he paused in amazement, and added, “But how on earth did you-- You
couldn’t have seen my flute, because it’s in my room.”
“Your forefinger, my dear sir,” answered Holmes, “has the dent which is
peculiar to flute players; that you have been playing this morning I
concluded from the fact that you have not been out of doors, and that
the music--music for piano and flute--on the drawing-room piano had
been evidently quite recently ransacked by some one in a hurry to find
a particular piece of music.”
“Your reputation does scant justice to your powers,” answered the young
man; “but I doubt if you can guess what my sister has been doing all
the morning.”
“I never guess,” answered Holmes; “but the problem is an
extraordinarily simple one. The Princess has been occupied in making
green pottery, and this morning has fired a kiln.”
“It’s quite true; how could you know it?” said the young Princess.
“In the drawing-room,” answered Sherlock Holmes, “I could not help
noticing a certain tray. On this tray were a quantity of small green
pots which were evidently just finished, and had, moreover, that
particular grace peculiar to an amateur’s work. Your left hand,
Princess, you will observe, is faintly tinged with red lead glaze, your
cheeks are slightly flushed, and I noticed as you entered the room
the smell of smoke which necessarily clings to a person who has been
standing all the morning close to a kiln. You see how childishly simple
are my methods.” The Prince and his family expressed surprise and
delight. During the rest of luncheon Holmes kept his guests delighted
with his varied knowledge.
As soon as luncheon was over we repaired to the drawing-room, in a
corner of which an open card table had been placed.
“We always play cards after luncheon,” said the Prince; “I hope you
and Mr. Watson will join us. It is no use telling you, Mr. Holmes,” he
added, as he stuffed tobacco into a long cherry-wood pipe, “what game
we play, because I am sure you know already, only I shall be curious to
see how you arrived at the knowledge.”
“Certainly,” said Holmes; “it is true I have drawn certain conclusions,
but I dare say I am mistaken. I exclude bridge, vindt, whist, and all
kindred games, because your packs are obviously not full packs. I know,
on the other hand, that more than two play, for you said _we_, and
asked me and Watson to join you. I exclude piquet, therefore, and all
kindred games. There remain préférence and the national German game,
skat. As your nephew, who has been on a recent visit here, is studying
at Heidelberg, I concluded that he had introduced the game of skat, of
which German students are exceedingly fond, to you.”
“Perfectly correct,” said the young Prince; “but how did you know I had
a cousin, and that he was at Heidelberg?”
“The photograph of a young student in the dress of the Saxo-Borussen
Korps, which is in my bedroom, and the group of students, both signed
Fritz von Interlacken, dated October 1907, told me that a student had
been here recently; the inscription on the bowl of your pipe, Prince,
‘Fritz, S.L., Onkel Peter, July 1907,’ told me the rest.”
“Wonderful,” said the Prince; “and how simple it seems when one is
told; but will you and Watson join us and cut?”
“Watson,” said Holmes, “plays nothing but whist, and I, although I
know the principles of many card games, am an indifferent player in
practice.”
“Papa,” broke in the young Princess, “the skat-book has gone.”
“Ring,” said the Prince. “We are new to the game,” he added, “and a
small book, which contains the rules, and is, moreover, a scoring
book, is of great assistance to us.” The butler entered the room, and
declared that Prince Alexander took the book every evening to his room
in the other house, and left it in the front hall in the morning.
“I take it to learn the rules,” said Prince Alexander, “but I always
bring it back.”
“You can look in my room,” he added, to the butler, “but I know it
isn’t there.” The butler went out.
“Did you bring it back this morning?” asked his father.
“I didn’t take it away last night. It was on the table, and I think I
left the money I won in it, nine roubles in paper.”
“Then,” said the Prince, laughing, “this is a matter for Mr. Holmes,
and, by the way, we forgot to tell him, at least I didn’t forget, but
I purposely didn’t mention it at luncheon, that last night we had a
robbery here.”
“Indeed,” said Holmes, folding his hands and looking up to the ceiling,
“you interest me extremely.”
