R. Austin Freeman

“ A woman, in a widow's dress and veil, paid them to go and play the fool outside the building, and she gave them the letter that was left with the porter. They haven't identified her yet, but she seems to agree in size with Miss Curtis."
"And how did she get out of the chambers, with the door bolted on the inside?"
"Ah, there you are! That's a mystery at present—unless you can give us an explanation." The inspector made this qualification with a faint grin, and added: "As there was no one in the place when we broke into it, the murderer must have got out somehow. You can't deny that." ”

“ Polton was proceeding to descriptive particulars, when a second and more hurried step became audible, and a strange voice addressed Thorndyke:
"I have come to beg your immediate assistance, sir. A most dreadful thing has happened—a horrible murder has been committed! Can you come with me now?"
"I will be with you almost immediately," said Thorndyke. "Is the victim quite dead?"
"Quite. Cold and stiff. The police think——"
"Do the police know that you have come for me?" interrupted Thorndyke.
"Yes. Nothing is to be done until you arrive." ”

“ The irresistible conclusion is that these four sheets came from the same packet."
The inspector started up from his chair and faced Thorndyke. "Who is this Mr. Barlow?" he asked.
"That," replied Thorndyke, "is for you to determine. But I can give you a useful hint. There is only one person who benefits by the death of Alfred Hartridge, but he benefits to the extent of twenty thousand pounds. His name is Leonard Wolfe, and I learn from Mr. Marchmont that he is a man of indifferent character—a gambler and a spendthrift. By profession he is an engineer, and he is a capable mechanician. ”

“ You also see that it was obviously not made by an ordinary dagger-maker; that, in spite of the Italian word scrawled on it, there is plainly written all over it 'British mechanic.' The blade is made from a strip of common three-quarter-inch tool steel; the hilt is turned from an aluminum rod; and there is not a line of engraving on it that could not be produced in a lathe by an engineer's apprentice. Even the boss at the top is mechanical, for it is just like an ordinary hexagon nut. Then, notice the dimensions, as shown on my drawing. ”

“ He continued his examination, and presently, to the inspector's delight, brought forth his pocket lens.
"I never saw such a man!" exclaimed the jocose detective. "His motto ought to be 'We magnify thee.' I suppose he'll measure it next."
The inspector was not mistaken. Having made a rough sketch of the weapon on his block, Thorndyke produced from his bag a folding rule and a delicate calliper-gage. With these instruments he proceeded to take the dimensions of the various parts of the dagger, entering each measurement in its place on the sketch, with a few brief descriptive details. ”

“ Those four Italians oughtn't to be difficult to find, and we've got the porter here to identify them."
"Before you go," said Thorndyke, "there are two little matters that I should like to settle. One is the dagger: it is in your pocket, I think. May I have a look at it?"
The inspector rather reluctantly produced the dagger and handed it to my colleague.
"A very singular weapon, this," said Thorndyke, regarding the dagger thoughtfully, and turning it about to view its different parts. "Singular both in shape and material. ”

“ We carried the corpse into the bedroom, and, having examined the wound without eliciting anything new, covered the remains with a sheet, and returned to the sitting-room.
"Well, gentlemen," said the inspector, "you have examined the body and the wound, and you have measured the floor and the furniture, and taken photographs, and made a plan, but we don't seem much more forward. Here's a man murdered in his rooms. There is only one entrance to the flat, and that was bolted on the inside at the time of the murder. The windows are some forty feet from the ground ”

“ There was a furious battering at the door, and, as Polton threw it open, Mr. Curtis burst wildly into the room.
"Here is a frightful thing, Marchmont!" he gasped. "Edith—my daughter—arrested for the murder! Inspector Badger came to our house and took her. My God! I shall go mad!"
Thorndyke laid his hand on the excited man's shoulder. "Don't distress yourself, Mr. Curtis," said he. "There is no occasion, I assure you. I suppose," he added, "your daughter is left-handed?"
"Yes, she is—by a most disastrous coincidence. But what are we to do? Good God! Dr. ”

“ He's got a sandy beard, and he wears spectacles and a wig. I know a wig when I see one," he added cunningly, "'cause my father wears one. He puts it on a peg to comb it, and he swears at me when I larf."
"My friend had injured his left hand," pursued Thorndyke.
"I dunno about that," said the youth. "Mr. Barlow nearly always wears gloves; he always wears one on his left hand, anyhow." ”

“ Thorndyke next proceeded to lay out on the sketch-block a ground-plan of the room, showing the exact position of the various objects, on a scale of a quarter of an inch to the foot—a process that the inspector was inclined to view with some impatience.
"You don't spare trouble, Doctor," he remarked; "—nor time, either," he added.
"No," answered Thorndyke, as he detached the finished sketch from the block. "I try to collect all the facts that may bear on a case. They may prove worthless, or they may turn out of vital importance ”

“ But the ink does not agree with this. Illiterate people usually buy their ink in penny bottles. Now, this envelop is addressed with Draper's dichroic ink,—a superior office ink, sold only in large bottles,—and the red ink in which the note is written is an unfixed scarlet ink, such as is used by draughtsmen, and has been used, as you can see, in a stylographic pen.
"But the most interesting thing about this letter is the design drawn at the top. In an artistic sense, the man could not draw, and the anatomical details of the skull are ridiculous. Yet the drawing is very neat. ”

“ Somebody has used compasses or drawing-pins over the packet of note-paper, and the points have made little indentations, which have marked several of the sheets. Now, note-paper is cut to its size after it is folded, and if you stick a pin into the top sheet of a section, the indentations on all the underlying sheets will be at exactly similar distances from the edges and corners of the sheet ”

“ Now, to make it spin, it had to be fired from a rifled barrel; but as the hilt would not engage in the rifling, it had to be fitted with something that would. That something was evidently a soft metal washer, which fitted on to this hexagon, and which would be pressed into the grooves of the rifling, and so spin the dagger, but would drop off as soon as the weapon left the barrel. ”

“ We were proceeding along Holborn, when his attention was suddenly arrested by the window of a furniture shop, in which was displayed a collection of obsolete French small-arms—relics of the tragedy of 1870—which were being sold for decorative purposes. After a brief inspection, he entered the shop, and shortly reappeared carrying a long sword-bayonet and an old Chassepot rifle. ”

“ I have had a great deal of very unpleasant correspondence with him,—Marchmont will tell you about that,—and yesterday I left a note for him asking for an interview to settle the business, naming eight o'clock this morning as the hour, because I had to leave town before noon. He replied, in a very singular letter, that he would see me at that hour, and Mr, Marchmont very kindly consented to accompany me. Accordingly, we went to his chambers together this morning, arriving punctually at eight o'clock. We rang the bell several times, and knocked loudly at the door ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1943, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 79 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”