THE RIDDLE OF THE SIVA STONES
Cleek threw aside his newspaper as the telephone jingled, and walking to
the instrument, unhooked the receiver.
"Hallo!" he said; then, a second later, "Yes. This is Captain Burbage
speaking," he added, and stood silent, waiting. Not for long, however.
Almost instantly the connecting line hummed with the sound of some one
at the other end whistling the opening bars of "God Save the King," and
that settled it.
"You, is it, Mr. Narkom?" Cleek said, as the anthem broke off at an
agreed point, which point, by the way, was altered every twenty-four
hours. "No, nothing in particular. I was only reading the account of
Black Riot's Derby. Ripping, wasn't it? Half a yard ahead of the nearest
competitor, and Minnow nowhere. What? Yes, certainly, if you want me. A
great hurry, eh? Yes, start this minute if that will do. What's that?
Yes; I know the place well. All right. I'll be there almost as soon as
you are. Good-bye," and he switched off the line instantly.
Five minutes later, accompanied by Dollops bearing the inevitable brown
leather kit-bag, in case a change of attire should be found necessary,
he emerged from the house in Clarges Street, walked down Piccadilly as
far as Duke Street, turned from that into Jermyn Street, and strolled
leisurely along in the direction of the Geological Museum, keeping a
sharp look-out, however, for the red limousine.
Of a sudden it came pelting round the corner of Regent Street, whizzed
along until Lennard, the chauffeur, caught sight of the well-known
figure, then swung to the kerb close to the corner of York Street and
came to an abrupt halt. In another moment Cleek had taken the brown
kit-bag from Dollops, stepped with it into the vehicle, and was by
Narkom's side.
"Well," he said, gripping the superintendent's welcoming hand and
settling himself comfortably as the motor swung out into the roadway
again and continued on its way. "Here I am, you see, Mr. Narkom, and,"
nodding toward the kit-bag, "prepared for any emergency, as they say in
the melodramas. It isn't often you give me a 'hurry call' like this, so
it's fair to suppose that you have something of unusual importance on
hand."
"If you said I had something positively amazing on hand you'd come a
deal nearer the mark, my dear fellow," returned the superintendent. "The
steel-room case was a fool to it for mystery, although it is not
entirely unlike it in some respects; for the thing happened behind
locked doors, and there's no clue to when, where, or how the assassin
got in nor the ghost of an explanation to be given as to how he got out
again. That is where the two cases are alike; but where they differ, is
the most amazing point; for the dickens of it is that whereas the steel
room was a stable and there were a few people on guard, this crime was
committed in a house filled with company. A reception was in progress,
yet not only was one of the best-known figures in London society done to
death under the very noses, so to speak, of her friends and
acquaintances, but jewels of immense value, jewels of historical
interest, in fact, were carried off in the most unaccountable manner. In
brief, my dear Cleek, the victim was the aged Duchess of Heatherlands;
the jewels that have vanished are those two marvellous blush-pink
diamonds known to the world of gem collectors as 'The Siva Stones.'
Surely, you whose knowledge seems unlimited"--noting the blank look on
Cleek's face--"must have heard of those divine gems?"
"Indeed, yes," replied Cleek. "I have good reason to know of them, as I
shall prove to you presently. My knowledge of the diamonds is so
complete that I can tell you at once that they weigh twenty-four and one
sixty-fifth carats each; that, apart from their marvellous and most
unusual colour, a delicate azalea pink, like the first flush of the
morning, they are, perhaps, the most perfectly cut and most perfectly
matched pair of diamonds in the world. What may be their earliest
history it is impossible to state. All that is positively known of them
is that they once formed two of the three eyes of the god Siva, and that
they were abstracted from the head of the idol during the loot of the
Hindu temples after Clive's defeat of Suraja Dowlah, in 1757. They were
subsequently brought to England, where, in course of time, they passed
into the possession of the fifth Duke of Heatherlands, who bestowed them
upon his wife as a personal gift, so that they were never at any time
included in the entail."
"My dear Cleek," said Narkom, looking at him with positive bewilderment,
"is there anything you do not know? It is positively marvellous that you
should be in possession of all these details regarding the Siva stones."
Cleek looked down at his toes and a faint flush reddened his drooping
face.
"Not so marvellous as you may think, Mr. Narkom, when I tell you the
genesis of it," he said with a slight show of embarrassment. "The
S'aivas, or worshippers of Siva, have never relaxed their efforts to
regain possession of the stones and return them to their place in the
head of their desecrated idol. They have, in fact, offered immense sums
to the successive holders of them, and an immense reward to anybody who
shall be instrumental in restoring them. In the old times, in my
vanishing cracksman days, I once planned to get that reward by stealing
the gems, and if I had lived that life another month--if the eyes of a
woman had not dimmed the splendid opulence of these cold eyes of a
god----" His voice sank and dropped off into silence, and Narkom had the
good sense and the good taste to look out of the window and say nothing.
