Adventure, December 1914 — page 148: what you’re looking at

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

146 Jerningham Creed above? The more one investigates the private affairs of that esti- mable old gentleman the more surprising ‘they become. ‘“‘T remember that I never did see any one come out of this office; and once when I ventured to ask the old gentleman what sort of business was carried on below, since I never saw any one about, he nearly snapped my head off. He was a smallish man, but he had a powerful knack of snap- ping. I’d wager that no one has been in this room since the old man died. ‘There do ap ear to have been visits from the postman.” A number of letters lay in a heap on the cocoanut matting close to the door. Mr. Adair picked them up. ‘“‘All addressed to Messrs. Latraille, Ol- gano & Co. I wonder what business they carried on. They seem to have come from all the cities and countries of the world. Here’s one from Japan. Would it be a breach of confidence if I were to look what’s inside? Anyhow—here goes. “Why, what language is this? I’m not likely to be much wiser. The thing appears to be in Japanese. Surely old Creed wasn’t a polyglot to the extent of understanding Japanese! Here’s a letter from Paris.” Tearing the envelope open, he studied what was within. “T thought I did understand French, and this is written in French, but it’s double Dutch to me. The writer, who attaches no signature and gives no address, says that he has despatched a packet of crumbs, having removed the crusts, fresh from the oven; and he requests that the loaves may be placed in the usual bread pan. If that isn’t what it means I don’t know what it does mean, and what that means is beyond me altogether. Messrs. Latraille, Olgano & Co. seem to have had at least one eccen- tric correspondent.” As he returned toward the center of the room he again heard the clicking sound. “That certainly came from the table. There’s something queer about that piece of furniture; I’ll have a try at finding out what it is. Most of the articles about these premises seem to have peculiar properties.”’ Laying down the letters on the top of the table and starting to move it from the spot on which it stood, he found that it refused to budge. “That so? It’s fastened to the floor; I Adventure thought it might be. There’s a spring in the floor which, when I stepped on it, clicked. Not having been used just lately it’s probably a little rusty. ‘That spring is connected with something in this table, probably it runs up the inside of one of the legs. Now what is there in this table which is actuated by a spring on which, when you cross the room, you are bound to tread?” = curious minuteness. In it were two drawers. Both of them were locked. After some little difficulty he pried them open with a tool which he had in his pocket, telling himself as he did so: ‘I’m getting to be an expert burglar; with a little more practise I shall become pro- ficient. Then I’ll be able to get into any strong-room with a bent hairpin, as a really expert burglar is supposed to do. ‘There doesn’t seem to be anything in these drawers except papers and memoranda and that sort of thing. No doubt there’s a lot of interest attached to them, which I’ll go into later; but they’re not what I’m looking for just now. Let’s have the draw- ers right out—that is, if they’ll come.” He withdrew them entirely from the table—they came quite easily. ‘“‘There’s nothing peculiar about these drawers so far as the eye can see. Perhaps it’s in the table itself. Let me walk across that spring again.” He did not at once succeed in finding what he sought. He crossed between the table and the door; between it and the aperture through which he had come. Nothing clicked. “That’s life—when you don’t want a thing you’ve got it; when you do it’s never there. Something did click—twice, I'll swear—as I was standing just about here. Perhaps I’ve eased the spring so that it moves noiselessly, as it was no doubt orig- inally meant to do; or perhaps my imagina- tion is a little keenly set, as after being in an atmosphere of this sort is only to be ex- pected, and I heard something quite com- monplace and thought it was something strange. There’s one thing against that; why is the table fastened to the floor? Let’s look the whole thing over again.” Going down on his knees, he studied the table from the front, putting his hand under the edge to see if there were anything un- usual in its construction beneath. HE EXAMINED the table with comicloool< ©