not for her
pearl rope, Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe could go anywhere she pleased without
attracting any more attention from me than a passing motor-car. It would be
futile for me to deny that, as a matter of fact, the pearl rope is an
essential part of my scheme, and, even if it were not futile to do so, I
should still not deny it, because neither my father nor my grandfather,
Holmes nor Raffles, ever forgot that a gentleman does not lie."
"Then count me out," said I.
"Even if there is $7500 in it for you?" he said, with a twinkle in his eye.
"If it were $107,500 you could still count me out," I retorted. "I don't
like the business."
"Very well," said he, with a sight. "I shall have to go alone and endeavor
to fight the terrible temptation unaided, with a strong probability that I
shall fail, and, yielding to it, commit my first real act of crime, and in
that event, with the possibility of a term at Trenton prison, if I am
caught."
"Give it up, Raffles," I pleaded.
"And all because, in the hour of my need, my best friend, whose aid I
begged, refused me," he went on, absolutely ignoring my plea.
"Oh, well, if you put it on that score," I said, "I'll go--but you must
promise me not to touch the pearls."
"I'll do my best not to," he replied. "As usual, you have carte-blanche to
put me out of business if you catch me trying it."
With this understanding I accompanied Raffles Holmes to Atlantic City the
following afternoon, and the following evening we were registered at the
Hotel Garrymore.
Holmes was not mistaken in his belief that Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe would
take her famous pearl rope to Atlantic City with her. That very evening,
while we were sitting at dinner, the lady entered, and draped about her
stately neck and shoulders was the thing itself, and a more beautiful
decoration was never worn by woman from the days of the Queen of Sheba to
this day of lavish display in jewels. It was a marvel, indeed, but the
moment I saw it I ceased to give the lady credit for superior virtue in
failing to smuggle it through the custom-house, for its very size would have
precluded the possibility of a successful issue to any such attempted
evasion of the law. It was too bulky to have been secreted in any of the
ordinary ways known to smugglers. Hence her candid acknowledgment of its
possession was less an evidence of the lady's superiority to the majority of
her sex in the matter of "beating the government" than of her having been
confronted with the proverbial choice of the unidentified Hobson.
"By Jove! Jenkins," Raffles Holmes muttered, hoarsely, as Mrs. Ward-Smythe
paraded the length of the dining-room, as fairly corruscating with her rich
possessions as though she were a jeweller's window incarnate, "it's a
positive crime for a woman to appear in a place like this arrayed like that.
What right has she to subject poor weak humanity to such temptation as now
confronts every servant in this hotel, to say nothing of guests, who, like
ourselves, are made breathless with such lavish display? There's poor old
Tommie Bankson over there, for instance. See how he gloats over those
pearls. He's fairly red-eyed over them."
I glanced across the dining-room, and sure enough, there sat Tommie Bankson,
and even from where we were placed we could see his hands tremble with the
itch for possession, and his lips go dry with excitement as he thought of
the material assets in full view under the glare of the dining-room electric
lights.
"I happen to know on the inside," continued Holmes, "that Tommie is not only
a virtual bankrupt through stock speculation, but is actually face to face
with criminal disgrace for misuse of trust funds, all of which he could
escape if he could lay his hands upon half the stuff that woman is so
carelessly wearing to-night. Do you think it's fair to wear, for the mere
gratification of one's vanity, things that arouse in the hearts of less
fortunate beings such passionate reflections and such dire temptations as
those which are now besetting that man?"
"I guess we've got enough to do looking after Raffles to-night, old man,
without wasting any of our nerve-tissue on Tommie Bankson," I replied. "Come
on--let's get out of this. We'll go over to the Pentagon for the night, and
to-morrow we'll shake the sands of Atlantic City from our feet and hie
ourselves back to New York, where the temptations are not so strong."
