MY FIRST CASE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4735, 9 October 1886, Page 5 (Supplement)

MY FIRST CASE.

[BY AN ENGLISH DETECTIVE.] Yes sir, I call it my first case, because it was the first of any importance in which I was engaged, and because, thanks to tho happy chance of which I am going tq tell you, it gave me a start in my career which I have never lost.

It was one morning several winters ago when I was ordered by my chief to call on Mr. , a diamond merchant, who had reported a loss of diamonds worth $20,000. Further than that the house was in Soho, I need not give you any particulars of this gentleman's name or address.

I was then very young to be entrusted with so important a case, but we were busy at the time, and my chief was kind enough to express his faith in my ability. I had not been ten minutes in the house before I saw that I had before me a task of no little difficulty. The room in which I stood was oblong in shape. One end was occupied by a large window looking on the street. Standing with your back to the window, on the right hand side, was a fireplace, on the left the door; between them stood a largo square table, above which was the chandelier with four or five lights. Against the right hand wall some little distance from tho fireplace stood a large safe facing into the room. Save one or two chairs there was no other furniture in the room. It was from the safe that the diamonds in question had been stolen, But here was the puzzle—the safe had been drilled opsn, a work which must have taken at least an hour and a half, and the room remained all night with the blinds drawn up and the gas lighted, in full view of the pass-ers-by and of the policeman on the beat who passed every half hour. There were two keys of the safe—one in the possession of Mr. and the other belonging to his son. The custom was that the old gentleman left the office first and went home to Ms place at Dulwich, the two clerks left at 6 o'clock, and the soji was usually the last to leave, locking the safe and seeing that all was left in security. The other rooms in the house Were let out as offices, but all the tenants left before 5 o'clock, and when Mr. 's office was locked up the only occupants of the house were the caretaker and his wife who lived in the attic,

The robbery had been discovered by Mr. on his arrival first at the office on the morning in question. He had been followed by his clerks and his son in the order named, and I found all four present when I reached the house. On making enquiries I found that Hj\ himself had locked tho safo ou the previous evening. The clerks had gone as usual at 6 at Mr. having had to remain later than usual saw everything clear before his departure. He and his son left together, the father going home and the son going to dine with a friend, with whom he went to the theatre and at whose b,ous.o he sldpt. The housekeeper haij swept and cleaned the offices as usual and had finished work by 8 o'clock, at which hour she and her husband went upstairs to their own rooms at the top o,f the house. They did not come down again that night and had heard no noise. I felt little difficulty as to the entrance or exit of the thief. He might have entered the house at any time on the previous afternoon and, as there was more than one unoccupied room in the house, had laid perdu till it was time to commence operations; and, as I foumd a window at the baok of the house un. -, fastened, I concluded he had made gppd his escape through the yard and by way of a low wall into an adjoiuiiog court. But how had he boon able to work so long without attracting attention from any one? The street was not'a busy thoroughfare, but there must havo beeii some wayfarers, despite the

fact that the night had been an inclement ono; and as I have said a policeman passed every half hour. I made a careful inspection of the room but found nothing save a broken piece of amber from the mouthpiece of a pipe. On looking at tho walls I noticed at opposite sides of tho room high up near the cornice two marks, as though nails had been torn out of the plaster, but on pointing these out to Mr. he could give me no information. Ho had never noticed them before, but they might be old marks for all he knew. I then proceeded to make enquiries : hist as to the whereabouts of the clerks on the night in question. Mr. had told me he hud no suspicions as to their integrity, but, of course, it was my business to make sure, and I found they were able to account for their time quite satisfactorily. The policeman who had been on auty could not help me. He had passed each half hour but had seen nothing suspicious. A number of persons had passed up and down the street but he had only recognized one man, a chemist who lived in an adjoining street. Application to this gentleman eliciced nothing further. Ho had passed down the street between 11 and 12 on his way home and had looked in at the lighted window as usual, but their was certainly no ono in the room then. I returned to headquarters to make my prcliminaiy report and directed enquiries to be made with a view to identifying, if possible, auy persons who were in the street throughout the night. Well, sir, for two days I was at my wit's end. All our endca\ors proved fruitless and the more I turned the mutter over tho more helpless I felt. On this third day I was passing through B utront. .iml luoko'.l in to see my brother, who was laid up through an iincident. Ho lodged in roo:n.s over the shop of a house and sign paint ■! who had a small but fairly prosperous busiii' ss. On leaving him I came down to 111 ■-. .-hop to give some instructions to his landlord and whilst I was talking _to tho latter he was called away for a few minutes. A mu.-i]);jr myself by looking about me, my eye was attracted by tho rough sketch of a safe which was lying on the counter. Although my head was full of safes, as you may suppose, I doubt if I should have looked twice at this one had it not been that the sketch was an exact copy of the safe in which I was so much interested, and which, I should have explained, was of peculiar appearance in that it was much narrower in proportion to its height than is customary. On the painter's return I held up the sketch and asked him if he had gone in for a new line of business. 'Well, yes, sir,' he said, laughing, ' that's a sketch I used in my first attempt at scene painting. A young fellow for whom I've done a littlo business camejn the other day and persuaded me to paint him a scene for some private theatricals he was getting up. It represented the wall of an office and that safe stood in ono corner. He was good enough to say that I succeeded very well and he told me afterwards that it had given great satisfaction.' Well, sir, tho whole thing flushed on me in a moment. My gentleman had hung up this drop scene in front of the safe, and the room then presented its ordinary appearance to the street, while behind this ingenious screen he had been able to ' work his wicked will' upon the safe at his leisure. To out a long story short, the painter gave mo such information as enabled me to put my hand on this amateur actor, and ho was in duo course tried, convicted and punished, while wo were able to recover a large portion of the stolen diamonds, greatly to Mr. A 's satisfaction. I think lam right in saying, sir, that it is to chance I owe my start in life, even if I may claim some credit for my subsequent success.