From Place to PlaceCobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
General
From Place to Place
Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
Fiction; Short stories
"As he recalls her answer, as nearly as possible in the words she used,
she said: 'Certainly I do. It will be kept on my person where I can put
my hand on it, but where no one else can see it and where no one else
will ever suspect it of being.' Then she asked him: 'Was there anything
else you wanted to say to me?' He told her there was nothing else and
she said good night to him and turned and walked away in the direction
from which she had come. He waited a minute or so and then walked off,
leaving the square on the opposite side--the Vermont Avenue side. He
went directly home and went to bed.
"He is unmarried and lives alone, taking his luncheons and dinners out,
but preparing his own breakfasts in his rooms. At three o'clock in the
morning he was in bed and asleep when I rang his doorbell. In his night
clothes he got up and let me in; and as soon as I was in I accused him.
As a matter of fact the double theft had been discovered the evening
before, but unfortunately by then several hours had elapsed from the
time the dispatch was taken, and already, as you know, the dispatch had
changed hands.
"Within an hour after the discovery of the loss I had been set to work
on the job. At once suspicion fell upon three men, one after the other.
It didn't take very long to convince me that two of these men were
innocent. So these two having been eliminated by deductive processes, I
personally went after the third man, who was this Westerfeltner. The
moment I walked in on him I was convinced from his behaviour that I had
made no mistake. So I took a chance. I charged him point-blank with
being the thief. Almost immediately he weakened. His denials turned to
admissions. As a conspirator Westerfeltner is a lame duck. I only wish I
had started after him three or four hours earlier than I did; if only I
had done so I'm satisfied the paper would be back where it belongs and
no damage done. Well, anyhow, if I am one to judge, he told me
everything frankly and held back nothing."
"Well, then, who is the woman in the case?"
"He didn't know. To his best knowledge he had never seen her before that
night. He is sure that he had never heard her voice before. Really, all
he does know about her is that she is a small, slender woman with rather
quick, decided movements and that her voice is that of a refined person.
He is sure she is a young woman, but he can furnish no better
description of her than this. He claims he was very nervous at the time
of their meeting. I figure he was downright excited, filled as he was
with guilty apprehensions, and no doubt because of his excitement he
took less notice of her than he otherwise might. Besides, you must
remember that the place of rendezvous was a fairly dark spot on rather a
dark night."
"He has absolutely no idea of his own, then, as to the identity of Mrs.
Williams?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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