VTHE ADVENTURE OF THE BRASS CHECK
"Jenkins," said Raffles Holmes to me the other night as we sat in my denlooking over the criminal news in the evening papers, in search of someinteresting material for him to work on, "this paper says that Mrs.Wilbraham Ward-Smythe has gone to Atlantic City for a week, and will lendher gracious presence to the social functions of the Hotel Garrymore, atthat interesting city by the sea, until Monday, the 27th, when she willdepart for Chicago, where her sister is to be married on the 29th. How wouldyou like to spend the week with me at the Garrymore?"
"It all depends upon what we are going for," said I. "Also, what in thunderhas Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe got to do with us, or we with her?"
"Nothing at all," said Holmes. "That is, nothing much."
"Who is she?" I asked, eying him suspiciously.
"All I know is what I have seen in the papers," said Holmes. "She came in onthe _Altruria_ two weeks ago, and attracted considerable attention bydeclaring $130,000 worth of pearl rope that she bought in Paris, instead of,woman-like, trying to smuggle it through the custom-house. It broke theheart of pretty nearly every inspector in the service. She'd been watchedvery carefully by the detective bureau in Paris, and when she purchased therope there, the news of it was cabled over in cipher, so that they'd all beon the lookout for it when she came in. The whole force on the pier was onthe qui vive, and one of the most expert women searchers on the pay-roll wasdetailed to give her special attention the minute she set foot on shore; butinstead of doing as they all believed she would do, and giving theinspectors a chance to catch her at trying to evade the duties, to theirvery great profit, she calmly and coolly declared the stuff, paid her littlesixty-five per cent. like a major, and drove off to the Castoria in fullpossession of her jewels. The Collector of the Port had all he could do tokeep 'em from draping the custom-house for thirty days, they were all sogrief-stricken. She'll probably take the rope to Atlantic City with her."
"Aha!" said I. "That's the milk in the cocoanut, is it? You're after thatpearl rope, are you, Raffles?"
"On my honor as a Holmes," said he, "I am not. I shall not touch the pearlrope, although I have no doubt that I shall have some unhappy moments duringthe week that I am in the same hotel with it. That's one reason why I'd liketo have you go along, Jenkins--just to keep me out of temptation. Rafflesmay need more than Holmes to keep him out of mischief. I am confident,however, that with you to watch out for me, I shall be able to suppress thestrong tendency towards evil which at times besets me."
"We'd better keep out of it altogether, Holmes," said I, not liking theweight of responsibility for his good behavior that more than once he hadplaced on my shoulders. "You don't deny, I suppose, that the pearl rope is afactor in your intentions, whatever they may be."
"Of course I don't, Jenkins," was his response. "If it were not for herpearl rope, Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe could go anywhere she pleased withoutattracting any more attention from me than a passing motor-car. It would befutile for me to deny that, as a matter of fact, the pearl rope is anessential part of my scheme, and, even if it were not futile to do so, Ishould still not deny it, because neither my father nor my grandfather,Holmes nor Raffles, ever forgot that a gentleman does not lie."
"Then count me out," said I.
"Even if there is $7500 in it for you?" he said, with a twinkle in his eye.
"If it were $107,500 you could still count me out," I retorted. "I don'tlike the business."
"Very well," said he, with a sight. "I shall have to go alone and endeavorto fight the terrible temptation unaided, with a strong probability that Ishall fail, and, yielding to it, commit my first real act of crime, and inthat event, with the possibility of a term at Trenton prison, if I amcaught."
"Give it up, Raffles," I pleaded.
"And all because, in the hour of my need, my best friend, whose aid Ibegged, refused me," he went on, absolutely ignoring my plea.
"Oh, well, if you put it on that score," I said, "I'll go--but you mustpromise me not to touch the pearls."
"I'll do my best not to," he replied. "As usual, you have carte-blanche toput me out of business if you catch me trying it."
With this understanding I accompanied Raffles Holmes to Atlantic City thefollowing afternoon, and the following evening we were registered at theHotel Garrymore.
Holmes was not mistaken in his belief that Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe wouldtake her famous pearl rope to Atlantic City with her. That very evening,while we were sitting at dinner, the lady entered, and draped about herstately neck and shoulders was the thing itself, and a more beautifuldecoration was never worn by woman from the days of the Queen of Sheba tothis day of lavish display in jewels. It was a marvel, indeed, but themoment I saw it I ceased to give the lady credit for superior virtue infailing to smuggle it through the custom-house, for its very size would haveprecluded the possibility of a successful issue to any such attemptedevasion of the law. It was too bulky to have been secreted in any of theordinary ways known to smugglers. Hence her candid acknowledgment of itspossession was less an evidence of the lady's superiority to the majority ofher sex in the matter of "beating the government" than of her having beenconfronted with the proverbial choice of the unidentified Hobson.
