"But the tortoise, uncle! the tortoise is gone!
"It is a precious gem we have given that name--a large diamond set in
gold, and in the shape of a tortoise," she added, when she saw my
puzzled expression.
"That is the most valuable of all my collection," continued Frick. "I
don't know what the diamond can be worth when it is polished, but all I
know is that I have been offered L2000 for it as it is now. It is
black."
He raked about with his large fingers at the bottom of the sack, and
finally turned it inside out, but there was no diamond tortoise. Then
the room, and at last the garden, and the nearest part of Drammen Road
were searched most carefully by aid of the lantern, but without result.
"How large was the tortoise?" I asked.
"It could at a pinch be hidden in the hollow of a man's hand,--say about
two inches in diameter with the setting."
It was now nearly three o'clock in the morning. There was no more for me
to do there, so I prepared to take my departure.
The old man began again to lament the loss of the diamond, and
complained in the most energetic manner that he had not been able to
shoot, or cut in two, the rascals who had robbed him.
"It would be stupid of me to promise anything," said I; "but, for my own
part, I am pretty sure we shall have the birds caged before many days,
and that we shall secure the diamond as well."
With these words, I took my departure, put the cut-off heel bits in my
pocket, and went home.
My thoughts on the way were naturally taken up with what I had heard and
seen at Bartholomew Frick's.
But, remarkably enough, it was the young girl, Miss Frick, upon whom my
thoughts dwelt most of all. I had only heard her speak a few words, and
this was the first time I had seen her face; but she attracted me
strangely. I have never been of an impressionable nature, and no woman
had ever had much of an attraction for me. So I was astonished to find
how clearly her image stood out before me after the few hours we had
been together. I already felt a strong desire to please her--a desire
to do something which would compel her admiration.
You must, in any case, get the diamond back for her uncle, I thought;
women naturally set value upon a detective's skill. It will at any rate
please her uncle, and bring me into her society again.
I had at once noticed that the robbery at Frick's was of a simple and
not very complicated kind; and though the matter from a professional
stand-point had not interested me particularly, it had suddenly become
invested with a new importance.
As soon as I arrived home, I hurriedly changed my wet clothes, made
myself a cup of coffee over the spirit lamp, and then took out the piece
of heel.
It was a broad, strong heel, with an iron rim round it, and entirely
new, just like the sole. It did not seem to have belonged to the usual
kind of cheap boots which our ordinary criminals are apt to patronize;
at the same time it did not seem to have belonged to the better class of
foot-gear. The heel somehow seemed to me to be familiar, a vague
recollection of something set my brain to work.
Ah, suddenly I saw it all! The heel and sole belonged to the same sort
of shoes, in fact they were a perfect match to a pair which had just
helped the police to circumstantial evidence by an impression on soft
soil in a similar case. It was the same kind of boot with which the
prison society provides discharged prisoners, so that they shall not be
entirely shoeless when they come out of prison.
One of the thieves must be a discharged prisoner, I went on reasoning.
The boots are quite new; he must, therefore, have been just lately
released,--in all probability yesterday morning. The burglary must have
been planned and the necessary watch on the house undertaken by a
confederate who, of course, must have been at large for some time
previous.
Ten minutes later I stood in the anteroom to my office at the police
station. It was not yet morning. The official on duty sat and dozed
over the stove.
"Find out from the ledger, if any of our burglars have been discharged
from jail in the course of the last two or three days," I asked.
It is, unfortunately, a fact, that a large majority of crime is
committed by prisoners who have just been let out of jail, and we
therefore carefully keep a register of those who are let loose.
In the meanwhile, I went into the guardroom and ordered two constables
to follow me.
"Black John, the Throndhjemer, as you perhaps remember, sir, was
discharged yesterday morning; I don't see any others.
"That's all right! find out where he hangs about when he is out."
"I know him well, sir. He generally puts up at 'Fat Bertha's,' she who
has the coffee-house and lodgings for travellers up by Vaalerengen. But
he often frequents the sheds in the brick fields and round about there."
I always had a trap in readiness at the police station, and in a quarter
of an hour I, and two officers in plain clothes, stopped at a suitable
distance from Fat Bertha's lodging-house.
