"How can you be sure it happened after five o'clock? Didn't the black
tortoise lie in the case with the iron shutters, in the museum?"
"Yes, of course; but now you shall hear. Old Jurgens, the lawyer, you
know him, of course? He who has that collection of curios, the old
idiot! Well, he dined with us, and afterward we drank our coffee out in
the museum, as we often do. At five o'clock Jurgens left, and we all
went over to the house. For some reason, as I shall presently explain,
I forgot to lock the door of the museum and cupboard. In about half an
hour's time I suddenly remembered this. I then had a look into the
cupboards before I locked them, and so discovered that the tortoise was
gone."
"Are you sure it was there at five o'clock?"
"Yes; we had been looking at it just before we all left the museum; I
was the last who went out, and I had put it in its place before I left."
"Have you told any one that the tortoise is gone?"
"No; the first thing I did when I was sure of what had happened was to
telephone to you; since then I have watched and seen that no one has
gone in or out of the gate."
A long life rich in changes and events had taught this old man
expediency and presence of mind.
He had done just the right thing, and his information and answers were
clearer than nine-tenths of those which detectives are accustomed to get
under similar conditions.
"Is Miss Sigrid, or your nephew, at home?"
"No, Einar went to Hamburg on business for me the day before yesterday;
he will be there about a week, and Sigrid went for a walk about half an
hour ago. It was while accompanying her to the gate that I came to
remember the door of the museum wasn't locked."
"Haven't you missed anything else in the museum but the tortoise?"
"Not so far as I can see; in any case, there are still a number of small
and costly articles which would be much easier to turn into ready money
than the tortoise. It could not have been any ordinary thief, or if so,
it must have been an unusually stupid one!"
"Has the black tortoise any special value to you or to any one else
apart from the worth of the gold and the stone?"
"No, that I can gladly swear! You mean, I suppose, is there anything
about this diamond, as one reads of in the English detective stories,
where black and yellow people sneak about with daggers in their belts
and vengeance in their eyes! No! there is nothing of that kind in this
case. We found it in the cavern, as I told you, together with all the
other diamonds. Man had not set foot there for thousands of years; and
the negroes who live thereabouts do not care a fig for diamonds. For
that reason they let Davis keep the bag, which he took with him when he
escaped in the night. It is only when negroes have learned to know the
blessing of civilization that they get a taste for diamonds."
"One thing must be done," I said, "while it is yet light. Will you take
care that no one passes in or out through the gate, while I meanwhile
find out if any one has got into the garden over the railing?"
As already mentioned, the whole of Frick's property, which was about
three or four acres and laid out in a garden, was closed in by a high
iron railing.
The distance between the rails was so little that even a child could not
squeeze himself through. It was not altogether improbable, though
difficult enough, that a daring and agile man might have climbed over
the railings, notwithstanding the spikes.
It was, however, easy to find out if any one had got over in that way.
It had lately rained a good deal, and the ground on either side of the
railing was soft. Any footstep would therefore leave a trace,
especially on the outer side, where there was a newly ploughed field.