June 9, 2025 • 51 mins
Dive into seven captivating mystery stories featuring master detective Martin Hewitt, as narrated by his trusty, yet unnamed, sidekick. Authored by Arthur Morrison, these tales showcase his extraordinary imagination through diverse scenarios, motivations, crimes, and characters. Whether hes hot on the trails of a Russian spy or a household pet, or investigating the theft of national security documents versus the destruction of a counterfeit work of art, Hewitts adventures are as varied as they are thrilling.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter four of Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter four, The
Case of the Dixon Torpedo. 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
(00:23):
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 singular happenings to Scotland yard officials with
whom he has exchanged experiences of Inspector Nettings, for instance,
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who spent many weary months in a search for 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 just
as ignorant, of course, as was the inspector himself as
to the enemy at the other side of the party wall.
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Also of another inspector whose name I cannot recall, who,
having been given rather meager 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 down to tie his shoelace.
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There were cases too, in which, when 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 had met their deserts by venturing out of their
own particular line of crime into another. Often, a man
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who got into trouble over something compacted narratively small, found
himself in for a startlingly larger trouble, the result of
some previous misdeed that otherwise would have gone unpunished. The
rouble note forger Mirsky might never have been handed over
to the Russian authorities had he confined his genius to
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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 that foolish proceeding.
On his part, It would seem since his whereabouts, indeed,
even his identity as the forger had not been suspected.
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He had communicated with the Russian embassy. It is true,
but for quite 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 said in his inner office,
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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. 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
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filled up in a hasty and almost illegible hand. Thus
name of visitor F. Graham Dixon, address, Chancery Lane, business,
private and urgent show. Mister Dixon, in said Martin Hewitt.
Mister Dixon was a gaunt, worn looking man of fifty
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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, strenuously brain worker. He leaned
forward anxiously in the chair which Hewett offered him, and
told his story with a great deal of very natural agitation.
(04:10):
You may possibly have heard, mister 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
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will 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
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machine is the result of many years of work and disappointment,
and its design has only been arrived at by a
careful balancing of principles and means, which are expressed on
the only four existing sets of drawings. The whole thing
I need hardly tell you is a profound secret, and
you may judge of my present state of mind when
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I tell you that one set of drawings has been
stolen from your house 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
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tracings therefrom and the other two were at my office,
one being a penciled 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
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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 you 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,
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and there has been no visitor, and yet the drawings
are gone. But you have searched the place, of course
I have. It was twelve o'clock when I first discovered
my loss, and I have been turning the place upside
down ever since I and my assistance. Every drawer has
been emptied, every desk and table turned over. The very
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carpet and linoleum have been taken up, but 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,
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there are two I understand had neither left the office. Neither,
and they are both staying in now. Worsfold suggested that
it would be more satisfactory if they did not leave
till something was done toward clearing the mystery up. And
although as I have said, I don't suspect either in
the least, I acquiesced just so. Now I am assuming
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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 first, perhaps you can tell me
something about your assistance, something it might be awkward to
tell me in their presence. You know, mister Worsfold, for instance,
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he is my draftsman, a very excellent and intelligent man,
a very smart man indeed, And I feel sure quite beyond.
He has prepared many important drawings for me. He has
been with me 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 Worsfold. Indeed,
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how can I suspect anybody in the circumstances the other now?
His name's Ritter. He is merely a tracer, not a
fully skilled draftsman. He is quite a decent young fellow,
and I have had him two years. I don't consider
him particularly smart, or he would have learned a little
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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
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to be suctinctly 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
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the barrier in the outer office, the usual thing, you know,
like a counter with a frame of ground glass over it.
I quite understand. 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 is an inner room, or rather
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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 in the room. Let me explain more clearly.
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The cab was bowling smoothly along the strand, and the
engineer took out a pocketbook 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 offices consist of three rooms, two at one side
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of a corridor and the other opposite. Thus he made
a rapid pencil sketch. Reader's note. The sketch shows three
rooms separated by a corridor running horizontally through the middle.
The room above the corridor is called the private room.
Below the corridor are two rooms which connect to each other,
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the one on the left being the Outer office, and
on the right the Inner Office. On the right wall
of the Inner office is marked the set of drawers
in question with the letter D end of reader's note.
In the outer office, my men usually work in the
Inner office. I work myself. These rooms communicate, as you see,
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by a door. Our ordinary way in and out of
the place is by the door of the outer office
leading into the corridor, and we first pass through the
usual lifting flat 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
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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 the private room opposite
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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.
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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 had gone to consult a book just
inside the door, with a full view of the door's opposite. Indeed,
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Worsfold was at the door of the outer office most
of the time. He came to ask me a question. Well,
Hewett 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
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stopped before a large stone building. Mister Dixon alighted and
led the way to the first floor. Hewett took a
casual glance round 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
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the engineer went into the inner office. Would you like
to ask Worsford and Ritter any questions, mister 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, sticks, and umbrella.
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And those coats were searched, you say, yes, And this
is the drawer thoroughly searched of course. Oh, certainly every
drawer was taken out and turned over. Well, of course,
I must assume you made no mistake in your hunt.
Now tell me did anybody know where these plans were?
