Ralph D. Paine

“ The European newspapers were ringing with garbled reports of the assault of an anarchist or lunatic upon the person of a certain illustrious ruler, but none of them connected the dastardly incident with the American tourist, J. Archibald McKackney. At that time there was a keen rivalry in this field of collecting between a New York man named Pillsover and myself. He was, in fact, no more than an imitator, and had begun to seek the whiskers of celebrities through hearing of my success. ”

“ As soon as I had pumped my secretary dry, my surmise amounted to a conviction that, unknown to me, the book along with its fellows had been carted away to the publisher and that Pillsover had followed its trail in hot haste.
I perceived at once that if Pillsover could overtake the book-case, he would abstract the parchment envelope, and that I should not be able to prove his guilt. In fact, there would be no way of bringing home the theft to anybody. Pillsover had obtained the start over me, but I instantly called up the New York office of Vellum & Co. ”

“ I was very nervous and apprehensive that the pestiferous Pillsover might find a way to get his hands on it, but I was worn out with traveling night and day, and there might be weeks of futile waiting.
Wearied and disappointed I started to return to New York. My train was not more than an hour beyond Richmond when it was blocked by a wreck. A brakeman informed me that the tracks could not be cleared for several hours. Therefore I walked ahead to watch the wrecking crews at work. A number of cars of merchandise were strewn about in frightful confusion. ”

“ Then I fled to catch a train for Richmond.
By a most arduous process of elimination I had been able to determine beyond a shadow of doubt that the parchment envelope was in volume fifteen of the fourth consignment which had been shipped to Micah P. Rogers of Richmond. I found him without difficulty, and Pillsover had not yet appeared on this horizon. Neither had the book-case. It seems that after waiting for a reasonable period, Mr. Rogers had notified the express company. The local agent was unable to find any traces of the missing box of goods. ”

“ Then he spent some little time in the library, made some inquiries about the time lock of the vault, and said he was thinking of getting one like it."
A few more questions and I had fathomed the purpose of the conscienceless Pillsover. He had returned to try to secure, by trade or purchase, the Sovereign's Whisker. A collector myself, I could imagine him as passing a restless night tortured with the desire to win from me my prize. He knew where I had stowed the trophy overnight, and he was able to make a shrewd guess that it still reposed in the book. ”

“ AT one time I was keenly interested in collecting, as a sort of side issue, locks or clippings from the whiskers of famous men. It was a pursuit which I later forsook in favor of my more valuable and elaborate collections of whisker portraits, but in the course of several years I had acquired fragments of the beards or whiskers of nearly every man of national importance at home and abroad. ”

“ In the meantime, however, the publisher had discovered the mistake, and during my absence in Boston he had sent an agent to my house with the other set of books to replace those already in my possession. My secretary explained to me that the agent had taken the wrong edition back to New York with him, and placed the new set of books in their case in my library. ”