"And so these remarkable diamonds have been stolen after all, have
they?" said Cleek, breaking silence suddenly. "And that vulgar and
overbearing old shrew, the Dowager Duchess of Heatherlands, has paid
for the possession of them with her life! Ah, my dear Mr. Narkom, what a
disastrous thing lust of power and craving for position is! The lady
would better have stuck to her father's beer vats and the glory of
Hobson and Simkin's entire, and Heatherlands might better have left her
there instead of selling her the right to wear his ducal coronet. They
both would have lived and died a deal happier, I am sure."
"Yes," agreed Narkom. "They lived a veritable cat-and-dog life, I
believe, although it was years before my time, or yours either, for the
matter of that, so I can only speak from hearsay. His Grace didn't find
Miss Simkins, the brewer's daughter, so enviable a possession after
marriage as she had appeared before; and, as she held the
purse-strings--and held them closely, too--he got precious little but
abuse and unhappiness out of the bargain. The lady, feeling herself
miles above her former connections when she became duchess, cut her own
people completely; and as her husband's family would have none of her at
any price, she simply made enemies for herself on both sides. It was
perhaps just as well for all concerned that there were no children."
"And at the duke's death some ten or a dozen years ago, the title
passed, I believe, to his younger brother, who in his turn died about
eighteen months ago and passed it on to a cousin, a young fellow of
about two-and-twenty, who had recently married a girl as little blest
with this world's goods as was he himself."
"Yes," replied Narkom. "And as his grandmother was one of the ladies who
had been bitterest in cutting the ex-Miss Simkins, the old girl never
let any of her sympathies or her sovereigns go his way. Of course he
tried to make up to her, talked about 'upholding the dignity of the
name,' and all that, but it was no go; old money-bags wouldn't part with
a stiver. So the interview wound up with some pretty plain speaking on
both sides, and the young duke flung himself out of the house in a
towering passion and with no good will toward her, which was a bad thing
all round, and particularly bad for him."
"Why?"
"Because that happened only the day before yesterday. Last night the old
duchess was murdered, and, so far as can be ascertained with certainty,
he was the last person with her and the last to see her alive."
"Hum-m-m!" said Cleek, pulling down his lower lip and frowning at his
toes. "Not nice that, for the duke, I must admit."
"Not at all nice," agreed Narkom. "As a matter of fact, I should not be
at all surprised if a warrant for his arrest were issued before morning.
Still, of course, there is the Hindu to be taken into consideration. As
you yourself said, those beggars have always been after the stones."
"Oho! So there's a Hindu in the affair, is there?"
"Yes. Been hanging about the place for weeks and weeks, trying to make
friends with the servants. Peddles embroidered table covers, silk
scarves, crêpe shawls, lucky charms, and things of that sort. Hasn't
missed coming, the housekeeper tells me, one solitary day for the past
month until the present one. Of course, he may turn up before night,
although it's hours and hours past his regular time for calling; but, at
the same time, it must be admitted that it has a queer look.
"Then, too, there's a third party, or, indeed, I might as well say a
third and a fourth, for they are brother and sister, a Miss Lucretia
Spender and her brother Tom. They're relations of the late duchess on
the Simkins's side. Mother was an aunt of hers. Not particularly
prepossessing, either of them. Run a second-hand clothing shop over in
Camden Town; down on their luck and expected the brokers in. Came to see
the duchess in the effort to borrow money. She bundled them out neck and
crop, and the brokers did come in and they went out into the streets,
poor wretches. That was ten days ago. But both were seen hanging about
the house last night as late as eleven o'clock. The murder was committed
and the jewels stolen somewhere between midnight and three o'clock in
the morning."
Cleek looked up.
"Suppose you begin the thing at the beginning instead of giving me the
case piecemeal in this fashion, Mr. Narkom," he said. "How did it all
start? Was the duchess giving an entertainment last night?"
"No; but Captain and Mrs. Harvey Glossop were, and the thing happened at
their house, within a stone's throw of Hyde Park Corner."
"Captain Harvey Glossop," repeated Cleek. "Happen by any chance that
he's related to Glossop, the big company promoter who floated 'Sapavo'
and made 'Oxine' a household word three years ago?"
"Same man. Worth a million sterling if he's worth a penny. Isn't really
a military man, you know. Was 'captain' in the volunteers up to the
time of their disbanding. Topping fine fellow, popular everywhere. Makes
money hand over fist, and gives the best dinners in town, they say."