“I’m afraid it’s not very interesting,” said the Princess, “but, it’s
rather comical. Our four best kitchen saucepans have been stolen, two
or three of the Prince’s shirts, two or three of Alexander’s, and some
inexpensive silver links belonging to him.”
“Would you like me to try and find the thief?” asked Holmes.
“We would be delighted if you could find the kitchen saucepans,” said
the Princess, “as it is inconvenient for the cook. It doesn’t matter
about the thief.”
“Do you give me leave to cross-examine the members of your household
and your servants?” asked Holmes.
“Of course,” said the Princess, “we know it is no one in the house, but
we have several bad characters in the village.”
The butler now entered once more, and said that he had searched
everywhere in both houses and the book was nowhere to be found.
“Then we must play without it,” said the Princess. “Alexander, get some
paper to score on; the book,” she added, “was most convenient, as it
had blank leaves at the end, perforated at the edge, which one could
tear off for the score. And one saw the score at a glance. You won’t
play, Mr. Holmes?”
“I prefer to look on,” said Holmes, and when I had likewise declined to
play, the Prince and the Princess and Princess Barbara sat down at the
table. Prince Alexander also declined to play, on the ground that he
was too busy.
“As you are not going to play, Prince Alexander,” said Holmes, “perhaps
you will help me presently to conduct my preliminary investigations.”
“Certainly,” said the young prince.
“Nobody can possibly have stolen the skat-book, in any case,” said the
Princess.
“I’m not so sure,” said Prince Alexander, “if I left my money in it, as
I think I did.”
Holmes took no notice of this remark, but after he had watched three
games in perfect silence he suddenly addressed the Princess: “You
said you had several bad characters in the village; is there any one
whom you would particularly suspect? Who, for instance, is the worst
character?”
“There are several in the village,” said the Princess; “and one of the
clerks in our office--what we call the ‘Kontora’--an educated man, is
suspected of carrying on social revolutionary propaganda, but there
is no evidence against him. They say, too, that he steals--only not
saucepans.”
“Yes, but that’s all rubbish,” said the young Prince. “He’s an honest,
hard-working man.”
“Why don’t you send him away?” asked Holmes.
“Oh, he would burn our house!” said the Princess, laughing. “Besides,
he’s quite harmless.”
“Most interesting,” said Holmes. “And can I see this gentleman?”
“Oh, certainly,” said the Princess. “Alexander will take you to the
Kontora.”
“Let us go to the other house,” said the young Prince to Holmes, “and
you can begin your investigations. It will be great fun.”
“May Watson come too?” asked Holmes.
“Of course,” said the young Prince; “the investigations would have no
value without Dr. Watson’s presence.”
“Before we do anything else,” said Holmes, “will you show me the
kitchen, and we will solve the question of the saucepans?” The
kitchen was in a building by itself, separate from both houses, and
situated on an elevation beyond the further stone house, in which
were our rooms and that of the young Prince. We went there, and the
white-frocked Parisian cook explained in precise phrases exactly
what had disappeared, ending up his narrative with an exclamation of
disgust. Sherlock Holmes was soon on all fours beneath the kitchen
window. He examined the wall, the window-sill, and the ground, with a
strong magnifying glass; then, like a hound following a strong scent,
he walked swiftly from the kitchen into the garden, and stopped before
a heap of snow beside a clump of trees. “If we could have a spade”--a
spade was soon brought, and Holmes, after a few vigorous strokes,
revealed to the astonished gaze of the Prince, the cook, and a crowd of
moujiks, four large kitchen saucepans. “Now,” said Holmes to the young
Prince, “I will continue the investigations, if you permit it, in your
room.” And we went into the stone house together.
As we entered the house, a young man approached the Prince and said a
few words to him; he wore top-boots, long hair, a dark blue sarsenet
shirt without a collar, buttoned at the side, a pince-nez, a black
jacket, and an astrakhan cap.
