Her answer was still more
incomprehensible:

“I don’t know how I know it; but know it I do. I feel it all through
me; as though it were a conviction which has been with me all my life!”




Chapter VIII

The Finding of the Lamps


Sergeant Daw at first made some demur; but finally agreed to advise
privately on a matter which might be suggested to him. He added that I
was to remember that he only undertook to advise; for if action were
required he might have to refer the matter to headquarters. With this
understanding I left him in the study, and brought Miss Trelawny and
Mr. Corbeck to him. Nurse Kennedy resumed her place at the bedside
before we left the room. I could not but admire the cautious, cool-headed precision with which
the traveller stated his case. He did not seem to conceal anything,
and yet he gave the least possible description of the objects missing. He did not enlarge on the mystery of the case; he seemed to look on it
as an ordinary hotel theft. Knowing, as I did, that his one object was
to recover the articles before their identity could be obliterated, I
could see the rare intellectual skill with which he gave the necessary
matter and held back all else, though without seeming to do so. “Truly,” thought I, “this man has learned the lesson of the Eastern
bazaars; and with Western intellect has improved upon his masters!”  He
quite conveyed his idea to the Detective, who, after thinking the
matter over for a few moments, said:

“Pot or scale? that is the question.”

“What does that mean?” asked the other, keenly alert. “An old thieves’ phrase from Birmingham. I thought that in these days
of slang everyone knew that. In old times at Brum, which had a lot of
small metal industries, the gold- and silver-smiths used to buy metal
from almost anyone who came along. And as metal in small quantities
could generally be had cheap when they didn’t ask where it came from,
it got to be a custom to ask only one thing—whether the customer
wanted the goods melted, in which case the buyer made the price, and
the melting-pot was always on the fire. If it was to be preserved in
its present state at the buyer’s option, it went into the scale and
fetched standard price for old metal. “There is a good deal of such work done still, and in other places than
Brum. When we’re looking for stolen watches we often come across the
works, and it’s not possible to identify wheels and springs out of a
heap; but it’s not often that we come across cases that are wanted. Now, in the present instance much will depend on whether the thief is a
good man—that’s what they call a man who knows his work. A
first-class crook will know whether a thing is of more value than
merely the metal in it; and in such case he would put it with someone
who could place it later on—in America or France, perhaps. By the
way, do you think anyone but yourself could identify your lamps?”

“No one but myself!”

“Are there others like them?”

“Not that I know of,” answered Mr. Corbeck; “though there may be others
that resemble them in many particulars.”  The Detective paused before
asking again: “Would any other skilled person—at the British Museum,
for instance, or a dealer, or a collector like Mr. Trelawny, know the
value—the artistic value—of the lamps?”

“Certainly! Anyone with a head on his shoulders would see at a glance
that the things were valuable.”

The Detective’s face brightened. “Then there is a chance. If your
door was locked and the window shut, the goods were not stolen by the
chance of a chambermaid or a boots coming along. Whoever did the job
went after it special; and he ain’t going to part with his swag without
his price. This must be a case of notice to the pawnbrokers. There’s
one good thing about it, anyhow, that the hue and cry needn’t be given. We needn’t tell Scotland Yard unless you like; we can work the thing
privately. If you wish to keep the thing dark, as you told me at the
first, that is our chance.”  Mr. Corbeck, after a pause, said quietly:

“I suppose you couldn’t hazard a suggestion as to how the robbery was
effected?” The Policeman smiled the smile of knowledge and experience. “In a very simple way, I have no doubt, sir. That is how all these
mysterious crimes turn out in the long-run. The criminal knows his
work and all the tricks of it; and he is always on the watch for
chances. Moreover, he knows by experience what these chances are likely
to be, and how they usually come. The other person is only careful; he
doesn’t know all the tricks and pits that may be made for him, and by
some little oversight or other he falls into the trap. When we know
all about this case, you will wonder that you did not see the method of
it all along!”  This seemed to annoy Mr. Corbeck a little; there was
decided heat in his manner as he answered:

“Look here, my good friend, there is not anything simple about this
case—except that the things were taken. The window was closed; the
fireplace was bricked up. There is only one door to the room, and that
I locked and bolted. There is no transom; I have heard all about hotel
robberies through the transom. I never left my room in the night. I
looked at the things before going to bed; and I went to look at them
again when I woke up. If you can rig up any kind of simple robbery out
of these facts you are a clever man. That’s all I say; clever enough
to go right away and get my things back.”  Miss Trelawny laid her hand
upon his arm in a soothing way, and said quietly:

“Do not distress yourself unnecessarily. I am sure they will turn up.”
Sergeant Daw turned to her so quickly that I could not help remembering
vividly his suspicions of her, already formed, as he said:

“May I ask, miss, on what you base that opinion?”

I dreaded to hear her answer, given to ears already awake to suspicion;
but it came to me as a new pain or shock all the same:

“I cannot tell you how I know. But I am sure of it!”  The Detective
looked at her for some seconds in silence, and then threw a quick
glance at me. Presently he had a little more conversation with Mr. Corbeck as to his
own movements, the details of the hotel and the room, and the means of
identifying the goods. Then he went away to commence his inquiries,
Mr. Corbeck impressing on him the necessity for secrecy lest the thief
should get wind of his danger and destroy the lamps. Mr. Corbeck
promised, when going away to attend to various matters of his own
business, to return early in the evening, and to stay in the house. All that day Miss Trelawny was in better spirits and looked in better
strength than she had yet been, despite the new shock and annoyance of
the theft which must ultimately bring so much disappointment to her
father. We spent most of the day looking over the curio treasures of Mr.
Trelawny. From what I had heard from Mr. Corbeck I began to have some
idea of the vastness of his enterprise in the world of Egyptian
research; and with this light everything around me began to have a new
interest.