“Right,” admitted Cartwright.
“But I don’t see,” protested the adjuster.
“Just have patience, Mr. Bartlett,” said Claire, sweetly. “Oh, yes, I forgot something. How long could Mr. Jarvis have lived after the shots were fired?”
“Death was practically instantaneous. According to our doctors, he couldn’t have lived over a minute, if that long,” replied the adjuster. “But—”
“That’s fine. Now, Aunt Julia,” continued Claire, turning to the old negress, who had entered in response to her ring. “Prepare that pipe, just as you always did.”
“This is irrelevant,” protested Bartlett. “We’re not interested—”
“Oh, but you will be!” enthused Claire, as she smiled at his disgust. “Do step into the kitchen and watch.”
Bartlett swallowed his impatience. They all watched Aunt Julia put a square cake of charcoal on the gas burner, then shred a golden brown leaf of Persian tobacco, soak it in water, and wring it dry. She molded it into a heap, and placed it in the bowl of the pipe. Then with the brass tongs she picked up the glowing charcoal and laid it on the tobacco.
“Take it out in front,” directed Claire. “Just where Mr. Jarvis was sitting.”
“Really interesting,” began Bartlett, ironically. “Still—”
“Might as well see it through,” suggested the lawyer.
They sat there, watching the film of white ash accumulate on the surface of the charcoal. Claire put the mouthpiece to her lips, and drew deeply. The pipe gurgled, and bubbled, and a tiny wisp of smoke left her lips. As the charcoal burned, the outer coating of ash fell away.
“Do try it,” invited Claire, offering the pipe stem.
Both men hastily refused.
Claire’s glance shifted to the clock on the wall. She drew again. Another tiny wisp of smoke. She coiled the flexible stem around her wrist.
“The way they do in Cairo,” she explained, with a triumphant glint in her eye. “Like Mr. Jarvis did.”
“Mrs. Dennison,” protested the impatient adjuster, “I can’t see that this is getting us anywhere!”
He rose as if to leave.
“Oh, you don’t? Well, Mr. Bartlett, it’s about time to show you!”
She also rose to her feet.
“Look out!” the men cried in warning. But too late. The flexible stem about her wrist dragged the pipe from the table. The glowing charcoal lay like a great, living ruby on the Persian rug. They smelled the stench of burning wool.
“Let it alone!” commanded Claire, sharply, as Cartwright seized the brass tongs.
They glanced at her, and at each other, and at Claire’s sister, and shook their heads significantly.
“Look!” she insisted, ignoring their meaning glances.
She saw them wince as the square of red hot, living fire perceptibly settled as the nap beneath it was consumed. The wanton destruction of that antique fabric had an almost horrible fascination for them. They saw the black, oily distillate from the wool rise up along the edge of the coal. Then the coal shifted again, sinking deeper.
“Mrs. Dennison, are you in your right mind?” demanded Bartlett. “That rug is worth hundreds—”
“Not hundreds,” retorted Claire. “Exactly $50,000!”
The adjuster stared, speechless.
Claire seized the brass tongs. There was a perceptible sigh of relief as she picked the hungry destroyer from that rich, old rug. And then silence as they regarded the caked blackness that marked the burn.
“Mr. Bartlett,” began Claire, breaking the silence, “compare that burn with the one made when Mr. Jarvis was shot. As you may have noted, I smoked the pipe about ten minutes before I overturned it. The size of the hole I burned will convince you that Jarvis could not have been smoking much longer when he overturned his pipe.
“The cake of charcoal diminishes about a quarter of an inch every ten minutes. Try it.
“And,” she concluded, “you see, this rug is worth $50,000!”
“Guess you pay off, Bartlett!” exulted the lawyer .
“You win,” admitted the adjuster, as he reached for his pen, and a sheaf of papers.
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E. Hoffmann Price's Two-Fisted Detectives Page 61
