The Box with Broken SealsOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Box with Broken Seals
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories
"I am very much obliged to you for coming to see me," he said. "You are
doing your best, I know, and I beg you, Mr. Crawshay, never for a moment to
let your efforts relax. The mechanical side of the watch that is being kept
upon these people I know we can rely upon, but you must remember that you
are the brains of this enterprise. Your little band of watchers will be
quiet enough to see the things that happen and the things that exist. It is
you who must watch for the things which don't happen."
Crawshay smiled slightly as he rose to take his leave.
"I do not as a rule suffer from over-confidence, sir," he said, "but I
think I can promise you that by Wednesday night not only will the papers be
in our hands, but Mr. Jocelyn Thew will be so disposed of that he will be
no longer an object of anxiety to us."
"Get on with the good work, then," was Mr. Brown's laconic farewell.
Late on the following afternoon, Jocelyn Thew and Gant paced the long
platform at Euston, by the side of which the special for the American boat
was already drawn up. Curiously enough, in their immediate vicinity Mr.
Brightman was also seeing a friend off, and on the outskirts of the little
throng Mr. Henshaw was taking an intelligent interest in the scene.
"Perhaps, after all," Jocelyn Thew declared, "you are right to go. You have
been very useful, and you have, without a doubt, earned your thousand
pounds."
"It was easy money," the other admitted, "but even now I am nervous. I
shall be glad to be back once more in my own country."
"You are certainly right to go," the other repeated. "If you had been
different, if you had been one of those men after my own heart," Jocelyn
Thew went on, resting his hand for a moment upon Gant's shoulder, "one of
those who, apart from thought of gain or hope of profit, love adventure for
its own sake, I should have begged you to stay with me. I would have sent
you on bogus errands to mysterious places. I would have twisted the brains
of those who have fastened upon us in a hundred different fashions. But
alas, my friend, you are not like that!"
"I am not," Gant admitted, gruffly but heartily. "I have done a job for
you, and you have paid me very well. I am glad to have done it, because I
love Germany and I do not love England. Apart from that my work is
finished. I like to go home. I am happiest with my wife and family."
"Quite so," his companion agreed. "I know your type, Gant,--in fact, I
chose you because of it. You like, as you say, to do your job and finish
with it,--and you have finished."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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