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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
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I may as well know if your men have keys
to the office neither. I have patent locks to each door,
and I keep all the keys myself. If Worsford or
Ritter arrive before me in the morning. They have to
wait to be let in, and I am always present
myself when the rooms are cleaned. I have not neglected precautions,
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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
have been looking as I need hardly tell you to
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that invention to secure me a very large fortune, and
I shall be ruined. Indeed, if the design is taken abroad,
I am under the strictest engagements to secrecy with the Admiralty,
and not only should I lose all my labor, but
I should lose all the confidence reposed in me at headquarters,
should in fact be subject to penalties for breach of contract,
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and my career stopped forever. I cannot tell you what
a serious business this is for me. If you cannot
help me, the consequences will be terrible. That 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
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to buy the secret. I mean he couldn't describe the
invention 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,
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pneumatics are most delicately manipulated and adjusted, and the smallest
error or omission in any part would upset the whole. No,
the drawings are necessary to the thing, and they are gone.
At this moment. The door of the outer office was
heard to open, and somebody entered. The door between the
two offices was a jar, and Hewett could see right
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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 hand bag, which he
placed on the ledge before him. Hewitt raised his hand
to enjoined silence. The man spoke in a rather high
pitched voice and with a slight accent. Is mister Dixon
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now vicin? He asked? He is engaged? Answered one of
the draftsmen, very particularly engaged. I am afraid you won't
be able to see him this afternoon. Can I give
him any message? This is two the second time I
have come to day, not two hours ago. Mister Dixon
himself tells me to call again. I have a very important,
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very excellent steam packing to show him that he is
very cheap and the best of the market. The man
tapped his bag. I have just taken orders from the
largest railway companies. Cannot I see him for one second only?
I will not detain him. Really, I'm sure you can't
this afternoon. He isn't seeing anybody. But if you'll leave
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your name, my name is Hunter. But what the good
of that? He asked me to call a little later,
and I come, and now he is engaged. All pity,
and the man smatched up his bag and walking stick
and stalked off indignantly. Hewitt stood still, gazing through the
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small aperture in the doorway. You'd scarcely expect a man
with such a name as Hunter to talk without 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
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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 have
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 Hewett rising, I
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think I'll get you to question them myself. Yes, I
have a reason. Will you trust me with the key
of the private room opposite. I will go over there
for a little while you talk to your men in
this room. Bring them in here and shut the door.
I can look after the outer office from across the corridor,
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you know. Ask each of them 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 of
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, mister Dixon, having questioned
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his draftsman, followed him. He found Hewett standing before the
table in the private room, on which lay several drawings
on tracing paper. See here, mister Dixon, said, Hewett, I
think these are the drawings you are anxious about. The
engineer sprang toward them with a cry of delight. Why, yes, yes,
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he exclaimed, turning one of 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? Hewett
shook his head. I'm afraid you're not quite so lucky
as you think, mister Dixon, he said, These drawings have
most certainly been out of the house for a little while.
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Never mind, now, we'll talk about that afterward. 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 three
and a half long days of very hard work. Dixon
replied with eagerness. Ah, then it is, as I fear did,
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these tracings have been photographed, mister Dixon, and our task
is one of every possible difficulty. If they had been
copied in the ordinary way, one might hope to get
hold of the copy, But photography upsetsing copies can be
multiplied with such amazing facility that once the thief gets
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a decent start, it is almost hopeless to checkmate him.
The only chance is to get at the negatives before
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
this matter you see. To get at those negatives may
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involve something very like house breaking. There must be no delay,
no waiting for a legal procedure, or the mischief is done. Indeed,
I very much question whether you have any legal remedy.
Strictly speaking, mister Hewett, I implore you do what you can.
I need not say that all I have is at
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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 house breaking might
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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, Writter. But how never mind that
now you are upset and agitated, and had better not
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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.
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Dixon slipped them behind his bookcase. Now, Hewitt pursued, call
mister Worth and give him something to do that will
keep him in the inner office across the way, and
tell him to send Ridder here. Mister Dixon called his
chief draftsman and requested him to put in order the
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drawings in the drawers of the inner room that had
been disarranged by the search, and to send Ridder. 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, mister Ritter, Hewitt said, in a
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stern voice, your recent transactions with your friend mister Hunter
are well known to both mister Dixon and myself. Ritter,
who had at first leaned 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
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of doors if you do not. Your acquaintance as to
be known. Mister Hunter, I believe has the drawings which
mister 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.
Ridder broke down completely and turned appealingly to mister Dixon.
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Oh sir, he pleaded, It isn't so bad, I assure you.
I was tempted. I confess and 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.
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Just go and 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,
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ghastlier than before. He looked irresolutely down the corridor, as
if meditating a run for it, but Hewitt stepped toward
him and motioned him back to the private room. You
mustn't try any more of that sort of humbug, Hewitt said,
with increasing severity. The drawings are gone and you have
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stolen them. You know that well enough. You mustn't try
any more of that sort of humbug, Hewitt said, with
increasing severity. The drawings are gone and you have stolen them.
You know that well enough. Now attend to me. If
you received your deserts, mister Dixon would send for a
policeman this moment and have you hauled off to the
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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 the drawings, and it
is absolutely necessary that these should be recovered. I am
afraid that it will be necessary, therefore, to come to
some arrangement with this scoundrel to square him. In fact,
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now just 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. Hewett proceeded, say this,
there has been an alteration in the plants. Have you
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got that? There has been an alteration in the plants.
I shall be alone here at six o'clock period. Please
come without fail period. Have you got it? Very well?
