Detective and mystery stories; Legal stories; Leithen, Edward (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
That day he was full of excitement. He babbled through luncheon
about the Wentworth sale, which he had attended the week before.
There had been a pair of magnificent plaques, with a unique Flaxman
design, which had roused his enthusiasm. Urns and medallions and
what not had gone to this or that connoisseur, and Jenkinson could
quote their prices, but the plaques dominated his fancy, and he was
furious that the nation had not acquired them. It seemed that he had
been to South Kensington and the British Museum and all sorts of
dignitaries, and he thought he might yet persuade the authorities to
offer for them if the purchaser would re-sell. They had been bought
by Lutrin for a well-known private collector, by name Andrew Lumley.
I pricked up my ears and asked about Mr. Lumley.
Jenkinson said he was a rich old buffer who locked up his things in
cupboards and never let the public get a look at them. He suspected
that a lot of the best things at recent sales had found their way to
him, and that meant that they were put in cold storage for good.
I asked if he knew him.
No, he told me, but he had once or twice been allowed to look at his
things for books he had been writing. He had never seen the man, for
he always bought through agents, but he had heard of people who knew
him. "It is the old silly game," he said. "He will fill half a
dozen houses with priceless treasures, and then die, and the whole
show will be sold at auction and the best things carried off to
America. It's enough to make a patriot swear."
There was balm in Gilead, however. Mr. Lumley apparently might be
willing to re-sell the Wedgwood plaques if he got a fair offer. So
Jenkinson had been informed by Lutrin, and that very afternoon he was
going to look at them. He asked me to come with him, and, having
nothing to do, I accepted.
Jenkinson's car was waiting for us at the club door. It was closed,
for the afternoon was wet. I did not hear his directions to the
chauffeur, and we had been on the road ten minutes or so before I
discovered that we had crossed the river and were traversing South
London. I had expected to find the things in Lutrin's shop, but to
my delight I was told that Lumley had taken delivery of them at once.
"He keeps very few of his things in the Albany except his books," I
was told. "But he has a house at Blackheath which is stuffed from
cellar to garret."
"What is the name of it?" I asked with a sudden suspicion.
"The White Lodge," said Jenkinson.
"But that belongs to a man called Pavia," I said.
"I can't help that. The things in it belong to old Lumley, all
right. I know, for I've been three times there with his permission."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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