"By Jove! Jenkins," Raffles Holmes muttered, hoarsely, as Mrs. Ward-Smytheparaded the length of the dining-room, as fairly corruscating with her richpossessions as though she were a jeweller's window incarnate, "it's apositive crime for a woman to appear in a place like this arrayed like that.What right has she to subject poor weak humanity to such temptation as nowconfronts every servant in this hotel, to say nothing of guests, who, likeourselves, are made breathless with such lavish display? There's poor oldTommie Bankson over there, for instance. See how he gloats over thosepearls. He's fairly red-eyed over them."
I glanced across the dining-room, and sure enough, there sat Tommie Bankson,and even from where we were placed we could see his hands tremble with theitch for possession, and his lips go dry with excitement as he thought ofthe material assets in full view under the glare of the dining-room electriclights.
"I happen to know on the inside," continued Holmes, "that Tommie is not onlya virtual bankrupt through stock speculation, but is actually face to facewith criminal disgrace for misuse of trust funds, all of which he couldescape if he could lay his hands upon half the stuff that woman is socarelessly wearing to-night. Do you think it's fair to wear, for the meregratification of one's vanity, things that arouse in the hearts of lessfortunate beings such passionate reflections and such dire temptations asthose which are now besetting that man?"
"I guess we've got enough to do looking after Raffles to-night, old man,without wasting any of our nerve-tissue on Tommie Bankson," I replied. "Comeon--let's get out of this. We'll go over to the Pentagon for the night, andto-morrow we'll shake the sands of Atlantic City from our feet and hieourselves back to New York, where the temptations are not so strong."
"It's too late," said Raffles Holmes. "I've set out on this adventure andI'm going to put it through. I wouldn't give up in the middle of anenterprise of this sort any more than I would let a balky horse refuse totake a fence I'd put him to. It's going to be harder than I thought, butwe're in it, and I shall stay to the end."
"What the devil is the adventure, anyhow?" I demanded, impatiently. "Youvowed you wouldn't touch the rope."
"I hope not to," was his response. "It is up to you to see that I don't. Myplan does not involve my laying hands upon even the shadow of it."
So we stayed on at the Garrymore, and a worse week I never had anywhere.With every glimpse of that infernal jewel the Raffles in Holmes becameharder and harder to control. In the daytime he was all right, but whennight came on he was feverish with the desire to acquire possession of thepearls. Twice in the middle of the night I caught him endeavoring to sneakout of our room, and upon each occasion, when I rushed after him and forcedhim back, he made no denial of my charge that he was going after the jewel.The last time it in
volved us both in such a terrible struggle that I vowedthen and there that the following morning should see my departure.
"I can't stand the strain, Holmes," said I.
"Well, if you can't stand _your_ strain," said Raffles Holmes, "what do youthink of mine?"
"The thing to do is to get out, that's all," I retorted. "I won't have anerve left in twenty-four hours. For four nights now I haven't had aminute's normal sleep, and this fight you've just put up has regularlyknocked me out."
"One more day Jenkins," he pleaded. "She goes day after to-morrow, and so dowe."
"We?" I cried. "After her?"
"Nope--she to Chicago--we to New York," said Holmes. "Stick it out, there'sa good fellow," and of course I yielded.
The next day--Sunday--was one of feverish excitement, but we got through itwithout mishap, and on Monday morning it was with a sigh of relief that Isaw Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe pull out of the Philadelphia station en routefor Chicago, while Raffles Holmes and I returned to New York.
"Well, Raffles," said I, as we sped on our homeward way, "we've had ourtrouble for our pains."
He laughed crisply. "Have we?" said he. "I guess not--not unless you havelost the trunk check the porter gave you."
"What, this brass thing?" I demanded, taking the check from my pocket andflicking it in the air like a penny.
"That very brass thing," said Holmes.
"You haven't lifted that damned rope and put it in my trunk!" I roared.
"Hush, Jenkins! For Heaven's sake don't make a scene. I haven't doneanything of the sort," he whispered, looking about him anxiously to makesure that we had not been overheard. "Those pearls are as innocent of mytouch as the top of the Himalaya Mountains is of yours."
"Then what have you done?" I demanded, sulkily.
"Just changed a couple of trunk checks, that's all," said Raffles Holmes."That bit of brass you have in your hand, which was handed to you in thestation by the porter of the Garrymore, when presented at Jersey City willput you in possession of Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe's trunk, containing thebulk of her jewels. She's a trifle careless about her possessions, as anyone could see who watched the nonchalant way in which she paraded the boardwalk with a small fortune on her neck and fingers. Most women would carrysuch things in a small hand-satchel, or at least have the trunk sent byregistered express, but not Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe; and, thanks to herloud voice, listening outside of her door last night, I heard her directingher maid where she wished the gems packed."
"And where the dickens is my trunk?" I asked.
"On the way to Chicago," said Raffles Holmes, calmly. "Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe has the check for it."
"Safe business!" I sneered. "Bribed the porter, I presume?"
"Jenkins, you are exceedingly uncomplimentary at times," said RafflesHolmes, showing more resentment than I had ever given him credit for."Perhaps you observed that I didn't go to the station in the omnibus."