"Two very excellent passports to Society under modern conditions,"
commented Cleek. "Well, go on. Captain and Mrs. Glossop were giving a
reception, and Her Grace of Heatherlands was there?"
"Yes--as their guest. As a matter of fact she had been their guest for
the past eight months. She and Mrs. Glossop took a great fancy to each
other when they met at Nice last October, and the duchess, being
entirely alone and getting too old to care much for social affairs,
rented her house in Park Lane to an American family, and took up her
abode with the Glossops. A suite of rooms was placed at her disposal,
and, since, unlike most feminine friendships, this one grew warmer and
closer every day, she appears to have been perfectly comfortable and
happy for the first time in many years."
"Good. Let us have the story of last night now, please. How did the
duchess come to have the Siva stones in her personal possession at that
time? Surely she was not insane enough to keep the gems in the house
with her?"
"No; she never did that. They were always in the strong room at her
banker's. She hadn't even seen them, much less worn them, for years
until, on her order, they were brought to her from the bank yesterday
morning so that she might appear in them last night, for last night was
an exceptional occasion."
"In what particular way?"
"It was to be Mrs. Glossop's last 'at home' for a long, long time. Her
health not being very good of late, the doctors had ordered a voyage to
the Cape, and everything has long been in readiness for her departure
next Wednesday fortnight. As last night's affair was in the nature of a
sort of leave-taking, the duchess resolved to come out of her recent
retirement and to wear the famous Siva stones. She did so. I hear from
Captain Glossop that she made her appearance so covered with jewels that
she appeared like a jeweller's window, in the midst of which shone the
two amazing diamonds, suspended by a slender chain about her neck, and
putting every other jewel she wore to shame by their gorgeous
magnificence."
"I can well imagine that they would, Mr. Narkom. They produced a
sensation, of course?"
"Rather! The captain tells me that they fairly took away his breath. It
was the first time either he or his wife had ever seen them; indeed, it
appears that it was the first time the young Duke of Heatherlands
himself, who, with his bride, was present, had set eyes upon the
appallingly magnificent things. He was heard to say to his young duchess
that it was 'not only beastly vulgar, but beastly rough--Heatherland
Court with a ton weight of mortgages upon it, you without so much as a
decent bracelet, and all that money locked up and useless, when a tenth
of it would put baby and us in clover!'"
"He was right there, Mr. Narkom; it was rough. He, with a wife and a
little son, and loaded down with debts and cares at three-and-twenty,
and the duchess with millions lying idle and unheeded at eighty-three!
Well, go on, please; what followed?"
"After remaining 'on exhibition' until half-past eleven," resumed the
superintendent, "the duchess took leave of the other guests, kissed Mrs.
Glossop good-night, and retired to her own rooms with the avowed
intention of going to bed. About twelve minutes later the young Duke of
Heatherlands, too, left the room, and went up after her."
"Hum-m-m! What for?"
"He says for the purpose of making one final appeal to her, to what
womanhood was in her, by showing her the miniature his wife wore of
their little son and heir. The old duchess's maid says that she met him
on the stairs as she was coming down, and told him that her mistress was
sitting in her tea-gown taking her regular glass of hot whisky-and-water
before getting into bed; so he would have to be quick if he wished to
speak to her for, as soon as she had finished that, she would lock and
bolt the door and go to bed forthwith.
"He says, however, that when he got to the room the door was already
locked, that in answer to his knocking and appealing the old duchess had
merely told him to go about his business. She said she paid her rates
and taxes to support unions and workhouses for paupers, and that she
wasn't going to support any on the outside.
"After that, he says, he came away, knowing that it was hopeless, went
down and rejoined his wife, and in five or ten minutes' time they said
good-night to their host and hostess and went home. That was the very
last interview, so far as anybody has been able to discover, that any
one had with the Dowager Duchess of Heatherlands. On account of the weak
state of Mrs. Glossop's health, the entertainment broke up early. At
half-past twelve the final guest took his departure; at one, Captain
Glossop's man helped his master to undress and get into his bed. At the
same moment Mrs. Glossop's maid performed a like office for her
mistress, saw her in hers, put out the light, and in another ten minutes
every soul in the house was between sheets and asleep.
"At three o'clock, however, a startling thing occurred. Godwin, the
cook, waking thirsty and finding her water-bottle empty, rose and went
downstairs to fill it. She returned in a panic to rouse the housekeeper,
Mrs. Condiment, and tell her that there was a light burning in the old
duchess's room, its reflection being clearly visible under the door and
through the keyhole. She, the cook, had knocked on the door to inquire
if anything was wanted, as she knew the duchess's maid was asleep in
another part of the house. But she had been unable to get any sort of a
response.
