The Crime of the French Café and Other Stories

by Nicholas Carter

  CHAPTER I.

  THE VANISHING THIEF.

  Nick Carter's friends often ask him whether, in the course of hisremarkable experience as a detective, he has ever encountered anythingwhich could not have been the work of human hands.

  Few people, nowadays, will own that they believe in ghosts. Yet most ofus would be less sure about it in a grave-yard at midnight than onBroadway at noon.

  A man who can tell a reasonable story about having seen a ghost may notfind many believers, but he will get plenty of listeners, for we are alleager to hear about such things.

  So Nick, who always likes to oblige his friends, does not deny theexistence of spirits when he is asked whether he ever saw any. On thecontrary, if he has the time to spare, he usually tells the followingstory:

  A broad-shouldered, square-jawed, bright-eyed young man called on Nickone afternoon, and was ushered into the study.

  His card had gone up ahead of him, and it bore the name--Horace G.Richmond.

  Nick ran his eye over his visitor, and decided that he was a fellow whoknew the world and was getting everything out of it that there is in it.

  He met Nick's eye with the air of a man who is going to do somethingunusual, and wants to announce at the start that he can back it up.

  "I have a case for you, Mr. Carter, if you will take it," he said.

  "State it," replied Nick.

  "It's a robbery case, and a mighty queer one. I don't pretend tounderstand it or any part of it."

  "Who's been robbed?"

  "My uncle, Colonel Richmond, or, I should say, his daughter, Mrs. Pond.But the robbery affects my uncle perhaps more seriously than hisdaughter. It is on his account that I am here."

  "Tell the story."

  "I'll do it, but first let me say that whatever others may think of thecase, I believe it's just simply theft. Mrs. Pond has a lot of jewelryand somebody is stealing it a piece at a time.

  "That's my view, but my uncle's is different. He says that theserobberies are not the work of human hands.

  "Now, as for me, I try to keep my feet on the earth all the time. I wantyou to understand right at the start that I don't believe in any stuffabout ghosts and hobgoblins.

  "In my opinion, ghosts that steal diamonds ought to be in the jug, andwill probably get there unless they turn over a new leaf.

  "My uncle doesn't see as straight as that. Perhaps you remember that,three or four years ago, he fell into the hands of a couple of sharkswho pretended to be mediums.

  "He had always believed in spiritualism, and those crooks caught himjust right. They called up the spooks of all the dead people he couldthink of. They got messages from the spirit land seven nights in theweek and two matinees. My uncle simply went wild about it. You remember.It was all in the papers. They worked him beautifully, and if I had notstepped in and exposed them just in time they'd have got every cent hehad."

  "That would have been quite a haul," said Nick.

  "Well, I should remark! He's worth more than four million dollars. Itell you, those bogus mediums thought they'd struck something very soft.

  "However, I showed them up, and convinced my uncle that they were rankfrauds. They're in Sing Sing now.

  "My uncle did not give up his belief in spirits. He said 'these peopleare frauds, but there are others who honestly and truly holdcommunication with the departed.'

  "I tell you, we've had a hard time keeping him out of the hands ofsharpers since then. But we've succeeded.

  "And now, by bad luck, this queer affair has come up, and all my uncle'sfaith has returned. He wants to consult mediums, and all that sort ofthing.

  "That's the only serious part of it. The jewels that have been stolenaren't worth over a couple of thousand dollars, all told.

  "Of course, it's a nuisance to have such a thing happen in anybody'shouse, but we wouldn't care much if the mysterious circumstances werenot driving my uncle's mind back to his pet delusion."

  "What are these mysterious circumstances?" asked the detective.

  "Why, it's like this: Colonel Richmond's aunt, Miss Lavina Richmond, wasa queer old lady, who was once very rich. At that time she had a passionfor collecting jewels. She used to invest her money in diamonds, just asanother person might buy houses or railroad stock.

