Эрл Гарднер - The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith

Vare looked crestfallen.

Leith said: “Oh, well, you can’t expect to become a first-class detective overnight. That’s one of the things that training is for. But we’ll go back to the apartment and I’ll change my clothes, and you can sit back and concentrate for an hour or two on what you saw, and see if you can remember anything significant.”

But a little later Lester Leith returned to the depot — alone. Once more he mingled with the crowd, moving aimlessly about, but this time his eyes were busy scanning the faces of the stream of people.

He noticed the man in the dark suit with the mournful countenance, moving aimlessly about, a newspaper in his hands, his manner that of one who is waiting patiently for a wife who was to have met him an hour ago.

Lester Leith walked behind this man, keeping him in sight.

After some fifteen minutes, Leith shortened the distance between them and tapped the man sharply on the shoulder.

“I want to talk with you,” he said.

The man’s face changed expression. The look of mournful listlessness vanished, and the eyes became hard and wary.

“You ain’t got nothing on me.”

Lester Leith laughed.

“On the contrary,” he said, “you have got something of mine on you — a roll of bills with some fifties on the outside and dollar bills in between. Also, you have the scarf-pin which you just nipped from that fat gentleman with the scarlet tie.”

The man backed away, and turned as though getting ready to run.

Lester Leith said: “I’m not a detective. I just want to talk with you. In fact, I want to employ you.”

The pickpocket looked at him with eyes that were wide with surprise.

“Employ me?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Lester Leith. “I have been strolling around here all afternoon looking for a good pickpocket.”

“I’m not a pickpocket,” said the man.

Lester Leith paid no attention to the man’s protestation of innocence.

“I am,” he said, “running a school for young detectives. I want to employ you as an assistant instructor. I have an idea that the ordinary training of police officers and detectives is exceedingly haphazard. I am looking for. someone who can give my students an education in picking pockets.”

“What’s the pay?”

“Well,” said Lester Leith, “you can keep the watch that you got from the tall thin man, the scarf-pin which you nipped from the fleshy man, and you can keep the roll of bills which you cut from my trousers pocket. In addition to that, you will draw regular compensation of one hundred dollars a day, and if you feel like risking your liberty, you can keep anything which you can pick up on the side.”

“How do you mean, ‘on the side’?”

“By the practice of your profession, of course,” said Lester Leith.

The pickpocket stared at him.

“This,” he said, “is some kind of a smart game to get me to commit myself.”

Lester Leith reached to his inside pocket and took out a well-filled wallet. He opened the wallet, and the startled eyes of the pickpocket caught sight of a number of one-hundred-dollar bills.

Gravely Lester Leith took out one of these hundred-dollar bills and extended it to the pickpocket.

“This,” he said, “is the first day’s salary.”

The man took the one-hundred-dollar bill, and his eyes followed the wallet as Lester Leith returned it to his pocket.

“Okay, boss,” he said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just meet me,” said Lester Leith, “at certain regular times and places. Your first job will be to meet me here at nine thirty tonight. I will write a bunch of instructions on a piece of paper, and put that piece of paper in my coat pocket. You can slip the paper out of the coat pocket and follow instructions. Don’t let on that you know me at all, unless I should speak to you first.”

The pickpocket nodded

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll be here at nine thirty. In the meantime, I’ll walk as far as your taxicab with you and talk over details. My name is Sid Bentley. What’s yours?”

“Leith,” Lester Leith told him.

“Pleased to meet you.”

After they had finished shaking hands, Lester Leith started toward the taxicab and Bentley walked on his right side, talking rapidly.

“I don’t know how you made me, Leith,” he said, “but you can believe it or not, it’s the first time I’ve ever been picked up by anybody. I used to be a sleight-of-hand artist on the stage, and then when business got bad, I decided to go out and start work. I haven’t a criminal record and the police haven’t got a thing on me.”

“That’s fine,” beamed Lester Leith. “You’re exactly the man I want. I’ll meet you here at nine thirty, eh, Bentley?”

“Nine thirty it is, Captain.”

Lester Leith hailed a taxicab. As it swung into the circle in front of the depot, he turned casually to the pickpocket.

“By the way, Bentley,” he said, “please don’t use that knife. You’ve already ruined one good suit for me.”

As Lester Leith spoke, his left hand shot out and clamped around the wrist of the pickpocket. The light gleamed on the blade of a razor-like knife with which Bentley had been about to cut Lester Leith’s coat.

Bentley looked chagrined for a moment, and then sighed.

“You said that it’d be all right for me to pick up anything I could on the side, Captain,” he protested.

Lester Leith grinned.

“Well,” he said, “I had better amplify that. You can pick up anything you can on the side, provided you leave my pockets alone.”

Bentley matched Lester Leith’s grin.

“Okay, Captain,” he said. “That’s a go.”

Lester Leith climbed in the taxicab and returned to his apartment.

A vision of loveliness greeted him as he opened the door. Dixie Dormley had adorned herself in garments which looked as though they had been tailored to order in the most exclusive shops.

She smiled a welcome to Lester Leith.

“I kept the cost as low as I could,” she said, “in order to get the effect that you wanted.”

“You certainly got the effect,” complimented Lester Leith, staring at her with very evident approval. “Yes, I think you have done very well, indeed, and we will all go to dinner tonight — the four of us. You, Miss Dormley, Mr. Vare, and, Scuttle, I’m going to include you too.”

The spy blinked his eyes. “Yes, sir.”

“By the way,” said Lester Leith, “did you have the imitation ruby made?”

The spy nodded.

“It’s rather a swell affair,” he said, “so far as the ruby is concerned. The gold setting is rather cleverly done too. The jeweler insisted upon doing it in a very soft gold. He said that the Indian gold was very yellow and very soft, without much alloy in it. He’s duplicated the border design very accurately.”

“Quite right, Scuttle,” said Lester Leith. “The man knows what he is doing. Let’s see it.”

The spy handed Lester Leith a little casket, which Leith opened.

The girl exclaimed in admiration.

“Good heavens,” she said, “it looks genuine!”

Lester Leith nodded. “It certainly does,” he said. “They are able to make excellent imitations of rubies these days.”

He lifted the imitation jewel from the case and dropped it carelessly in his side pocket.

“All right, Dixie,” he said. “If you’ll dress for dinner, we’ll leave rather early. I have an important appointment at nine thirty. By the way, I don’t want either of you to mention to a living soul that this ruby is an imitation.”

At dinner that evening Lester Leith was in rare form. He was suave and courteous, acting very much the gentleman, and discharging his duties as host. It was when the dessert had been cleared away that Leith gravely surveyed Harry Vare’s countenance.