"Well, to make a long story short, my dear Cleek," went on Narkom, "the
household was roused, the door of the duchess's room was found to be
both locked and bolted on the inside--so securely that, all other
efforts to open it proving unavailing, an axe had to be procured and the
barrier hacked down. When the last fragment fell and the captain and his
servants could get into the room, a horrible sight awaited them. On the
duchess's dressing-table her two bedroom candles were still burning,
just as the maid says she left them when she went out and met the young
duke coming up the stairs; on the bed lay the duchess herself, stone
dead, a noosed rope drawn tightly round her neck, used, no doubt, to
keep her from calling out, and the bedding was literally saturated with
the blood which flowed from several stab wounds in the breast, the side,
and the fleshy upper part of both arms."
"Hum-m-m!" commented Cleek. "That looks as if she had struggled very
desperately, and one would hardly expect that from a woman of her
advanced years and choked into breathlessness at that. Still, her arms
could not have been cut otherwise; arms are not vital parts, and the
maddest of assassins would know that. So, of course, they were either
slashed unavoidably in a desperate death struggle or, else----" His
brows knotted, his voice slipped off into reflective silence. He took
his chin between his thumb and forefinger and squeezed it hard. After a
moment, however: "Mr. Narkom," he inquired, "were the Siva stones found
to have been stolen at the same time that the body was discovered, or
was their loss learned of later?"
"Oh, at the very instant the body was discovered, my dear chap. It
could hardly have been overlooked for so much as an instant, for the
slender chain upon which they had formerly hung was lying across the
body, the setting of the gems had been prised open and the diamond
removed."
"Singular circumstances, both."
"In what way, Cleek?"
"Well, for one thing, it shows that the assassin must have had plenty of
time and a very good reason for taking the stones without their setting.
If he hadn't, he'd have grabbed the thing and done that elsewhere. Must
have taken them to the light for the purpose and laid them down upon
some firm, hard surface; you can't pick a diamond out of a good setting
without some little difficulty, Mr. Narkom, and certainly not in the
palm of your hand. Why, then, should the assassin have brought the chain
back after that operation and laid it upon the body of the victim?
Rather looks as if he wanted the fact that the stones had disappeared to
be apparent at first glance. Any other jewels stolen at the same time?"
"No; only the Siva stones."
"Hum-m-m! And the noosed rope that was about the neck of the murdered
woman; what was that like? Something that had been brought from outside
the house or something that could be picked up within it?"
"As a matter of fact, my dear fellow, it was part of the bellrope that
belonged to that very room. It had been cut off and converted into a
noose."
"Oho!" said Cleek. "I see--I see!" Then, after a moment: "Pull down the
blinds of the limousine, will you, Mr. Narkom?" he added as he bent and
picked up the kit-bag. "I want to do a little bit in the way of a
change; and, if you are proceeding directly to the scene of the
murder----"
"I am, dear chap. Any idea, Cleek?"
"Bushels. Tell you if they're worth anything after I've seen the body.
If they are---- Well, I shall either have the Siva stones in my hand
before eight o'clock to-night, or----"
"Yes, old chap? Or what?"
"Or the Hindu's got 'em and they're already out of the country for good
and all. And--Mr. Narkom, 'George Headland' will do, if you please."
II
Lennard having slackened the speed of the motor considerably, and in
addition taken two or three wide curves out of the direct line, it was
quite half-past four when the limousine stopped in front of the Glossop
residence, about which a curious collection of morbid-minded people had
gathered. There alighted therefrom, first the superintendent, and then
the over-dressed figure with the lank, fair hair and the fresh-coloured,
insipid countenance of as perfect a specimen of the genus sap-head as
you could pick up anywhere between John o' Groat's and Land's End. A
flower was in his buttonhole, a monocle in his eye, and the gold head of
his jointed walking-stick was sucked into the red eyelet of his
puckered-up lips.
"Oh, yez! Oh, yez!" sang out derisively a bedraggled female on the edge
of the crowd as this utterly unrecognizable edition of Cleek stepped out
upon the pavement. "Oh, yez! Oh, yez! 'Ere's to give notice! Them's the
bright sparks wot rides in motor-cars, them is, and my poor 'usband a
hoofin' of it all the dies of 'is blessed life!"
"Move on, now--move on!" cautioned the constable on guard, waving her
aside and making a clear passage for the superintendent and his
companion across the pavement and up the steps. And a moment later Cleek
was in the house, in the morning-room, in the presence of Captain
Harvey Glossop, his wife, and the young Duke of Heatherlands.
