The Washington herald., 1913-08-03
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CHAPTER I.

Wlthln an hour!
Il have a directors meeting at
o'clock, but / am free until then"
Better put of that directors meeting,
Chris This is something very important.
All right I'll be there in half an hour.
CHRISTOPHER Poe hung up the receiver
and catching up light coat and straw
hat he ran lightly down the stairs tand
walked across TO Broadway where he
hailed a taxi ard ordered the driver \to
take him to the Metropolitan Museum Of
Art
As he whizzed uptown he rapidly ran
over in his mind the various services he
had rendered to Sir Arthur Hornsby. Ten
years ago he had assisted in running to
ground a clever Partisan syndicate Of
curio dealers who had systematically
stolen many of the valuable coins in the
museum collection. After that he had
worked on a substitute bronze which
had been procured by the art gallery
and it was through his efforts that
great fraud had been exposed.
Alighting in front of the spacious GAL
lery he went through the side door and
knocked at a suite of rooms given over
TO the active manager of the museum.
A large honey Englshman with droop-
ing rnustache rose from his desk quickly
as Poe entered and extended his hand
in greeting.
ITS about The Morning Mist You
remember that we bought it five years
ago from an obscure dealer right here in
New York;
Yes, the price was $4,000 remember
there was quite a little newspaper COM
ment at the time concerning the price
and the manner in which it was pro-
cured
Yes" answered Sir Arthur Hornsby.
there was some doubt as to whether or
not it was a genuine canvas"
ah-n ryh
the Fifth Avenue dealer, didn't your"
asked the New York banker. who also
had. time 10 follow all the art acquisitions
at the Metropolitan.
Yes; he guaranteed It as a genuine
Turner and the only thing that made US
suspicious was the low price
Well what happened to it."
Stolen
When
We just discovered il this morning"
And you have no clew?"
No nothing at all. and the only evil
dence there is that the picture was stolen
last night is that the door between the
Turner room and the Egyptian room was
found tempered with today.
Was the picture cut out of the
frame" asked Poe, "or was it removed
without injury?
a clever substitute was put into the
frame. If it weren't for the brilliancy of
the paint the substitute might easily be
taken for the original
Have you closed the Turner room to
visitors this morning." asked Poe.
No. not yet" the manager Of the
museum pressed button on his desk and
both sat silent several moments until an
attendant appeared and Sir Hornsby said:
viii you see that the Turner room is
locked up and that no one is allowed to
enter
You had better close the Egyptian
room. too until we have chance to look
the ground over thoroughly put in the
banker-detectiVe.
"An right. sir" answered the attend
ant. withdrawing.
CHRISTOPHER Poe picked up a diagram Of
the Metropolitan from the directors desk
and turned quickly to the diagram show
ing the arrangement Of the rooms. He
marked the chamber containing the Egyp-
ton display. mostly mumnies and quaint
clay vessels. and put a check mark
against the small art gallery where half
a dozen of Turner'S masterpieces were
displayed. Then he pointed with his PEN
Gil TO the door between the two rooms
and asked: That is fitted with the regu-
lar locks, the same as is on this door
here?"
Yes" answered Sir Arthur The doors
are not so hard to open. The question
is how any man or any person could
conceal himself in the Egyptian room.
There is rigid examination every night
before lookup time and it does not seem
possible that any person could contrive
TO have themselves locked in all night in
any of the rooms
We'll. let us go to work Immediately"
suggested Poe. II infer that there has
been no publicity given out on this?"
''Of course not. 1t would be foolish to
scare away the thief He would doubtless
take fight to some foreign country If the
newspapers published the story about it."
Sir Arthur Hornsby arpse and held the
door open for his friend. They passed
through series of corridors until they
came to a small door which an attendant
unlocked for them. As soon as they had
entered the room Christopher Poe stepped
to the place where The Morning Mist"
had been hung. He was surprised to find
that the frame was in its usual position
and that the picture within the frame
looked startlingly like the original. but as
the director had suggested the paint
seemed fresher. the colors mere vivid
and the work gave the impression Of a
clever imitation.
II suppose the public would never find
out that substitution had been made"
remarked Christoper Poe as he stepped
close to the picture and examined it crit
ically. The brush work is certainly
that of Turner'S. The colors are his. too
He lifted the frame from the wall and
carefully examined the back of the pic
ture. The canvas had been newly tackled
on. and there were slight scratches where
the hammer had slipped.
You see said Sir Arthur Hornsby.
the work was doubtless done by a man
very familiar with pictures
The thing that puzzles me, said Chris
TOPPER Poe slowly, lis that this canvas is
really very old
picture is probably painted over an origi-
nal by some minor artist of a hundred
years ago"
But the paint. in spite of its bril-
hancy." said Poe, seems to have been on
the canvas for a good many years. too
The whole thing seems pulling ! can't
see how it would benefit anybody to steal
The Morning Mist and put in its place
a picture which would pass as its equal
TO the average public and probably TO
most experts I don't believe We will find
anything more here: let's look at the
connecting door and then glance around
the Egyptian ROOM
The New York banker opened the door
= that had been tempered with and care
fully examined the lock. Marks on the
metal part about the knob showed that
no expert hand had been engaged in the
business.
1.-THE man who did this was surely an
amateur craftsman but a professional
picture man." remarked Poe, turning
away from the door after a superficial
examination.
He stenned IA the r,iddIe ~ fhe large