The Golden Ball and Other Stories
Page 15
"Detective-Inspector Merrilees from the Yard," said the
other crisply. "And I will trouble you to hand over that
emerald."
"The--the emerald?"
James was seeking to gain time.
"That's what I said, didn't I?" said Inspector Merrilees.
He had a crisp, businesslike enunciation. James tried to pull himself together.
"I don't know what you are talking about," he said with an assumption of dignity.
"Oh, yes, my lad, I think you do."
"The whole thing," said James, "is a mistake. I can explain it quite easily--" He paused.
A look of weariness had settled on the face of the other. "They always say that," murmured the Scotland Yard
man dryly. "I suppose you picked it up as you were strolling
along the beach, eh? That is the sort of explanation."
It did indeed bear a resemblance to it. James recognized the fact, but still he tried to gain time.
"How do I know you are what you say you are?" he demanded weakly.
Merrilees flapped back his coat for a moment, showing a badge. Edward stared at him with eyes that popped out
of his head.
"And now," said the other almost genially, "you see what you are up against! You are a novice--I can tell that. Your
first job, isn't it?"
James nodded.
"I thought as much. Now, my boy, are you going to
hand over that emerald, or have I got to search you?" James found his voice.
"I--i haven't got it on me," he declared.
He was thinking desperately.
"Left it at your lodgings?" queried Merrilees.
James nodded.
"Very well, then," said the detective, "we will go there together."
He slipped his arm through James's.
108 Agatha Christie
"I am taking no chances of your getting away from me,"
he said gently. "We will go to your lodgings, and you will
hand that stone over to me."
James spoke unsteadily.
"If I do, will you let me go?" he asked tremulously.
Merrilees appeared embarrassed.
"We know just how that stone was taken," he explained,
"and about the lady involved, and, of course, as far as that
goes--well, the Rajah wants it hushed up. You know what
these native rulers are?"
James, who knew nothing whatsoever about native rulers,
except for one cause cdlbre, nodded his head with an
appearance of eager comprehension.
"It will be most irregular, of course," said the detective,
"but you may get off scot-free."
Again James nodded. They had walked the length of the
Esplanade, and were now turning into the town. James
intimated the direction, but the other man never relinquished
his sharp grip on James's arm.
Suddenly James hesitated and half spoke. Merrilees looked
up sharply, and then laughed. They were just passing the
police station, and he noticed James's agonized glances at
it.
"I am giving you a chance first," he said good-humouredly.
It was at that moment that things began to happen. A
loud bellow broke from James; he clutched the other's arm,
and yelled at the top of his voice:
"Help! Thief. Help! Thief."
A crowd surrounded them in less than a minute. Merrilees
was trying to wrench his arm from James's grasp.
"I charge this man," cried James. "I charge this man; he
picked my pocket."
"What are you talking about, you fool?" cried the other.
A constable took charge of matters. Mr. Merrilees and
James were escorted into the police station. James reiterated
his complaint.
"This man has just picked my pocket," he declared excitedly.
"He has got my notecase in his right-hand pocket,
there!"
"The man is mad," grumbled the other. "You can look
THE RAJAH'S EMERALD
109
for yourself, inspector, and see if he is telling the truth."
At a sign from the inspector, the constable slipped his
hand deferentially into Merrilees's pocket. He drew something
up and held it out with a gasp of astonishment.
"My God!" said the inspector, startled out of professional
decorum. "It must be the Rajah's emerald."
Merrilees looked more incredulous than anyone else.
"This is monstrous," he spluttered; "monstrous. The man
must have put it into my pocket himself as we were walking
along together. It's a plant."
The forceful personality of Merrilees caused the inspector
to waver. His suspicions swung round to James. He whispered
something to the constable, and the latter went out.
"Now then, gentlemen," said the inspector, "let me have
your statements please, one at a time.'
"Certainly," said James. "I was walking along the beach
when I met this gentleman, and he pretended he was acquainted
with me. I could not remember having met him
before, but I was too polite to say so. We walked along
together. I had my suspicions of him, and just when we got
opposite the police station, I found his hand in my pocket.
I held on to him and shouted for help."
The inspector transferred his glance to Merrilees.
"And now you, sir."
Merrilees seemed a little embarrassed.
"The story is very nearly right," he said slowly, "but not
quite. It was not I who scraped acquaintance with him, but
he who scraped acquaintance with me. Doubtless he was
trying to get rid of the emerald, and slipped it into my pocket
while we were talking."
The inspector stopped writing. "Ah!"
he said impartially. "Well, there will be a gentleman
here in a minute who will help us to get to the bottom
of the case."
Merrilees frowned.
"It is really impossible for me to wait," he murmured,
pulling out his watch. "I have an appointment. Surely, inspector,
you can't be so ridiculous as to suppose I'd steal
the emerald and walk along with it in my pocket?"