The lady was a pale, fragile-looking woman of about three-and-twenty,
very beautiful, very well bred, low-voiced, and altogether charming. Her
husband was some five or six years her senior, a genial, kindly man with
a winning smile, an engaging personality, and the manners of one used to
the good things of life and, like all people who really are used to
them, making no boast of it and putting on no "side" whatsoever. As for
the young duke--well, he was just an impetuous, hot-headed, hot-tongued,
lovable boy, the kind of chap who, in a moment of temper, would swear to
have your heart's blood, but, if you stumbled and fell the next moment,
would risk breaking his neck to get to you and help you and offer you
his last shilling to cab it home.
"Well, here I am, you see, Mr. Narkom," blurted out his impulsive Grace
as the superintendent and Cleek came in. "If any of your lot want me
they won't have to hunt me up and they won't find me funking it, no
matter how black it looks for me. I didn't kill her, I didn't even get
to see her; and anybody that says I did, lies--that's all!"
"My dear Heatherlands," protested the captain, "don't work yourself up
into such a pitch of excitement. I don't suppose Mr. Narkom has come
here to arrest you. It is just as black with regard to that mysterious
Hindu fellow, remember. Perhaps a little blacker when you come to recall
how suddenly and mysteriously he has disappeared. And, certainly, his
motive looks quite as strong as yours."
"I haven't any motive--I never did have one, and I take it beastly
unkind of you to say that, Glossop!" blurted out the young duke
impetuously. "Just because I'm hard up is no reason why I should commit
murder and robbery. What could I want with the Siva stones? I couldn't
sell them, could I, marked things that every diamond dealer in the
world knows? Oh, yes, I know what people say: I could have turned them
over to the Hindu and claimed the reward; that perhaps I did and that
that's why this particular Hindu has disappeared. But it's not true. I
didn't have anything to do with it. I didn't get into the room at all
last night. And even if I had I couldn't have bolted it on the inside
after I'd left it, could I? If you and your lot want me, Mr. Narkom, I'm
here, and I'll face every charge they can bring against me."
"Pardon me, your Grace, but I'm not here for the purpose of apprehending
anybody," replied Narkom suavely. "My errand is of a totally different
sort, I assure you. Captain Glossop, allow me to make you acquainted
with a great friend of mine, Mr. George Headland. Mr. Headland is an
amateur investigator of criminal matters, and he has taken a fancy to
look into the details of this one. It may be that he will stumble upon
something of importance--who knows? And in such an affair as this I deem
it best to leave no stone unturned, no chance untried."
"Quite so, Mr. Narkom, quite so," agreed the captain. "Mr. Headland, I
am delighted to meet you, though, of course, I should have preferred to
do so under happier circumstances."
"Thanks very much," said Cleek with an inane drawl, but a quick,
searching look out of the corner of his eye at the young duke. "Awfully
good of you to say so, I'm sure. Your Grace, pleased to meet you.
Charmed, Mrs. Glossop. Yes, thanks, I will have a cup of tea. So nice of
you to suggest it."
"Must be rather interesting work, this looking into criminal matters on
your own initiative, Mr. Headwood--pardon, Headland, is it? Do forgive
me, but I have a most abominable memory for names," said the captain.
"Believe me, I shall be willing to give you any possible assistance that
I can in the present unhappy case."
"Thanks--jolly kind of you, and I very much appreciate it, I assure
you," returned Cleek in his best "blithering idiot" fashion. "Should be
ever so much obliged if you'd--er--permit me to view the scene of the
tragedy and the--er--body of the deceased, don't you know. Of course,
Mr. Narkom has said I may, but--er--after all, an Englishman's house is
his castle and all that, so it's only polite to ask."
"Oh, certainly, do so by all means, Mr. Headland. You will excuse my
saying it, but I doubt if you will find any clues there, however, for
the regular officials have already been over the ground."
"Searched the room, have they, in quest of the diamonds? Thieves do
funny things sometimes, you know, and it's just possible that they got
in a funk and hid the things instead of taking them away."
"Well, of all the blessed id----" began the young duke, looking over at
him disgustedly; and then discreetly stopped and left the term
unfinished.
"I fancy, my dear Headland," interposed Narkom, "I neglected to tell you
that the captain had my men search the place from top to bottom, go
through every cupboard, into every nook and corner, turn out the
servants' boxes--even his own and Mrs. Glossop's, as well--so that it is
certain the jewels could not have been concealed anywhere about the
premises either by accident or design. Nothing was found--nothing. The
Siva stones have utterly and completely disappeared."
"And no other jewels besides?"
"Not a solitary one, Mr. Headland."
"Rum sort of a thief, wasn't it, to cut off with only half the booty?
The duchess must have had lots of other jewels and there were Mrs.
