The Mystery of the Clasped Hands: A NovelBoothby, Guy
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The Mystery of the Clasped Hands: A Novel
Boothby, Guy
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
On entering, he had placed his walking stick on the table in the middle
of the room. He turned to get it, and as he did so he took from his
pocket a small housewife. His multitudinous experiences had taught him
the advisability of carrying such an article about with him, and on this
occasion it promised to prove more than ordinarily useful. From one
compartment he selected a long, stout needle which he placed in a hole
in the handle of the walking stick. Then returning once more to the
window, and leaning well out, he probed for the cigarette lying so
snugly five or six feet below him. Twice he was unsuccessful, but the
third attempt brought the precious relic to his hand. Taking it to the
table, he drew up a chair and sat down to examine it. It was sodden and
discoloured, but the rim of the gutter had in a measure protected it,
and it still held together. His famous magnifying glass was again
brought into action. Once upon a time there had been printing on the
paper, but now it was well-nigh undecipherable. As I have already
remarked, however, Burrell was a man gifted with rare patience, and
after a scrutiny that lasted some minutes, he was able to make out
sufficient of the printing to know that the maker’s name ended with
“olous,” while the place in which the cigarette had been manufactured
was _Cairo_.
“I wonder,” said the detective to himself, “if this is destined to be of
any service to me. At first glance it would appear as if my first
impression was a wrong one. Mr. Henderson, who is accused of the murder,
has lately returned from Cairo. Though, perhaps he never purchased any
tobacco there, it would certainly do him no good to have it produced as
evidence, that the butt end of a cigarette from that place was found in
the gutter outside the window of the murdered woman’s room.”
After another prolonged inspection of the room, and not until he had
quite convinced himself that there was nothing more to be discovered in
it, he descended to the lower regions of the house, returned the key to
the landlord, and immediately left the building. Crossing the street, he
made his way to the house opposite. The caretaker received him, and
inquired the nature of his business. He gave his explanation, but a few
questions were sufficient to convince him that he must not expect to
receive any assistance from that quarter. The rooms, so he discovered,
from which it would have been possible to catch any glimpse of what was
going on in Teresina’s apartment in the opposite house, were tenanted
only in the daytime.
“Nothing to be learned there,” said Burrell to himself, when he had
thanked the man and had left the house. “Now the question to be decided
is, what shall I do next?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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