Four Max Carrados Detective Stories

last. "Ido not refer to mere trifles like that."

  "Then you can be mistaken," replied Carrados mildly yet with decision.

  "But the ample hair, the venerable flowing beard, the prominent noseand heavy eyebrows--"

  "These are just the striking points that are most easilycounterfeited. They 'take the eye.' If you would ensure yourselfagainst deception, learn rather to observe the eye itself, andparticularly the spots on it, the shape of the finger-nails, the setof the ears. These things cannot be simulated."

  "You seriously suggest that the man was not Professor Bulge--that hewas an impostor?"

  "The conclusion is inevitable. Where were you on Monday, Professor?"

  "I was on a short lecturing tour in the Midlands. On Saturday I was inNottingham. On Monday in Birmingham. I did not return to London untilyesterday."

  Carrados turned to the manager again and indicated Draycott, who sofar had remained in the background.

  "And this gentleman? Did he by any chance come here on Monday?"

  "He did not, Mr. Carrados. But I gave him access to his safe onTuesday afternoon and again yesterday."

  Draycott shook his head sadly.

  "Yesterday I found it empty," he said. "And all Tuesday afternoon Iwas at Brighton, trying to see a gentleman on business."

  The manager sat down very suddenly.

  "Good God, another!" he exclaimed faintly.

  "I am afraid the list is only beginning," said Carrados. "We must gothrough your renters' book."

  The manager roused himself to protest.

  "That cannot be done. No one but myself or my deputy ever sees thebook. It would be--unprecedented."

  "The circumstances are unprecedented," replied Carrados.

  "If any difficulties are placed in the way of these gentlemen'sinvestigations, I shall make it my duty to bring the facts before theHome Secretary," announced the professor, speaking up to the ceilingwith the voice of a brazen trumpet.

  Carrados raised a deprecating hand.

  "May I make a suggestion?" he remarked. "Now, I am blind. If,therefore--?"

  "Very well," acquiesced the manager. "But I must request the others towithdraw."

  For five minutes Carrados followed the list of safe-renters as themanager read them to him. Sometimes he stopped the catalogue toreflect a moment; now and then he brushed a finger-tip over a writtensignature and compared it with another. Occasionally a passwordinterested him. But when the list came to an end he continued to lookinto space without any sign of enlightenment.

  "So much is perfectly clear and yet so much is incredible," he mused."You insist that you alone have been in charge for the last sixmonths?"

  "I have not been away a day this year."

  "Meals?"

  "I have my lunch sent in."

  "And this room could not be entered without your knowledge while youwere about the place?"

  "It is impossible. The door is fitted with a powerful spring and afeather-touch self-acting lock. It cannot be left unlocked unless youdeliberately prop it open."

  "And, with your knowledge, no one has had an opportunity of havingaccess to this book?"

  "No," was the reply.

  Carrados stood up and began to put on his gloves.

  "Then I must decline to pursue my investigation any further," he saidicily.

  "Why?" stammered the manager.

  "Because I have positive reason for believing that you are deceivingme."

  "Pray sit down, Mr. Carrados. It is quite true that when you put thelast question to me a circumstance rushed into my mind which--so faras the strict letter was concerned--might seem to demand 'Yes' insteadof 'No.' But not in the spirit of your inquiry. It would be absurd toattach any importance to the incident I refer to."

  "That would be for me to judge."

  "You shall do so, Mr. Carrados. I live at Windermere Mansions with mysister. A few months ago she got to know a married couple who hadrecently come to the opposite flat. The husband was a middle-aged,scholarly man who spent most of his time in the British Museum. Hiswife's tastes were different; she was much younger, brighter, gayer; amere girl in fact, one of the most charming and unaffected I have evermet. My sister Amelia does not readily--"

  "Stop!" exclaimed Carrados. "A studious middle-aged man and a charmingyoung wife! Be as brief as possible. If there is any chance it mayturn on a matter of minutes at the ports. She came here, of course?"

  "Accompanied by her husband," replied the manager stiffly. "Mrs. Scotthad travelled and she had a hobby of taking photographs wherever shewent. When my position accidentally came out one evening she wascarried away by the novel idea of adding views of a safe deposit toher collection--as enthusiastic as a child. There was no reason whyshe should not; the place has often been taken for advertisingpurposes."

  "She came, and brought her camera--under your very nose!"

  "I do not know what you mean by 'under my very nose.' She came withher husband one evening just about closing time. She brought hercamera, of course--quite a small affair."

  "And contrived to be in here alone?"

  "I take exception to the word 'contrived.' It--it happened. I sent outfor some tea, and in the course--"

  "How long was she alone in here?"

  "Two or three minutes at the most. When I returned she was seated atmy desk. That was what I referred to. The little rogue had put on myglasses and had got hold of a big book. We were great chums, and shedelighted to mock me. I confess that I was startled--merelyinstinctively--to see that she had taken up this book, but the nextmoment I saw that she had it upside down."

  "Clever! She couldn't get it away in time. And the camera, withhalf-a-dozen of its specially sensitized films already snapped overthe last few pages, by her side!"

  "That child!"

  "Yes. She is twenty-seven and has kicked hats off tall men's heads inevery capital from Petersburg to Buenos Ayres! Get through to ScotlandYard and ask if Inspector Beedel can come up."

  The manager breathed heavily through his nose.

  "To call in the police and publish everything would ruin thisestablishment--confidence would be gone. I cannot do it withoutfurther authority."

  "Then the professor certainly will."

  "Before you came I rang up the only director who is at present in townand gave him the facts as they then stood. Possibly he has arrived bythis. If you will accompany me to the boardroom we will see."

  They went up to the floor above, Mr. Carlyle joining them on the way.

  "Excuse me a moment," said the manager.

  Parkinson, who had been having an improving conversation with the hallporter on the subject of land values, approached.

  "I am sorry, sir," he reported, "but I was unable to procure any'Rubbo.' The place appears to be shut up."

  "That is a pity; Mr. Carlyle had set his heart on it."

  "Will you come this way, please?" said the manager, reappearing.

  In the boardroom they found a white-haired old gentleman who hadobeyed the manager's behest from a sense of duty, and then remained ina distant corner of the empty room in the hope that he might beover-looked. He was amiably helpless and appeared to be deeply awareof it.

  "This is a very sad business, gentlemen," he said, in a whispering,confiding voice. "I am informed that you recommend calling in theScotland Yard authorities. That would be a disastrous course for aninstitution that depends on the implicit confidence of the public."

  "It is the only course," replied Carrados.

  "The name of Mr. Carrados is well known to us in connection with adelicate case. Could you not carry this one through?"

  "It is impossible. A wide inquiry must be made. Every port will haveto be watched. The police alone can do that." He threw a littlesignificance into the next sentence. "I alone can put the police inthe right way of doing it."

  "And you will do that, Mr. Carrados?"

  Carrados smiled engagingly. He knew exactly what constituted the greatattraction of his services.

  "My p
osition is this," he explained. "So far my work has been entirelyamateur. In that capacity I have averted one or two crimes, remediedan occasional injustice, and now and then been of service to myprofessional friend, Louis Carlyle. But there is no reason at all whyI should serve a commercial firm in an ordinary affair of business fornothing. For any information I should require a fee, a quite nominalfee of, say, one hundred pounds."

  The director looked as though his faith in human nature had received arude blow.

  "A hundred pounds would be a very large initial fee for a small firmlike this, Mr.