[Sidenote: Poe makes G---- to serve as a foil for Dupin, while the
narrator plays Watson to Dupin’s Sherlock--but Poe came first!]
9. “Why, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all
been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple, and yet
baffles us altogether.”
[Sidenote: Forecast of denouement. Note how this point is emphasized.]
10. “Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at
fault,” said my friend.
11. “What nonsense you _do_ talk!” replied the Prefect, laughing
heartily.
12. “Perhaps the mystery is a little _too_ plain,” said Dupin.
13. “Oh, good Heavens! who ever heard of such an idea?”
14. “A little _too_ self-evident.”
[Sidenote: Later imitators freely use this scheme of the superior pose
of the police.]
15. “Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ho! ho! ho!” roared our visitor,
profoundly amused. “Oh, Dupin, you will be the death of me yet!”
16. “And what, after all, is the matter on hand?” I asked.
[Sidenote: This device has since been much overworked.]
17. “Why, I will tell you,” replied the Prefect, as he gave a long,
steady, and contemplative puff, and settled himself in his chair. “I
will tell you in a few words; but, before I begin, let me caution you
that this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy, and that I
should most probably lose the position I now hold were it known that I
confided it to any one.”
[Sidenote: LENGTHY INTRODUCTION ENDS. Note that this is one unified
story, with much philosophising, but no minor episodes.]
18. “Proceed,” said I.
19. “Or not,” said Dupin.
[Sidenote: The foundation laid; SUMMARY OF PROBLEM.]
20. “Well, then; I have received personal information from a very
high quarter that a certain document of the last importance has been
purloined from the royal apartments. The individual who purloined it is
known; this beyond a doubt; he was seen to take it. It is known, also,
that it still remains in his possession.”
21. “How is this known?” asked Dupin.
[Sidenote: Development of problem.]
22. “It is clearly inferred,” replied the Prefect, “from the nature
of the document, and from the non-appearance of certain results which
would at once arise from its passing out of the robber’s possession;
that is to say, from his employing it as he must design in the end to
employ it.”
23. “Be a little more explicit,” I said.
24. “Well, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its
holder a certain power in a certain quarter where such power is
immensely valuable.” The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy.
25. “Still I do not quite understand,” said Dupin.
[Sidenote: Importance of problem.]
26. “No? well; the disclosure of the document to a third person, who
shall be nameless, would bring in question the honor of a personage of
most exalted station; and this fact gives the holder of the document an
ascendency over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are so
jeopardized.”
[Sidenote: Philosophy of problem.]
27. “But this ascendency,” I interposed, “would depend upon the
robber’s knowledge of the loser’s knowledge of the robber. Who would
dare--”
[Sidenote: Unique situation: the thief is known.]
[Sidenote: Method and circumstances of the theft related.]
[Sidenote: See note on ¶115, p. 104.]
[Sidenote: Note “the”.]
28. “The thief,” said G----, “is the Minister D----, who dares all
things, those unbecoming as well as those becoming a man. The method of
the theft was not less ingenious than bold. The document in question--a
letter, to be frank--had been received by the personage robbed while
alone in the royal _boudoir_. During its perusal she was suddenly
interrupted by the entrance of the other exalted personage, from
whom especially it was her wish to conceal it. After a hurried and
vain endeavor to thrust it in a drawer, she was forced to place it,
open as it was, upon a table. The address, however, was uppermost,
and, the contents thus unexposed, the letter escaped notice. At this
juncture enters the Minister D----. His lynx eye immediately perceives
the paper, recognizes the handwriting of the address, observes the
confusion of the personage addressed, and fathoms her secret. After
some business transactions, hurried through in his ordinary manner,
he produces a letter somewhat similar to the one in question, opens
it, pretends to read it, and then places it in close juxtaposition to
the other. Again he converses for some fifteen minutes upon the public
affairs. At length in taking leave he takes also from the table the
letter to which he had no claim. Its rightful owner saw, but of course
dared not call attention to the act, in the presence of the third
personage, who stood at her elbow. The minister decamped, leaving his
own letter--one of no importance--upon the table.”
29. “Here, then,” said Dupin to me, “you have precisely what you demand
to make the ascendency complete--the robber’s knowledge of the loser’s
knowledge of the robber.”
