Эрл Гарднер - The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith

“Yes, sir. I have it here, sir.”

The spy reached inside the pocket of his coat and pulled out a clipping.

Leith hesitated, then reluctantly took it. “I shouldn’t look at this. But I’m going to, Scuttle. After that, don’t tell me any more about it.”

“Very well, sir.”

Leith looked at the newspaper illustration. “There’d be a better reproduction in Navin’s book, Scuttle?”

“Oh, yes, sir — a full-sized photograph.”

Leith said: “And, as I gather it, Scuttle, the Hindu priests objected to the spoliation of the temple?”

“Very much, sir. It seems they attached some deep religious significance to the stone. You may remember four or five months ago, shortly after the book was published, there was an attempted robbery of Navin’s house. Navin shot a man with a.45 automatic.”

“An East Indian?”

“Yes, sir,” said the spy. “A Hindu priest of the particular sect which had maintained the jungle temple.”

Leith said: “Well, that’s enough, Scuttle. I don’t want to hear anything more about it. You’d have thought Navin would have taken precautions.”

“Oh, but he did, sir. He hired a bodyguard — a chap named Arthur Blaire and a detective, Ed Springer. They were with him all the time.”

“Just the three of them in the house?” Lester Leith asked.

“No, sir. There were four. There was a Robert Lamont, a confidential secretary.”

“Accompanying Navin on his travels?” Leith asked.

The spy nodded.

“Any servants?” Leith asked.

“Only a housekeeper who came in and worked by the day.”

Leith frowned and then said: “Scuttle, don’t answer this if it’s going to arouse my curiosity any more. But how the devil could a man get murdered if he had two bodyguards and his secretary with him all the time?”

“That, sir, is the thing the police can’t understand. Mr. Navin slept in a room which was considered virtually burglar-proof. There were steel shutters on the windows, and a door which locked with a combination, and there was a guard on duty outside of the door all night.”

“How did he get ventilation?”

“Through some ventilating system which was installed, and which permitted a circulation of air but wouldn’t permit anyone to gain access to the room, sir.”

“Don’t go on, Scuttle,” he said. “I simply mustn’t hear about it.”

“But, sir,” said the spy wheedlingly, “you have heard so much now that it certainly wouldn’t hurt to go on and have your natural curiosity satisfied.”

Leith sighed. “Very well, Scuttle,” he said. “What happened?”

The spy spoke rapidly. “Navin went to bed, sir. Blaire and Springer, the bodyguards, made the rounds of the room, making certain that the steel shutters were locked on the inside, and that the windows were closed and locked. That was about ten o’clock at night. About ten forty Bob Lamont, the secretary, received an important telegram which he wanted to take up to Mr. Navin. He had the bodyguards open the door, and call Navin softly to find out if he was asleep. Navin was sitting up in bed reading.

“They were in there for fifteen or twenty minutes. The guards don’t know exactly what happened, because they sat outside on guard, but apparently it was, as Lamont says, just an ordinary business conference. Then Lamont came out, and the guards closed the door. About midnight Arthur Blaire retired, and Ed Springer kept the first watch until four o’clock in the morning. At four, Blaire came on and relieved Springer, and at nine o’clock the secretary came in with the morning mail.

“That was part of the custom, sir. The secretary was the first to go into the room with the morning mail, and he discussed it while Mr. Navin tubbed and shaved:

“The guard opened the door, and Lamont went in.

“The guard heard him say, ‘Good morning,’ to Mr. Navin, and walk across the room to open the shutters. Then suddenly he heard Lamont give an exclamation.

“George Navin had been murdered by having his throat cut. Everything in the room had been ransacked; even the furniture had been taken to pieces.”

Lester Leith made no attempt to disguise his interest now.

“What time was the crime committed, Scuttle?” he asked. “The autopsy surgeon could tell that.”

“Yes, sir,” said the spy. “At approximately four A.M., sir.”

“How did the murderer get into the room?” asked Lester Leith.

“There, sir,” said the valet, “is where the police are baffled. The windows were all closed, and the shutters were all locked on the inside.”

“And the murder was committed at just about the time the guards were being changed, eh?” said Lester Leith.

“Yes, sir,” said the valet.

“So that either one of the guards might be suspected, eh, Scuttle?” The valet said: “As a matter of fact, sir, both of them are under suspicion. But they have excellent references.”

“Well,” said Lester Leith, “did the murderer get the ruby, Scuttle?”

“Well, sir, the ruby wasn’t in that bedroom at all. The ruby was kept in a specially constructed safe which was in a secret hiding place in the house. No one knew of the existence of that safe, with the exception of George Navin and the two bodyguards. Also, of course, the secretary. Naturally, after discovering the murder, the men went immediately to the safe and opened it. They found that the stone was gone. The police have been unable to find any fingerprints on the safe, but they did discover something else which is rather mystifying.

“The police are satisfied that the murderer entered through one of the windows on the east side of the room. There are tracks in the soft soil of the garden beneath the window, and there are the round marks embedded in the soil where the ends of a bamboo ladder were placed on the ground.”

“Bamboo, eh, Scuttle?”

“Yes, sir. That, of course, would indicate that the murderers were Indian, sir.”

“But,” said Lester Leith, “how could they get through a steel shutter locked on the inside, murder a man, get out through a window, close the window, and leave the shutter still locked on the inside?”

“That is the point, sir.”

“Then,” said Lester Leith, “the bodyguards weren’t mixed up in it. If they were mixed up in it, they would have let the murderer come in through the door.

“But,” went on Lester Leith, “there is no evidence as to how the murderer could have secured the gem.”

“That’s quite true, sir.”

“What are the police doing?”

“The police are questioning all the men. That is, sir, the servants and the bodyguards. Lamont left the house right after talking with Navin, and went to a secret conference with Navin’s attorney, a man by the name of During. During had his stenographer there, a young lady named Edith Skinner, so that Lamont can account for every minute of his time.”

“Do I understand that the conference lasted all night?”

“Yes, sir. The conference was very important. It had to do with certain legal matters in connection with income tax and publishing rights.”

“But that’s such an unusual time for a conference,” said Lester Leith.

“Yes, sir,” said the valet, “but it couldn’t be helped. Mr. Lamont was very busy with Mr. Navin. It seems that Navin was rather a peculiar individual, and he demanded a great deal of attention. As soon as the lawyer said that the examination of the records and things would take a period of over eight hours, Navin made so much trouble that Lamont finally agreed to work all one night.”

“What time did Lamont leave the conference?” asked Leith.

“About eight o’clock in the morning. They went down to breakfast, and then Lamont drove out to the house in time to get the morning mail ready for Mr. Navin.”