THE RUSE OF THE SPRAINED WRIST
The body was that of a man in the very prime of life, and but for the
strangely set and rigid face might have been thought that of one asleep.
Cleek examined it minutely, even pulling down the lips and raising the
closed eyelids. For a moment he stood looking down at the still figure,
then he shut up his magnifying glass with a snap.
"Lucky thing that doctor friend of yours was at hand," he said,
irrelevantly. "Known him long, by the way?"
"Well, no, not what you might call long," was the surprised reply. "We
came over on board the same ship together a few months ago. He's a
French-Canadian doctor, only on a visit, I believe. A charming man----"
But his words apparently fell on deaf ears, for Cleek was again bending
over the body, and before either of the men could save him his foot had
caught on something and he measured his length on the polished floor,
his wrist doubled beneath him. He was on his feet, immediately, with
Narkom's assistance, but he surveyed his wrist with a rueful smile.
"It's a pity he isn't here now," he ejaculated. "I've done for my wrist
this time--broken it, I think."
The secretary uttered a little sound indicative of mild sympathy.
"He'll turn up in a minute. I'll 'phone through to him. He is lodging
quite near." And turning, Mr. Belthouse ran to the office on the other
side of the hall.
"Is it broken, Cleek?" asked Mr. Narkom, anxiously, as he looked into
his ally's face. A significant wink was the only response.
"I'd like to see that doctor who calls curari poisoning heart disease,"
he whispered. "Look." He turned and pulled down the collar of the dead
man, showing a tiny red spot just under the chin, so small as to be
hardly noticeable.
"Poisoned," he whispered, "but whether by our excellent secretary or the
good doctor remains to be seen."
Two minutes later Mr. Belthouse rushed back into the room.
"I got him," he announced, triumphantly, "and I've sent for the
caretaker and told her to bring some hot water and bandages. Nothing
like hot water for sprains."
Cleek expressed himself in thorough agreement with this theory, and
stood nursing his aching wrist until the caretaker herself entered with
the articles.
She was a middle aged woman with a pale face and deft hands, and Cleek
gladly submitted his wrist to her manipulations, wincing slightly as her
fingers touched the strained tendons.
His eyes were fixed on the ground, watching the drops of water splashing
on to the polished floor that had brought him to grief.
"Did you hear our prisoner last night, Mrs. Perry?" said Belthouse,
genially. "One of the blessed British public got shut in and said she
almost knocked the place down trying to get help."
Mrs. Perry looked up placidly.
"The walls are very thick, sir, and we were tired out with packing, I
expect. I certainly never heard a sound. There, sir, I think that's
right." She looked at Cleek.
"Thank you, that will be all right now," he said, but without giving her
another glance.
Mrs. Perry had left the room as silently as she entered it, when all at
once Cleek gave a little cry of delight.
"Scotland!" he cried, his face lighting up with relief. "I've got it!"
"What?" exclaimed the secretary. "A clue?"
"No, no, the cure for my wrist," said Mr. Headland, fumbling in his
pocket for his note-book, while Mr. Belthouse snorted indignantly.
"Fancy my forgetting that incomparable liniment. Mr. Narkom, go and get
me a bottle, there's a good chap; here's the name. Shan't need your
precious doctor now, Mr. Belthouse. You can call in as you pass,
Narkom, and tell him so. What's his address, Mr. Belthouse?"
"Oh, it doesn't matter. I'll ring him up," said that gentleman. "But
it's 716 Cromwell Road, I believe, if you want it."
"Mustn't waste a doctor's valuable time," said Mr. Headland, and Mr.
Narkom darted off with a detached leaf from the note-book, as if the
very life of his companion hung upon the desired compound. Left to
himself, Cleek turned to the secretary.
"I'll have another look at that gallery of yours, Mr. Belthouse, and
then I think my part of the job is at an end."
"And a good job, too," was the irritable response. "I tell you, I can't
afford to waste more time this morning, and if that's all you can
do----"
"One can't do more than one's best," was Mr. Headland's meek response,
as with a queer little smile running up one side of his face he followed
the secretary out of the room, up the passages, and into the fateful
gallery.
"Now, what's the next thing?" asked Mr. Belthouse.
"I think," said Mr. Headland, scratching his head again, "I think it's a
case of 'wait and see'."
Without apparently noticing the word which slipped out from the chaste
lips of Mr. Belthouse, Cleek cocked his head on one side as if waiting
for some expected sound.
He had not long to wait, for there came the distant sound of screaming
and fighting. It came nearer and nearer, till at last, with a resounding
crash, the picture over the panelled door came down with shattered glass
and broken frame, the door swung open noiselessly and easily, and in the
aperture stood the flushed and triumphant figure of Mr. Narkom.
"Right was I, old chap?" said Cleek in sharp, concise tones, at the
sound of which Mr. Belthouse started violently.
"Right as a trivet. Just moving it into the cart. Petrie and Hammond
have got her----"
This fact was now a self-evident one, as the stalwart officers just
named appeared in the doorway, between them a struggling woman, in whose
oaths in English and fluent French, disarranged hair and torn dress, Mr.
Belthouse could hardly recognize the competent, "estimable" caretaker.
But before he could speak a word there came a fresh interruption.
