Four Max Carrados Detective Stories

by Ernest Bramah

ridiculousmare's nest, bred in the fantastic imagination of an enthusiasticcriminologist."

  Mr. Carrados received this outburst with the utmost benignity. "Comeand have a coffee, Louis," he suggested. "Mehmed's is only a streetaway."

  Mehmed proved to be a cosmopolitan gentleman from Mocha whose shopresembled a house from the outside and an Oriental divan when one waswithin. A turbaned Arab placed cigarettes and cups of coffee spicedwith saffron before the customers, gave salaam and withdrew.

  "You know, my dear chap," continued Mr. Carlyle, sipping his blackcoffee and wondering privately whether it was really very good or verybad, "speaking quite seriously, the one fishy detail--our gingerfriend's watching for the other to leave--may be open to a dozen veryinnocent explanations."

  "So innocent that to-morrow I intend taking a safe myself."

  "You think that everything is all right?"

  "On the contrary, I am convinced that something is very wrong."

  "Then why--?"

  "I shall keep nothing there, but it will give me the _entree_. Ishould advise you, Louis, in the first place to empty your safe withall possible speed, and in the second to leave your business card onthe manager."

  Mr. Carlyle pushed his cup away, convinced now that the coffee wasreally very bad.

  "But, my dear Max, the place--'The Safe'--is impregnable!"

  "When I was in the States, three years ago, the head porter at onehotel took pains to impress on me that the building was absolutelyfireproof. I at once had my things taken off to another hotel. Twoweeks later the first place was burnt out. It _was_ fireproof, Ibelieve, but of course the furniture and the fittings were not and thewalls gave way."

  "Very ingenious," admitted Mr. Carlyle, "but why did you really go?You know you can't humbug me with your superhuman sixth sense, myfriend."

  Carrados smiled pleasantly, thereby encouraging the watchful attendantto draw near and replenish their tiny cups.

  "Perhaps," replied the blind man, "because so many careless peoplewere satisfied that it was fireproof."

  "Ah-ha, there you are--the greater the confidence the greater therisk. But only if your self-confidence results in carelessness. Now doyou know how this place is secured, Max?"

  "I am told that they lock the door at night," replied Carrados, withbland malice.

  "And hide the key under the mat to be ready for the first arrival inthe morning," crowed Mr. Carlyle, in the same playful spirit. "Dearold chap! Well, let me tell you--"

  "That force is out of the question. Quite so," admitted his friend.

  "That simplifies the argument. Let us consider fraud. There again theprecautions are so rigid that many people pronounce the forms anuisance. I confess that I do not. I regard them as a means ofprotecting my own property and I cheerfully sign my name and give mypassword, which the manager compares with his record-book before hereleases the first lock of my safe. The signature is burned before myeyes in a sort of crucible there, the password is of my own choosingand is written only in a book that no one but the manager ever sees,and my key is the sole one in existence."

  "No duplicate or master-key?"

  "Neither. If a key is lost it takes a skilful mechanic half-a-day tocut his way in. Then you must remember that clients of a safe-depositare not multitudinous. All are known more or less by sight to theofficials there, and a stranger would receive close attention. Now,Max, by what combination of circumstances is a rogue to know mypassword, to be able to forge my signature, to possess himself of mykey, and to resemble me personally? And, finally, how is he possiblyto determine beforehand whether there is anything in my safe to repayso elaborate a plant?" Mr. Carlyle concluded in triumph and was socarried away by the strength of his position that he drank off thecontents of his second cup before he realized what he was doing.

  "At the hotel I just spoke of," replied Carrados, "there was anattendant whose one duty in case of alarm was to secure three irondoors. On the night of the fire he had a bad attack of toothache andslipped away for just a quarter of an hour to have the thing out.There was a most up-to-date system of automatic fire alarm; it hadbeen tested only the day before and the electrician, finding some partnot absolutely to his satisfaction, had taken it away and not had timeto replace it. The night watchman, it turned out, had received leaveto present himself a couple of hours later on that particular night,and the hotel fireman, whose duties he took over, had missed beingnotified. Lastly, there was a big riverside blaze at the same time andall the engines were down at the other end of the city."