The Prince said something to this man in Russian, and led us into a
room on the ground floor adjoining his own sitting-room, saying: “I
beg your pardon, Mr. Holmes, but do you mind waiting here one moment?
I have to speak to a man on business; it is a matter of a few minutes
only.”
The Prince then went into his sitting-room, which was connected with
the room in which we were by a door; the door was ajar, and appeared,
indeed, to be one of those doors which never shut, so that fragments of
the conversation which took place between the Prince and the young man
were audible. They were, of course, speaking Russian.
Holmes lit a pipe and sat down on a divan; presently one of the
voices next door sank to a whisper, and the opening and shutting of
a drawer were heard. Then the young man took his departure, and the
Prince, opening the door, invited us into his room. “Please sit
down,” he said, pointing to a divan, and he himself took a seat at a
writing-table which was placed sideways in the middle of the room. “Now
that we have found the saucepans, I suppose all further investigations
are needless, Mr. Holmes?” he said.
“We have not yet found the thief,” replied Holmes.
“That, I am afraid, will be more difficult,” said the Prince.
“Nor have we found your skat-scoring book,” said Holmes.
“Oh, that’s sure to turn up!” said the Prince. “I will send for the
maid who cleans our rooms and you can examine her. She is an old
peasant woman who has been with us ever since I have been born,” and
saying this the Prince went to the door and shouted, “Mavra!”
An elderly woman dressed in a peasant’s dress, consisting of a blue
cotton petticoat and a large apron, and a black handkerchief over
her head, entered the room, and smilingly greeted the company.
What followed I was unable to understand, but Holmes later in the
afternoon dictated to me at my request what took place in detail.
The Prince asked Holmes to examine her, and Holmes did not allude to
the saucepans, but asked her whether she had seen a small green book
anywhere.
She said she had seen it, she had seen it every day. It was there.
“In the other house?” asked Holmes.
“Yes, in the other house,” she answered.
“Did you see it yesterday?”
“Yes, yesterday it was lying _there_.”
“In this house?” asked Holmes.
“Yes,” she replied. “There.”
“Somebody said,” interrupted the Prince, “that some books were left on
the window-sill upstairs in this house, and that they had got wet and
had been taken to be dried?”
“Yes,” said Mavra, smiling cheerfully, “they say some books got wet and
were taken to be dried.”
“Where?” asked Holmes.
“They were lying _there_. And then to-day I said to Masha: ‘Where are
those books?’ And she said: ‘What have I got to do with books, and what
have you got to do with books?’”
“In this house?”
“Yes, _there_.”
“Who dried them?” asked Holmes.
“I cannot know,” she answered; “perhaps André knows.”
“Who is André?” asked Holmes.
“The night watchman,” answered the young Prince.
“And after the books were dried did you see them?” asked Holmes.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Where?” he asked.
“They were lying _there_,” she replied.
“In the other house?”
“Yes, _there_.”
At that moment the butler entered, and the Prince asked him whether
the skat-book or any other books had got wet from being left on the
window-sill and had been dried. He replied that there were two books on
the window-sill upstairs; they were still there, but nobody had dried
them, because they had never been wet, and the skat-book was not among
them. The young Prince repeated that they had played skat the preceding
evening and had used the scoring book, which had been left on the
drawing-room table.
“Thank you,” said Holmes to the maid. “That is quite sufficient for
the present. I should now like, if possible, to go to your office.”
“Certainly,” said the Prince, “let us go.” We walked down to the
office, which was about five minutes’ walk from the house, during which
time Holmes carried on an animated conversation with the Prince on the
political situation in Russia. We reached the office, and entered into
a bare room, furnished with a stove and a writing-table, where we found
two clerks at work. One of the clerks was the young man whom the Prince
had just interviewed. “Which is the gentleman you mentioned?” asked
Holmes in an aside to the Prince. “The man with a blue shirt,” replied
the Prince: “would you like to examine him?” “No thank you,” replied
Holmes. “I have seen all I wanted to see. I will now, if you permit
me, go for a walk in the village by myself; I wish to think over a few
things.” We returned to the house, and Holmes set out by himself for
the village. I went up to my room to take a nap, for I was still rather
tired after the journey.
