The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes - Book 1, Part 3

Sherlock Holmes Complete Audiobook Collection

This episode presents a collection of classic detective short stories, beginning with the investigation into the theft of the Dixon torpedo

Key takeaways

• Detective Martin Hewitt recovers stolen engineering plans hidden inside a hollow malacca cane.
• The thief, Mursky (alias Hunter), is revealed to be a Russian note forger using photography to counterfeit currency.
• A murder occurs at Mathis's Vienna Cafe involving a lethal dose of morphia in a cup of chocolate.
• Lady Molly serves as a key witness to the death of Mark Culloden in London.
• The literary agent Pringle investigates a blackmail attempt related to a 'rejuvenator' product.

Main topics

• Detective fiction
• Engineering espionage
• Currency forgery

Notable quotes

The Dixon torpedo... my own invention and in every respect... the most efficient and certain yet produced.

Conclusion

A compelling anthology that showcases the era of logical deduction and

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Section 13 of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Tony Maxey. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1. The Case of the Dixon Torpedo by Arthur Morrison, Part 1. Speaker 1 (0:26) hewitt was very apt in conversation to dwell upon the many curious chances and coincidences that he had observed not only in connection with his own cases but also in matters dealt with by the official police with whom he was on terms of pretty regular and indeed friendly acquaintanceship he has told me many an anecdote of similar happenings to scotland yard officials with whom he has exchanged experiences of inspector nettings for instance who spent many weary months in search of a man wanted by the american government and in the end found by the merest accident a misdirected call that the man had been lodging next door to himself the whole of the time just as ignorant of course as was the inspector himself as to the enemy at the other side of the party wall also of another inspector whose name i cannot recall who having given rather meagre and insufficient details of a man whom he anticipated having great difficulty in finding went straight down the stairs of the office where he had received instructions and actually fell over the man near the door where he had stooped to tie shoelace there were cases too in which a great and notorious crime had been committed and various persons had been arrested on suspicion some were found among them who had long been badly wanted for some other crime altogether many criminals admit their deserts by venturing out of their own particular line of crime into another often a man who got into trouble over something comparatively small found himself in for a startlingly larger trouble the result of some previous misdeed that otherwise would have gone unpunished the ruble note forger mirsky might never have been handed over to the russian authorities had he confined his genius to forgery alone it was generally supposed at the time of his extradition that he had communicated with the russian embassy with a view to giving himself up a foolish proceeding on his part it would seem since his whereabouts indeed even his identity as the forger had not been suspected he had communicated with the russian embassy it's true but for a different purpose as martin hewitt well understood at the time what that purpose was is now for the first time published the time was half-past one in the afternoon and hewitt sat in his inner office examining and comparing the handwriting of two letters by the aid of a large lens he put down the lens and glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece with a premonition of lunch and as he did so his clerk quietly entered the room with one of those printed slips which were kept for the announcement of unknown visitors it was filled in in a hasty and almost illegible hand thus name of visitor f graham dixon address chancery lane business private and urgent show mr dixon in said martin hewitt mr dixon was a gaunt worn-looking man of fifty or so well although rather carelessly dressed and carrying in his strong though drawn face and dullish eyes the look that characterizes the life-long strenuous brain worker he leaned forward anxiously in the chair which hewitt offered him and told his story with a great deal of very natural agitation you may have possibly heard mr hewitt i know there are rumors of the new locomotive torpedo which the government is about adopting it is in fact the dixon torpedo my own invention and in every respect not merely in my own opinion but in that of the government experts by far the most efficient and certain yet produced it may travel at least four hundred yards farther than any torpedo now made with perfect accuracy of aim a very great desideratum let me tell you and will carry an unprecedentedly heavy charge there are other advantages speed simple discharge and so forth that i needn't bother you about the machine is the result of many years of work and disappointment and its design has only been arrived at by careful balancing of principles and means which are expressed on the only four existing sets of drawing the whole thing i need hardly tell you is a profound secret and you may judge of my present state of mind when i tell