  Mr. Carlyle committed himself to a dubious monosyllable. Carradosleaned forward a little.

  "All these circumstances formed a coincidence of pure chance.Is it not conceivable, Louis, that an even more remarkable seriesmight be brought about by design?"

  "Our tawny friend?"

  "Possibly. Only he was not really tawny." Mr. Carlyle's easy attitudesuddenly stiffened into rigid attention. "He wore a false moustache."

  "He wore a false moustache!" repeated the amazed gentleman. "And youcannot see! No, really, Max, this is beyond the limit!"

  "If only you would not trust your dear, blundering old eyes soimplicitly you would get nearer that limit yourself," retortedCarrados. "The man carried a five-yard aura of spirit gum, emphasizedby a warm, perspiring skin. That inevitably suggested one thing. Ilooked for further evidence of making-up and found it--thesepreparations all smell. The hair you described was characteristicallythat of a wig--worn long to hide the joining and made wavy to minimizethe length. All these things are trifles. As yet we have not gonebeyond the initial stage of suspicion. I will tell you another trifle.When this man retired to a compartment with his deed-box, he nevereven opened it. Possibly it contains a brick and a newspaper. He isonly watching."

  "Watching the bookmaker."

  "True, but it may go far wider than that. Everything points to a plotof careful elaboration. Still, if you are satisfied--"

  "I am quite satisfied," replied Mr. Carlyle gallantly. "I regard 'TheSafe' almost as a national institution, and as such I have an implicitfaith in its precautions against every kind of force or fraud." So farMr. Carlyle's attitude had been suggestive of a rock, but at thispoint he took out his watch, hummed a little to pass the time,consulted his watch again, and continued: "I am afraid that there wereone or two papers which I overlooked. It would perhaps save me comingagain to-morrow if I went back now--"

  "Quite so," acquiesced Carrados, with perfect gravity. "I will waitfor you."

  For twenty minutes he sat there, drinking an occasional tiny cup ofboiled coffee and to all appearance placidly enjoying the quaintatmosphere which Mr. Mehmed had contrived to transplant from theshores of the Persian Gulf.

  At the end of that period Carlyle returned, politely effusive aboutthe time he had kept his friend waiting but otherwise bland andunassailable. Anyone with eyes might have noticed that he carried aparcel of about the same size and dimensions as the deed-box thatfitted his safe.

  The next day Carrados presented himself at the safe-deposit as anintending renter. The manager showed him over the vaults andstrong-rooms, explaining the various precautions taken to render theguile or force of man impotent: the strength of the chilled-steelwalls, the casing of electricity-resisting concrete, the stupendousisolation of the whole inner fabric on metal pillars so that thewatchman, while inside the building, could walk above, below, and allround the outer walls of what was really--although it bore no actualrelationship to the advertising device of the front--a monstrous safe;and, finally, the arrangement which would enable the basement to beflooded with steam within three minutes of an alarm. These detailswere public property. "The Safe" was a showplace and its directorsheld that no harm could come of displaying a strong hand.

  Accompanied by the observant eyes of Parkinson, Carrados gave anadventurous but not a hopeful attention to these particulars.Submitting the problem of the tawny man to his own ingenuity, he wasconstantly putting before himself the question: How shall I set aboutrobbing this pl
ace? and he had already dismissed force asimpracticable. Nor, when it came to the consideration of fraud, didthe simple but effective safeguards which Mr. Carlyle had specifiedseem to offer any loophole.

  "As I am blind I may as well sign in the book," he suggested, when themanager passed him a gummed slip for the purpose. The precautionagainst one acquiring particulars of another client might well bedeemed superfluous in his case.

  But the manager did not fall into the trap.

  "It is our invariable rule in all cases, sir," he replied courteously."What word will you take?" Parkinson, it may be said, had been left inthe hall.

  "Suppose I happen to forget it? How