Black John was not there, however, and we began to search among the
brick ovens.
Daylight was just breaking when we came to the second oven, and the
workmen were arriving with their tin cans in hand. Two men crept out on
the other side and began to run across a ploughed field which adjoined
one of the sheds.
We set off after them; but it seemed as if they had got too much of a
start, and were likely to get away from us in the morning mist.
Suddenly one of them began to drop behind, and we soon had him between
us. We let the other one get away for the time being.
The fellow we had got hold of swore and cursed, but otherwise made no
resistance.
"If it hadn't been for that sore foot of mine, the police wouldn't have
got me this time," he bawled.
We followed the direction of his look, and saw how his left foot had
forced its way through the shoe, which was dragging about his ankle.
Black John's volubility did not deceive me. I kept a sharp eye on all
his movements. While he, with a kind of raw good nature, joked with the
constables, he slowly passed one hand behind him, and with a deft
movement threw a small parcel some ten or twelve paces behind him.
"You had better leave tricks of that sort alone, Black John," I said in
a friendly tone, stepping back and picking up a dirty little packet
wrapped in a greasy piece of _The Morning Post_.
Inside three or four wrappers of the same sort I found the strangest
object I had ever seen.
It was a large black diamond, of a flattened oval shape, tapering at the
ends. It was set in a broad gold rim of the same form as the stone,
and, to make its likeness to a tortoise more complete, a head was
introduced, together with a little stumpy tail, and four knobs
underneath, to represent feet,--all of gold. In the head shone two
green precious stones for eyes.
"Oh, no; it won't be of much use to me, I can see," said Black John,
resignedly. "I suppose I am in for another year or two."
He exhibited a subtle humour, while he tramped along to the town between
the two policemen. The effects of just-from-prison libations did not
seem quite to have left him.
"Ours is a hard sort of a profession, sir," he continued confidentially.
"I think it's just as well to be a convict all one's life. Then one
wouldn't get such frights at night. Such a one as I had last night!"
"Were you frightened, then, last night, in the Drammen Road?" I asked
sympathetically.
"Frightened, indeed! What would you say, sir, if you were busy rooting
about in a house at night, when you thought all was quiet and still, and
an old ourang-outang in a shirt were suddenly to appear before you with
a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, firing away at you till
the bullets whistled about your ears?"
In this kind of jocular strain he talked until we reached the town,
where we parted.
* * * * *
It was half-past twelve, and the sun was shining brightly when I again
rang the bell at old Frick's in the Drammen Road.
I had slept a few hours, handed in my report to the superintendent, and
now I wanted to have the pleasure of giving old Frick his diamond back
again.
I had taken a little more trouble than usual about my toilet; you can
guess the reason why.
I was very pleased to find Miss Frick alone when I was ushered into the
sitting-room. I thus had an opportunity of exchanging a few words with
her; for when old Frick came in I knew only too well who would take up
all the conversation.
She received me in a friendly manner, and when, without further ado, I
showed her the diamond, she clapped her hands in joyful surprise.
"How glad uncle will be! When he once gets it back again he will look
upon last night's affair as an exceedingly pleasant diversion. May I
take it to him?"
"Yes, of course!"
"It was I who advised him to telephone to you in the night, Mr. Monk,
and to-day I also assured him that you would be certain to find his
tortoise again."
"It is a great pleasure, Miss Frick, to find you have such confidence in
inc. May I ask how you got to know of my name?"
The young girl blushed a little. "We have often read about you in the
papers, and Einar tells me there isn't a case which you cannot clear
up."
"I must thank your brother for his flattering opinion, and I am indebted
to the burglars of last night for giving me this opportunity of making
your acquaintance and the acquaintance with your family."
"But you must excuse me a moment, Mr. Monk. I must hurry away and find
uncle and give him the diamond. I haven't even told him you are here!"
She ran out of the room, and I looked after her, enraptured. She was
even prettier by daylight than by lamplight. Light, reddish-golden
hair, blue eyes, a straight nose, and a beautiful shapely mouth, yet not
of the smallest. As for her figure, it was that of a veritable Diana as
she vanished from the room.