The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-12-03
A DETECTIVE CASE.

you, 1t gave me a start IN my career "hich
L have never lost.
1t was one morning several winters ago
when I was ordered by my chief TO call
on Mr.. --, a diamond merchant who
had reported a loss of diamonds worth
$50, OOO Further than that the house was
in Soho, / need not give you any parucu-
lars of this gentleman'5 name or address.
1 was then very young to be entrusted
with so important a case, but we were
busy at the time, and my chief was kind
enough to express his faith in my ability.
had not been ten minutes in the house
before / saw that / had before me task
Of no little difficulty. The room in whic
/ stood was OblOng in shape. One end
was occupied by a large window looking
on the street. Standing with your BACK
to the window, on the right hand SIDE
was a fireplace, on the left the door; pc
tween them stood a large square taOIe,
above which was the chandelier with
four or five lights. Against the rlght
hand wall some little distance from the
fireplace stood large safe facing
into the room. Save one or two chairs
there was no other furniture in the room
Il was from the safe that the diamonds in
question had been stolen. But here was
the puzzle-the safe had been drilled open,
a work which must have taken at least an
hour and a half, and the room remained
all night with the blinds drawn up and
the gas lighted, in full view of the passer-
by in the street and of tbs policeman on
beat who passed every half hour. There
were two keys of the safe-One in the pos
session of Mr.. -- and the other belong
ing to his son. The custom was that the
old gentleman left the office frs and went
home to his place at Dulwich, the two
clerks left at o'clock, and the son was
usually the last to leave, locking the safe
and seeing that all was left in security.
The other rooms in the house were let out
as offices, but all the tenants left before
o'clock, and when Mr.. IS Office was
locked up the only occupants of the house
were the caretaker and his wife who lived
in the attic.
The robbery had been discovered by
Mr.. on his arrival first at the office on
the morning in question. He had been
followed by his clerks and his son in the
order named, and I found all four present
when I reached the house On making
inquiries | found that Mr.. - himself
had locked the safe on the previous even
ing. The clerks had gone as usual at
and Mr.. - having had to remain later
than usual saw everything clear before
his departure. He and his son left to-
getber, the father going home and the son
goil5g to dine with friend, with whom
he slept. The hOusekeeper had swept and
cleaned the offices as usual and had
finished work by s o'clock, at which hour
she and her husband went upstairs to
to their own rooms at the top of the house.
They did not come down again that night
and had heard no noise.
/ felt little difficulty as to the entrance
or exit of the thief He might have en-
tered the house at any time on the pre-
vious afternoon and, as there was more
than one unOccupied room in the house,
have lain perdu till it was time to COM
mence operations; and, as / found a win
dow at the back of the house unfastened,
concluded he had made good his escape
through the yard and by way of low
wall into an adjoining court But how
had he been able to work so long with
out attracting attention from anyone?
The street was not a busy thor
oughfare, but there must have been
some wayfarers despite the fact that the
night had been an inciement one; and as
have said policeman passed every half
hour. | made a careful inspection Of the
room, but found nothing save piece of
amber from the mOuthpieCe of a pipe. On
looking at the walls l noticed at opposite
sides of the room, high up near the cor
nice two marks, as though nails had been
these out to Mr.. - he could give me no
information. He had never noticed them
before, but they might be old marks for
all he knew.
l then proceeded to make inquiries; first
as to the whereabouts of the clerks on the
night in question. Mr. - had told me
he had no suspicious as to their integrity,
but, of course, it was my business to
make sure, and I found they were able to
account for their time quite satisfactorily
The policeman who had been on duty
could not help me. He had passed each
half hour but had seen nothing suspi-
cious. A number of persons had passed
up and down the street. but he had only re
cOgnized one man, a chem ist who lived on
an adjoining street. Application to this
gentleman elected nothing further He
had passed down the street between IL
and - on his way home and had looked in
at the lighted window as usual. but there
was certainly no one in the room
then. L returned to headquarters to
make my preliminary report and directed
careful inquiries to be made with a view
to identify, if possible any persons who
were in the street throughout the night
Wen, sir, for two days l was at my wits
end All our eudeavors proved fruitless
and the more l turned the matter over
the more helpless l felt.
On the third day I was passing through
B street, and looked in to see my
brother, who was laid up through an &c
cident He lodged in rooms over the shop
of a house and sign painter who had a
small but fairly prosperous business. On
leaving him / came down TO the shop to
give some instructions to his landlord and
whilst was talking to the latter he was
called away for a few minutes. Amusing
by the rough sketch of a safe
which was lying on the counter. AL
though my head was full of safes, as You
may suppose, doubt if l should have
looked twice at this one had it not been
that the sketch was an exact copy of the
safe in which | was so much interested,
and which, l should have explained, was
of peculiar appearance in that it was
much narrower IN proportion to its height
than is customary On the painters
return [ held up the sketch and asked him
if he had gone in for a new line of bust
ness. well, yes, sir, ," he said, laughing.
that's a sketch l used in my first attempt
at scene painting. a young fellow for
whom I've done little business came in
the other day and pursuaded me TO paint
him scene for some private tneatricals
he was getting up. 1t represented the
wall of an Office and that safe stood in one
corner. He was good to say that | sue
ceeded very well and he told me after
ward that it had given him great salts.
faction"
Well, sir, the whole thing flashed on me
In moment My gentleman had hung up
this drop scene IN front of the safe, and
the room T. en- presented its ordidary APP
to the street, whilst behind this
ingenious screen he had been able to
L.