The Red Triangle: Being Some Further Chronicles of Martin Hewitt, InvestigatorMorrison, Arthur
General
The Red Triangle: Being Some Further Chronicles of Martin Hewitt, Investigator
Morrison, Arthur
Detective and mystery stories, English; Private investigators -- Fiction
All that had remained mysterious in the earlier cases now became clear.
In the first, the case of Samuel's diamonds, Denson had been put into
the office where Samuel had found him, by Mayes, with the express design
of effecting a diamond robbery. The robbery was effected, and the
unhappy Denson formed a plan of making a bolt of it himself with the
diamonds. He was, perhaps, what is called a difficult subject in
hypnotism--amenable enough to direct influence, but not sufficiently
retentive of post-hypnotic suggestion. He hid the jewels and adopted a
disguise, but Mayes was watching him better than he supposed. The
diamonds were lost, but Denson was found and done to death--probably not
in that retreat near Barbican, but at night in some empty street. The
diamonds were not found on him, and the body, with the mark of the
Triangle still on it, was taken by night to a central spot in London and
there left. Mayes probably thought that a notable example like this, so
boldly displayed and so conspicuously reported in the Press, would
impress his auxiliaries throughout London with the terror that was one
of his weapons; for they would well understand the meaning of the Red
Triangle, and they would receive a striking illustration of the
consequences of rebellion or bad faith. The money and the watch were
left in the pockets because they were trifles after the loss of fifteen
thousand pounds' worth of diamonds, and their presence in the pockets
made the murder the less easy to understand--which was a point gained.
And as to the keys--Mayes knew nothing of where the diamonds were
hidden, and so had no use for them. For where could he use them? Denson
had left his lodgings, and as to the office, that, he would guess, would
be in the hands of the police, on Samuel's complaint. The immediate
result of this affair on the only honest member of Mayes's circle I have
told in the case of Mr. Jacob Mason. He was not yet thoroughly in
Mayes's hands, but he had "dabbled," as he remorsefully confessed, and
Mayes had already found him useful. He was dangerous, and his end came
quickly. Another victim who had probably begun innocently enough was
Henning, the clerk to Kingsley, Bell and Dalton, and his death in the
Penn's Meadow barn leaves a mystery that never can be positively cleared
up. Was it murder or was it suicide by post-hypnotic suggestion? It will
be remembered that the fire burst out in the barn after Mayes had left
it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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