Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1907 — Martin Hewitt, Investigator. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Martin Hewitt, Investigator.

The Ca.se of the • Dixon Torpedo.

By ARTHUR MORRISON.

Published by Arrangement With Harper & Brothers.

(Concluded] The note was written, and Martin Hewitt, without glancing at the address, thrust it into his pocket. When Bitter was safely in the inner office, however, he drew it out and read the address. "I see,” he observed, "he uses the same name, Hunter; 27 Little Carton street, Westminster, is the address, and there I shall go at once with the note. If the man comes here, 1 think you had letter lock him in with Bitter and send for a policeman- it may at least frighten him. My object Is, of course, to get the man away and then, If possible, to invade his house in some way or another and steal or smash his negatives if they are there and to be found. Stay here, in any case, till I return. And don’t forget to lock up those tracings.” It was about 0 o'clock when Hewitt returned alone, but with a smiling face that told of good fortune at first sight. •'First, Mr Dixon,” be said as he dropped into an easy chair in the private room, “let me ease your mind by the information that I have been most extraordinarily lucky. In fact, I think you have no further cause for anxiety. Here are the negatives. They were not all quite dry when I—well, what?— stole them, 1 suppose I must say, so that they have stuck together a bit, and probably the Hirns are damaged. But you don't mind that, I suppose.” He laid a small parcel wrapped In newspaper on the table. The engineer hastily tore away the paper and took up five or six glass photographic negatives of the half plate size, which were damp uud stuck together by the gelatin films in couples. He held them one after another up to the light of the wltidow and glanced through them. Then, with a great sigh of relief, he placed them on the hearth and pound ed them to dust and fragments with the poker. For a few seconds neither spoke. Then Dixon, flinging himself into a chair, said: "Mr. Hewitt, I can't express my ob ligation to you. What would have happened If you had failed I prefer not to think of. But what shall we do with Ritter now? The other man hasn't be6n here yet, by the bye.” ’'KOkthe fact Is I didn't deliver the letter. TChe worthy gentleman saved me a world of trouble by taking himself out of the way.” Hewitt laughed. "I’m afraid he has rather got himself Into a mess by trying two kinds of theft at once, and you may not be sorry to hear that jps attempt on your torpedo plans is likely to bring him a dose of penal servitude for something else. I’ll tell you what has hap pened. "Little Carton street, Westminster, 1 found to be a seedy sort of place—one of those old streets that have seen much better days. A barber had possession of the ground floor front of No. 27 for trade purposes, so to him I went. ‘Can you tell me,’ I said, ‘where In this bouse I can find Mr. Hunter?’ He looked doubtful, so I went on: ‘His friend will do, you know—l can’t think of his name; foreign gentleman, dark, with a bushy t>eard.' “The barber understood at once. ‘Oh, that’s Mirsky, I expect,’ he said. ‘Now I come to think of it, he lias had letters addressed to Hunter once or twice. I’ve took ’em in. Top floor back.’ ,

“This was good so fur. I had got at Mr. Hunter’s other alias. So, by way of possessing hiiu with the idea that I knew all about him. I determined to ask for him as Mirsky before handing over the letter addressed to him as Hunter. A little bluff of that sort is invaluable at the right time. At the top floor baek I stopp<>d at the door and tried to open It at once, but It was locked. I could hear somebody scuttling about within, as though carrying things about, and I knocked again. In a little while the door opened about a foot, and there stood Mr. Hunter—or Mirsky, as you like—the man who In the character of a traveler In steam packing came here twice today. He was In bls shirt sleeves and cuddled something under his arm, hastily covered with a spotted pocket handkerchief.

“ *1 have called to see M. Mirsky,’ I said, ‘with a confidential letter’— “ ‘Oh. yas. yas.' he answered hastily. T know, 1 know. Excuse me one minute.’ And be rushed off downstairs with his parcel. ... “Here was a noble chance. I slipped inside the door and. finding the key on the inside, locked it. It was a confused sort of room, with a little iron bedstead In one corner and a sort of rough boarded Inclosure in another. This I rightly conjectured to be the photographic dark room and made for it at once. "There was plenty of light within when the door was left open, and 1 made at once for the drying rack thut was fastened over the sink. There were a number of negatives in it, and I began hastily examining them one after another. In the middle of this our friend Mirsky returned and tried the door. He rattled violently at the handle and pushed. Then he called. "‘Who are you, there, Inside?* he shouted indignantly from the landing. ‘Why for you go in my room like that? Open this door at once, or I call the police!’

