Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives: Don Pedro and the Detectives; Poisoner and the DetectivesPinkerton, Allan
History
Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives: Don Pedro and the Detectives; Poisoner and the Detectives
Pinkerton, Allan
Detective and mystery stories; Detectives
_The third Detective is made welcome at Don Pedro's.--The Señor is
paid the first half-million dollars from the great Diamond
Company.--How Don Pedro is "working" his Diamond Mines.--Very
suspicious preparations.--The Don describes his proposed Fête
Champêtre._
One evening, as the members of the Morito family were about to retire,
Monsieur Lesparre noticed a nervousness and abstraction in Don Pedro
such as he had never shown before. Thinking that something new might be
learned by overhearing the conversation between the Don and Donna when
they should be alone, Lesparre, instead of going to his own room,
slipped into an unused closet adjoining the Don's dressing-room, and
communicating therewith by a door, which was kept locked. There was a
transom over this door, and, by climbing to one of the shelves, Lesparre
could hear all that was said in either room of the Don's bedroom
_suite_. He had hardly taken this position when the two entered their
apartments.
"See what a handsome necklace that old fool Mather sent me to-day," said
the Donna.
"Yes, it is very elegant and valuable," said Don Pedro, with a yawn;
"but what we most need is money. However, I do not imagine we shall have
any difficulty, for I expect a large sum in a few days from the
stockholders in this Diamond Company. Still, you may as well get all you
can out of Mather and the others, for we must keep up our present style
of living to the end."
Just at this moment the shelf upon which Lesparre was sitting gave a
loud creak, and he had only just time to slip down and regain his own
room before the Don came out to see what was the matter. Fortunately,
there was a large pet cat in the hall, and she received the credit of
having made the noise.
The next day, on hearing Lesparre's report, I decided to place still
another detective in the Morito mansion, and so I instructed Lesparre to
recommend the employment of a young man to assist the butler and to do
general work about the house. As I expected, Don Pedro acquiesced in the
suggestion, and told Lesparre to engage such men-servants as he
considered necessary. Accordingly, I at once telegraphed to Chicago to
have a young fellow named George Salter sent to Gloster at once. He was
a very intelligent French Canadian, and I chose him because of his slim
build, his ingenuity, and his capacity as an eavesdropper. He could
listen to a conversation with such a stolid expression that no one would
imagine he had an idea in his head beyond the performance of his regular
tasks, and even when caught in a place where he had no right to be, he
could invent a plausible reason on the instant, which would divert all
suspicion from him. On his arrival in Gloster, he was sent to ask
employment of Monsieur Lesparre, and, of course, the latter was so
pleased with him as to engage him at once. He made himself very useful
in the house, and soon became popular with every inmate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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