"It is not likely, sir, I agree," the inspector replied. "But
you will have to wait just a matter of five or ten minutes
110
Agatha Christie
till we get this thing cleared up. Ah! Here is his lordship."
A tall man of forty strode into the room. He was wearing a pair of dilapidated trousers and an old sweater.
"Now then, inspector, what is all this?" he said. "You have got hold of the emerald, you say? That's splendid;
very smart work. Who are these people you have got here?"
His eye ranged over James and came to rest on Merrilees. The forceful personality of the latter seemed to dwindle and
shrink.
"Why--Jones!" exclaimed Lord Edward Campion.
"You recognize this man, Lord Edward?" asked the inspector sharply.
"Certainly I do," said Lord Edward dryly. "He is my valet, came to. me a month ago. The fellow they sent down
from London was on to him at once, but there was not a
trace of the emerald anywhere among his belongings."
"He was carrying it in his coat pocket," the inspector declared. "This gentleman put us on to him." He indicated
James.
In another minute James was being warmly congratulated and shaken by the hand.
"My dear fellow," said Lord Edwa
rd Campion. "So you suspected him all along, you say?"
"Yes," said James. "I had to trump up the story about my pocket being picked to get him into the police station."
"Well, it is splendid," said Lord Edward, "absolutely splendid. You must come back and lunch with us; that is,
if you haven't lunched? It is late, I know, getting on for
two o'clock."
"No," said James; "I haven't lunched--but--"
"Not a word, not a word," said Lord Edward. "The Rajah, you know, will want to thank you for getting back
his emerald for him. Not that I have quite got the hang of
the story yet."
They were out of the police station by now, standing on the steps.
"As a matter of fact," said James, "I think I should like · to tell you the true story."
He did so. His lordship was very much entertained.
"Best thing I ever heard in my life," he declared. "I see it all now. Jones must have hurried down to the bathing hut
THE RAJAH'S EMERALD I I 1
as soon as he had pinched the thing, knowing that the police would make a thorough search of the house. That old pair
of trousers I sometimes put on for going out fishing; nobody
was likely to touch them, and he could recover the jewel
at his leisure. Must have been a shock to him when he came
today to find it gone. As soon as you appeared, he realized
that you were the person who had removed the stone. I still
don't quite see how you managed to see through that detective
pose of his, though!"
"A strong man," thought James to himself, "knows when to be frank and when to be discreet."
He smiled deprecatingly while his fingers passed gently over the inside of his coat lapel feeling the small silver
badge of that little-known club, the Merton Park Super
Cycling Club. An astonishing coincidence that the man Jones
should also be a member, but there it was!
"Hallo, James!"
He turned. Grace and the Sopworth girls were calling to him from the other side of the road. He turned to Lord
Edward.
"Excuse me a moment'?."
He crossed the road to them.
, "We are going to the pictures," said Grace. "Thought
you,,night like to come."
am sorry," said James. "I am just going back to lunch
with Lord Edward Campion. Yes, that man over there in the comfortable old clothes. He wants me to meet the Rajah
of Maraputna."
He raised his hat politely and rejoined Lord Edward.
Swan Song
It was eleven o'clock on a May morning in London. Mr. Cowan was looking out of the window; behind him was the
somewhat ornate splendour of a sitting room in a suite at
the RitzIotel. The suite in question had been reserved for
Mme. Pa'ula Nazorkoff, the famous operatic star, who had
just arrived in London. Mr. Cowan, who was Madame's
principal man of business, was awaiting an interview with
the lady. He turned his head suddenly as the door opened,
but it was only Miss Read, Mme. Nazorkoff's secretary, a pale girl with an efficient manner.
"Oh, so it's you, my dear," said Mr. Cowan. "Madame not up yet, eh?"
Miss Read shook her head.
"She told me to come round at ten o'clock," Mr. Cowan said. "I have been waiting an hour."
He displayed neither resentment nor surprise. Mr. Cowan was indeed accustomed to the vagaries of the artistic temperament.
He was a tall man, clean-shaven, with a frame
rather too well covered, and clothes that were rather too
faultless. His hair was very black and shining, and his teeth
were aggressively white. When he spoke, he had a way of
slurring his "s's" which was not quite a lisp, but came
perilously near to it. At that minute a door at the other side
of the room opened, and a trim French gift hurried through.
"Madame getting up?" inquired Cowan hopefully. "Tell us the news, Elise."