Sign it and address the envelope. He must come here
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and then we may arrange matters. In the meantime. You
will remain in the inner office opposite. The note was written,
and 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,
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he observed he uses the same name Hunter. Twenty seven
Little Carleton Street, Westminster is the address, and there I
shall go at once with the note. If the man
comes here, I think you had better lock him in
with Ritter and send for a policeman. It may at
least frighten him. My object is, of course, to get
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the man away, and then, if possible, to invade his
house in some way or another, 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 tracings. It was about six
o'clock when Hewett returned, alone, but with a smiling face
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that told of good fortune at first sight. First, mister Dixon,
he said, as he dropped into an easy chair in
the private room, Let me easier 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
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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
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half plate size, which were damp and stuck together by
the gelatine films in couples. He held them one after
another 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.
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Then Dixon, flinging himself into a chair, said, mister 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, by the way, No, the
fact is I didn't deliver the letter. The worthy gentleman
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saved me a world of trouble by taking himself out
of the way. Hewett laughed. I am 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
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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,
and they are fairly large houses. By the way, and
there is quite a company of bell handles on each
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door post all down the side, like organ stops. A
barber had possession of the ground floor front of number
twenty seven for trade purposes. So to him I went,
Can you tell me, I said, where in this house
I can find mister Hunter. He looked doubtful, so I
went on his friend, will do you know? I can't
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think of his name, foreign gentleman, dark with a bushy beard.
The barber understood at once. Oh that's Mrsky, I expect,
he said, now I come to think of it. He
has had letters addressed to Hunter once or twice. I've
took him in top floor back. This was good so
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far I had got at mister 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 Mrski, 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
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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, and
a little while the door opened about a foot, and
there stood mister Hunter more Mersky, as you like, the
man who, in the character of a traveler in steam packing,
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came here twice to day. He was in his shirt
sleeves and cuddled something under his arm, hastily covered with
a spotted pocket handkerchief. I have called to see mister Mrsky,
I said, with a confidential letter. Oh yes, yes, he
answered hastily, I know, I know. Excuse me one minute,
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and he rushed off down the stairs 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
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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 I 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
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number of negatives on it, and I began hastily examining
them one after another. In the middle of this, our
friend Mirsky 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
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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? Merski shouted indignantly
from the landing. Why for you go into my room
like that? Open this door at once, or I call police.
(33:34):
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
(33:56):
not yet been developed. Mrski changed his une 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
(34:17):
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 were merely undeveloped, but
(34:40):
with chemical impress of your drawings on them, I dragged
everyone 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. Mirsky left
off talking, and I heard him quietly sneaking off. Perhaps
(35:00):
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
(35:21):
in the camera itself. These I opened and exposed the
plates to ruination as before, I suppose nobody ever did
so much devastation in a photographic studio. In ten minutes,
as I managed, I had spoiled every plate I could find,
and had the developed negatives safely in my pocket. When
(35:42):
I happened to glance at a 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 of yours, but of a Russian twenty rouble note.
This was a discovery. The only possible reason any man
(36:03):
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
(36:24):
anything else relating 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
(36:48):
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. Looked up quickly, and there
was mirski hanging over from some ledge or projection to
the side of the window, and staring straight at me
(37:10):
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 sign 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
(37:35):
me for another visitor who was expecting and knowing he
must take this visitor into his room, through the papers
and rubbish over the press, and put up his plates
and papers in a bundle, and secreted them somewhere downstairs,
lest his occupation should be observed plainly. My duty now
(37:57):
was to communicate with the police, So, by help of
my friend 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 round, finding nothing important. However, when
(38:18):
the official detective arrived, he recognized at once the importance
of the case. A large number of forged Russian notes
have 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
(38:41):
your business. But while I was talking with the Scotland
yard man, a letter was left by a messenger addressed Toumirski.
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
(39:02):
Russian Embassy. Now, why should Mersky communicate with the Russian embassy,
certainly not to let the officials know that he was
carrying on a very extensive and lucrative business in the
manufacture of spurious Russian notes. I think it is rather
(39:22):
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 this letter was a reply. Further,
I think it quite possible that when I asked for
him by a Russian name and spoke of a confidential letter,
(39:44):
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 through the keyhole. And of
course an official from the Russian embassy would be the
very last person in the world whom he would lie
to observe any indications of his little etching experiments. But anyhow,
(40:07):
be that as it may. Hewitt concluded, your drawings are
safe now, and if once Mrsky 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 Saint
(40:30):
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.
(40:54):
Nothing could be simpler, And yet the plan 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
(41:15):
had been taken away. But an impossibility is an impossibility
after all, And as drawings don't run away of themselves,
plainly somebody had taken them. Unaccountable as it might seem now,
as they were in your inner office. The only people
(41:36):
who could have got at them beside yourself were your assistance,
so that it was pretty clear that one of them
at least had something to do with the business. You
told me that Worsford was an excellent and intelligent draftsman,
well mediated treachery, would probably be able to carry away
(41:57):
the design in his head at any rate at a time,
and would be under no necessity to risk the stealing
of them. But Richer, you remark, was an inferior sort
of man, not particularly smart, I think, were your words
only a mechanical sort of tracer, he would be unlikely
(42:19):
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 plan in the office. So
that to begin with, I thought I saw the most
probable path to start on. When I looked round the rooms,
(42:41):
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 Mirsky
(43:01):
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 traveler or agent might well. What I noticed
(43:24):
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
(43:46):
was exactly of 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 at a to see when he left that
he took the other stick, not the one he came with,
(44:07):
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 conceive it to
(44:28):
be Ritter's property. Hewitt produced the stick. It was an
ordinary thick malacca cane with a buckhorn 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.