"I took ho notice. I had got the full numtier of negatives, one for each drawing, but I was not by ally means sure that he had not taken an extra set So I went on hunting down the rack. There were no more, so I set to work to turn out all the undeveloped plates. It was quite possible, you see, that the other set, if it existed, had not yet been developed. “Mirsky changed his tune. After a little more banging and shouting I

could hear him kneel down and try the keyhole. I had left the key there, bo that he could see nothing. But he began talking softly’ and rapidly through the hole in a foreign language. I did not know it in the least, but I believe it was Russian. What had led him to believe I understood Russian I could not at the time imagine, though I have a notion now. I went on ruining his stock of plates. I dragged every one ruthlessly from its hiding place and laid it out in the full glare of the sunlight. “Mirsky left off talking, and I heard him quietly sneaking off. Perhaps his conscience was not sufficiently clear to warrant an appeal to the police, but it Beemed to me rather probable at the time that that was what he was going for.. So I hurried on with my work. “I had spoiled every plate I could find and had the developed negatives safely In my pocket, when I happened to glance at a porcelain washing well under the sink. There was one negative in that, and I took It up. It was not a negative of a drawing of yours, but of a Russian twenty ruble note!” “This was a discovery. The only possible reason any man could have for photographing a banknote was the manufacture of an etched plate for the production of forged copies. I was almost as pleased as I had been at the discovery of your negatives. He might bring the Police now’ as soon as he liked. I could turn the tables on completely. I began to hunt about for anything else relating to this negative. “I found an inking roller, some old pieces of blanket (used in printing from plates), and in a corner on the floor, heaped over with newspapers and rubbish, a small copying press. There was also a dish of acid, but not an etched plate or a printed note to be seen. “I had no doubt now of Mirsky’s reason for carrying a parcel downstairs, lie probably mistook me for another visitor he was expecting, and, knowing he must take this visitor into his room, threw the papers and rubbish over the press and put up his plates and papers In a bumlie and secreted them somewhere downstairs, lest his occupation should be observed. • “Plainly, my duty now was to communicate with the police. So, by the help of my friend the barber downstairs, a messenger was found and a note sent over to Scotland Yard. When the official detective arrived, he recognized at once the importance of the case. A large number of forged Russian notes have been put into circulation oh the continent lately. It seems, and it was suspected tfiat they came from London. The Russian government has been sending urgent messages to the police here on the subject. “Of course I said nothing about your business, but while I was talking with the Scotland Yard man a letter was left by a messenger addressed to Mirsky. The letter will be examined, of course, by the proper authorities, but I was not a little interested to perceive that the envelope bore the Russian imperial arms above the words ‘Russian embassy.’ Now, why Should Mirsky communicate with the Russian embassy? Certainly’ not to let the officials know that he was carrying on a verv extensive and lucrative business in the manufacture of spurious Russian notes. I think It is rather more than possible that he wrote—probably before he actually got your drawings—to say that he could sell information of the highest importance, and that this letter was a reply. Further, I think it quite possible that, when I asked for him by his Russian name and spoke of ‘a confidential letter.’ he at once concluded that I had come from the embassy in answer to his letter. That would account for his addressing me in Russian through the keyhole; and, of course, an official from the Russian embassy would be the very last person in the world whom he would like to have observe any indications of his little etching experiments. But, anyhow, be that as it may,” Hewitt concluded, “your drawings are safe now, and if once Mirsky Is caught—and I think it likely, for a

man tn his snirtsieeves, witn scnreeiy any start and. perhaps, no money about him, hasn't a great chance to get away’—if he Is caught. I say, he will probably’ get something handsome at St. Petersburg in the way of imprisonment or Siberia or what not; so that you will be amply avenged.” “Yes, but I don’t at all understand this business of the drawings even now. How in the world were they taken out of the place and how in the world did you flnd-lt out?” "Nothing could be simpler, and yet the plan was rather Ingenious. Now, as the drawings were in your inner office, the only people who could have got at them besides yourself were your assistants, so that it was pretty clear that one of them at least had something to do with the business. You told me that Worsfold was an excellent and intelligent draftsman. Well, if such a man as that meditated treachery’ he would probably be able to carry away the design in his head—at any rate, a little at a time—and would be under no necessity to run the risk of stealing a set of drawings. Bui Ritter, you remarked, was an inferior sort of man, ‘not particularly smart,’ I think, were your words—only a mechanical sort of tracer.

