Part 2

It was now nearly three o'clock in the morning. There was no more for me to do there, so I prepared to take my departure.

The old man began again to lament the loss of the diamond, and complained in the most energetic manner that he had not been able to shoot, or cut in two, the rascals who had robbed him.

"It would be stupid of me to promise anything," said I; "but, for my own part, I am pretty sure we shall have the birds caged before many days, and that we shall secure the diamond as well."

With these words, I took my departure, put the cut-off heel bits in my pocket, and went home.

My thoughts on the way were naturally taken up with what I had heard and seen at Bartholomew Frick's.

But, remarkably enough, it was the young girl, Miss Frick, upon whom my thoughts dwelt most of all. I had only heard her speak a few words, and this was the first time I had seen her face; but she attracted me strangely. I have never been of an impressionable nature, and no woman had ever had much of an attraction for me. So I was astonished to find how clearly her image stood out before me after the few hours we had been together. I already felt a strong desire to please her--a desire to do something which would compel her admiration.

You must, in any case, get the diamond back for her uncle, I thought; women naturally set value upon a detective's skill. It will at any rate please her uncle, and bring me into her society again.

I had at once noticed that the robbery at Frick's was of a simple and not very complicated kind; and though the matter from a professional stand-point had not interested me particularly, it had suddenly become invested with a new importance.

As soon as I arrived home, I hurriedly changed my wet clothes, made myself a cup of coffee over the spirit lamp, and then took out the piece of heel.

It was a broad, strong heel, with an iron rim round it, and entirely new, just like the sole. It did not seem to have belonged to the usual kind of cheap boots which our ordinary criminals are apt to patronize; at the same time it did not seem to have belonged to the better class of foot-gear. The heel somehow seemed to me to be familiar, a vague recollection of something set my brain to work.

Ah, suddenly I saw it all! The heel and sole belonged to the same sort of shoes, in fact they were a perfect match to a pair which had just helped the police to circumstantial evidence by an impression on soft soil in a similar case. It was the same kind of boot with which the prison society provides discharged prisoners, so that they shall not be entirely shoeless when they come out of prison.

One of the thieves must be a discharged prisoner, I went on reasoning. The boots are quite new; he must, therefore, have been just lately released,--in all probability yesterday morning. The burglary must have been planned and the necessary watch on the house undertaken by a confederate who, of course, must have been at large for some time previous.

Ten minutes later I stood in the anteroom to my office at the police station. It was not yet morning. The official on duty sat and dozed over the stove.

"Find out from the ledger, if any of our burglars have been discharged from jail in the course of the last two or three days," I asked.

It is, unfortunately, a fact, that a large majority of crime is committed by prisoners who have just been let out of jail, and we therefore carefully keep a register of those who are let loose.

In the meanwhile, I went into the guardroom and ordered two constables to follow me.

"Black John, the Throndhjemer, as you perhaps remember, sir, was discharged yesterday morning; I don't see any others.

"That's all right! find out where he hangs about when he is out."

"I know him well, sir. He generally puts up at 'Fat Bertha's,' she who has the coffee-house and lodgings for travellers up by Vaalerengen. But he often frequents the sheds in the brick fields and round about there."

I always had a trap in readiness at the police station, and in a quarter of an hour I, and two officers in plain clothes, stopped at a suitable distance from Fat Bertha's lodging-house.

Black John was not there, however, and we began to search among the brick ovens.

Daylight was just breaking when we came to the second oven, and the workmen were arriving with their tin cans in hand. Two men crept out on the other side and began to run across a ploughed field which adjoined one of the sheds.

We set off after them; but it seemed as if they had got too much of a start, and were likely to get away from us in the morning mist.

Suddenly one of them began to drop behind, and we soon had him between us. We let the other one get away for the time being.

The fellow we had got hold of swore and cursed, but otherwise made no resistance.

"If it hadn't been for that sore foot of mine, the police wouldn't have got me this time," he bawled.

We followed the direction of his look, and saw how his left foot had forced its way through the shoe, which was dragging about his ankle.

Black John's volubility did not deceive me. I kept a sharp eye on all his movements. While he, with a kind of raw good nature, joked with the constables, he slowly passed one hand behind him, and with a deft movement threw a small parcel some ten or twelve paces behind him.

"You had better leave tricks of that sort alone, Black John," I said in a friendly tone, stepping back and picking up a dirty little packet wrapped in a greasy piece of _The Morning Post_.