"Hallo! What is this? They tell me you want me, Mr. Belthouse," said a
voice from the main doorway of the gallery.
"Doctor Montret!" said the secretary. "Come in, by all means. I cannot
explain what this means, but----"
"Save yourself, Jules," shrieked the woman. "Quick, fly! I was not in
time. It is Cleek, see, he is here! Fly, fly----"
"So we have caught the pair of you, eh?" cried Cleek, who had silently
worked his way round so that he stood between the sallow-faced,
black-haired stranger, addressed as Doctor Montret, and the door.
"Quick, boys. Mr. Narkom, help me here," and there was a quick struggle,
then the sound of clicking handcuffs. Cleek stood over his captive
triumphantly, and gave a little laugh as he unrolled the wet cloths from
his uninjured wrist.
"So my little trick succeeded, eh, Jules Berjet? And you, too, Marie
Peret?"
"But what dees it all mean?" wailed Mr. Belthouse. "What have they done,
Mr. Headland, or Cleek? I don't know what to think."
Cleek gave a short little laugh.
"Done! They nearly did you, Mr. Belthouse. What they did was to steal
the Capitoline Venus tween them."
"The Capit---- Oh, impossible!" exclaimed the secretary, his eyes
starting from his head.
"Impossible, is it?" laughed Cleek. "I don't think so. Do you, Marie
Peret, when you've got such a clever cousin as Margot to pose as the
statue? Oh! that hits the mark, does it? And a deep box-feather bed to
conceal it in, too. What's that, Mr. Belthouse, where is the statue?
Why, I should say it is here. That's right, boys, bring her in. Got the
moving men, too, did you? Good!"
Two more policemen, aided by Thompson, brought in a familiar white
figure, the sight of which caused Mr. Belthouse to utter cries of
delight and thanksgiving. It was evident that his experiences in America
had been a lesson, for his relief was only too real.
"The Venus safe! Thank Heaven!" he repeated again and again.
"Yes," said Cleek, plucking away several feathers which still clung to
her marble features. "None the worse, and no one need be the wiser." His
voice grew very stern.
"None the wiser!" echoed Mr. Belthouse. "But what about the police? What
will the charge be at the police court?"
"Murder, Mr. Belthouse," was the answer, "the murder of poor Scott out
there. It was a neat trick to poison the man by means of an injection of
curari and have the doctor accidentally near at hand to certify to heart
disease. Bah! Take them away, men, and, Mr. Belthouse, give me a hand.
We'll put the lady up on her pedestal again. Mr. Narkom, just look into
the large urn over there, will you?"
Both gentlemen did as they were requested, and as Cleek and Mr.
Belthouse stepped back from the pedestal, they watched Mr. Narkom as he
stood with a white bundle from which powder dropped copiously.
Cleek gave a little exclamation of delight. "Poor old Dollops' Venus,"
he said, as he held up what was evidently a suit of white elastic tights
such as are used on the stage.
"The lady who wore these you very kindly let out first thing this
morning, Mr. Belthouse, and if ever Margot, Queen of the Apaches, and at
one time one of the finest artists' models in Paris, enjoyed herself, it
was when she passed through your fingers so neatly.
"What's that, Mr. Narkom? How did I guess? But I didn't guess. I was
shown it. Look at the tiny flakes of white, especially behind the
pedestal and close to the big urn, where she stood well powdered ready
to turn to marble if any one were heard approaching. The statue had been
lifted down and taken through that door to Marie Peret. The door screwed
up, Mr. Belthouse? Nothing of the kind. The screw-heads are there, and
glued down, but the screws themselves have been cut through by a fine
metal saw, as I found when I came back again--for my pen.
"Margot, I take it, in the tights, her face and hands whitened, took the
place of the statue for the last quarter of an hour before closing time.
I suppose they were afraid to leave it until the night time for fear
they were heard by the guards and policemen. Probably poor Scott was
thinking of Dollops--he's a young friend of mine, Mr. Belthouse, who
thought he saw an empty pedestal, and he was right! Well, Scott must
have come to examine the Capitoline Venus for himself, only to have it
fling itself on him and do only too deadly execution with a poisoned
needle, all ready for just such an emergency. No, Mr. Belthouse, the
Apaches make burglary a fine art, I can tell you; they were prepared for
everything and everybody----"
"Except Hamilton Cleek," said Mr. Belthouse, with a little smile. "You
certainly have performed a miracle."
Cleek smiled oddly.
"I would like to have caught Margot," he said, musingly, "and it was a
clever trick to divert suspicion right away from the caretaker by posing
as an indignant sightseer, locked up all night, but there was too much
deafness on the part of the others concerned."
"Even then I don't know why you suspected Mrs. Perry," said Mr.
Belthouse, as they retraced their steps to the entrance hall.
Cleek laughed again.
"I suspected everybody," he replied, "yourself included, until I saw
Marie. Then if a straw will show you which way the wind blows, the
presence of many feathers clinging to the lady's skirts and the sight of
that very deep French-made feather bed being moved out by two
French-looking moving men told me the rest.
"Good-bye, Mr. Belthouse, and here's to our next meeting."
He stepped into the waiting limousine and was whizzed away with Mr.
Narkom beaming beside him.