Glossop's, too. Those superb rings of yours, for instance, madam, fancy
a burglar getting in and not paying his respects to those. Pardon
me----" Her hand a-glitter with splendid flashing diamonds was resting
on the edge of the tea table. He bent over and looked at them closely.
Naturally she resented this under the circumstances, but though her
cheeks flushed she let the hand rest where it was until he had studied
it to his heart's content.
"May I say, Mr. Headland, that all her Grace's jewels have been
identified by her banker, to whose care the police have returned them,"
she said with just the shadow of an indignant note in her low, sweet
voice. "These have been in my possession for years, thank you. A
thousand people can testify to that; and the insinuation is not nice."
"My dear madam, I assure you I had not the slightest thought----"
"Very likely not. As a matter of fact, I don't see how you could, Mr.
Headland; but under these distressing and extraordinary circumstances it
was an unhappy attention and a most suggestive one. Pray say no more
about it. You are at liberty, Mr. Narkom, to show Mr. Headland over the
house whenever he chooses to investigate it."
And as he chose to investigate it at that moment the superintendent led
the way to the death chamber forthwith.
"I say, old chap, that was a bit thick, and no mistake," whispered
Narkom as they went up the stairs. "To be talking about the dead woman's
jewels and then to stoop and examine Mrs. Glossop's own--a woman worth
millions!"
"Clear your mind of the idea that I meant to suggest anything of that
sort at all, Mr. Narkom," Cleek replied. "It was the beauty of the rings
themselves that appealed to me--that, and the wonder of the
circumstances."
"Circumstances? What circumstances?"
"Two very extraordinary ones. First: why a woman of such evident taste,
breeding, and position as Mrs. Glossop should choose to load her fingers
with diamond rings in the daytime; and, second, why she should choose
this particular day of all others to do so."
"Possibly she neglected to take them off when she went to bed last night
and, in the excitement of the things which have happened since, has
thought no more about them. But here's the room at last. Still on duty,
I see, Hammond." This to the plain-clothes officer before the door of
the death chamber. "Yes, going in; thanks. Come along, Headland."
Then the improvised door opened, closed again, and Cleek and the
superintendent stood in the presence of it--the silent, immutable It
which yesterday had been a living woman. Cleek went over and looked at
the quiet figure, particularly at the wounds on the arms, both of them
close to the shoulder, and immediately below the larger, muscle, then
turned and looked round the room. It was richly appointed, indeed, the
suite had been especially fitted up for her Grace's occupancy, and was,
as might have been expected in such a house, in extremely good taste
from the rich, dull-coloured Indian carpet to the French paper on the
walls. This was a striped paper in two tones of white, one glazed
slightly, the other dull, like two ribbons--a white velvet and a white
silk one--drawn straight down over its surface from ceiling to floor at
regular distances of half a yard apart. He admired that paper, and it
interested him!
"Here, you see, old chap, not a possibility of anybody getting in or out
save by the door which we ourselves have just entered," said Narkom,
opening one door which led into a dressing-room, another leading to a
spacious and richly appointed sitting-room, and a third which gave
access to a porcelain bath set in a marble-floored, marble-walled
apartment lighted and aired by a window of painted glass. "All windows
and all doors locked on the inside when the body was found, and
everything as you see it now; no furniture upset, no sign of a struggle.
There is the bell-rope that was cut; there the noose that was made from
it; and there on the dressing-table the bedroom candles that were found
burning just as the maid left them when she went out and met the young
duke coming up the stairs."
Cleek walked over and looked at the candles.
"If I remember correctly, Mr. Narkom," he said, "I believe you told me
that her Grace retired to this room at half-past eleven, and that
something like twelve or fifteen minutes later the young duke came up
for the purpose of speaking to her. That would make it somewhere in the
close neighbourhood of a quarter to twelve when the maid left her
mistress; and it was three o'clock in the morning, was it not, when the
murder was discovered? Hum-m-m! Singular, most singular, amazingly so!"
"What?"
"The condition of these two candles. Look at them," said he, taking one
out of the silver holder and extending it for Narkom's examination. "One
would suppose that candles which had been burning for three hours and a
quarter would be fairly well consumed, Mr. Narkom; yet, look at these.
They are hardly an inch shorter than the regulation length, so that they
cannot have burned for more than a quarter of an hour at most! Now,
granting that the duchess herself burnt them for ten minutes in
undressing and imbibing her nightly whisky-and-water--and that would
just about tally with the young duke's assertion that the door was
locked and her Grace in bed when he reached the room--that would leave
them to have been burning for just five minutes when the cook, Godwin,
says she discovered the light shining under the door and through the
keyhole."