[Sidenote: Results of theft.]
[Sidenote: End of statement of case as a problem.]
30. “Yes,” replied the Prefect; “and the power thus attained has, for
some months past, been wielded, for political purposes, to a very
dangerous extent. The personage robbed is more thoroughly convinced,
every day, of the necessity of reclaiming her letter. But this, of
course, cannot be done openly. In fine, driven to despair, she has
committed the matter to me.”
[Sidenote: Character development.]
[Sidenote: Satire supports his attitude toward the police.]
31. “Than whom,” said Dupin, amid a perfect whirlwind of smoke, “no
more sagacious agent could, I suppose, be desired, or even imagined.”
[Sidenote: Character delineation.]
32. “You flatter me,” replied the Prefect; “but it is possible that
some such opinion may have been entertained.”
33. “It is clear,” said I, “as you observe, that the letter is still in
possession of the minister; since it is this possession, and not any
employment of the letter, which bestows the power. With the employment
the power departs.”
[Sidenote: ATTEMPTS AT RECOVERY OF THE PURLOINED LETTER. SECOND STAGE
OF THE PLOT.]
34. “True,” said G----, “and upon this conviction I proceeded. My first
care was to make thorough search of the minister’s hotel; and here
my chief embarrassment lay in the necessity of searching without his
knowledge. Beyond all things, I have been warned of the danger which
would result from giving him reason to suspect our design.”
[Sidenote: _Au fait_--to the point; therefore, at home.]
35. “But,” said I, “you are quite _au fait_ in these investigations.
The Parisian police have done this thing often before.”
36. “Oh, yes; and for this reason I did not despair. The habits of the
minister gave me, too, a great advantage. He is frequently absent from
home all night. His servants are by no means numerous. They sleep at a
distance from their master’s apartment, and being chiefly Neapolitans,
are readily made drunk. I have keys, as you know, with which I can
open any chamber or cabinet in Paris. For three months, a night has
not passed during the greater part of which I have not been engaged,
personally, in ransacking the D---- Hotel. My honor is interested, and,
to mention a great secret, the reward is enormous. So I did not abandon
the search until I had become fully satisfied that the thief is a more
astute man than myself. I fancy that I have investigated every nook and
corner of the premises in which it is possible that the paper can be
concealed.”
37. “But is it not possible,” I suggested, “that although the letter
may be in possession of the minister, as it unquestionably is, he may
have concealed it elsewhere than upon his own premises?”
[Sidenote: Inferential reasoning.]
38. “This is barely possible,” said Dupin. “The present peculiar
condition of affairs at court, and especially of those intrigues
in which D---- is known to be involved, would render the instant
availability of the document--its susceptibility of being produced
at a moment’s notice--a point of nearly equal importance with its
possession.”
39. “Its susceptibility of being produced?” said I.
[Sidenote: Note the distinction.]
40. “That is to say, of being _destroyed_,” said Dupin.
[Sidenote: A just inference.]
41. “True,” I observed; “the paper is clearly then upon the premises.
As for its being upon the person of the minister, we may consider that
as out of the question.”
42. “Entirely,” said the Prefect. “He has been twice waylaid, as if by
footpads, and his person rigorously searched under my own inspection.”
43. “You might have spared yourself this trouble,” said Dupin. “D----,
I presume, is not altogether a fool, and, if not, must have anticipated
these waylayings as a matter of course.”
44. “Not _altogether_ a fool,” said G----; “but then he’s a poet, which
I take to be only one remove from a fool.”
45. “True,” said Dupin, after a long and thoughtful whiff from his
meerschaum, “although I have been guilty of certain doggerel myself.”
46. “Suppose you detail,” said I, “the particulars of your search.”
[Sidenote: The thoroughness of the search tends to interest the reader
in the problem as a difficult one.]
[Sidenote: On Poe’s “police methods” most modern detective writers have
drawn for material.]
47. “Why, the fact is, we took our time, and we searched _everywhere_.
I have had long experience in these affairs. I took the entire
building, room by room, devoting the nights of a whole week to each.