you that one set of the drawings has been stolen from Speaker 2 (5:16) your house Speaker 1 (5:17) from my office in chancery lane this morning the four sets of drawings were distributed thus two were at the admiralty office one being a finished set on thick paper and the other a set of tracings therefrom and the other two were at my own office one being a pencil set uncolored a sort of finished draft you understand and the other a set of tracings similar to those at the admiralty it is this last set that is gone the two sets were kept together in one drawer in my room both were there at ten this morning of that i am sure for i had to go to that very drawer for something else when i first arrived but at twelve the tracings had vanished you suspect somebody probably i cannot it is a most extraordinary thing nobody has left the office except myself and then only to come to you since ten this morning and there has been no visitor and yet the drawings are gone but Speaker 3 (6:19) you have searched the place Speaker 1 (6:21) of course i have it was twelve o'clock when i first discovered my loss and i've been turning the place upside down ever since i and my assistants every drawer has been emptied every desk and every table turned over the very carpet and linoleum have been taken up and there is not a sign of the drawings my men even insisted on turning all their pockets inside out although i never for a moment suspected either of them and it would take a pretty big pocket to hold the drawings doubled up as small as they might be you say your men there were two i understand and neither left the office neither and they are both staying in now warshfold suggested that it would be more satisfactory if they did not leave till something was done toward clearing up the mystery and although as i have said i don't suspect either in the least i acquiesce just so now i'm assuming that you wish me to undertake the recovery of these drawings the engineer nodded hastily very good i will go round to your office but perhaps you can tell me something about your assistants something it might be awkward to tell me in their presence you know mr warsfold for instance he is my draftsman a very excellent and intelligent man a very smart man indeed and i feel sure quite beyond suspicion he has prepared many important drawings for me he has been with me for nearly ten years now and i have always found him trustworthy but of course the temptation in this case would be enormous still i cannot suspect warsfold indeed how can i suspect anybody in the circumstances the Speaker 2 (8:02) other now his Speaker 1 (8:04) name's ritter he's merely a tracer not a fully skilled draftsman he's quite a decent young fellow and i have had him nearly two years i don't consider him particularly smart or he would have learned a little more of his business by this time but i don't see the least reason to suspect him as i said before i can't reasonably suspect anybody very well we will get to chancery lane now if you please and you can tell me more as we go i have a cab waiting what else can i tell you i understand the position to be succinctly this the drawings were in the office when you arrived nobody came out and nobody went in and yet they vanished is that so that is so when i say that absolutely nobody came in of course i accept the postman he brought a couple of letters during the morning i mean that absolutely nobody came past the barrier in the outer office the usual thing you know like a counter with a frame of glass over it i quite understand that but i think you said that the drawings were in a drawer in your own room not the outer office where the draftsmen are i presume that is the case it's an inner room or rather a room parallel with the other and communicating with it just as your own room is which we have just left but then you say you never left your office and yet the drawings vanished apparently by some unseen agency while you were there in the room let me explain more clearly the cab was bowling smoothly along the strand and the engineer took out a pocket-book and pencil i fear he proceeded that i am a little confused in my explanation i am naturally rather agitated as you will see presently my office consists of three rooms two at one side of a corridor and the other opposite thus he made a rapid pencil sketch in the outer office my men usually work in the inner office i work myself these rooms communicate as you can see by door our ordinary way in and out of the place is by the door of the outer office leading into the corridor and when we first pass through the usual lifting flap in the barrier the door leading from the inner office to the corridor is always kept locked on the inside and i don't suppose i unlock it once in three months it has not been unlocked all morning the drawer in which the missing drawings were kept and in which i saw them at ten o'clock this morning is at the place marked d it is a large chest of shallow drawers in which the plans lie flat i quite understand Then there is that private room opposite. What of that? that is a sort of private sitting-room that i rarely use except for business interviews of a very private nature when i said i never left my office i did not mean that i never stirred out of the inner office i was about in one room and another both the outer and the inner offices and once i went into