Holmes returned towards five o’clock in the afternoon, and, settling
himself in an arm-chair, he said: “If you care to hear, Watson, I will
tell you the result of my investigations.”
“If you found the thief,” I said, “you deserve credit, for the
vagueness of this family and the unconcern with which they regard this
robbery appals me.” “Very true,” replied Holmes. “The matter was, as
I had anticipated, far more complicated than appeared at first sight.
It frequently happens that problems which appeared to consist of mere
trifles turn out to be matters of deep importance and difficult of
solution. In this case, what put me on the scent was the disappearance
of the skat-book. It is obvious that a thief, whose object is money,
would not steal such a thing. When I found the saucepans in the garden
my supposition was confirmed. The theft was a blind.”
“But there was money in the book,” I interrupted; “and, besides, some
shirts and a pair of links disappeared.”
“I am coming to that presently,” answered Holmes. “I concluded from
the manner in which the saucepans had been stolen and hidden that the
thief was no ordinary thief. Further data in our possession told me
that one of the clerks was under suspicion of carrying on revolutionary
propaganda. The young Prince interviews him and receives from him a
small cardboard box which he was carrying when we met him, a fact
which you no doubt overlooked. He placed the box in a drawer which has
no lock. (Note once more the vagueness and the carelessness of these
people!) While the young Prince was interviewing the clerk I overheard
a portion of their conversation, and I ascertained that the contents
of the cardboard box consisted of bombs, and that it was proposed to
bring about a _coup_ to-morrow, which was to take place at the railway
station.”
“With what object?” I asked.
“We will come to that later,” said Holmes. “Let us take things in
their order. When we visited the office, I noticed that on the clerk’s
table lay a sheet of paper perforated at the edge, covered on one side
with figures, and evidently torn from a card scoring book, for it had
divisions and lines printed on it for scoring. When I returned from
the office on my way to the village the young Prince took me once
more into his room, and by skilfully leading the conversation into a
channel of argument (the young man is, you have noticed, argumentative)
I finally made him a bet on the matter of a date, the settling of which
made it necessary for him to fetch a book of reference; he went eagerly
in search of a dictionary of biography, which I knew was in the other
house, and once left alone I made two important discoveries. In one
of his writing-table drawers I found a cardboard box containing four
narrow bombs made of a high explosive, and in another drawer I found
the silver links and nine roubles in paper which the young Prince
said he had lost at cards last night. But more important still was
my second discovery. I found several pages torn from a scoring book
and covered with figures, which are not those which occur in skat or
in any other game; and I also found on the edge of the fireplace a
half-burnt piece of paper, torn from the same book, but, mark this,
from the text of the book, and not a blank leaf perforated at the edge,
likewise covered with figures. I then went to the village and had a
notable conversation with the village policeman. He furnished me with
interesting information with regard to the inhabitants of the village
and the political situation generally. When asked as to the clerk we
saw to-day he said he was very ‘red,’ meaning revolutionary. He said
the old Prince refused to send him away at the instigation of his
son. The young Prince was also ‘red,’ he said, and this was the most
dangerous feature in the situation. The policeman had no doubt that he
communicated with the revolutionary party through the channel of the
clerk.
“I questioned him as to the theft of the saucepans, and to my
astonishment he said he knew quite well who had stolen them. I asked
who. He said there was a man in the village formerly employed in the
Prince’s office who had once been sent to Siberia but who had returned.
He was now a professional pick-pocket, and was enjoying a holiday. ‘But
if you know he did this why don’t you arrest him?’ I asked.
“‘God be with him, no,’ replied this astonished and astonishing
policeman. ‘Why arrest him? He has already been in prison once.’
“‘What for?’ I asked.