  "Only about a tenth part of her fortune was invested so that she got anyincome out of it. In the last part of her life she lost all that partof her property, so that she hadn't anything in the world but her jewels.

  "She wouldn't sell one, and there she was as poor in one sense as alodger in City Hall Square--for she hadn't a cent of money--and yetowning diamonds and other precious stones worth nearly a milliondollars.

  "She wouldn't borrow on them; she wouldn't do anything but keep themlocked up; and so she had to depend absolutely on my uncle for thenecessities of life.

  "He didn't mind that, of course, for he had plenty. She lived at hishouse, and eventually died there.

  "She and my uncle never got along well, in spite of his kindness to her,and she had no friends except a Mrs. Stevens and her daughter. They'rerelated to the Richmonds, but the money is all in the colonel's branchof the family.

  "Mrs. Stevens and Millie, her daughter, are poor. They have just enoughto live on. The colonel would take care of them, but they won't have it.They're too proud.

  "Now, everybody thought that old Miss Lavina Richmond would leave hertremendous pile of diamonds to Millie Stevens. Indeed, Miss Richmondused to say so continually. I've heard her say, in the colonel'spresence, that Miss Stevens should have the jewels; that such was herwish.

  "Well, she died suddenly a year or more ago, and the only will thatcould be found was dated many years back, and left everything shepossessed to the colonel's daughter.

  "It was the greatest surprise that you can imagine. We all knew thatsuch a will had been made, but we hadn't the slightest idea that itstill existed, and that she had made no other. On the contrary, we knewpositively that she had made a much later will in favor of MillieStevens. But the document couldn't be found, and so the old one wassubmitted for probate.

  "The colonel expected a contest, but the Stevenses did not make amurmur. It must have been a tremendous disappointment to them, but theybore it with perfect good nature. They didn't seem to feel half so badlyabout it as my uncle did. If he had had his way, he would have given allthe jewels to Miss Stevens.

  "He said over and over again that he believed it was his aunt's wishthat the girl should have them. And I can tell you, there's no man soparticular as he is about respecting the wishes of the dead.

  "Mrs. Pond would have turned over the whole lot to Millie Stevens, Ibelieve, if it hadn't been for her husband.

  "Mr. Pond isn't a rich man, and he didn't feel that he could afford toyield up a million dollars' worth of property that had been thrown athim in that way. And, to speak plainly, he isn't the sort of man to letgo of anything that comes within his reach.

  "My uncle offered to do the fair thing out of his own pocket, but, asI've said, the Stevenses wouldn't touch his money; and there the casehas stood ever since.

  "The most valuable of the jewels are in the vaults of the Central SafeDeposit Company in this city. Some of the smaller pieces are in Mrs.Pond's possession. She is a woman who likes to wear a lot of jewelry,and, by Jupiter, she can do it now if she likes, for she owns morediamonds than the Astors.

  "Mr. and Mrs. Pond live in Cleveland. Mrs. Pond, as I've told you, isnow visiting her father. You know he bought the old Plummer place on theshore of Hempstead Harbor, Long Island.

  "She has been with him about two weeks. She has two rooms on the secondfloor of the house, a sitting-room and a bed-room. The bed-room opensoff the hall. It has only one other door, which leads to hersitting-room.

  "The first robbery occurred on the second day after she had arrived. Itwas late in the afternoon.

  "Mrs. Pond had been out riding. When she returned she hurried up to herroom to dress for dinner.

  "She took off some of
her jewelry--some rings, pins and that sort ofthing--and laid them on the dressing-table. Then she went into hersitting-room.

  "Remember, I'm telling this just as she told it. How much of it is factand how much is hysterics I can't say. She was scared half out of herwits by what happened afterward, and may have got mixed up in hernarrative.

  "This is what she told us: When she had been in the sitting-room about aminute she turned toward the bedroom and saw the door slowly shutting.

  "She was surprised at this, for she had locked the other door of thebed-room, and it did not seem possible for anybody to be in there.

  "In fact, such a thing did not come into her mind. She supposed that adraught of air was swinging the door.