the private room for five minutes but nobody came either in or out of any of the rooms at that time for the door of the private room was wide open and i was standing at the bookcase i've just gone to consult a book just inside the door with a full view of the doors opposite indeed worsfold was at the door of the outer office most of the short time he came to ask me a question well hewitt replied it all comes to the simple first statement you know that nobody left the place or arrived except the postman who couldn't get near the drawings and yet the drawings went is this your office the cab had stopped before a large stone building mr dixon alighted and led the way to the first floor hewitt took a casual glance around each of the three rooms there was a sort of door in the frame of ground glass over the barrier to admit of speech with visitors this door hewitt pushed wide open and left so he and the engineer went into the inner office Would you like to ask Worsfeld and Ritter any questions? Mr. Dixon inquired. presently those are their coats i take it hanging just to the right of the outer office door over the umbrella stand yes those are all their things coats hats stick umbrella and those coats were searched you say yes and this is the drawer thoroughly searched of course oh Speaker 2 (12:30) certainly every drawer was taken out and Speaker 1 (12:32) turned over well of course i must assume that you made no mistake in your hunt now tell me did anybody know where these plans were beyond yourself and your two men as far as i can tell not a soul you don't keep an office boy no there would be nothing for him to do except to post a letter now and again which ritter does quite well for as you are quite sure that the drawings were there at ten o'clock perhaps the thing scarcely matters but i may as well know if your men have keys of the office neither i've patent locks to each door and i keep all the keys myself if worsfeld or ritter arrive before me in the morning they have to wait to be let in and i'm always present myself when the rooms are clean i have not neglected precautions you see no i suppose the object of the theft assuming it is a theft is pretty plain the thief would offer the drawings for sale to some foreign government of course they would probably command a great sum i've been looking as i need hardly tell you to that invention to secure me a very large fortune and i shall be ruined indeed if the design is taken abroad i'm under the strictest engagements to the secrecy with the admiralty and not only should i lose all my labor but i should lose all the confidant reposed at me at headquarters should in fact be subject to penalties for breach of contract and my career stop forever i cannot tell you what serious business this is for me if you cannot help me the consequences will be terrible bad for the service of the country too of course of course now tell me this it would i take it be necessary for the thief to exhibit these drawings to anybody anxious to buy the secret i mean he couldn't describe the invention by word of mouth oh no that would be impossible the drawings are of the most complicated description and full of figures upon which the whole thing depends indeed one would have to be a skilled expert to properly appreciate the design at all various principles of hydrostatics chemistry electricity and pneumatics are most delicately manipulated and adjusted and the smallest error or omission in any part would upset the whole thing no the drawings are necessary to the thing and they're gone at this moment the door of the outer office was heard to open and somebody entered the door between the two offices was ajar and hewitt could see right through to the glass door left open over the barrier and into the space beyond a well-dressed dark bushy bearded man stood there carrying a handbag which he placed on the ledge before him hewitt raised his hand to enjoin silence the man spoke in a rather high-pitched voice and with a slight accent Speaker 3 (15:21) is mr dixon now within he Speaker 1 (15:24) asked he's engaged answered one of the draftsmen very particularly engaged i'm afraid you won't be able to see him this afternoon can i give him any message this Speaker 3 (15:34) is two Speaker 1 (15:34) the second time i've come to-day not two hours ago mr dixon himself tells me to call again i have a very important very excellent steam packing to show him it is very cheap and the best on the market the Speaker 2 (15:48) man tapped his bag Speaker 1 (15:49) i have just taken orders from the largest railway companies can i not see him for one Speaker 3 (15:55) second only i will not detain him Speaker 1 (15:57) really i'm sure you can't this afternoon he isn't seeing anybody but if you'll leave your name my name is hunter but what good is that he asks me to call a little later and i come and now he is engaged Speaker 3 (16:09) it's Speaker 1 (16:10) a very great pity and the man snatched up his bag and walking-stick and stalked off indignantly hewitt stood gazing through the small aperture in the doorway you'd scarcely expect a man with such a name as hunter to talk with that accent would you he observed musingly it isn't a french accent nor a german but it seems foreign you don't happen to know him i suppose no i don't he called here about half-past twelve just while we were in the middle of our search and