“‘He killed the brother of the gamekeeper,’ said the policeman, ‘and
he stole hens.’ Of course I knew that he was lying, because a real
thief would have taken the saucepans away, and had the policeman known
him he would have arrested him. ‘Does the Prince know this?’ I asked.
‘Of course he knows it,’ answered the policeman. ‘Then why does not
he insist on his arrest?’ I asked. ‘The Prince has pity on us,’ said
the policeman. ‘We are poor people. If he were arrested he would soon
come back again and probably kill me; he would certainly burn my house.
The Prince knows. What does it matter if he stole a few saucepans?
The Prince will buy new ones. The Prince does not mind. He will do no
further harm. He has come back to see his home and his native village.’
Questioned as to whether the clerk was connected with the theft, the
policeman laughed. He said the clerk was ‘red,’ and busied himself with
politics, but was not a hooligan.
“I asked him if sufficient proof were found whether he would arrest
the thief. ‘May God forfend!’ answered this amazing policeman. I also
ascertained from him that a large sum of money, about half a million
roubles, will be transported from the town of O---- to the town of
X---- to-morrow. Then I returned home.
“You now doubtless understand the object of the _coup_. It is to obtain
money for the revolutionary funds, and the object of the theft of
saucepans was to throw suspicion, when the _coup_ should take place, on
an indefinite band of robbers who would be supposed to be lurking in
the neighbourhood.
“Now we come to further links in the chain. The young Prince, as you
remember, was in the habit of taking the skat-scoring book every
evening from the drawing-room in the wooden house to his sitting-room
in this house, and of bringing it back every morning and leaving it in
the front hall. Why did he do this; and why the front hall? I suppose
that even you, Watson, have already concluded that the spurious thief
of the saucepans and the leading spirit of this dark conspiracy is
none other than the young Prince. He could not communicate openly with
the clerk, nor see him too often without raising suspicion, so every
evening he wrote what he had to say in cipher on the blank leaves
provided at the end of the book for scoring purposes, and left the
book in a prominent place. The clerk called at the house on business
matters and tore off a leaf from the book and left an answer in it, if
he wished to do so.”
“Most ingenious,” I interrupted; “but why did the book disappear?”
“The Prince destroyed it. The scrap of burnt paper I found in the
fireplace told me that; since it was not, as I told you, one of the
blank leaves, but a page of the text of the book itself. The Prince
being, like all the members of his family, as you yourself have
observed, and like most Russian revolutionaries, excessively vague
happy-go-lucky, had worked out his cipher all over the book, and as the
_coup_ is to come off to-morrow he thought it best to be on the safe
side and to destroy a document which might possibly prove compromising.
By the ingenious lie of the money left in it he included it in the
robbery.”
“And what steps have you taken?” I asked.
“I sent an express telegram, in cipher, to my friend L---- of the
Chief Department of the Police in St. Petersburg acquainting him of the
facts.”
“And what will be the result?” I asked.
“They will prevent the _coup_ coming off--it was to be to-morrow
evening,” answered Holmes.
The bell now rang for tea, and during the rest of the evening the
matter of the theft was only once or twice jokingly referred to.
Holmes and the Prince appeared to think that as the saucepans had
been found there was no further use bothering about the thief. After
dinner, Holmes, the young Prince, and the young Princess delighted us
with a trio for flute, violin and piano, and the time passed rapidly
and pleasantly. I found it difficult to believe that the young man
who was so carelessly and easily “entertaining” us was really a
dangerous criminal on the eve of carrying out a gigantic _coup_; but my
experience as Holmes’ biographer has convinced me that such cases are,
alas! only too frequent. The next morning I spent in writing letters,
and Holmes did nothing but lie on the sofa and smoke a quantity of shag
tobacco. We all met once more at luncheon. After luncheon, as we were
drinking our coffee in the drawing-room, the young Prince said he had
an interesting communication to make to us, which was as follows: At
the railway station there is a large wooden building made for storing
corn. The merchants store their corn there, for which they receive a
receipt stating the value of what is stored. If it is destroyed the
Government is responsible for the amount.