Эрл Гарднер - The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith

The valet blinked his eyes.

“Very good, sir,” he said. “What is the limit in regard to price, sir?”

“No limit, Scuttle. Also, I have arranged for Miss Dormley to have the apartment next to us, temporarily,” said Lester Leith. “She will live there — the one on the left.”

“Yes, sir,” said the valet.

“And Mr. Harry Vare,” said Lester Leith, “is the fortunate young man who has won the free scholarship in my school of deductive reasoning.”

The valet stared at Harry Vare.

Vare met that stare with eyes that were hard and appraising. He narrowed the lids and scrutinized the undercover operative as though he were trying to hypnotize the man.

“Harry Vare,” said Lester Leith suavely, “is a young man from the country who has recently come to the city in search of some employment which would be worthy of his talents. He felt that he had outgrown the small town in which he lived. He is possessed of that first essential for detective work — an imagination which makes him see an ulterior motive in every action, a crime in every set of circumstances.”

The undercover operative was dignified.

“I beg your pardon, sir,” he said, “but as I understand it, sir, most of the real detectives are somewhat the other way. They regard it as a business, sir.”

Lester Leith shook his head.

“No, Scuttle,” he said. “Sergeant Ackley is one of the shrewdest detectives that I know, and you must admit, Scuttle, that he has one of those imaginations which makes him see a crime in everything.”

The girl looked from face to face with a twinkle in her eyes. She was a beautiful woman.

“Mr. Vare,” said Lester Leith, “will have the apartment on the right — the one adjoining us. He will be domiciled there temporarily, Scuttle.”

“Yes, sir,” said the valet. May I ask, what are the duties of these persons?”

“Mr. Vare is going to be a detective,” said Lester Leith gravely. “He will detect.”

“What will he detect?”

“That is the interesting part of having a professional detective about, Scuttle. One never knows what he is going to detect. There is Sergeant Ackley, for instance. He detects so many things which seem utterly unreasonable at the time, and then, after mature investigation and reflection, they seem to have an entirely different complexion.”

The spy cleared his throat.

“And the young lady, sir?”

“Miss Dormley,” said Lester Leith, “will engage in dramatic acting upon the stage which was so well described by Shakespeare.”

“What stage is that?” asked the undercover man.

“The world,” said Lester Leith.

“Very good, sir,” the valet said. “And when do I start on this shopping tour?”

“Immediately,” said Lester Leith. “And by the way, Scuttle, did you get me the money and the diamond stick-pin?”

The valet opened a box which he took from his pocket.

“Yes, sir,” he said. “You wanted rather a large diamond with something of a fault in it, something that wasn’t too expensive, I believe you said.”

“Yes,” said Lester Leith. “That’s right, Scuttle.”

“This is sent on approval,” said the valet. “The price tag is on the pin, sir.”

Lester Leith looked at the diamond pin, and whistled.

“Rather a low price, Scuttle,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” said the valet. “There’s quite a flaw in the diamond, although it doesn’t appear until you examine it closely.”

“And the money?”

“Yes, sir,” said the valet, and took from his pocket a sheaf of bank notes.

Lester Leith gravely arranged them so that the fifties were on the outside. Then he rolled them and snapped the roll with an elastic.

Lester Leith turned to Vare.

“Vare,” he said, “are you ready to start detecting?”

“I thought I was going to be given a course of instruction,” he said.

“You are,” said Lester Leith, “but you are going to learn by a new method. You know, they used to teach law by reading out of law books, and then they decided that that wasn’t the proper way to give the pupils instruction. They switched to what is known as the case method — that is, Vare, they read cases to them and let the students delve into the reported cases until they found the legal principles which had been applied to the facts.”

“Yes, sir,” said Vare.

“That is the way you are going to learn detective work,” said Lester Leith. “By the case method. Are you ready to start?”

Vare nodded.

Lester Leith removed the tiepin from his tie, placed it on the table, and inserted the diamond stickpin.

“Very well, Vare,” he said. “Get your hat and come with me. You are about to receive the first lesson.”

There was the usual crowd in front of the ticket windows of the big railroad station. Everywhere there was noise, bustle, and confusion.

“Now,” said Lester Leith to Harry Vare, “keep about twenty feet behind me and watch sharply. See if you can find anyone who looks like a crook.”

Vare cocked a professional eye at the crowd.

“They all look like crooks,” he said.

Lester Leith nodded gravely.

“Vare,” he said, “you are showing the true detective instincts. But I want you to pick out someone who looks like a crook we can pin something definite on.”

“I don’t see exactly what you mean,” said Vare.

“You will,” said Lester Leith. “Just follow me.”

Lester Leith pushed his way through the crowd, with Vare tagging along behind him. From time to time Lester Leith pulled out the roll of bills and counted them, apparently anxious to see that they were safe. Then he snapped the elastic back on the roll and pushed it back in his pocket.

Leith kept in the most congested portions of the big depot.

Twice he was bumped into, and each time by a sad-faced individual with mournful eyes and a drooping mouth.

The man was garbed in a dark suit, and his tie was conservative. Everything about him blended into a single drab personality which would attract no attention.

Finally, Lester Leith walked to a closed ticket window, where there was a little elbow room.

“Well, Vare,” he said, “did you see anyone?”

Vare said: “Well, I saw several that looked like crooks, but I couldn’t see anyone that I could pick out as being a certain particular crook. That is, I couldn’t find any proof.”

Lester Leith put his hand in his pocket, and then suddenly jumped backwards.

“Robbed!” he said.

Vare stared at him with sagging jaw.

“Robbed?” he asked.

“Robbed,” said Lester Leith. “My money — it’s gone!”

He pulled his hand from his trousers pocket, and disclosed a slit which had been cut in the cloth so that the contents of the pocket could be reached from the outside.

“Pickpockets,” said Harry Vare.

“And you didn’t discover them,” Leith said.

Vare fidgeted uneasily.

“There was quite a crowd,” he said, “and of course I couldn’t see everything.”

Lester Leith shook his head sadly.

“I can’t give you a high mark on the first lesson, Vare,” he said. “Now let’s take a cab and go home.”

“Your tiepin is safe, anyway,” said Vare.

Lester Leith gave a sudden start, reached his hand to his tie, and pulled out the diamond scarf-pin.

He looked at the diamond and nodded, then suddenly pointed to the pin.

“Look,” he said, “the man tried to take it off with nippers. You can see where they left their mark on the pin. I must have pulled away just as he was doing it, so that he didn’t get a chance to get the diamond.”

Vare’s eyes were large; his face showed consternation.

“Really,” said Lester Leith, “you have had two lessons in one, and I can’t give you a high mark on either. You should have detected the person who was putting nippers on my pin.”