i was frantic over the loss of the drawings i was in the outer office myself and told him to call later i've lots of such agents here anxious to sell all sorts of engineering appliances but what will you do now shall you see my men i think said hewitt rising i think i'll get you to question them yourself myself Speaker 2 (16:59) yes Speaker 1 (17:00) i have a reason will you trust me with the key of the private room opposite we'll go there for a little while while you talk to your men in this room bring them in here and shut the door i can look after the office from across the corridor you know Ask them each to detail his exact movements about the office this morning, and get them to recall each visitor who has been here from the beginning of the week. I'll let you know the reason for this later. Come across to me in a few minutes. Hewitt took the key and passed through the outer office into the corridor. Ten minutes later, Mr. Dixon, having questioned his draftsman, followed him. He found Hewitt standing before the table in the private room on which lay several drawings on tracing paper. see here mr dixon said hewitt i think these are the drawings you are anxious about the engineer sprang toward them with a cry of delight why yes yes he exclaimed turning them over every one of them but where how they must have been in the place after all then what a fool i have been hewitt shook his head i'm afraid you're not quite so lucky as you think mr dixon he said these drawings have most certainly been out of the house for a little while never mind how we'll talk of that after there is no time to lose tell me how long would it take a good draftsman to copy them they couldn't possibly be traced over properly in less than two or two and a half long days of very hard work dixon replied with eagerness ah then it is as i feared these tracings have been photographed mr dixon and our task is one of every possible difficulty if they have been copied in the ordinary way one might hope to get hold of the copy but photography upsets everything copies can be multiplied with such amazing facility that once the thief gets a decent start it is almost hopeless to checkmate him the only chance is to get at the negatives before the copies are taken i must act at once and i fear between ourselves it may be necessary for me to step very distinctly over the line of the law in the matter you see to get at those negatives may involve something very like house-breaking there must be no delay no waiting for legal procedure or the mischief is done indeed i very much question whether you have any legal remedy strictly speaking Speaker 3 (19:21) mr hewitt Speaker 1 (19:22) i implore you do what you can i need not say that all i have is at your disposal i will guarantee to hold you harmless for anything that may happen but do i entreat you do everything possible think of what the consequences may be well yes so i do hewitt remarked with a smile the consequences to me if i were charged with housebreaking might be something that no amount of guarantee could mitigate however i will do what i can if only from patriotic motives now i must see your tracer ritter he is the traitor in the camp ritter but how never mind that now you are upset and agitated and had better not know more than is necessary for a little while in case you say or do something unguarded with ritter i must take a deep course what i don't know i must appear to know and that will seem more likely to him if i disclaim acquaintance with what i do know but first put these tracings safely away out of sight dixon slipped them behind his bookcase now hewitt pursued call mr warshfold and give him something to do that will keep him in the inner office across the way and tell him to send ritter in here mr dixon called his chief draftsman and requested him to put in order the drawings in the drawers of the inner room that had been disarranged by the search and to send ritter as hewitt had suggested ritter walked into the private room with an air of respectful attention he was a puffy-faced unhealthy-looking young man with very small eyes and a loose mobile mouth sit down mr ritter hewitt said in a stern voice your recent transactions with your friend mr hunter are well known both to mr dixon and myself ritter Speaker 2 (21:06) who had at first leaned Speaker 1 (21:07) easily back in his chair started forward at this and paled you are surprised i observe but you should be more careful in your movements out of door if you do not wish your acquaintances to be known mr hunter i believe has the drawings mr dixon has lost and if so i am certain that you have given them to him that you know is theft for which the law provides a severe penalty ritter broke down completely and turned appealingly to Speaker 2 (21:34) mr Speaker 1 (21:35) dixon oh sir he pleaded it isn't so bad i assure you i was tempted i confess and i hid the drawings but they are still in the office and i can give them to you really i can indeed hewitt went on then in that case perhaps you'd better get them at once just go fetch them in we won't trouble to observe your hiding place i'll only keep this door open to be sure you don't lose your way you know down the stairs for instance the wretched ridder with hanging head slunk into the office opposite presently he reappeared looking if possible ghastlier than before he looked irresolutely