Inside three or four wrappers of the same sort I found the strangest object I had ever seen.

It was a large black diamond, of a flattened oval shape, tapering at the ends. It was set in a broad gold rim of the same form as the stone, and, to make its likeness to a tortoise more complete, a head was introduced, together with a little stumpy tail, and four knobs underneath, to represent feet,--all of gold. In the head shone two green precious stones for eyes.

"Oh, no; it won't be of much use to me, I can see," said Black John, resignedly. "I suppose I am in for another year or two."

He exhibited a subtle humour, while he tramped along to the town between the two policemen. The effects of just-from-prison libations did not seem quite to have left him.

"Ours is a hard sort of a profession, sir," he continued confidentially. "I think it's just as well to be a convict all one's life. Then one wouldn't get such frights at night. Such a one as I had last night!"

"Were you frightened, then, last night, in the Drammen Road?" I asked sympathetically.

"Frightened, indeed! What would you say, sir, if you were busy rooting about in a house at night, when you thought all was quiet and still, and an old ourang-outang in a shirt were suddenly to appear before you with a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, firing away at you till the bullets whistled about your ears?"

In this kind of jocular strain he talked until we reached the town, where we parted.

* * * * *

It was half-past twelve, and the sun was shining brightly when I again rang the bell at old Frick's in the Drammen Road.

I had slept a few hours, handed in my report to the superintendent, and now I wanted to have the pleasure of giving old Frick his diamond back again.

I had taken a little more trouble than usual about my toilet; you can guess the reason why.

I was very pleased to find Miss Frick alone when I was ushered into the sitting-room. I thus had an opportunity of exchanging a few words with her; for when old Frick came in I knew only too well who would take up all the conversation.

She received me in a friendly manner, and when, without further ado, I showed her the diamond, she clapped her hands in joyful surprise.

"How glad uncle will be! When he once gets it back again he will look upon last night's affair as an exceedingly pleasant diversion. May I take it to him?"

"Yes, of course!"

"It was I who advised him to telephone to you in the night, Mr. Monk, and to-day I also assured him that you would be certain to find his tortoise again."

"It is a great pleasure, Miss Frick, to find you have such confidence in inc. May I ask how you got to know of my name?"

The young girl blushed a little. "We have often read about you in the papers, and Einar tells me there isn't a case which you cannot clear up."

"I must thank your brother for his flattering opinion, and I am indebted to the burglars of last night for giving me this opportunity of making your acquaintance and the acquaintance with your family."

"But you must excuse me a moment, Mr. Monk. I must hurry away and find uncle and give him the diamond. I haven't even told him you are here!"

She ran out of the room, and I looked after her, enraptured. She was even prettier by daylight than by lamplight. Light, reddish-golden hair, blue eyes, a straight nose, and a beautiful shapely mouth, yet not of the smallest. As for her figure, it was that of a veritable Diana as she vanished from the room.

I stood looking out of the window, when the door opened.

I turned round hastily, and at first I thought it was Miss Frick who had come back again. But the next moment I discovered that it was a young girl whom I had not seen before, who stood hesitating on the threshold.

She was also tall, fair, and slight, and with something of the same grace in her movements. Indeed, both in her movements and carriage she was wonderfully like Miss Frick. Nor was her face and especially the shape of her head unlike Miss Frick's, but her hair was much redder, her lips thinner, and her mouth more sharply moulded. Her eyes were certainly blue and pretty, but they wore a colder expression.

I thought at first it was Miss Frick's sister, but a glance at the small, coquettish, servant-maid's cap told me she held a different position in the house.

With an excuse she hurriedly left the room; she had thought Miss Frick was there.

Scarcely had she shut the door after her before Miss Frick again appeared, and as she saw perhaps that I looked a bit puzzled, she gave a low laugh and said:--

"You have seen my double, I suppose? She didn't know any one was here. All strangers are astonished at the likeness between Evelina and me. She is my lady's-maid."

"The likeness does not strike me as being so great," I answered; "do you think so yourself? I should never make such a mistake as taking her for you."

"Oh yes, indeed!" she replied; "at first it was almost unpleasant to me. Her father was, in his line, a well-to-do artisan, but things went badly with him, and he took to drink. The mother is not a very desirable person either, and so my uncle, who had known them many years, proposed that I should take the daughter as my maid."