  "She hastened toward it, but it closed before she got there.

  "She turned the knob and tried to open the door, but was unable to doso. It did not seem to resist firmly, as it would if it had beenfastened. Instead it gave slightly, as if some person had been holdingit.

  "If that was the case, he was stronger than she was, for she didn'tsucceed in opening the door.

  "Then she screamed. Such a yell I never heard a woman utter. I was in myown room, which is over hers, and I jumped nearly out of my skin, itstartled me so.

  "I was dressing, and was in my underclothes, so it took me a minute, Ishould say, to get a pair of pantaloons on.

  "Then I ran out into the hall and down the stairs. At the same momentmy uncle ran up from the ground floor.

  "I mention these facts, because they seem to me to be important. Yousee, we approached that room by two ways--by the only two ways exceptthat by which Mrs. Pond came.

  "Just as I got to the hall door of her bed-room she opened it, and fellinto my arms in a faint.

  "She lost consciousness only for a moment, and, on coming to herself,she cried out that a thief had been in her room.

  "By this time there were three or four servants in the hall below. Oneof them staid there by my uncle's orders. The others went outside andmade a circuit of the house.

  "We led Mrs. Pond back into her room, and she pointed to herdressing-table.

  "There lay two or three rings and a pin, but the most valuable ring thatshe had put there was gone.

  "It was a queer, old-fashioned ring in the form of a snake, and in itsmouth was a ruby worth about two hundred and fifty dollars. The eyeswere made of small diamonds.

  "She declared that she had left the ring there. She told us how the doorbetween the two rooms had closed.

  "It appears that after she had struggled to open it for several minutesit suddenly yielded, and she almost fell into the room.

  "Of course, she expected to rush straight upon the thief. He had beenholding the door, and naturally he couldn't have gone far afterreleasing it.

  "She was inside just as soon as the pressure on the other side wasremoved. But the room was empty.

  "She thought of her jewels at once. She rushed to her dressing-table,and instantly missed the ruby ring.

  "Now, that's all there is to it. We hunted high and low for the thief,and did not find a trace of him.

  "How did he get away? That's where I give up the riddle. The door in thehall was locked on the inside, and practically guarded by my uncle andmyself. At the other door stood Mrs. Pond.

  "There is only one window. It looks out on a sort of court with thehouse on three sides of it.

  "A man with a wagon was almost under the window all the time. He wasdelivering groceries to the cook.

  "It's absurd to suppose that anybody got in or out by that window. Nothief would have been fool enough to try it at that time of day, and, asI've told you, there were two persons who would have been perfectly sureto see him if he had. And he couldn't have got in or out without aladder.

  "I admit that it looked very queer. What do you make of it, Mr. Carter?"

  "Are you sure the ring was really taken? Couldn't she have been mistakenabout it?"

  "That's the idea that occurred to me. But it happens that when Mrs. Pondcame back from the drive my uncle banded her out of the carriage, and hedistinctly remembers seeing the ring on her finger.

  "She went straight to her room, and she couldn't have lost the ring bythe way, for there was a guard ring on the outside of it, and that wefound on the dressing-table.

  "Of course, we hunted for the ruby ring. We took up the carpets; we madesuch a search as I never saw before. The ring was not there.

  "I don't think there's a shadow of doubt that the ring was stolen, but Ican't form an idea of how it was done.

  "The more I think about it the more confused I get. To my mind thequeerest part of it is that somebody held the door, and then let go ofit and vanished in a quarter of a second. How are we going to explainthat?"

  "Didn't the thief put something against the door?"

  "I thought of that, and tried to work out that theory, but it'simpossible. Not a piece of furniture was out of place, and there wasn'ta stick or a prop of any kind in the room that could have been used forsuch a purpose."

  "Well, that's strange, I must admit," said Nick. "I guess it will benecessary for me to go down and look the ground over."

  "That's just what we want."

  "Come along, then. I'm ready."