Evening star., 1923-01-07
This Detective Lacked Ordinary Imagi-
nation, But He Possessed the Qualities
His Profession Required.

| of artificial stones, that appearance as
If they were pressed instead of cut
But il was the aspect of artificial stones
of lower order than the one / had
shown to Bartoldi. This one was cut
and ii looked crisp to me, very nearly
as crisp as the best one. But there is
where the trained eye comes in. Walker
knew it was false, and BartoIdi knew
1t instantly. He could see the stratifi-
cations with his eye.
! could see them with a good lens. but
l could not see the sleek look, and /
moved toward the tray on the counter
to get a close view. l did not move
directly ahead l moved to one side
and l discovered two persons who had
come into the shop behind me.
/ took up my diamond and stood
out of the way at once. / had no wish
to delay a customer. l was only idling
with a laboratory diamond, and Bar
! toldi had to sell jewels to keep his
shop going. I could not take up his
time unless he happened to be at lei
sure.
The two persons who had come in at
once attracted my attention. They
would have attracted the attention of
anybody, even if there had been moth
ing to follow. If one had CHANGED to
observe them. he would have stopped
and considered them anywhere.
One would have been forced to think
about them. They would have stimu-
| lated ones curiosity. No one could
have passed those two persons with
| out undertaking to formulate some ex-
PLANTATION and to me there was some
| thing more than their mere appearance
In my mind there was vague i'm
| preston that / had seen them in some
other place. | could not at the mo-
ment remember the place; it was what
| psychologists call subconscious, / sup
! pose. At any rate. II did not crystalline
into memory. But it remained as q
sort of atmosphere behind the vivid
! impression they made on me.
The two persons were an old man
and a girl. The two words go together,
but the two persons did not go to-
gether in any sense. The girl was not
past sixteen, and the man was past
seventy. That would be all right-an
old man and his granddaughter, you
would say.
But it was not all right That was
just exactly the impression that was so
cryingly conspicuous. 1t was not all
right.
The man was very we'll dressed ;
everything about him was of the best
quality. and tinguished-perhaps just
little too distinguished, a little too
vivid When one thought about it, one
saw that he was dressed somewhat for
younger part. There was a bit Of
color, a suggestion of youth that the
| man did not have.
He was an old man, but he was a
vigorous old man, and he had the air
and manner of wealth about him.
can't precisely point out these indi-
catory signs, but they were easy to be
| marked and they are not often success
! fully assumed. l suppose a clever ac-
| tor could do it. Walker used to say
| that the best actors were not on the
stage; they were in Joliet.
Now, that is what the man looked
| like-one of the idle rich, grown old
in an atmosphere of luxury. He ought
| to have had, as ! figured him up, a
town house, a country estate, a yacht,
and very nearly every vice! His eyes.
his bad mouth and his fat ears were
good evidcntial signs / thought l
knew the type!
The girl filled me with a sort of
| wonder. She wore a little cheap
hand-me-down dress that must have
come from a village shop. and it
looked as though, she mad slept in it,.
She had slept in IL.
The sort of crumpled-up appear
ance of that cheap material could not
be mistaken. She wore a straw hat
lined with vivid color and loaded
with soiled artificial flowers. Her
shoes were run down a bit. She was
generally soiled, as she would have
been if she had travelled in a day.
| coach and slept in her clothes-and
that is precisely what she had done.
But all this could not obscure the
| fact that she was pretty, in a sort
of way. She had a plant figure and
the charms that go along with youth.
Sleeping in ones clothes and the
CRIME OF a journey can't obscure
that. She was young. and she had
| what youth has
Now you understand why I said
that the two together puzzled me.
Either alone would not attract a
glance, and certainly not a line OF
speculation. But the two together,
as 1 have insisted, called upon you
for an explanation.
They puzzled me, but they did not
puzzle Bartoldi I suppose he under
stood it more quickly than did. 1
understood it pretty quickly, just as
you have, no doubt, understood 1t all
along and as Bartoldi understood it
at a glance.
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