(44:50):
But what in the world. One moment, I'll just fetch
the stick. Mirsky left behind, and Hewett stepped across the corridor.
He returned with another stick, apparently an exact facsimile of
the other, and placed it by the side of the
other when your assistants went into the room. I carried
(45:11):
this stick off for a minute or two. I knew
it was not Worsfold because there was an umbrella there
with his initial on the handle. Look at this, Martin
Hewett gave the handle a twist and rapidly unscrewed it
from the top. Then it was seen that the stick
was a mere tube of very thin metal painted to
(45:32):
appear like a malacca cane. It was plain at once
that this was no malaca came it wouldn't bend inside it.
I found your tracings rolled up tightly. You can get
a marvelous quantity of thin tracing paper into a small
compass by tight rolling. And this this was the way
they were brought back. The engineer exclaimed, I see that clearly,
(45:56):
But how did they get away? That's as mysterious as
not a bit of it. See here Mersky gets hold
of Ritter and they agree to get your drawings and
photograph them. Ritter is to let his confederate have the drawings,
and Mirsky is to bring them back as soon as possible,
so that they shan't be missed for a moment. Britter
(46:19):
habitually carries this malacca cane, and the cunning of Mirsky
at once suggests that this tube should be made in
outward facsimile. This morning, Mirsky keeps the actual stick and
Ritter comes to the office with the tube. He seizes
the first opportunity, probably when you were in this private
(46:40):
room and Worsfold was talking to you from the corridor,
to get at the tracings, roll them up tightly and
put them in the tube, putting the tube back into
the umbrella stand. At half past twelve or whenever it was,
Mirsky turns up for the first time with the actual
stick and exchanges them, just as he afterward did when
(47:02):
he brought the drawings back. Yes, but Mirsky came half
an hour after they were Oh, yes, I see what
a fool I was. I was forgetting, of course, when
I first missed the tracings, they were in this walking
stick safe enough, and I was tearing my hair out
with an arm's reach of them precisely, and Mirsky took
(47:26):
them away before your very eyes. I expect Britter was
in a rare funk when he found that the drawings
were missed. He calculated no doubt on your not wanting
them for the hour or two they would be out
of the office. How lucky that it struck me to
jot a pencil note on one of them. I might
(47:47):
easily have made my note somewhere else, and then I
should never have known that they had been away. Yes,
they didn't give you any too much time to miss them. Well,
I think the rest is prettyly. I brought the tracings
in here, screwed up the shamstick and put it back.
You identified the tracings and found none missing, and then
(48:11):
my course was pretty clear. Though it looked difficult. I
knew you would be very naturally indignant with Ritter, so
as I wanted to manage him myself, I told you
nothing of what he had actually done, for fear that,
in your agitated state, you might burst out with something
that would spoil my game. To Ritter, I pretended to
(48:33):
know nothing of the return of the drawings or how
they had been stolen, the only things I didn't know
with certainty. But I did pretend to know all about
Merski or Hunter, when as a matter of fact, I
knew nothing at all, except that he probably went under
more than one name. That put Ritter into my hands
(48:56):
completely when he found the game was up. He began
with a lying confession, believing that the tracings were still
in the stick, and that we knew nothing of their return.
He said that they had not been away, and that
he would fetch them, as I had expected he would.
I let him go for them alone, and when he returned,
(49:18):
utterly broken up by the discovery that they were not there,
I had him altogether at my mercy. You see, if
he had known that the drawings were all the time
behind your bookcase, he might have brazened it out, sworn
that the drawings had been there all the time, and
we could have done nothing with him. We couldn't have
sufficiently frightened him by a threat of prosecution for theft,
(49:43):
because there the things were in your possession to his knowledge.
As it was, he answered the helm capitly, gave us
Mirski's address on the envelope, and wrote the letter that
was to have got him out of the way, while
I committed brugally. If that disgraceful expedient had not been
(50:04):
rendered unnecessary. On the whole, the case has gone very well.
It has gone marvelously well, thanks to yourself. But what
shall I do with Ritter? Here's his stick, knock him
downstairs with it if you like, I should keep the
tube if I were you, as a memento. I don't
(50:26):
suppose the respectable Mrsky will ever call to ask for it,
but I should certainly kick ritter out of doors or
out of the window, if you like, or without delay.
Mersky was caught and, after two remands at the police court,
was extradited on the charge of forging Russian notes. It
(50:47):
came out that he had written to the embassy, as
Hewitt had surmised, stating that he had certain valuable information
to offer, and the letter which Hewitt had seen delivered,
was an acknowledgment and a request for more definite particulars.
This was what gave rise to the impression that Mirski
(51:07):
had himself informed the Russian authorities of his forgeries. His
real intent was very different, but was never guessed. I
wonder Hewett has once or twice observed whether, after all,
it would not have paid the Russian authorities better on
(51:28):
the whole if I had never investigated Mhirski's little note factory.
The Dixon Torpedo was worth a good many twenty rouble
notes end of chapter four
Chapter four of Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter four, The
Case of the Dixon Torpedo. 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
(00:23):
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 singular happenings to Scotland yard officials with
whom he has exchanged experiences of Inspector Nettings, for instance,
(00:45):
who spent many weary months in a search for 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 just
as ignorant, of course, as was the inspector himself as
to the enemy at the other side of the party wall.