We examined, first, the furniture of each apartment. We opened every
possible drawer; and I presume you know that, to a properly trained
police agent, such a thing as a _secret_ drawer is impossible. Any
man is a dolt who permits a ‘secret’ drawer to escape him in a search
of this kind. The thing is _so_ plain. There is a certain amount of
bulk--of space--to be accounted for in every cabinet. Then we have
accurate rules. The fiftieth part of a line could not escape us. After
the cabinets we took the chairs. The cushions we probed with the fine
long needles you have seen me employ. From the tables we removed the
tops.”
48. “Why so?”
[Sidenote: Doubtless the narrator speaks.]
49. “Sometimes the top of a table, or other similarly arranged piece
of furniture, is removed by the person wishing to conceal an article;
then the leg is excavated, the article deposited within the cavity, and
the top replaced. The bottoms and tops of bed-posts are employed in the
same way.”
50. “But could not the cavity be detected by sounding?” I asked.
[Sidenote: Note improper shifting of tenses in question and answer.]
51. “By no means, if, when the article is deposited, a sufficient
wadding of cotton be placed around it. Besides, in our case we were
obliged to proceed without noise.”
52. “But you could not have removed--you could not have taken to pieces
_all_ articles of furniture in which it would have been possible to
make a deposit in the manner you mention. A letter may be compressed
into a thin spiral roll, not differing much in shape or bulk from a
large knitting-needle, and in this form it might be inserted into
the rung of a chair, for example. You did not take to pieces all the
chairs?”
[Sidenote: Note how ingeniously Poe weaves his knowledge of detective
methods into the actual search of the story.]
53. “Certainly not; but we did better--we examined the rungs of every
chair in the hotel, and indeed, the jointings of every description of
furniture, by the aid of a most powerful microscope. Had there been any
traces of recent disturbance we should not have failed to detect it
instantly. A single grain of gimlet-dust, for example, would have been
as obvious as an apple. Any disorder in the gluing--any unusual gaping
in the joints--would have sufficed to insure detection.”
54. “I presume you looked to the mirrors, between the boards and the
plates, and you probed the beds and the bed-clothes, as well as the
curtains and carpets?”
55. “That, of course; and when we had absolutely completed every
particle of the furniture in this way, then we examined the house
itself. We divided its entire surface into compartments, which we
numbered, so that none might be missed; then we scrutinized each
individual square inch throughout the premises including the two houses
immediately adjoining, with the microscope, as before.”
[Sidenote: This seems to be a break in the chain of probability, as
G---- has already carefully explained how he was able to go over D----'s
house with impunity.]
56. “The two houses adjoining!” I exclaimed; “you must have had a great
deal of trouble.”
57. “We had; but the reward offered is prodigious.”
58. “You include the _grounds_ about the houses?”
59. “All the grounds are paved with brick. They gave us comparatively
little trouble. We examined the moss between the bricks, and found it
undisturbed.”
60. “You looked among D---- 's papers, of course, and into the books of
the library?”
[Sidenote: Note unusual word.]
61. “Certainly; we opened every package and parcel; we not only
opened every book, but we turned over every leaf in each volume, not
contenting ourselves with a mere shake, according to the fashion of
some of our police officers. We also measured the thickness of every
book-_cover_, with the most accurate admeasurement, and applied to each
the most jealous scrutiny of the microscope. Had any of the bindings
been recently meddled with, it would have been utterly impossible that
the fact should have escaped observation. Some five or six volumes,
just from the hands of the binder, we carefully probed, longitudinally,
with the needles.”
62. “You explored the floors beneath the carpets?”
63. “Beyond doubt. We removed every carpet, and examined the boards
with the microscope.”
64. “And the paper on the walls?”
65. “Yes.”
66. “You looked into the cellars?”
67. “We did.”
[Sidenote: Dupin would not have said this.]
68. “Then,” I said, “you have been making a miscalculation, and the
letter is _not_ on the premises, as you suppose.”
[Sidenote: FIRST DEDUCTION REJECTED.]
69. “I fear you are right there,” said the Prefect. “And now, Dupin,
what would you advise me to do?”
[Sidenote: THIRD STAGE OF PLOT.]
70 “To make a thorough research of the premises.”