"By George, you're right. We must have a word with that cook, Cleek.
Either she lied about the time, or else---- Great Scott, man! What if
she, that cook, that Godwin woman, had a hand in it--was herself in
league with the murderer--even let him out of the house before she gave
the alarm? Good heaven, Cleek, we mustn't let that woman get away!"
"She won't--if she's guilty. I'll tell you that for certain if you can
manage to find out what preparations, if any, have as yet been made for
the duchess's funeral."
"But, man alive, what can that have to do with it?"
"Perhaps a great deal; perhaps nothing at all. Just slip downstairs,
will you, and, without giving the subject away, or mentioning anything
about the candles, do a little quiet 'pumping' of the young duke. See if
he knows, or has any plans. I seem to fancy that I have heard somewhere
of a splendid mausoleum being built by the Dowager Duchess of
Heatherlands and the young duke will know if it's so or not. Pump him,
I'll stop here until you return."
It was a full twenty minutes before the superintendent got the
information he wanted and came back with it.
"Well?" said Cleek, as he came in. "There is a mausoleum being built, is
there not?"
"Yes. The murdered woman has been having it built for the past five or
six months for the express purpose of having herself and her late
husband entombed there, apart from all other Heatherlands and with all
the pomp of dead royalty. The structure will not be completed for quite
another half year. In the meantime, as this tragical affair has
disorganised all arrangements and the body cannot be interred in the
mausoleum until its completion, and it would be difficult to get an
order to disinter it if it were once underground, Captain Glossop has
consented to have it placed for a time in the new and as yet unused
vault which he had erected last month in Brompton Cemetery."
"'A friend in need is a friend indeed,'" quoted Cleek sententiously;
then, after a moment, "Mr. Narkom," he said.
"Yes, old chap?"
"Let's go down and have another cup of tea, I want to have a word or two
with the young duke."
"My dear fellow! Good heaven, do you think----"
"No; I've got past 'thinking.' I know one thing, however; for I've been
poking about while you were away. The cook's room is just over this one,
but the cook didn't do it. A five-foot woman can't reach up and cut down
eight and a half feet of bell-rope, and--look, see! She wouldn't be
likely to do it with the blade of a safety razor if she could!"
III
The little gathering in the drawing-room had not undergone much in the
way of a change since they left it Cleek and the superintendent saw when
they returned. The tea things had been removed, for the young duke's
peppery temper was still in the ascendant and he was parading his
six-feet-one of vigorous young manhood up and down the floor in a manner
which wasn't the best thing in the world for the white-and-green Persian
carpet. The tall captain sat on a low sofa beside his beautiful wife,
who thoughtfully turned her rings on her fingers and followed with
grave, sad-looking eyes the constantly pacing figure of the restless
duke.
"My dear fellow, of course neither Amy nor I believe," the captain was
saying, as Cleek and Narkom made their reappearance; "but the thing is,
can you make others as disbelieving when your unhappy condition is so
well known and her Grace's maid positively swears that the door was not
locked, and---- Ah, here you are again, Mr. Narkom, and your good friend
the amateur investigator with you."
"Amateur fiddlesticks!" blurted out the young duke, with a short,
derisive laugh. "Fellow who doesn't know any better than to look for
jewels that are not lost, and look for them on a lady's fingers at that!
By Jove, you know, Glossop, if it had been my wife!---- But there! you
easy-going fellows will swallow anything for the sake of keeping peace.
Well, Mr. Crime Investigator, found out who did it yet, eh?"
"Perhaps not exactly," replied Cleek, moving over toward the sofa; "but
I've found out who didn't do it, and that's something."
"Oh, yes, decidedly!" flung back the duke, with another sarcastic laugh.
"Wonderfully brainy, that! Not more than two or three million people in
Great Britain who could tell you that Napoleon didn't do it, and the
Black Prince didn't do it, and it's twopence to a teacup that
Shakespeare hadn't any hand in it at all. You'll be out-Cleeking Cleek
by the time you've sucked the head off that cane. Well, whatever other
amazing thing have you 'unearthed'? What's next--eh?"
"Only this," said Cleek quietly, making a feint of dropping his cane and
stooping to recover it. Then he moved like a quick-leaping animal. There
was a sharp metallic "click-click," a frightened scream from Mrs.
Glossop, a half-indignant, wholly excited roar from the captain, and the
duke, glancing toward them, saw that they both had got to their feet in
a sort of panic and were standing there, white, quaking, and handcuffed
together.
"Good Lord!" began the duke. "Look here, Mr. Narkom--I say! This idiot's
out of his head."
"More than out of it!" swung in the captain furiously. "To people in our
position! Good God! I can stand a fool as far as any man can, Mr.