(01:09):
Also of another inspector whose name I cannot recall, who,
having been given rather meager 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 down to tie his shoelace.
(01:33):
There were cases too, in which, when 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 had met their deserts by venturing out of their
own particular line of crime into another. Often, a man
(01:58):
who got into trouble over something compacted narratively small, found
himself in for a startlingly larger trouble, the result of
some previous misdeed that otherwise would have gone unpunished. The
rouble note forger Mirsky might never have been handed over
to the Russian authorities had he confined his genius to
(02:18):
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 that foolish proceeding.
On his part, It would seem since his whereabouts, indeed,
even his identity as the forger had not been suspected.
(02:40):
He had communicated with the Russian embassy. It is true,
but for quite 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 said in his inner office,
(03:01):
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. 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
(03:24):
filled up in a hasty and almost illegible hand. Thus
name of visitor F. Graham Dixon, address, Chancery Lane, business,
private and urgent show. Mister Dixon, in said Martin Hewitt.
Mister Dixon was a gaunt, worn looking man of fifty
(03:48):
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, strenuously brain worker. He leaned
forward anxiously in the chair which Hewett offered him, and
told his story with a great deal of very natural agitation.
(04:10):
You may possibly have heard, mister 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
(04:34):
will 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
(04:56):
machine is the result of many years of work and disappointment,
and its design has only been arrived at by a
careful balancing of principles and means, which are expressed on
the only four existing sets of drawings. The whole thing
I need hardly tell you is a profound secret, and
you may judge of my present state of mind when
(05:18):
I tell you that one set of drawings has been
stolen from your house 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
(05:39):
tracings therefrom and the other two were at my office,
one being a penciled 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
(06:01):
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 you 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,
(06:24):
and there has been no visitor, and yet the drawings
are gone. But you have searched the place, of course
I have. It was twelve o'clock when I first discovered
my loss, and I have been turning the place upside
down ever since I and my assistance. Every drawer has
been emptied, every desk and table turned over. The very
(06:46):
carpet and linoleum have been taken up, but 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,
(07:06):
there are two I understand had neither left the office. Neither,
and they are both staying in now. Worsfold suggested that
it would be more satisfactory if they did not leave
till something was done toward clearing the mystery up. And
although as I have said, I don't suspect either in
the least, I acquiesced just so. Now I am assuming
(07:31):
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 first, perhaps you can tell me
something about your assistance, something it might be awkward to
tell me in their presence. You know, mister Worsfold, for instance,
(07:51):
he is my draftsman, a very excellent and intelligent man,
a very smart man indeed, And I feel sure quite beyond.
He has prepared many important drawings for me. He has
been with me 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 Worsfold. Indeed,
(08:17):
how can I suspect anybody in the circumstances the other now?
His name's Ritter. He is merely a tracer, not a
fully skilled draftsman. He is quite a decent young fellow,
and I have had him two years. I don't consider
him particularly smart, or he would have learned a little
(08:37):
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
(08:58):
to be suctinctly 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
(09:21):
the barrier in the outer office, the usual thing, you know,
like a counter with a frame of ground glass over it.
I quite understand. 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 is an inner room, or rather
(09:43):
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 in the room. Let me explain more clearly.
(10:03):
The cab was bowling smoothly along the strand, and the
engineer took out a pocketbook 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 offices consist of three rooms, two at one side
(10:24):
of a corridor and the other opposite. Thus he made
a rapid pencil sketch. Reader's note. The sketch shows three
rooms separated by a corridor running horizontally through the middle.
The room above the corridor is called the private room.
Below the corridor are two rooms which connect to each other,
(10:47):
the one on the left being the Outer office, and
on the right the Inner Office. On the right wall
of the Inner office is marked the set of drawers
in question with the letter D end of reader's note.
In the outer office, my men usually work in the
Inner office. I work myself. These rooms communicate, as you see,
(11:11):
by a door. Our ordinary way in and out of
the place is by the door of the outer office
leading into the corridor, and we first pass through the
usual lifting flat 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
(11:31):
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 the private room opposite
(11:52):
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.
(12:13):
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 had gone to consult a book just
inside the door, with a full view of the door's opposite. Indeed,
(12:33):
Worsfold was at the door of the outer office most
of the time. He came to ask me a question. Well,
Hewett 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
(12:58):
stopped before a large stone building. Mister Dixon alighted and
led the way to the first floor. Hewett took a
casual glance round 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
(13:20):
the engineer went into the inner office. Would you like
to ask Worsford and Ritter any questions, mister 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, sticks, and umbrella.
(13:44):
And those coats were searched, you say, yes, And this
is the drawer thoroughly searched of course. Oh, certainly every
drawer was taken out and turned over. Well, of course,
I must assume you made no mistake in your hunt.
Now tell me did anybody know where these plans were?
(14:06):
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
(14:28):
I may as well know if your men have keys
to the office neither. I have patent locks to each door,
and I keep all the keys myself. If Worsford or
Ritter arrive before me in the morning. They have to
wait to be let in, and I am always present
myself when the rooms are cleaned. I have not neglected precautions,
(14:50):
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
have been looking as I need hardly tell you to
(15:10):
that invention to secure me a very large fortune, and
I shall be ruined. Indeed, if the design is taken abroad,
I am under the strictest engagements to secrecy with the Admiralty,
and not only should I lose all my labor, but
I should lose all the confidence reposed in me at headquarters,
should in fact be subject to penalties for breach of contract,
(15:33):
and my career stopped forever. I cannot tell you what
a serious business this is for me. If you cannot
help me, the consequences will be terrible. That 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
(15:55):
to buy the secret. I mean he couldn't describe the
invention 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,
(16:19):
pneumatics are most delicately manipulated and adjusted, and the smallest
error or omission in any part would upset the whole. No,
the drawings are necessary to the thing, and they are gone.
