Colonel Thorndyke's SecretHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
General
Colonel Thorndyke's Secret
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Detective and mystery stories; Hindus -- England -- Fiction; India -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Aye, that he is. Look here;” and he pointed to a slim steel handle some
three inches long, projecting over the region of the heart. “You must
have searched him very carelessly, Chester. Well, bring him in now.”
They carried him into the room, where two candles were burning. Mark
followed them. The inspector pulled out the dagger. It was but four
inches long, with a very thin blade. The handle was little thicker than
the blade itself. Mark took it and examined it.
“I have not a shadow of doubt that this is the dagger with which he
murdered my father. The wound was very narrow, about this width, and the
doctor said that the weapon that had been used was certainly a foreign
dagger.”
“I don't think this is a foreign dagger,” the Inspector said on
examining it, “although it may be the one that was used, as you say,
Mr. Thorndyke. It has evidently been made to carry about without being
observed.”
He threw back the dead man's coat.
“Ah, here is where it was kept. You see, the lining has been sewn to the
cloth, so as to make a sheath down by the seam under the arm. I expect
that, knowing what would happen if he were caught, he had made up his
mind to do it all along. Well, I don't know that you are to be so much
blamed, Chester, for, passing your hand over his clothes, you might very
well miss this, which is no thicker than a piece of whalebone. Well,
well, he has saved us a good deal of trouble. You say you have got most
of the booty he has collected?”
“I don't know that we have got all of it, sir, but we have made a very
big haul, anyhow; it was a cunningly contrived place. There was a big
corn bin in the stable, and when we had emptied out the corn it seemed
empty. However, Mr. Thorndyke discovered that the bin was fixed. Then we
found that the bottom was really a trap door, and under it was a sort of
well in which were sacks and bags. One of the sacks was full of unbroken
silver, two others contained silver ingots, things that he had melted
down, and there was a large bag full of watches and jewels. In his
pocket we found a hundred pounds in bank notes, about fifty guineas, and
a couple of gold watches.”
“That he must have got tonight from the Portsmouth coach; we heard half
an hour ago that it had been stopped near Kingston, the coachman shot,
and the passengers robbed. It will be good news to some of them that
we have got hold of their valuables. Well, Mr. Thorndyke, I have to
congratulate you most heartily on the skill with which you have ferreted
out a man who had baffled us for so long, and had become a perfect
terror to the south of London. No doubt we shall be able to trace
a great portion of the property in that sack. The capture has been
splendidly effected.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account