down the corridor as if meditating a run for it but hewitt stepped forward and motioned him back to the private room you mustn't try any more of that sort of humbug hewitt said with increased severity the drawings are gone and you have stolen them you know that well enough now attend to me if you received your deserts mr dixon would send for a policeman this moment and have you hauled off to jail that is your proper place but unfortunately your accomplice who calls himself hunter but who has other names besides that as i happen to know has his drawings and it is absolutely necessary that these should be recovered i'm afraid that it will be necessary therefore to come to some arrangement with this scoundrel to square him in fact Speaker 2 (22:58) now just Speaker 1 (22:59) take that pen and paper and write to your confederate as i dictate you know the alternative if you cause any difficulty ritter reached tremblingly for the pen address him in your usual way dickson proceeded say this there has been an alteration in the plans have you got that there has been an alteration in the plans i shall be alone here at six o'clock please come without fail have you got it very well sign it and address the envelope he must come here and then we may arrange matters in the meantime you will remain in the inner office opposite the note was written and mr martin hewitt without glancing at the address thrust it into his pocket when ritter was safely in the inner office however he drew it out and read the address i see he observed he uses the same name hunter twenty seven little carton street westminster is the address and there i shall go at once with the note if the man comes here i think you'd better lock him in with ritter and send for a policeman it may at least frighten him my object is of course to get the man away then if possible to invade his house in some way or other and steal or smash his negatives if they are there and to be found stay here in any case till i return and don't forget to lock up those tracing end of the case of the dixon torpedo by arthur morrison part one Speaker 2 (24:54) THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES VOLUME 1 THE CASE OF THE DIXON TORPEDO by Arthur Morrison PART 2 Speaker 2 (25:06) it was about six o'clock when he had returned alone but with a smiling face that told of good fortune at first sight first mr dixon he said as he dropped into the easy-chair in the private room let me ease your mind by the information that i have been most extraordinarily lucky in fact i think you have no further cause for anxiety here are the negatives they were not all quite dry when i-well what stole them i suppose i must say so that they have stuck together a bit and probably the films are damaged But you don't mind that, I suppose. He laid a small parcel, wrapped in a newspaper, on the table. The engineer hastily tore away the paper and took up five or six glass photographic negatives of a half-plate size, which were damp and stuck together by the gelatin films and couples. He held them, one after the other, up to the light of the window, and glanced through them. Then, with a great sigh of relief, he placed them on the hearth and pounded them to dust and fragments with the poker. for a few seconds neither spoke then dixon flinging himself into a chair said mr hewitt i can't express my obligation to you what would have happened if you had failed i prefer not to think of but what shall we do with ritter now the other man hasn't been here yet Speaker 2 (26:20) no the fact is i didn't deliver the letter the worthy gentleman saved me a world of trouble by taking himself out of the way he would have laughed i'm afraid he has rather got himself into a mess by trying two kinds of theft at once and you may not be sorry to hear that his attempt on your torpedo plans is likely to bring him a dose of penal servitude for something else i'll tell you what has happened little carlton street westminster i found to be a seedy sort of place one of those old streets that have seen much better days a good many people seem to live in each house they are fairly large houses by the way-and there is quite a company of bell-handles on each door-post all down the side like organ-stops a barber had possession of the ground-floor front at number twenty seven for trade purposes so to him i went can you tell me i said where in this house i can find mr hunter he looked doubtful so i went on his friend will do you know i can't think of his name foreign gentleman dark with a bushy beard the barber understood at once oh that's mirsky i expect he said now i come to think of it he has had letters addressed to hunter once or twice i've took em in top floor back this was good so far i had gutted mr hunter's other alias so by way of possessing him with the idea that i knew all about him i determined to ask for him as mernski before handing over the letter addressed to him as hunter a little bluff of that sort is invaluable at the right time at the top floor back i stopped at the door and tried to open it at once but it was locked i could hear somebody scuttling about within as though carrying things about and i knocked again in a little while the door opened about a foot And there stood Mr. Hunter, or Mursky, as you like, the man who, in the character of a traveler in steam-packing, came here twice today. He was in his