"It's too late," said Raffles Holmes. "I've set out on this adventure and
I'm going to put it through. I wouldn't give up in the middle of an
enterprise of this sort any more than I would let a balky horse refuse to
take a fence I'd put him to. It's going to be harder than I thought, but
we're in it, and I shall stay to the end."
"What the devil is the adventure, anyhow?" I demanded, impatiently. "You
vowed you wouldn't touch the rope."
"I hope not to," was his response. "It is up to you to see that I don't. My
plan does not involve my laying hands upon even the shadow of it."
So we stayed on at the Garrymore, and a worse week I never had anywhere.
With every glimpse of that infernal jewel the Raffles in Holmes became
harder and harder to control. In the daytime he was all right, but when
night came on he was feverish with the desire to acquire possession of the
pearls. Twice in the middle of the night I caught him endeavoring to sneak
out of our room, and upon each occasion, when I rushed after him and forced
him back, he made no denial of my charge that he was going after the jewel.
The last time it involved us both in such a terrible struggle that I vowed
then and there that the following morning should see my departure.
"I can't stand the strain, Holmes," said I.
"Well, if you can't stand _your_ strain," said Raffles Holmes, "what do you
think of mine?"
"The thing to do is to get out, that's all," I retorted. "I won't have a
nerve left in twenty-four hours. For four nights now I haven't had a
minute's normal sleep, and this fight you've just put up has regularly
knocked me out."
"One more day Jenkins," he pleaded. "She goes day after to-morrow, and so do
we."
"We?" I cried. "After her?"
"Nope--she to Chicago--we to New York," said Holmes. "Stick it out, there's
a good fellow," and of course I yielded.
The next day--Sunday--was one of feverish excitement, but we got through it
without mishap, and on Monday morning it was with a sigh of relief that I
saw Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe pull out of the Philadelphia station en route
for Chicago, while Raffles Holmes and I returned to New York.
"Well, Raffles," said I, as we sped on our homeward way, "we've had our
trouble for our pains."
He laughed crisply. "Have we?" said he. "I guess not--not unless you have
lost the trunk check the porter gave you."
"What, this brass thing?" I demanded, taking the check from my pocket and
flicking it in the air like a penny.
"That very brass thing," said Holmes.
"You haven't lifted that damned rope and put it in my trunk!" I roared.
"Hush, Jenkins! For Heaven's sake don't make a scene. I haven't done
anything of the sort," he whispered, looking about him anxiously to make
sure that we had not been overheard. "Those pearls are as innocent of my
touch as the top of the Himalaya Mountains is of yours."
"Then what have you done?" I demanded, sulkily.
"Just changed a couple of trunk checks, that's all," said Raffles Holmes.
"That bit of brass you have in your hand, which was handed to you in the
station by the porter of the Garrymore, when presented at Jersey City will
put you in possession of Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe's trunk, containing the
bulk of her jewels. She's a trifle careless about her possessions, as any
one could see who watched the nonchalant way in which she paraded the board
walk with a small fortune on her neck and fingers. Most women would carry
such things in a small hand-satchel, or at least have the trunk sent by
registered express, but not Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe; and, thanks to her
loud voice, listening outside of her door last night, I heard her directing
her maid where she wished the gems packed."
"And where the dickens is my trunk?" I asked.
"On the way to Chicago," said Raffles Holmes, calmly. "Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-
Smythe has the check for it."
"Safe business!" I sneered. "Bribed the porter, I presume?"
"Jenkins, you are exceedingly uncomplimentary at times," said Raffles
Holmes, showing more resentment than I had ever given him credit for.
"Perhaps you observed that I didn't go to the station in the omnibus."
"No, you went over to the drug-store after some phenacetine for your
headache," said I.
"Precisely," said Holmes, "and after purchasing the phenacetine I jumped
aboard the Garrymore express-wagon and got a lift over to the station. It
was during that ride that I transferred Mrs. Ward-Smythe's check from her
trunk to yours, and vice versa. It's one of the easiest jobs in the Raffles
business, especially at this season of the year, when travel is heavy and
porters are overworked."