It was a pleasure to me to talk with this pretty young girl. She was more natural and free from any affectation than any young woman I had met. It was easy to see she had plenty of common sense, and was well educated.

Mr. Frick did not tarry long. He came waddling in, clad in a large-checked, English pea-jacket, his full-blown face beaming like the sun. He was not satisfied this time with shaking one of my hands, but seized both in his gigantic paws. His praise of my skill was quite overwhelming and it was only by the greatest effort that I got him to change the subject.

After that followed an invitation to dinner at "Villa Ballarat," as he called the house. He would like to have a full description of how I had managed to discover the thieves.

This invitation clashed with my engagements that day, and I should have felt almost duty bound to refuse it, had I not happened to look at Miss Frick.

It appeared to me as if I could read something in her face which spoke of anxious expectation, and--I accepted the invitation.

The dinner went off very well. Old Frick told us how he had first become possessed of the tortoise; that, however, I will return to later.

Happily there was another person present who could listen to old Frick, while I had a much more interesting conversation with Miss Frick.

Young Einar, who seemed a fine young fellow, and whose occupation it was to keep his uncle's books and accounts, alone emptied a bottle of Pleidsieck monopole, and then stole away immediately after dinner with a good supply of his uncle's Havana cigars, to have a game of billiards at the Grand Hotel.

Before I left Villa Ballarat, I had another talk with old Frick, of a more serious nature. I represented to him how wrong it was to let so many costly articles as those he had gathered together, lie unprotected against thieves and burglars.

"You have seen yourself, Mr. Frick," I said, "how you tempt people to become housebreakers."

Old Frick showed himself for once amenable to advice.

"Come and see me to-morrow," he said; "I should like to have your opinion as to how I ought to arrange my things. The house here is becoming too small for me; I expect a guest in a few days. What do you say to my building a pavilion out in the garden, and arranging it specially as a museum or as a place of custody for all my curiosities? If I built the pavilion expressly for this purpose, I ought to be able to make it sufficiently proof against thieves. I could use iron safes, iron bars before the windows, electric-alarm apparatus, and suchlike. So long as I am well and able to move about, I can look after my things,--as you have seen I did last night; but when I get older, it will be more difficult. One cannot depend upon the young people in the house."

By sufficiently encouraging this plan of his, I got him to start the work, and within a month old Frick had a building constructed in the garden, about forty yards from the house. A building which should serve as a depository for all his collection, and at the same time give space for his office, and containing a fire-proof room for money and important documents.

This building will, later on, play a part in my story, and I shall therefore give a short description of it.

It was built nearly square, and divided into two. The whole of the one half was fitted up to receive Frick's collection. It formed a large room with no windows, but was lighted from above. Over the skylights were placed strong gilt iron bars to prevent entrance from above.

The heavy iron shutters, which, being painted white and lacquered, looked like innocent wooden boards, could be pulled down in front of the cases when the museum was closed.

These iron shutters were so well balanced with hidden counter weights that the weakest child could move them up or down. They could be locked with strong safety locks, of which Bartholomew Frick alone had the keys.

The other half of the house was partitioned into two, forming a larger and a smaller room. The larger did duty as Mr. Frick's office, and there his nephew took up his residence in the morning among the heap of business books. The smaller room, which, on account of the many feet thick, brick walls, gave very little inside space, served as a fire-proof room for money and documents.

This room had no windows, and only one very solid, double iron door, which led into the before-mentioned room used as the museum.

It had been made according to my suggestion; for I reasoned thus: The office is, as a matter of course, the least-protected room in the building. It has windows, and necessarily a good many strangers will be going in and out there. The safest thing is to let the one door to the fire-proof room, where Frick likes to keep a large sum of ready money, lead out into the museum. It is only frequented by the people of the house and guests, and at night it is more secure against burglary than the office.

All round the garden there was an iron railing, twice as high as a man, and people who were going to the house had to ring a bell at the iron gate.

At that time, when I made old Frick's acquaintance, he had invested a great deal of his money in various enterprises, mostly industrial undertakings, and especially such as would bring new trade and industry to the country.

He himself took no part in the management of these undertakings, and the work in his office was not more than could be managed by himself and his nephew.

It was not long before I was a regular and, as far as I could perceive, a welcome guest at the villa; indeed, all through the winter there was scarcely a day when I did not visit there.