“When I looked round the rooms, I pushed open the glass door of the barrier and left the door to the inner office ajar in order to be able to see anything that might happen in any part of the place without actually expecting any definite development. While we were talking, as it happened, our friend Mirsky—or Hunter, as you please—came into the outer office, and my attention was instantly’ called to him by the first thing be did. Did you notice anything peculiar yourself?” “No, really, I can't say I did. He seemed to behave much as any traveler or agent might.” “Well, what I noticed was the fact that as £oon as he entered the place he put his walking stick into the umbrella stand over there by the door, close by where he stood, a most unusual thing for*# casual caller to do, before even knowing whether you were in. This made me watch him closely. I perceived with increased Interest that the stick was exactly of the same kind and pattern as one already standing there, also a curious thing. I kept my eyes carefully’ on those sticks and was all the;more interested and editied to see when lie left that lie took the other stick—not the one he came with—from the stand and carried it away, leaving his own behind. I might have followed him. but I decided that more could be learned by staying, as, in fact, proved to be the case. This, by the bye, is the stick he carried away with him. I took the liberty of fetching it back from Westminster because 1 conceive It to be Ritter's property.” Hewitt produced the stick. It was an ordinary thick malacca cane, with a buckhorn handle and a silver band. Hewitt bent it across his knee and laid dt/on the table. “Yes,” Dixon answered, “that is Ritter's stick. I think I have often ■een it in the -stand. But what in the world”— “One moment. I'll just fetch the stick Mirsky left behind.” And Hewitt steppedacross the corridor. , He returned with another stick, apparently an exact facsimile of the other, and placed it by the side of the other. “When your assistants went Into the inner room, I carried this stick off for a minute or two. I knew it was not Worsfold’s, because there was an umbrella there with his initial on the handle. Look at this.” Martin Hewitt gave the handle a twist and rapidly unscrewed it from the top. Then it was seen that the stick was a mere tube of very thin metal, painted to appear like a malacca cane.

“It was plain at once that this was no malacca cane. It wouldn't bend. Inside it I found yoar tracings, rolled up tightly.” “And this—this was the way they were brought back!” the engineer exclaimed. “I see that clearly. But how did they get away?” “See here. Mirskj’ gets hold of Hitter, and they agree to get your drawings and photograph them. Ritter is to let his confederate have the drawings, and Mirsky is to bring them back as soon as possible, so that they shan’t be missed for a moment. Ritter habitually carries this malacca cane, and the cunning of Mirsky at once suggests that this tube should be made in outward facsimile. This morning Mirsky keeps the actual stick, and Ritter comes to the office with the tube. He seizes the first opportunity, probably when you were in this private room and Worsfold was talking to you from the corridor, to get at the tracings, roll them up tightly and put them in the tube, putting the tube back into the umbrella stand. At half past 12, or whenever it was, Mirsky turns up for the first time with the actual stick and exchanges them, just as he afterward did when he brought the drawings back.” . ■.■■■■

“Yes, but Mirsky came half an hour after they were— Oh, yes, I see. What a fool I was! I was forgetting. Of course, when I first missed the tracings, they were in this walking stick, safe enough, and I was tearing my hair out within arm’s reach of them!” “Precisely. And Mirsky took them away before your very eyes. I expect Ritter was in a rare funk when he found that the drawings were missed. He calculated, no doubt, on your not wanting them for the hour or two they would be out of the office.” “How lucky that it struck me to Jot a pencil note on one of them! I might easily have made my note somewhere else, and then I should never have known that they had been away.” “Yes, they didn’t give you any too much time to miss them. Well, I thing the rest is pretty clear. I brought the tracings in here, screwed, up the shntft

stick and put it back. Yen identifies the tracings and found none missing, and then my course was pretty clear, though it looked difficult. To Ritter I pretended to know nothing of the return of the drawings or how they had Ijeen stolen—the only things I did know with certainty. But 1 did pretend to know all about Mirsky—or Hunter—when, as a matter of fact, I knew nothing at all, except that he probably went under ,more than one name. That put Ritter Into* my hands completely. When he found the game was up, he began with a lying confession. Believing that the tracings were still in the stick and that we knew nothing of their return, he said that they had not been away, and that he would fetch them—as I had expected he would. I let him go for them alone, and when he returned, utterly broken up by the discovery that they were not there, I had him altogether at my mercy. You see, if he had known that the drawings were all the time behind your bookcase, he might have brazened it out, sworn that the drawings had been there all the time, and we could have done nothing with him. We couldn’t have sufficiently frightened him by a threat of prosecution for theft, because there the things were in your possession, to his knowledge. “As it was, he answered the helm capitally, gave us Mirsky’s address on the envelope and wrote the letter that was to have got him out of the way while I committed burglary, if that disgraceful expedient had not been rendered unnecessary. Ou the whole, the case has gone very well.” “It has gone marvelously well, thanks to yourself. But what shall 1 do with Ritter?” “Here’s his stick—knock him downstairs w’lth it, If you like. I should keep the tube, If I w r ere you, as a memento. I don’t suppose the respectable Mirsky will ever call to ask for It."

Mirsky was caught and, after two remands at the police court, was extradited on the charge of forging Russian notes. It came out that he had written to the embassy, as Hewitt had surmised, stating that he had certain valuable Information to offer, and the letter which Hewitt had seen deliver ed was an acknowledgment and a request for more definite particulars. This was what gave rise to the impression that Mirsky had himself informed the Russian authorities of his forgeries. His real intent was very different, but was never guessed.

“I have called to see M. Mirsky.”