shirt-sleeves, and cuddled something under his arm, hastily covered with his spotted pocket-handkerchief. I have called to see Monsieur Minsky, said I, with a confidential letter. Oh, yes, yes, he answered hastily. I know, I know. Excuse me one minute. And he rushed off downstairs with his parcel. here was a noble chance for a moment i thought of following him in case there might be something interesting in the parcel but i had to decide in a moment and i decided on trying the room i slipped inside the door and finding the key on the inside locked it it was a confused sort of room with a little iron bedstead in one corner and a sort of rough boarded enclosure in another this i rightly conjectured to be the photographic dark room and made for it at once there was plenty of light within when the door was left open and I made at once for the drying rack that was fastened over the sink. There were a number of negatives in it, and I began hastily examining them one after another. In the middle of this, our friend Murski returned and tried the door. He rattled violently at the handle and pushed. Then he called. At this moment, I had come upon the first of the negatives you have just smashed. The fixing and washing had evidently only lately been completed, and the negative was drying on the rack. I seized it, of course, and the others which stood by it. Who are you there inside? Murski shouted indignantly from the landing. Why for you to go in my room like that? Open this door at once, or I'll call the police. I took no notice. I had got the full number of negatives, one for each drawing, but I was not by any means sure that he had not taken an extra set, so I went on hunting down the rack. There were no more, so I set to work to turn out all the undeveloped plates. It was quite possible, you see, that the other set, if it existed, had not yet been developed. murksy changed his tune after a little more banging and shouting i could hear him kneel down and try the keyhole i had left the key there so that he could see nothing but he began talking softly and rapidly through the hole in a foreign language i did not know it in the least but i believe it was russian what had led him to believe i understood russian i could not at the time imagine though i have a notion now i went on ruining his stock of plates i found several boxes apparently of new plates but as there was no means of telling whether they were really unused or merely undeveloped but with the chemical impress of your drawings on them i dragged every one ruthlessly from its hiding-place and laid it out in the full glare of the sunlight destroying it thereby of course whether it was unused or not murrisky left off talking and i heard him quietly sneaking off perhaps his conscience was not sufficiently clear to warrant an appeal to the police but it seemed to me rather probable at the time that that was what he was going for so i hurried on with my work i found three dark slides the parts that carried the plates in the back of the camera you know one of them fixed in the camera itself these i opened and exposed the plates to rumination as before i suppose no one ever did so much devastation in a photographic studio in ten minutes as i managed i had spoilt every plate i could find and had the developed negative safely in my pocket when i happened to glance at the porcelain washing-well under the sink there was one negative in that and i took it up it was not a negative of a drawing like yours but of a russian twenty-rouble note this was a discovery the only possible reason any man could have for photographing a bank-note was the manufacture of an etched plate for the production of forged copies i was almost as pleased as i had been at the discovery of your negatives He might bring the police now as soon as he liked. I could turn the tables on him completely. I began to hunt about for anything else related to this negative. I found an inking roller, some old pieces of blanket, used in printing from plates, and in a corner on the floor, heaped over with newspapers and rubbish, a small copying press. There was also a dish of acid, but not an etched plate or a printed note to be seen. I was looking at the press, with the negative in one hand and the inking roller in the other, when I became conscious of a shadow across the window. I looked up quickly, and there was Mursky, hanging over from some ledge of projection to the side of the window and staring straight at me, with a look of unmistakable terror and apprehension. the face vanished immediately i had to move a table to get at the window and by the time i had opened it there was no sight or sound of the rightful tenant of the room i had no doubt now of his reason for carrying a parcel downstairs he probably mistook me for another visitor he was expecting and knowing i must take this visitor into the room threw the papers and rubbish over the press then put all the plates and papers in a bundle and secreted them somewhere downstairs lest his occupation should be observed plainly my duty now was to communicate with the police so by the help of a friend of the barber downstairs a messenger was found and a note sent over to scotland yard i awaited of course for the arrival of the police and occupied the interval in another look around finding nothing important however when the official detective arrived he recognized