At this moment. The door of the outer office was
heard to open, and somebody entered. The door between the
two offices was a jar, and Hewett could see right
(16:42):
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 hand bag, which he
placed on the ledge before him. Hewitt raised his hand
to enjoined silence. The man spoke in a rather high
pitched voice and with a slight accent. Is mister Dixon
(17:06):
now vicin? He asked? He is engaged? Answered one of
the draftsmen, very particularly engaged. I am afraid you won't
be able to see him this afternoon. Can I give
him any message? This is two the second time I
have come to day, not two hours ago. Mister Dixon
himself tells me to call again. I have a very important,
(17:29):
very excellent steam packing to show him that he is
very cheap and the best of the market. The man
tapped his bag. I have just taken orders from the
largest railway companies. Cannot I see him for one second only?
I will not detain him. Really, I'm sure you can't
this afternoon. He isn't seeing anybody. But if you'll leave
(17:49):
your name, my name is Hunter. But what the good
of that? He asked me to call a little later,
and I come, and now he is engaged. All pity,
and the man smatched up his bag and walking stick
and stalked off indignantly. Hewitt stood still, gazing through the
(18:10):
small aperture in the doorway. You'd scarcely expect a man
with such a name as Hunter to talk without 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
(18:31):
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 have
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 Hewett rising, I
(18:52):
think I'll get you to question them myself. Yes, I
have a reason. Will you trust me with the key
of the private room opposite. I will go over there
for a little while you talk to your men in
this room. Bring them in here and shut the door.
I can look after the outer office from across the corridor,
(19:14):
you know. Ask each of them 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 of
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, mister Dixon, having questioned
(19:39):
his draftsman, followed him. He found Hewett standing before the
table in the private room, on which lay several drawings
on tracing paper. See here, mister Dixon, said, Hewett, I
think these are the drawings you are anxious about. The
engineer sprang toward them with a cry of delight. Why, yes, yes,
(20:01):
he exclaimed, turning one of 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? Hewett
shook his head. I'm afraid you're not quite so lucky
as you think, mister Dixon, he said, These drawings have
most certainly been out of the house for a little while.
(20:24):
Never mind, now, we'll talk about that afterward. 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 three
and a half long days of very hard work. Dixon
replied with eagerness. Ah, then it is, as I fear did,
(20:46):
these tracings have been photographed, mister Dixon, and our task
is one of every possible difficulty. If they had been
copied in the ordinary way, one might hope to get
hold of the copy, But photography upsetsing copies can be
multiplied with such amazing facility that once the thief gets
(21:06):
a decent start, it is almost hopeless to checkmate him.
The only chance is to get at the negatives before
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
this matter you see. To get at those negatives may
(21:27):
involve something very like house breaking. There must be no delay,
no waiting for a legal procedure, or the mischief is done. Indeed,
I very much question whether you have any legal remedy.
Strictly speaking, mister Hewett, I implore you do what you can.
I need not say that all I have is at
(21:47):
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 house breaking might
(22:08):
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, Writter. But how never mind that
now you are upset and agitated, and had better not
(22:30):
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.
(22:53):
Dixon slipped them behind his bookcase. Now, Hewitt pursued, call
mister Worth and give him something to do that will
keep him in the inner office across the way, and
tell him to send Ridder here. Mister Dixon called his
chief draftsman and requested him to put in order the
(23:13):
drawings in the drawers of the inner room that had
been disarranged by the search, and to send Ridder. 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, mister Ritter, Hewitt said, in a
(23:36):
stern voice, your recent transactions with your friend mister Hunter
are well known to both mister Dixon and myself. Ritter,
who had at first leaned 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
(23:58):
of doors if you do not. Your acquaintance as to
be known. Mister Hunter, I believe has the drawings which
mister 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.
Ridder broke down completely and turned appealingly to mister Dixon.
(24:23):
Oh sir, he pleaded, It isn't so bad, I assure you.
I was tempted. I confess and 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.
(24:43):
Just go and 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,
(25:04):
ghastlier than before. He looked irresolutely down the corridor, as
if meditating a run for it, but Hewitt stepped toward
him and motioned him back to the private room. You
mustn't try any more of that sort of humbug, Hewitt said,
with increasing severity. The drawings are gone and you have
(25:24):
stolen them. You know that well enough. You mustn't try
any more of that sort of humbug, Hewitt said, with
increasing severity. The drawings are gone and you have stolen them.
You know that well enough. Now attend to me. If
you received your deserts, mister Dixon would send for a
policeman this moment and have you hauled off to the
(25:46):
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 the drawings, and it
is absolutely necessary that these should be recovered. I am
afraid that it will be necessary, therefore, to come to
some arrangement with this scoundrel to square him. In fact,
(26:10):
now just 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. Hewett proceeded, say this,
there has been an alteration in the plants. Have you
(26:34):
got that? There has been an alteration in the plants.
I shall be alone here at six o'clock period. Please
come without fail period. Have you got it? Very well?
