Adventure, February 1917 — page 185: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A Crossed Trail “‘T was away for three hours or more. Four bells struck as I stepped on deck. We played two games, the first a draw after forty moves. Schwartz won the second by a brilliant but unsound development of the queen’s pawn which took me unaware. I mention this because, as you will see, it took my mind off the papers. “ ‘He suggested a third which I declined, although I wanted to play as the result had been unsatisfactory. It was late—nearly two as I noticed by the clock over the bar—and I suppose I must have had an unconscious feeling that I had been long enough away from my cabin. So I went below, leaving him sitting in his corner toying with the chessmen. “*The light was burning when I entered. This surprised me, for I thought I had, as usual, turned it off on leaving. And there was something else, a trifle perhaps——’ “Brock broke off in his narrative and ran his hand nervously over the unshaved side of his chin. He looked puzzled. “* ‘Ves,’ I prompted, wise happened after you entered?” “Brock bit his lip. . “ ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘That is the trouble. I neglected to look for the papers. You see my mind was full of that chess game. It had occurred to me that I could have mated Schwartz by sacrificing my queen on the tenth move, and I was working out that problem. It was not until I was shaving this morning that I remembered the papers, and when I looked for them they were gone.’ “He sat back staring at me with his blue eyes. There was.no resentment in them then; instead they seemed to be begging me to assist him. “T asked him where he had put the pa- ers. “*You know each cabin has a life-pre- server in a rack screwed to the ceiling. Well I had placed the package in the folds of the cork jacket in the one in my room.’ “And you don’t know how the intruder got in?’ ““*No,’ he said, ‘I don’t. I locked the door when I left and it was locked when I returned.’ é “* ‘And what was it you noticed on enter- ing? You spoke of something that seemed to have puzzled you?’ “Tt was a faint trace of verbena; and verbena is the perfume which Mrs. Carew uses!’ a “T might have rubbed it into Brock, but 183 I refrained. He seemed sufficiently cut up | _as it was, and from the way he mentioned Mrs. Carew’s name, I thought he was through with her. “Of course it was plain that while Schwartz kept him occupied in the smok- ing-room, she had entered his cabin and stolen the papers. How she had managed it remained to be explained; but that puz- zled me less than her taking them on Thurs- day. Why had she not waited until Friday night? Did she think she would not be sus- pected, or was she unwilling to risk waiting until the last night before making her at- tempt? That seemed the most logical ex- planation. ** ‘Well,’ I said to Brock, ‘she may have the papers, but she hasn’t gotten them ashore yet. Let’s go down and see how she ‘made her way into your cabin.’ ‘“‘The room was in a mess. The life-belt lay on the floor, and clothes were scattered everywhere. Evidently he had gone fever- ishly through his things before he came up to see me. “Tt took us about ten minutes to find the manner of her entry. Brock discovered it —a big hole about a foot in diameter which had been sawed in the partition separating his cabin from Schwartz’s, and in which the sawed-out piece had been carefully replaced. The hole was under the berth and so it would only be noticed by a careful search. “We knocked out the plug and crawled through the opening into Schwartz’s cabin. “The German was lying on his back, a cotton nightcap covering his head, his pudgy hands folded across his fat stomach. His mouth was open, and through it came a succession of half-strangled, snorting grunts. I awoke him with a vigorous dig in the ribs, and he sat up dangling his short, gaudily bedecked legs over the side of his berth. “Vat iss diss?’ he asked, rubbing his eyes. ‘We showed him the hole. He seemed surprised and emphatically shook his head. *“ “T know noding of it. I vass in de smok- ing-room, vere I sit all day. I don’t come down here till two or tree o’clock lass night. You ask dot poy up dere; he see me ven I go out. I don’t know noding. ; “He stuck to his story and made no ob- jection to our searching his cabin. But though we went through his belongings and examined the room inch by inch, even prod- ding the mattresses of the two berths with a CONNIE IOOL<S Yes, I admit I was fairly dense. ° (E)