"I'll see the trunk in the Hudson River, pearl rope and all, before I'll
claim it at Jersey City or anywhere else," said I.
"Perfectly right," Holmes returned. "We'll hand the check to the expressman
when he comes through the train, and neither of us need appear further in
the matter. It will merely be delivered at your apartment."
"Why not yours?" said I.
"Raffles!" said he, laconically, and I understood.
"And then what?" I asked.
"Let it alone, unopened, safe as a church, until Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe
discovers her loss, which will be to-morrow afternoon, and then--"
"Well?"
"Mr. Holmes will step in, unravel the mystery, prove it to be a mere
innocent mistake, collect about ten or fifteen thousand dollars reward,
divvy up with you, and the decks will be cleared for what turns up next,"
said this wonderful player of dangerous games. "And, as a beginning,
Jenkins, please sign this," he added.
Holmes handed me a typewritten-letter which read as follows.
"THE RICHMORE, June 30, 1905.
"Raffles Holmes, Esq..
"DEAR SIR,--I enclose herewith my check for $1000 as a retainer for your
services in locating for me a missing trunk, which contains articles which I
value at $10,000. This trunk was checked through to New York from Atlantic
City on Monday last, 9.40 train, and has not since been found. Whether or
not it has been stolen, or has gone astray in some wholly innocent manner,
is not as yet clear. I know of no one better equipped for the task of
finding it for me than yourself, who, I am given to understand, are the son
of the famous Sherlock Holmes of England. The check represents the ten per
cent. commission on the value of the lost articles, which I believe is the
customary fee for services such as I seek.
Very truly yours."
"What are you going to do with this?" I demanded.
"Send it as an enclosure to Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe, showing my
credentials as your agent, in asking her if by any mischance your trunk has
got mixed in with her luggage," observed Holmes. "For form's sake, I shall
send it to twenty or thirty other people known to have left Atlantic City
the same day. Moreover, it will suggest the idea to Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe
that I am a good man to locate her trunk also, and the delicate
intimation of my terms will--"
"Aha! I see," said I. "And my thousand-dollar check to you?"
"I shall, of course, keep," observed Holmes. "You want the whole business to
be bona fide, don't you? It would be unscrupulous for you to ask for its
return."
I didn't exactly like the idea, but, after all, there was much in what
Holmes said, and the actual risk of my own capital relieved my conscience of
the suspicion that by signing the letter I should become a partner in a
confidence game. Hence I signed the note, mailed it to Raffles Holmes,
enclosing my check for $1000 with it.
Three days later Holmes entered my room with a broad grin on his face.
"How's this for business?" said he, handing me a letter he had received that
morning from Chicago.
"DEAR SIR,--I am perfectly delighted to receive your letter of July 1. I
think I have Mr. Jenkins's missing trunk. What pleases me most, however, is
the possibility of your recovering mine, which also went astray at the same
time. It contained articles of even greater value than Mr. Jenkins's--my
pearl rope, among other things, which is appraised at $130,000. Do you think
there is any chance of your recovering it for me? I enclose my check for
$5000 as a retainer. The balance of your ten per cent. fee I shall gladly
pay on receipt of my missing luggage.
"Most sincerely yours,
"MAUDE WARD-SMYTHE."
"I rather think, my dear Jenkins," observed Raffles Holmes, "that we have
that $13,000 reward cinched."
"There's $7000 for you, Jenkins," said Holmes, a week later, handing me his
check for that amount. "Easy money that. It only took two weeks to turn the
trick, and $14,000 for fourteen days' work is pretty fair pay. If we could
count on that for a steady income I think I'd be able to hold Raffles down
without your assistance."
"You got fourteen thousand, eh?" said I. "I thought it was only to be
$13,000."
"It was fourteen thousand counting in your $1000," said Raffles Holmes. "You
see, I'm playing on the square, old man. Half and half in everything."