"No, you went over to the drug-store after some phenacetine for yourheadache," said I.
"Precisely," said Holmes, "and after purchasing the phenacetine I jumpedaboard the Garrymore express-wagon and got a lift over to the station. Itwas during that ride that I transferred Mrs. Ward-Smythe's check from hertrunk to yours, and vice versa. It's one of the easiest jobs in the Rafflesbusiness, especially at this season of the year, when travel is heavy andporters are overworked."
"I'll see the trunk in the Hudson River, pearl rope and all, before I'llclaim it at Jersey City or anywhere else," said I.
"Perfectly right," Holmes returned. "We'll hand the check to the expressmanwhen he comes through the train, and neither of us need appear further inthe matter. It will merely be delivered at your apartment."
"Why not yours?" said I.
"Raffles!" said he, laconically, and I understood.
"And then what?" I asked.
"Let it alone, unopened, safe as a church, until Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythediscovers her loss, which will be to-morrow afternoon, and then--"
"Well?"
"Mr. Holmes will step in, unravel the mystery, prove it to be a mereinnocent mistake, collect about ten or fifteen thousand dollars reward,divvy up with you, and the decks will be cleared for what turns up next,"said this wonderful player of dangerous games. "And, as a beginning,Jenkins, please sign this," he added.
Holmes handed me a typewritten-letter which read as follows.
"THE RICHMORE, June 30, 1905."Raffles Holmes, Esq.."DEAR SIR,--I enclose herewith my check for $1000 as a retainer for yourservices in locating for me a missing trunk, which contains articles which Ivalue at $10,000. This trunk was checked through to New York from AtlanticCity on Monday last, 9.40 train, and has not since been found. Whether ornot it has been stolen, or has gone astray in some wholly innocent manner,is not as yet clear. I know of no one better equipped for the task offinding it for me than yourself, who, I am given to understand, are the sonof the famous Sherlock Holmes of England. The check represents the ten percent. commission on the value of the lost articles, which I believe is thecustomary fee for services such as I seek.Very truly yours."
"What are you going to do with this?" I demanded.
"Send it as an enclosure to Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythe, showing mycredentials as your agent, in asking her if by any mischance your trunk hasgot mixed in with her luggage," observed Holmes. "For form's sake, I shallsend it to twenty or thirty other people known to have left Atlantic Citythe same day. Moreover, it will suggest the idea to Mrs. Wilbraham Ward-Smythethat I am a good man to locate her trunk also, and the delicateintimation of my terms will--"
"Aha! I see," said I. "And my thousand-dollar check to you?"
"I shall, of course, keep," observed Holmes. "You want the whole business tobe bona fide, don't you? It would be unscrupulous for you to ask for itsreturn."
I didn't exactly like the idea, but, after all, there was much in whatHolmes said, and the actual risk of my own capital relieved my conscience ofthe suspicion that by signing the letter I should become a partner in aconfidence game. Hence I signed the note, mailed it to Raffles Holmes,enclosing my check for $1000 with it.
Three days later Holmes entered my room with a broad grin on his face.
"How's this for business?" said he, handing me a letter he had received thatmorning from Chicago.
"DEAR SIR,--I am perfectly delighted to receive your letter of July 1. Ithink I have Mr. Jenkins's missing trunk. What pleases me most, however, isthe possibility of your recovering mine, which also went astray at the sametime. It contained articles of even greater value than Mr. Jenkins's--mypearl rope, among other things, which is appraised at $130,000. Do you thinkthere is any chance of your recovering it for me? I enclose my check for$5000 as a retainer. The balance of your ten per cent. fee I shall gladlypay on receipt of my missing luggage."Most sincerely yours,"MAUDE WARD-SMYTHE."
"I rather think, my dear Jenkins," observed Raffles Holmes, "that we havethat $13,000 reward cinched."
"There's $7000 for you, Jenkins," said Holmes, a week later, handing me hischeck for that amount. "Easy money that. It only took two weeks to turn thetrick, and $14,000 for fourteen days' work is pretty fair pay. If we couldcount on that for a steady income I think I'd be able to hold Raffles downwithout your assistance."
"You got fourteen thousand, eh?" said I. "I thought it was only to be$13,000."
"It was fourteen thousand counting in your $1000," said Raffles Holmes. "Yousee, I'm playing on the square, old man. Half and half in everything."
I squeezed his hand affectionately.
"But--he-ew!" I ejaculated, with a great feeling of relief. "I'm glad thething's over with.
"So am I," said Holmes, with a glitter in his eye. "If we'd kept that trunkin this apartment another day there'd have been trouble. I had a piece oflead-pipe up my sleeve when I called here Tuesday night."
"What for?" I asked.
"You!" said Raffles Holmes. "If you hadn't had that poker-party with you I'dhave knocked you out and gone to
China with the Ward-Smythe jewels. SherlockHolmes stock was 'way below par Tuesday night."