71. “That is absolutely needless,” replied G----. “I am not more sure
that I breathe than I am that the letter is not at the Hotel.”
[Sidenote: Preparation for denouement.]
72. “I have no better advice to give you,” said Dupin. “You have, of
course, an accurate description of the letter?”
[Sidenote: Attempt to mislead reader.]
[Sidenote: Note the patronizing “good gentleman.”]
73. “Oh, yes.” And here the Prefect, producing a memorandum-book,
proceeded to read aloud a minute account of the internal, and
especially of the external, appearance of the missing document. Soon
after finishing the perusal of this description, he took his departure,
more entirely depressed in spirits than I had ever known the good
gentleman before.
74. In about a month afterwards he paid us another visit, and found us
occupied very nearly as before. He took a pipe and a chair, and entered
into some ordinary conversation. At length I said:
75. “Well, but G----, what of the purloined letter? I presume you have
at last made up your mind that there is no such thing as overreaching
the minister?”
76. “Confound him, say I--yes; I made the reëxamination, however, as
Dupin suggested--but it was all labor lost, as I knew it would be.”
77. “How much was the reward offered, did you say?” asked Dupin.
78. “Why, a very great deal--a _very_ liberal reward--I don’t like to
say how much precisely; but one thing I _will_ say, that I wouldn’t
mind giving my individual check for fifty thousand francs to any one
who would obtain me that letter. The fact is, it is becoming of more
and more importance every day; and the reward has been lately doubled.
If it were trebled, however, I could do no more than I have done.”
79. “Why, yes,” said Dupin drawlingly, between the whiffs of his
meerschaum, “I really--think, G----, you have not exerted yourself--to
the utmost in this matter. You might--do a little more, I think, eh?”
80. “How?--in what way?”
[Sidenote: FOURTH STAGE OF PLOT.]
[Sidenote: Illustrative anecdote of Dr. John Abernethy, the English
surgeon.]
81. “Why [puff, puff], you might [puff, puff] employ counsel in the
matter, eh? [puff, puff, puff] Do you remember the story they tell of
Abernethy?”
82. “No; hang Abernethy!”
83. “To be sure! hang him and welcome. But once upon a time, a certain
rich miser conceived the design of sponging upon this Abernethy for a
medical opinion. Getting up, for this purpose, an ordinary conversation
in a private company, he insinuated his case to the physician as that
of an imaginary individual.”
84. “‘We will suppose,’ said the miser, ‘that his symptoms are such
and such; now, doctor, what would _you_ have directed him to take?’”
85. “‘Take!’ said Abernethy, ‘why, take _advice_, to be sure.’”
86. “But,” said the Prefect, a little discomposed, “I am _perfectly_
willing to take advice, and to pay for it. I would _really_ give fifty
thousand francs to any one who would aid me in the matter.”
[Sidenote: MINOR CLIMAX.]
87. “In that case,” replied Dupin, opening a drawer, and producing
a check-book, “you may as well fill me up a check for the amount
mentioned. When you have signed it, I will hand you the letter.”
[Sidenote: Character delineation.]
[Sidenote: CLIMAX.]
[Sidenote: The plot _seems_ to end here, for long reasoning and
explanation follow. There is, however, a second climax as Dupin’s story
reaches its denouement.]
88. I was astounded. The Prefect appeared absolutely thunderstricken.
For some minutes he remained speechless and motionless, looking
incredulously at my friend with open mouth, and eyes that seemed
starting from their sockets; then, apparently recovering himself in
some measure, he seized a pen, and after several pauses and vacant
stares, finally filled up and signed a check for fifty thousand
francs, and handed it across the table to Dupin. The latter examined
it carefully and deposited it in his pocket; then, unlocking an
_escritoire_, took thence a letter and gave it to the Prefect. This
functionary grasped it in a perfect agony of joy, opened it with
a trembling hand, cast a rapid glance at its contents, and then,
scrambling and struggling to the door, rushed at length unceremoniously
from the room and from the house, without having uttered a syllable
since Dupin had requested him to fill up the check.
89. When he had gone, my friend entered into some explanations.
[Sidenote: FIRST STAGE OF DUPIN’S ACCOUNT. This account places Dupin’s
methods in artistic contrast with those of the Prefect.]