Narkom, but when it comes to this---- Look here, you, Mr. Woodhead, or
Thickhead, or whatever your infernal name is----"
"Call a spade a spade, my dear captain. The name is Cleek, if you can't
remember my other."
"Cleek!" The duke repeated it with a sort of gulp; the captain spat it
out as though it were something red-hot, and the captain's wife merely
whined it and fainted.
"Yes, Captain--Cleek! Oh, I've got you, my friend, got you foul!" said
Cleek in reply. "All but ruined by the failure of the gold reefs and the
milling and mining companies last autumn, weren't you, and have been
playing a bluff game and living on your credit ever since? A pretty
little scheme you two beauties hatched up between you to get the old
duchess into your clutches, to rob her of the Siva stones, and to have
Mrs. Glossop and your Hindu ally slip over to India with them and claim
the reward before the truth of your financial condition leaked out! Oh,
yes; I've got you, my friend, got you tight and fast.
"And, Captain, I've got something more as well! I've got the place where
the panel slides in the striped wall-paper and leads to the wardrobe
with the false back in your own room; I've got your private papers; I've
got the safety razor-blade, and I've got the hiding-place of the Siva
stones as well! Humph! Fainted like any other human brute when he's
pushed to the wall! That's right, Hammond; call the constable in from
outside and take the pair of them away. Oh, don't waste any pity on
them, your Grace," as the duke moved impulsively toward the stricken and
defeated pair. "They wouldn't have hesitated to hang you if they could
have turned the evidence your way and saved their own wretched
skins--and all for a pair of rose-pink diamonds that are red enough now,
God knows. What's that? Where are they? Where you must get a surgeon to
abstract them, for I wouldn't touch them for millions, your Grace. They
are hidden in the body itself, embedded in the flesh, jammed out of
sight through those cuts in the arms and embedded under the muscles!"
"Good heaven, how horrible!"
"Yes, isn't it? Oh, they laid their plans well, those two, and they laid
them together. The body would not be put underground for a long, long
time, and when it was the Siva stones would not go to earth with it.
There was the specially constructed vault at Brompton, their private
property. They would get the stones while the body lay there, and nobody
would be a whit the wiser.
"Ring for a glass of wine, your Grace, and after you have steadied your
nerves I'll take you upstairs and show you something. In the captain's
room there's a wardrobe which has a false back, and behind that is a
sliding panel, its joining hidden by the stripes of the wall-paper,
which leads into the old duchess's bedroom. That is how they got in and
got out again and left every door and window locked on the inside. When
they had finished their work, they lit the candles, and the rest you
know. If there is anything to joy over in this appalling affair, find it
in this fact: I am convinced that the dowager duchess died intestate.
That being so, and she having no other living relatives, her property
will no doubt be divided equally, by order of the Crown, between three
persons: yourself, for one, and those two poor, homeless creatures, Tom
Spender and his sister, for the others; and as it amounts to several
millions sterling, dark days are over for you and for them forever!"
* * * * *
"How did I find it out?" said Cleek, answering Narkom's question, as
they drove home through the shadows of evening together. "Well, I think
I first got a suspicion of the captain and his wife when you told me
about the cut bell-rope, because, you see, it is hardly likely that
anybody could get into the room and cut that without disturbing the old
lady, and, as she didn't cry out, I came to the conclusion that that
somebody must certainly be some one she knew and trusted, and whose
presence in the room would not be unusual. That at once suggested Mrs.
Glossop, and the possibility of the lady saying that she had heard a
noise, and had come up and found the door unlocked. The captain, who
would make his entrance unheard while they were talking, would cut the
rope, throw the noose round the victim's neck while she was off guard,
and the rest would follow easily.
"But I could find no motive and could get no actual clue until I looked
at the lady's rings. Clearly the putting of them on was an attempt to
accentuate the presumed fact of their great wealth by exhibiting open
evidence of how richly the lady was dowered with jewels and how little
she need covet those of others. I got upon the trail of the true state
of affairs when I examined those rings and found that they were simply
paste, close imitations of the splendid originals which she had no doubt
long since been obliged either to pawn or sell.
"As for the hiding-place of the Siva stones, the fact of the utterly
unnecessary wounds in the arms--unnecessary as helping the assassin to
kill her, I mean--gave me the first hint of that. Afterward, when I saw
the body, and noticed the position of those wounds, I was sure of it.
That is where Glossop bungled. They could not have come about in any
struggle or any possible effort of the deceased to protect herself by
throwing up her arms, for they were in the wrong position, for one
thing, and they were deep, clean-cut punctures, for another, and---- My
corner at last! The riddle is solved, Mr. Narkom. Good-night."