Sign it and address the envelope. He must come here
(26:56):
and then we may arrange matters. In the meantime. You
will remain in the inner office opposite. The note was written,
and 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,
(27:16):
he observed he uses the same name Hunter. Twenty seven
Little Carleton Street, Westminster is the address, and there I
shall go at once with the note. If the man
comes here, I think you had better lock him in
with Ritter and send for a policeman. It may at
least frighten him. My object is, of course, to get
(27:39):
the man away, and then, if possible, to invade his
house in some way or another, 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 tracings. It was about six
o'clock when Hewett returned, alone, but with a smiling face
(28:02):
that told of good fortune at first sight. First, mister Dixon,
he said, as he dropped into an easy chair in
the private room, Let me easier 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
(28:27):
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
(28:48):
half plate size, which were damp and stuck together by
the gelatine films in couples. He held them one after
another 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.
(29:12):
Then Dixon, flinging himself into a chair, said, mister 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, by the way, No, the
fact is I didn't deliver the letter. The worthy gentleman
(29:34):
saved me a world of trouble by taking himself out
of the way. Hewett laughed. I am 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
(29:54):
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,
and they are fairly large houses. By the way, and
there is quite a company of bell handles on each
(30:15):
door post all down the side, like organ stops. A
barber had possession of the ground floor front of number
twenty seven for trade purposes. So to him I went,
Can you tell me, I said, where in this house
I can find mister Hunter. He looked doubtful, so I
went on his friend, will do you know? I can't
(30:37):
think of his name, foreign gentleman, dark with a bushy beard.
The barber understood at once. Oh that's Mrsky, I expect,
he said, now I come to think of it. He
has had letters addressed to Hunter once or twice. I've
took him in top floor back. This was good so
(30:58):
far I had got at mister 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 Mrski, 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
(31:20):
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, and
a little while the door opened about a foot, and
there stood mister Hunter more Mersky, as you like, the
man who, in the character of a traveler in steam packing,
(31:43):
came here twice to day. He was in his shirt
sleeves and cuddled something under his arm, hastily covered with
a spotted pocket handkerchief. I have called to see mister Mrsky,
I said, with a confidential letter. Oh yes, yes, he
answered hastily, I know, I know. Excuse me one minute,
(32:06):
and he rushed off down the stairs 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
(32:28):
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 I 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
(32:50):
number of negatives on it, and I began hastily examining
them one after another. In the middle of this, our
friend Mirsky 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
(33:13):
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? Merski shouted indignantly
from the landing. Why for you go into my room
like that? Open this door at once, or I call police.
(33:34):
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
(33:56):
not yet been developed. Mrski changed his une 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
(34:17):
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 were merely undeveloped, but
(34:40):
with chemical impress of your drawings on them, I dragged
everyone 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. Mirsky left
off talking, and I heard him quietly sneaking off. Perhaps
(35:00):
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
(35:21):
in the camera itself. These I opened and exposed the
plates to ruination as before, I suppose nobody ever did
so much devastation in a photographic studio. In ten minutes,
as I managed, I had spoiled every plate I could find,
and had the developed negatives safely in my pocket. When
(35:42):
I happened to glance at a 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 of yours, but of a Russian twenty rouble note.
This was a discovery. The only possible reason any man
(36:03):
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
(36:24):
anything else relating 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
(36:48):
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. Looked up quickly, and there
was mirski hanging over from some ledge or projection to
the side of the window, and staring straight at me
(37:10):
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 sign 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
(37:35):
me for another visitor who was expecting and knowing he
must take this visitor into his room, through the papers
and rubbish over the press, and put up his plates
and papers in a bundle, and secreted them somewhere downstairs,
lest his occupation should be observed plainly. My duty now
(37:57):
was to communicate with the police, So, by help of
my friend 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 round, finding nothing important. However, when
(38:18):
the official detective arrived, he recognized at once the importance
of the case. A large number of forged Russian notes
have 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
(38:41):
your business. But while I was talking with the Scotland
yard man, a letter was left by a messenger addressed Toumirski.
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
(39:02):
Russian Embassy. Now, why should Mersky communicate with the Russian embassy,
certainly not to let the officials know that he was
carrying on a very extensive and lucrative business in the
manufacture of spurious Russian notes. I think it is rather
(39:22):
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 this letter was a reply. Further,
I think it quite possible that when I asked for
him by a Russian name and spoke of a confidential letter,
(39:44):
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 through the keyhole. And of
course an official from the Russian embassy would be the
very last person in the world whom he would lie
to observe any indications of his little etching experiments. But anyhow,
(40:07):
be that as it may. Hewitt concluded, your drawings are
safe now, and if once Mrsky 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 Saint
(40:30):
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.
(40:54):
Nothing could be simpler, And yet the plan 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
(41:15):
had been taken away. But an impossibility is an impossibility
after all, And as drawings don't run away of themselves,
plainly somebody had taken them. Unaccountable as it might seem now,
as they were in your inner office. The only people
(41:36):
who could have got at them beside yourself were your assistance,
so that it was pretty clear that one of them
at least had something to do with the business. You
told me that Worsford was an excellent and intelligent draftsman,
well mediated treachery, would probably be able to carry away
(41:57):
the design in his head at any rate at a time,
and would be under no necessity to risk the stealing
of them. But Richer, you remark, was an inferior sort
of man, not particularly smart, I think, were your words
only a mechanical sort of tracer, he would be unlikely
(42:19):
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 plan in the office. So
that to begin with, I thought I saw the most
probable path to start on. When I looked round the rooms,
(42:41):
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 Mirsky
(43:01):
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 traveler or agent might well. What I noticed
(43:24):
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
(43:46):
was exactly of 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 at a to see when he left that
he took the other stick, not the one he came with,
(44:07):
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 conceive it to
(44:28):
be Ritter's property. Hewitt produced the stick. It was an
ordinary thick malacca cane with a buckhorn 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.
