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Page 9
"Excellent," he said. "I took the words right out of his mouth. 'It was
numbered 86507B!' I cried, giving, of course, the number of my own watch.
"He gazed at me narrowly for a moment, and then he smiled. 'You grow more
marvellous at every step. That was indeed the number. Are you a demon?'
"'No,' I replied. 'Only something of a mind-reader.'
"Well, to be brief, the bargain was struck. I was to look for a watch that
I knew he hadn't lost, and was to receive �200 if I found it. It seemed to
him to be a very good bargain, as, indeed, it was, from his point of view,
feeling, as he did, that there never having been any such watch, it could
not be recovered, and little suspecting that two could play at his little
game of deception, and that under any circumstances I could foist a
ten-shilling watch upon him for two hundred pounds. This business
concluded, he started to go.
"'Won't you have a little Scotch?' I asked, as he started, feeling, with
all that prospective profit in view, I could well afford the expense. 'It
is a stormy night.'
"'Thanks, I will,' said he, returning and seating himself by my
table--still, to my surprise, keeping his hat on.
"'Let me take your hat,' I said, little thinking that my courtesy would
reveal the true state of affairs. The mere mention of the word hat brought
about a terrible change in my visitor; his knees trembled, his face grew
ghastly, and he clutched the brim of his beaver until it cracked. He then
nervously removed it, and I noticed a dull red mark running about his
forehead, just as there would be on the forehead of a man whose hat fitted
too tightly; and that mark, gentlemen, had the undulating outline of
nothing more nor less than a tiara, and on the apex of the uppermost
extremity was a deep indentation about the size of a shilling, that could
have been made only by some adamantine substance! The mystery was solved!
The robber of the Duchess of Brokedale stood before me."
A suppressed murmur of excitement went through the assembled spirits, and
even Messrs. Hawkshaw and Le Coq were silent in the presence of such
genius.
"My plan of action was immediately formulated. The man was completely at
my mercy. He had stolen the tiara, and had it concealed in the lining of
his hat. I rose and locked the door. My visitor sank with a groan into my
chair.
"'Why did you do that?' he stammered, as I turned the key in the lock.
"'To keep my Scotch whiskey from evaporating,' I said, dryly. 'Now, my
lord,' I added, 'it will pay your Grace to let me have your hat. I know
who you are. You are the Duke of Brokedale. The Duchess of Brokedale has
lost a valuable tiara of diamonds, and you have not lost your watch.
Somebody has stolen the diamonds, and it may be that somewhere there is a
Bunker who has lost such a watch as I have described. The queer part of it
all is,' I continued, handing him the decanter, and taking a couple of
loaded six-shooters out of my escritoire--'the queer part of it all is
that I have the watch and you have the tiara. We'll swap the swag. Hand
over the bauble, please.'
"'But--' he began.
"'We won't have any butting, your Grace,' said I. 'I'll give you the
watch, and you needn't mind the �200; and you must give me the tiara, or
I'll accompany you forthwith to the police, and have a search made of your
hat. It won't pay you to defy me. Give it up.'
"He gave up the hat at once, and, as I suspected, there lay the tiara,
snugly stowed away behind the head-band.
"'You are a great fellow.' said I, as I held the tiara up to the light and
watched with pleasure the flashing brilliance of its gems.
"'I beg you'll not expose me,' he moaned. 'I was driven to it by
necessity.'
"'Not I,' I replied. 'As long as you play fair it will be all right. I'm
not going to keep this thing. I'm not married, and so have no use for such
a trifle; but what I do intend is simply to wait until your wife retains
me to find it, and then I'll find it and get the reward. If you keep
perfectly still, I'll have it found in such a fashion that you'll never be
suspected. If, on the other hand, you say a word about to-night's events,
I'll hand you over to the police.'
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