Part 3 (1/2)
”But she must have asked you who was the guilty person?” I persisted.
”Yes,” said Holmes, ”she did, and I took her for a little gallop through the social register, in search of the guilty party; that got on her nerves, so that when it came down to an absolute question of ident.i.ty she begged me to forget it.”
”I am dull of comprehension, Raffles,” said I. ”Tell me exactly what you mean.”
”Simply this,” said Raffles Holmes. ”The present four hundred consists of about 19,250 people, of whom about twenty-five per cent. go to Newport at one time or another-say, 4812. Of these 4812 about ten per cent. are eligible for invitations to the Burlingame dinners, or 480. Now whom of the 480 possibilities having access to the Burlingame cottage would we naturally suspect? Surely only those who were in the vicinity the night of the robbery. By a process of elimination we narrowed them down to just ten persons exclusive of Mrs. Burlingame herself and her husband, old Billie Burlingame. We took the lot and canva.s.sed them. There were Mr. and Mrs. Willington Bodfish-they left early and the stomacher was known to be safe at the time of their departure. There were Bishop and Mrs. Pounderby, neither of whom would be at all likely to come back in the dead of night and remove property that did not belong to them. There were Senator and Mrs. Jorrocks. The Senator is after bigger game than diamond stomachers, and Mrs. Jorrocks is known to be honest. There were Harry Gaddsby and his wife. Harry doesn't know enough to go in when it rains, and is too timid to call even his soul his own, so he couldn't have taken it; and Mrs. Gaddsby is long on stomachers, having at least five, and therefore would not be likely to try to land a sixth by questionable means. In that way we practically cleared eight possibilities of suspicion.
”'Now, Mrs. Burlingame,' said I, 'that leaves four persons still in the ring-yourself, your husband, your daughter, and the Duke of Snarleyow, your daughter's newly acquired fiance, in whose honor the dinner was given. Of these four, you are naturally yourself the first to be acquitted. Your husband comes next, and is not likely to be the guilty party, because if he wants a diamond stomacher he needn't steal it, having money enough to buy a dozen of them if he wishes. The third, your daughter, should be regarded as equally innocent, because if she was really desirous of possessing the jewel all she had to do was to borrow it from you. That brings us down to the Duke of-”
”'Hus.h.!.+ I beg of you, Mr. Raffles Holmes!' she cried, in great agitation. 'Not another word, I beseech you! If any one should overhear us-The subject, after all, is an unprofitable one, and I'd-I'd rather drop it, and it-it-er-it has just occurred to me that possibly I-er-possibly I-'
”'Put the jewel in the safe yourself?' I suggested.
”'Yes,' said Mrs. Burlingame,' with a grateful glance and a tremendous sigh of relief. 'Now that I think of it, Mr. Raffles Holmes-that was it. I- er-I remember perfectly that-er-that I didn't wear it at all the night of my little dinner, and that I did leave it behind me when I left town.'”
”Humph!” said I. ”That may account for the extra $5000-”
”It may,” said Raffles Holmes, pursing his lips into a deprecatory smile.
IV THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING PENDANTS
”I think,” said Raffles Holmes, as he ran over his expense account while sitting in my library one night some months ago, ”that in view of the present condition of my exchequer, my dear Jenkins, it behooveth me to get busy. Owning a motor-car is a demned expensive piece of business, and my balance at the back has shrunk to about $1683.59, thanks to my bills for cogs, clutches, and gasoline, plus the chauffeur's fines.”
”In what capacity shall you work, Raffles or Holmes?” I asked, pausing in my writing and regarding him with that affectionate interest which contact with him had inspired in me.
”Play the combination always, Jenkins,” he replied. ”If I did the Raffles act alone, I should become the billionaire in this land of silk and money, your rich are so careless of their wealth-but where would my conscience be? On the other hand, if I stuck to the Holmes act exclusively, I'd starve to death; but the combination-ah-there is moderate fortune, my boy, with peace of mind thrown in.”
Here he rose up, b.u.t.toned his coat about his spare figure, and reached out for his hat.
”I guess I'll tackle that case of the missing pendants to-morrow,” he continued, flicking the ash from his cigar and gazing up at the ceiling with that strange twist in his eye which I had learned to regard as the harbinger of a dawning idea in his mind. ”There's ten thousand dollars for somebody in that job, and you and I might as well have it as any one else.”
”I'm ready,” said I, as well I might be, for all I had to do in the matter was to record the adventure and take my half of the profits-no very difficult proceeding in either case.
”Good,” quoth he. ”I'll go to Gaffany & Co. to-morrow and offer my services.”
”You have a clew?” I asked.
”I have an idea,” he answered. ”As for the lost diamonds, I know no more of their whereabouts than you do, but I shall be able beyond all question to restore to Gaffany & Co. two pendants just as good as those they have lost, and if I do that I am ent.i.tled to the reward, I fancy, am I not?”
”Most certainly,” said I. ”But where the d.i.c.kens will you find two such stones? They are worth $50,000 apiece, and they must match perfectly the two remaining jewels which Gaffany & Co. have in their safe.”
”I'll match 'em so closely that their own mother couldn't tell 'em apart,” said Holmes, with a chuckle.
”Then the report that they are of such rarity of cut and l.u.s.tre is untrue?”
I asked.
”It's perfectly true,” said Holmes, ”but that makes no difference. The two stones that I shall return two weeks from to-day to Gaffany & Co. will be as like the two they have as they are themselves. Ta-ta, Jenkins-you can count on your half of that ten thousand as surely as though it is jingled now in your pockets.”
And with that Raffles Holmes left me to my own devices.