90. “The Parisian police,” he said, “are exceedingly able in their
way. They are persevering, ingenious, cunning, and thoroughly versed
in the knowledge which their duties seem chiefly to demand. Thus, when
G---- detailed to us his mode of searching the premises at the Hotel
D----, I felt entire confidence in his having made a satisfactory
investigation--so far as his labors extended.”
91. “So far as his labors extended?” said I.
[Sidenote: Not a precise statement.]
92. “Yes,” said Dupin. “The measures adopted were not only the best of
their kind, but carried out to absolute perfection. Had the letter been
deposited within the range of their search, these fellows would, beyond
a question, have found it.”
93. I merely laughed, but he seemed quite serious in all that he said.
[Sidenote: Illustrative anecdote.]
[Sidenote: Joint inductive-deductive method of reasoning.]
[Sidenote: Inductive reasoning.]
94. “The measures, then,” he continued, “were good in their kind, and
well executed; their defect lay in their being inapplicable to the
case, and to the man. A certain set of highly ingenious resources are,
with the Prefect, a sort of Procrustean bed to which he forcibly adapts
his designs. But he perpetually errs by being too deep or too shallow
for the matter in hand; and many a schoolboy is a better reasoner than
he. I knew one about eight years of age, whose success at guessing in
the game of ‘even and odd’ attracted universal admiration. This game
is simple, and is played with marbles. One player holds in his hand a
number of these toys, and demands of another whether that number is
even or odd. If the guess is right, the guesser wins one; if wrong,
he loses one. The boy to whom I allude won all the marbles of the
school. Of course he had some principle of guessing; and this lay in
mere observation and admeasurement of the astuteness of his opponents.
For example an arrant simpleton is his opponent, and, holding up his
closed hand asks, ‘Are they even or odd?’ Our schoolboy replies, ‘Odd,’
and loses; but upon the second trial he wins, for he then says to
himself, ‘The simpleton had them even upon the first trial, and his
amount of cunning is just sufficient to make him have them odd upon
the second; I will therefore guess odd;’ he guesses odd, and wins.
Now, with a simpleton a degree above the first, he would have reasoned
thus: ‘This fellow finds that in the first instance I guessed odd,
and in the second he will propose to himself, upon the first impulse,
a simple variation from even to odd, as did the first simpleton; but
then a second thought will suggest that this is too simple a variation,
and finally he will decide upon putting it even as before. I will
therefore guess even;’ he guesses even, and wins. Now this mode of
reasoning in the schoolboy, whom his fellows term ‘lucky’--what, in its
last analysis, is it?”
[Sidenote: Reduced to untechnical language.]
95. “It is merely,” I said, “an identification of the reasoner’s
intellect with that of his opponent.”
[Sidenote: Compare with Barrie’s statement on p. 217.]
[Sidenote: 1 and 2, French authors and moralists; 3, astute Italian
statesman; 4, Italian thinker.]
96. “It is,” said Dupin; “and, upon inquiring of the boy by what
means he effected the _thorough_ identification in which his success
consisted, I received answer as follows: ‘When I wish to find out how
wise, or how stupid, or how good, or how wicked is any one, or what are
his thoughts at the moment, I fashion the expression of my face, as
accurately as possible, in accordance with the expression of his, and
then wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in my mind or heart,
as if to match or correspond with the expression.’ This response of the
schoolboy lies at the bottom of all the spurious profundity which has
been attributed to Rochefoucauld, to La Bruyère, to Machiavelli, and to
Campanella.”
97. “And the identification,” I said, “of the reasoner’s intellect with
that of his opponent’s, depends, if I understand you aright, upon the
accuracy with which the opponent’s intellect is admeasured.”
[Sidenote: Analysis.]
[Sidenote: Observe how fond Poe is of long paragraphs.]
[Sidenote: Astute comment.]
[Sidenote: Note the length of this paragraph.]
[Sidenote: A cumbersomely long sentence.]
[Sidenote: _Recherchés_--carefully sought out.]
[Sidenote: Note force of “hidden.”]
[Sidenote: “The undistributed middle” is a form of logical fallacy.]