at once the importance of the case a large number of forged russian notes had been put into circulation on the continent lately it seems and it was suspected that they came from london the russian government have been sending urgent messages to the police here on the subject of course i said nothing about your business but while i was talking with the scotland yard man a letter was left by a messenger addressed to the letter will be examined of course by the proper authorities but i was not a little interested to perceive that the envelope bore the russian imperial arms above the words russian embassy now why should mirsky communicate with the russian embassy certainly not to let the officials know that he must carry on a very extensive and lucrative business in the manufacture of spurious russian notes i think it is rather more than possible that he wrote probably before he actually got your drawings to say that he could sell information of the highest importance and that this letter was a reply further i think it quite possible that when i asked for him by his russian name and spoke of a confidential letter he at once concluded that i had come from the embassy in answer to his letter that would account for his addressing me in russian to the keyhole and of course an official from the russian embassy would be the very last person in the world whom he would like to observe any indications in his little etching experiments. But anyhow, be that as it may, Hewitt concluded, your drawings are safe now, and if once Murski is caught, and I think it likely, for a man in his shirt-sleeves with scarcely any start, and perhaps no money about him, hasn't a great chance to get away. If he is caught, I say, he will probably get something handsome at St. Petersburg in the way of imprisonment, or Siberia, or what not, so that you will be amply avenged. yes but i don't at all understand this business of the drawings even now how in the world were they taken out of the place and how in the world did you find it out nothing could be simpler and yet the plan itself was rather ingenious i'll tell you exactly how the thing revealed itself to me from your original description of the case many people would consider that an impossibility had been performed nobody had gone out and nobody had come in and yet the drawings had been taken away but an impossibility is an impossibility after all and as drawings don't run away on themselves plainly somebody had taken them unaccountable as it may seem now as they were in your inner office the only people who could have gotten at them besides yourself were your assistants so that was pretty clear that one of them at least had something to do with the business you told me that wortsfeld was an excellent and intelligent draughtsman well if such a man as that intended treachery he would probably have been able to carry away the design in his head at any rate a little at a time and would be under no necessity to run the risk of stealing a set of the drawings but ritter you remarked was an inferior sort of man not particularly smart i think were your words only a mechanical sort of tracer he would be unlikely to be able to carry in his head the complicated details of such designs as yours and being in a subordinate position and continually overlooked he would find it impossible to make copies of the plans in the office so that to begin with i thought i saw the most probable path to start on when i looked around the rooms i pushed open the glass door of the barrier and left the door to the inner office ajar in order to be able to see anything that might happen in any part of the place without actually expecting any definite development while we were talking as it happened our friend mursey or hunter as you please came into the outer office and my attention was instantly called to him by the first thing he did did you notice anything peculiar yourself no really i can't say i did he seemed to behave much as any travel-order agent might well what i noticed was the fact that as soon as he entered the place he put his walking-stick into the umbrella stand over there by the door close by where he stood a most unusual thing for a casual caller to do before even knowing whether you were in this made me watch him closely i perceived with increased interest that the stick was exactly the same kind and pattern as one already standing there also a curious thing i kept my eyes carefully on those sticks and was all the more interested and edified to see when he left that he took the other stick not the one he came with from the stand and carried it away leaving his own behind i might have followed him but i decided that more could be learned by staying as in fact proved to be the case this by the bye is the stick he carried away with him i took the liberty of fetching it back from westminster because i conceived it to be ritter's property duart produced the stick it was an ordinary thick malacca cane with a buck-horn handle and a silver band hewitt bent it across his knee and laid it on the table yes dixon answered that is ritter's stick i think i have often seen it in the stand but what in the world one moment i'll just fetch the stick mersky left behind and hewitt stepped across the corridor Speaker 2 (37:15) he returned with another stick apparently an exact facsimile of the other and placed it by the side