The Riddle of the Spinning WheelHanshew, Thomas W.
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The Riddle of the Spinning Wheel
Hanshew, Thomas W.
Cleek, Hamilton (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories
"I certainly did, my dear young lady. With a syphon of soda, a tumbler
and a bottle that smelt of very good raw whisky. Rather strong for _my_
liking, but still--we'll let that pass for the present. I'll have
something to say about that later which may interest you, Mr. Narkom. I
found it there--and, as you say, I found something else, too. And when I
saw the initials I naturally thought of your brother--which just goes to
prove that human nature is apt to make mistakes, even when it thinks
itself pretty expert upon certain subjects. As a matter of fact, Miss
McCall had borrowed that handkerchief--she supervises the laundering,
you told me, Miss Duggan--for James Tavish when he cut his finger, and
he had never given it back, obviously. When I discovered that, that was
the first pointer in his direction. The others followed fairly
rapidly.... Then the air-pistol, you know. You yourself told me your
brother had one--and then regretted the telling afterward, like every
loving and foolish woman who wants to preserve her kin from possible
blame, even in the face of her own suspicions. That was Number Two
against him. Number Three came from this young lady here--Miss Dowd--who
brought me the stiletto that had been used to stab your poor father, and
admitted, strictly against all her scruples, that, as far as she knew,
it had been last used by Sir Ross to cut the edges of a book upon
Poisons which he had been reading. I don't much admire your taste in
literature, Sir Ross, but that is hardly to do with me. A man can choose
his own companions and his own library, thank God, although Life itself
chooses almost everything else for him. But I must confess that the
spinning wheel got me guessing, as our American cousins say. I've Mr.
Narkom to thank for that discovery. And he made it in rather a
remarkable way. Leaned against the wheel and experienced a slight shock.
After that, the thing was as easy as A. B. C. We simply traced the
wiring to the window-sill, where we discovered a switch hidden in the
ivy, turned it on, and--there you were! I nearly got potted by the
devilish contrivance myself, only some sixth sense told me to get out of
the way in time. But the aim was amazingly accurate. The second bullet
fell a matter of half an inch below the first. A perfect marvel of
ingenuity, contrived by a man who had obviously made electricity his
study for years--in spite of his confessed ignorance of it. Worked out
to a nicety. The failing lights were his idea also, and quite simple to
manage, really. The drumming dynamo made a very good imitation of the
'singing of the wheel,' in accordance with the old story. And a less
enlightened household than yours, Sir Ross, might have put all sorts of
constructions upon that--except, of course, the right one.... That, my
friends, was how the diabolical thing was done."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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