Elise immediately elevated both hands to heaven. "Madame she is like seventeen devils this morning; nothing
pleases her! The beautiful yellow roses which monsieur
sent to her last night, she says they are all very well for
112
SWAN SONG 1 13
New York, but that it is imbdcile to send them to her in
London. In London, she says, red roses are the only things
possible, and straightaway she opens the door and precipitates
the yellow roses into the passage, where they descend
upon a monsieur, trs comme ilfaut, a military gentleman,
I think, and he is justly indignant, that one!"
Cowan raised his eyebrows, but displayed no other signs
of emotion. Then he took from his pocket a small memorandum
book and pencilled in it the words "red roses."
Elise hurried out through the other door, and Cowan
turned once more to the window. Vera Read sat down at
the desk and began opening letters and sorting them. Ten
minutes passed in silence, and then the door of the bedroom
burst open, and Paula Nazorkoff flamed into the from. Her
immediate effect upon it was to make it seem smaller; Vera
Read appeared more colourless, and Cowan retreated into
a-mere figure in the background.
"Ah, ha! My children," said the prima donna. "Am I not
punctual?"
She was a tall woman, and for a singer not unduly fat.
Her arms and legs were still slender, and her neck was a
beautiful column. Her hair, which was coiled in a great roll
halfway down her neck, was of a dark, glowing red. If it
owed some at least of its colour to henna, the result was
none the less effective. She was not a young woman, forty
at least, but the lines of her face were still lovely, though
the skin was loosened and wrinkled round the flashing, dark
eyes. She had the laugh of a child, the digestion of an
ostrich, and the temper of a fiend, and she was acknowledged
to be the greatest dramatic soprano of her day. She
turned directly upon Cowan.
"Have you done as I asked you? Have you taken that
abominable English piano away and thrown it into the
Thames?"
"I have got another for you," said Cowan, and gestured
towards where it stood in the corner.
Nazorkoff rushed across to it and lifted the lid.
"An Erard," she said; "that is better. Now let us see."
The beautiful soprano voice rang out in an arpeggio, then
it ran lightly up and down the scale twice, then took a soft
little run up to a high note, held it, its volume, swelling
114
Agatha Christie
louder and louder, then softened again till it died away in nothingness.
"Ah!" said Paula Nazorkoff in naive satisfaction. "What a beautiful voice I have! Even in London I have a beautiful
voice."
"That is so," agreed Cowan in hearty congratulation. "And you bet London is going to fail for you all right, just
as New York did."
"You think so?" queried the singer.
There was a slight smile on her lips, and it was evident
that for her the question was a mere commonplace. "Sure thing," said Cowan.
Paula Nazorkoff closed the piano lid down and walked across to the table with that slow undulating walk that proved
so effective on the stage.
"Well, well," she said, "let us get to business. You have all the arrangements ther
e, my friend?"
Cowan took some papers out of the portfolio he had laid on a chair.
"Nothing has been altered much," he remarked. "You will sing five times at Covent Garden, three times in Tosca, twice in AMa."
"AMa! Pah," said the prima donna, "it will be unutterable boredom. Tosca, that is different."
"Ah, yes," said Cowan. "Tosca is your part."
Paula Nazorkoff drew herself up.
"I am the greatest Tosca in the world," she said simply. "That is so," agreed Cowan. "No one can touch you."
"Roscari will sing 'Scarpia,' I suppose?"
Cowan nodded.
"And Emile Lippi."
"What?" shrieked Nazorkoff. "Lippi--that hideous little barking frog, croak--croak--croak. I will not sing with
him. I will bite him. I will scratch his face."
"Now, now," said Cowan soothingly.
"He does not sing, I tell you, he is a mongrel dog who barks."
"Well, we'll see; we'll see," said Cowan.
He was too wise ever to argue with temperamental singers.
"The Cavaradossi?" demanded Nazorkoff.
SWAN SONG 115
"The American tenor, Hensdale."
The other nodded.
"He is a nice little boy; he sings prettily."
"And Barrre is to sing it once, I believe."
"He is an artist," said Madame generously. "But to let that croaking frog Lippi be Scarpia! Bah--I'll not sing with
him."
"You leave it to me," said Cowan soothingly.
He cleared his throat and took up a fresh set of papers. "I am arranging for a special concert at the Albert Hall."
Nazorkoff made a grimace.
"I know, I know," said Cowan; "but everybody does it."
"I will be good," said Nazorkoff, "and it will be filled
to the ceiling, and I shall have much money. Ecco." Again Cowan shuffled papers.
"Now here is quite a different proposition," he said, "from Lady Rustonbury. She wants you to go down and
sing."
"Rustonbury?"
The prima donna's brow contracted as if in the effort to recollect something.
"I have read the name lately, very lately. It is a town--or a village, isn't it?"
"That's right, pretty little place in Hertfordshire. As for Lord Rustonbury's place, Rustonbury Castle, it's a real
dandy old feudal seat, ghosts and family pictures, and secret