Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-03


him. hasfi't asgrtat chance to get sway-lif
he Is caught, say. he will probably get
sonnet thing handsome at St. Petersburg in
the way Of Imprisonment or Siberia ~
what not: 50 that you win pc AMPLY
] yes. but 4 don't ii all understand this
business of the drawings even now. How
In the world we're they taken out of the
place, and how III the world did you find it
soutT' ssssss s.ssRss
1 Nothing could be simpler; and yet the
plan was rather ingenious. Ill tell you
exactly how the thing revealed itself TO me.
From your original description of the case
many people would consider that an i'm
possibility had been performed Nobody
had gone out and nobody had come in, and
yet the drawings had been taken away.
But an impossibility Is an fmpossibiiity,
after all. and as drawings don't run away
OF themselves plainly somebody had taken
them, unaccOuntable as 1t might seem.
Now, as they were In your inner Office
the only people who could have got at them
besides yourself were your assistants, so
that. 1t was pretty clear that one of them,
at least, had something to do with the
business. You told me that Worsfold was
an excellent and intelligent draughtsmans
Well, if such a man as that meditated
treachery, he would probably. be able TO
carry away the design in his head-at any
rate, little at a time-and would be under
no necessity to run the risk of stealing a
set of the drawings But. Ritter YOU re-
marked, was an inferior sort of man, mot
particularly smart / think, were your
words-only a mechanical sort of tracer.
He would be unlikely to be able to- carry
In his head the complicated details of such
designs as yours, and, being in SUI
coordinate position. and continually over
looked, he would find it impossible to make
copies of the plans in the Office So that
to begin with, thought / saw the most
probable path to start ON.
when looked round the rooms, 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
the outer office, and my attention was in
stsntly called to him by the first thing he
did: Did you notice anything peculiar your
seif?'
NO really, 1 can't say did. He seemed
to behave much as any traveller or agent
might"
We'll, what noticed 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.
q most unusual thing for a casual caller to
do, before even knowing whether you were
In. This made me watch him closely. l
perceived with increased interest that the
stick was exactly of the same kind and
pattern as one already standing there, also
curious thing. 1 kept my eyes carefully
on those sticks, and was all the more in
terested and edited to see when he left,
that he took the other stick-not the one
he came wfth-from the stand and carried
1t away, leaving his own behind. 1 might
have followed him. but decided that more
could be learned by staying, as, in fact,
proved to be the case. This, by the by, is
the stick he carried away with him. l took
the liberty of fetching it back from West
minister, because conceive it to be Ritters
property
Hewitt produced the stick. 1t was an or
f7iv iply Mol
horn handle and silver band. Hewitt bent
ii across his knee and laid 1t on the table.
Yes" Dixon answered. that is Ritters
stick. think l have often seen it in the
stand But what in the world
One moment; I'll just fetch the stick
Mirsky left behind And Hewitt stepped
across the corridor
He returned with another stick. apparent
ly an exact facsimile of the other, and
placed it by the side of the other.
when your assistants went into the in
ner room carried this stick off for min
ute or two. 1 knew it was not Worsfolds s,
because there was an umbrella there with
his initial on the handle. Look at this
Martin Hewitt gave the handle a twist
and rapidly unscrewed 1t from the top.
Then i, was seen that the stick was mere
tube of very thin metal, painted to appear
like Malacca cane.
1T was plain at once that this was no
Melacca cane-it wouldn't bend. Inside it
1 found your tracings, rolled up tightly.
You can get a marvellous quantity of thin
tracing paper into small compass by
tight rolling
''And this-this was the way they were
brought backr' the engineer exclaimed. II
see that clearly. But how did they get
away? That's as mysterious as ever"
mot a bit Of it! See here. Mirsky 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
DC 10 thnt fhnyy h ov,ff 1ar ca6
for moment. Ritter 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 sezes
the first opportunity-probably when you
were in this private 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 1890 or
whenever 1t was, Mirsky turns up for the
first time with the actual stick and ex-
changes them, just as he afterward did
when he brought the drawings back
yes, but Mirsky came half an hour after
they we're Oh, yes. 1 see. What fool
/ was! l was forgetting. OF course when
this walking stick, safe enough, and 1 was
tearing my hair out within arms reach of
themr'
Precisely. And Mirsky took them away
DeIore your very eyes. / expect Ritter
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 Of
fee"
How lucky that 1t struck me to jot a
pencil note on one Of them! I might 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 think the rest
pretty clear. I brought the tracings in
here, screwed up the sham stick and nut II
back. You identified the tracings and found
none missing, and then my course was
pretty clear, though it looked difficult.
knew you would be very naturally indig-
nant with Ritter, SO, as wanted to manage
him myself, 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 1 pretended to know nothing of
the return of the drawings or how thew
had been stolen-the only things did know
with certainty. But did pretend to know
all about Mirsky-or Hunter-when, as a
matter of fact, knew nothing at ALL ex-
cept that he probably went under more
than one name. That put Ritter into nv
hands completely. When he found the
game was up he began with a lying con-
fession. Believing that the tracings were
stu In the stick and that we knew nothing
ha cafA