Christopher Quarles: College Professor and Master DetectiveBrebner, Percy James
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Christopher Quarles: College Professor and Master Detective
Brebner, Percy James
College teachers -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories
"Exactly! There is a flaw somewhere, but the treasure is there," said
Quarles. "The rascals who have given us an uncomfortable night
evidently believed that the man they called Glider had told the truth;
more, they had already put the job down to him, you will remember.
Now, how was it Glider gave his secret away to the man in yonder
cabin? Obviously he couldn't come and get the treasure himself."
"A convict," I said, "who gave information to a fellow convict about
to be released."
"I don't think so," said Quarles. "As a convict, these men, who have
been convicts themselves, or will be, would have had sympathy with
him. They hadn't any. They were afraid of him. They felt it was
strange that Glider should have confided in him, and could only find
an explanation by supposing that Glider had sized him up and taken his
chance for the sake of the missus. We may assume, therefore, that
Glider had trusted a man no one would expect him to trust. This
suggests urgency, and I fancy a man, nicknamed Glider, has recently
died in one of His Majesty's prisons--Portland I should guess.
Probably our adventurers sailed from Weymouth. Now, Glider could not
have been in Portland long. A year last February he was free to do the
job with which this expedition is connected, and of which I should
imagine he is not suspected by the police. Probably he was taken for
some other crime soon after he had committed this one. He had no
opportunity to dig up the treasure he had buried, which he certainly
would have done as soon as possible. Yet Glider must have been long
enough in prison to size up the dead man yonder--a work of some time,
I fancy. You noticed his hands. Did they show any evidence of his
having worked as a convict? You saw the mark across the forehead. That
was made by a stiff cap worn constantly until a day or two ago. I
think we shall find there is a warder missing from Portland."
"A warder!"
The idea was startling, yet I could pick no hole in the professor's
argument.
"Even a warder is not free from temptation, and I take it this man was
tempted, and fell. Glider, no doubt, told him of the captain and his
mate. He had worked with them before, probably, and trusted them;
also, he might think they would be a check upon the warder. I
shouldn't be surprised if the warder were the only one of the three
who insisted that the widow should have her share, and so came by his
death. The flaw in the riddle keeps the treasure safe. Perhaps I shall
solve it during the day. By the way, Wigan, it must be getting near
low-water."
It was a beastly morning, persistent rain from a leaden sky. The tide
was out, only a thin strip of water separating the yacht from the mud.
"I fear there will be no golfers on the links to-day to whom we might
signal," said Quarles; "and I could not even swim that."
"I can," I answered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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