He said that if the thief was alive this would bring him to the usual
rendezvous. He further explained that the usual rendezvous was a
place where all business affairs between detectives and criminals were
conducted. This meeting would take place at twelve the next night.
We could do nothing till then, and I lost no time in getting out of the
office, and was grateful indeed for the privilege.
At eleven the next night I brought one hundred thousand dollars in
bank-notes and put them into the chief's hands, and shortly afterward
he took his leave, with the brave old undimmed confidence in his eye.
An almost intolerable hour dragged to a close; then I heard his welcome
tread, and rose gasping and tottered to meet him. How his fine eyes
flamed with triumph! He said:
“We've compromised! The jokers will sing a different tune to-morrow!
Follow me!”
He took a lighted candle and strode down into the vast vaulted basement
where sixty detectives always slept, and where a score were now playing
cards to while the time. I followed close after him. He walked swiftly
down to the dim remote end of the place, and just as I succumbed to the
pangs of suffocation and was swooning away he stumbled and fell over the
outlying members of a mighty object, and I heard him exclaim as he went
down:
“Our noble profession is vindicated. Here is your elephant!”
I was carried to the office above and restored with carbolic acid. The
whole detective force swarmed in, and such another season of triumphant
rejoicing ensued as I had never witnessed before. The reporters were
called, baskets of champagne were opened, toasts were drunk, the
handshakings and congratulations were continuous and enthusiastic.
Naturally the chief was the hero of the hour, and his happiness was so
complete and had been so patiently and worthily and bravely won that
it made me happy to see it, though I stood there a homeless beggar, my
priceless charge dead, and my position in my country's service lost to
me through what would always seem my fatally careless execution of a
great trust. Many an eloquent eye testified its deep admiration for the
chief, and many a detective's voice murmured, “Look at him--just the
king of the profession; only give him a clue, it's all he wants, and
there ain't anything hid that he can't find.” The dividing of the fifty
thousand dollars made great pleasure; when it was finished the chief
made a little speech while he put his share in his pocket, in which he
said, “Enjoy it, boys, for you've earned it; and, more than that, you've
earned for the detective profession undying fame.”
A telegram arrived, which read:
MONROE, MICH., 10 P.M.
First time I've struck a telegraph office in over three weeks. Have
followed those footprints, horseback, through the woods, a thousand
miles to here, and they get stronger and bigger and fresher every day.
Don't worry-inside of another week I'll have the elephant. This is dead
sure. DARLEY, Detective.
The chief ordered three cheers for “Darley, one of the finest minds on
the force,” and then commanded that he be telegraphed to come home and
receive his share of the reward.
So ended that marvelous episode of the stolen elephant. The newspapers
were pleasant with praises once more, the next day, with one
contemptible exception. This sheet said, “Great is the detective! He may
be a little slow in finding a little thing like a mislaid elephant he
may hunt him all day and sleep with his rotting carcass all night for
three weeks, but he will find him at last if he can get the man who
mislaid him to show him the place!”
Poor Hassan was lost to me forever. The cannonshots had wounded him
fatally, he had crept to that unfriendly place in the fog, and there,
surrounded by his enemies and in constant danger of detection, he had
wasted away with hunger and suffering till death gave him peace.
The compromise cost me one hundred thousand dollars; my detective
expenses were forty-two thousand dollars more; I never applied for a
place again under my government; I am a ruined man and a wanderer in the
earth, but my admiration for that man, whom I believe to be the greatest
detective the world has ever produced, remains undimmed to this day, and
will so remain unto the end.