(44:50):
But what in the world. One moment, I'll just fetch
the stick. Mirsky left behind, and Hewett stepped across the corridor.
He returned with another stick, apparently an exact facsimile of
the other, and placed it by the side of the
other when your assistants went into the room. I carried
(45:11):
this stick off for a minute or two. I knew
it was not Worsfold because there was an umbrella there
with his initial on the handle. Look at this, Martin
Hewett gave the handle a twist and rapidly unscrewed it
from the top. Then it was seen that the stick
was a mere tube of very thin metal painted to
(45:32):
appear like a malacca cane. It was plain at once
that this was no malaca came it wouldn't bend inside it.
I found your tracings rolled up tightly. You can get
a marvelous quantity of thin tracing paper into a small
compass by tight rolling. And this this was the way
they were brought back. The engineer exclaimed, I see that clearly,
(45:56):
But how did they get away? That's as mysterious as
not a bit of it. See here Mersky gets hold
of Ritter and they agree to get your drawings and
photograph them. Ritter is to let his confederate have the drawings,
and Mirsky is to bring them back as soon as possible,
so that they shan't be missed for a moment. Britter
(46:19):
habitually carries this malacca cane, and the cunning of Mirsky
at once suggests that this tube should be made in
outward facsimile. This morning, Mirsky keeps the actual stick and
Ritter comes to the office with the tube. He seizes
the first opportunity, probably when you were in this private
(46:40):
room and Worsfold was talking to you from the corridor,
to get at the tracings, roll them up tightly and
put them in the tube, putting the tube back into
the umbrella stand. At half past twelve or whenever it was,
Mirsky turns up for the first time with the actual
stick and exchanges them, just as he afterward did when
(47:02):
he brought the drawings back. Yes, but Mirsky came half
an hour after they were Oh, yes, I see what
a fool I was. I was forgetting, of course, when
I first missed the tracings, they were in this walking
stick safe enough, and I was tearing my hair out
with an arm's reach of them precisely, and Mirsky took
(47:26):
them away before your very eyes. I expect Britter was
in a rare funk when he found that the drawings
were missed. He calculated no doubt on your not wanting
them for the hour or two they would be out
of the office. How lucky that it struck me to
jot a pencil note on one of them. I might
(47:47):
easily have made my note somewhere else, and then I
should never have known that they had been away. Yes,
they didn't give you any too much time to miss them. Well,
I think the rest is prettyly. I brought the tracings
in here, screwed up the shamstick and put it back.
You identified the tracings and found none missing, and then
(48:11):
my course was pretty clear. Though it looked difficult. I
knew you would be very naturally indignant with Ritter, so
as I wanted to manage him myself, I told you
nothing of what he had actually done, for fear that,
in your agitated state, you might burst out with something
that would spoil my game. To Ritter, I pretended to
(48:33):
know nothing of the return of the drawings or how
they had been stolen, the only things I didn't know
with certainty. But I did pretend to know all about
Merski or Hunter, when as a matter of fact, I
knew nothing at all, except that he probably went under
more than one name. That put Ritter into my hands
(48:56):
completely when he found the game was up. He began
with a lying confession, believing that the tracings were still
in the stick, and that we knew nothing of their return.
He said that they had not been away, and that
he would fetch them, as I had expected he would.
I let him go for them alone, and when he returned,
(49:18):
utterly broken up by the discovery that they were not there,
I had him altogether at my mercy. You see, if
he had known that the drawings were all the time
behind your bookcase, he might have brazened it out, sworn
that the drawings had been there all the time, and
we could have done nothing with him. We couldn't have
sufficiently frightened him by a threat of prosecution for theft,
(49:43):
because there the things were in your possession to his knowledge.
As it was, he answered the helm capitly, gave us
Mirski's address on the envelope, and wrote the letter that
was to have got him out of the way, while
I committed brugally. If that disgraceful expedient had not been
(50:04):
rendered unnecessary. On the whole, the case has gone very well.
It has gone marvelously well, thanks to yourself. But what
shall I do with Ritter? Here's his stick, knock him
downstairs with it if you like, I should keep the
tube if I were you, as a memento. I don't
(50:26):
suppose the respectable Mrsky will ever call to ask for it,
but I should certainly kick ritter out of doors or
out of the window, if you like, or without delay.
Mersky was caught and, after two remands at the police court,
was extradited on the charge of forging Russian notes. It
(50:47):
came out that he had written to the embassy, as
Hewitt had surmised, stating that he had certain valuable information
to offer, and the letter which Hewitt had seen delivered,
was an acknowledgment and a request for more definite particulars.
This was what gave rise to the impression that Mirski
(51:07):
had himself informed the Russian authorities of his forgeries. His
real intent was very different, but was never guessed. I
wonder Hewett has once or twice observed whether, after all,
it would not have paid the Russian authorities better on
(51:28):
the whole if I had never investigated Mhirski's little note factory.
The Dixon Torpedo was worth a good many twenty rouble
notes end of chapter four
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