Old Frick was never tired of asking me about news from the police courts; but I soon realized that it was not so much my stories that interested him, as the fact that for each of my stories, which I tried to make as short as possible, he found opportunity to treat us to two or three of his own, which always took a long time.

He was, however, an admirable story-teller, and we often sat by the hour together, listening to him with the greatest interest.

Generally the party was limited to old Frick, Sigrid, and myself. Einar was a gay young fellow, who spent a good deal of his time and his money with his companions, and he gave us but little of his society. Thus the three of us spent many pleasant evenings together.

*CHAPTER III*

*MR. REGINALD HOWELL*

Here was my first letter from Miss Frick:--

DEAR MR. MONK,--My uncle wants you to come and dine with us to-morrow at five o'clock. He is expecting an Englishman to-day, a son of one of his old Australian comrades, and would like you to make his acquaintance.

Yours, SIGRID FRICK.

It was not a love letter, not even a friendly epistle, but quite the most conventional piece of writing one could receive; and yet it caused me great happiness when this note arrived, in the fine bold handwriting I got to know so well.

It was on a Saturday, a few days before Christmas. From the first day I had seen Sigrid Frick, until now, I had employed the time in falling in love as deplorably as ever a man can do, and I could see that my attentions were not displeasing to her. And so, as a matter of course, I accepted the invitation for dinner next day.

On my arrival at Villa Ballarat, I found old Frick beaming with delight.

"Here he is, Monk; here he is!--Reginald Howell, son of my old friend Howell, who was the best man and the most faithful friend in the whole world. I don't think my old friend, even when he was young, had such a fine appearance as his son, here; but his heart was as true as gold, and he was as reliable as a rock."

It would have been difficult for old Frick to get away from his reminiscences of old Howell, but luckily his niece recalled him to the present by intimating that he ought to introduce me to the young Englishman before he indulged in them further.

He was a tall, handsome young fellow, about my own age, and of the dark English type. His manners were easy and unaffected, as is usual with Englishmen of good birth.

There was nothing particularly attractive about his face, although he had fine eyes, somewhat dark, almost black, in fact, but without the fire in them that usually accompanies eyes of that colour. His manners were rather insinuating, though not at all unpleasant.

I gradually learned to like him fairly well.

At first, it happened that he threw many a tender glance at Miss Frick, and on that account I felt not a little inclined to quarrel with him. But as this was only a repetition of what had happened in the past two months with half a dozen other young men who visited Villa Ballarat, I was sensible enough to allow these feelings to have only a momentary hold upon me.

He soon kept his eyes to himself, probably because he saw "how the land lay," as the sailors have it.

One thing which, in a great measure, spoke in the young Englishman's favour, was his apparent modesty.

When his father died the year before,--he had until then lived in Australia,--the son decided to go to Europe, and he took his passage on a sailing ship. But the vessel had caught fire in the open sea, and the passengers and crew had had to take to the boats. Only one of the boats had reached land--the one in which Reginald Howell and eight others had saved themselves. But the boat foundered on a coral reef, and Mr. Howell at last found himself, the only survivor, on a little island. The natives were friendly to him, and after two months' stay there, he sighted a ship which brought him to England.

People seldom refuse to relate interesting stories when they concern themselves; but it was only after repeated appeals from old Frick that Mr. Howell was at last induced to give a very sober and curtailed description of his adventurous voyage.

It was easy to understand that he must have behaved very coolly and bravely under such terrible circumstances, and that it was only due to his presence of mind and courage that he was able to save himself, yet he seldom spoke of himself, and then always in the most modest manner possible.

In short, he had the habit, owing either to the way in which he had been brought up, or by nature, seldom or never of speaking about himself,--a habit which never fails to make a favourable impression.

When the young man came to England, he of course gave the authorities an exact account of the wreck of the _Queen of the East_, and the fate of the crew. The account had been published in several of the English papers, and he laughingly proffered to show us some of these papers if we found his verbal account not exhaustive enough.

Mr. Howell had come to Norway at the express invitation of old Frick, who, when he had heard of his old friend's death, had written and asked the son to visit him in Norway. The young man had received Frick's letter just when he was on the point of sailing from Australia--he had already arranged previously to visit Europe--and had notified his departure by telegraph.

"You did right, Reginald, in coming as quickly as possible to your father's old friend. I suppose you intend to spend the winter with us. You can learn to go on 'ski' here; a fine sport, I can tell you. You must live with us. I have had two rooms made ready for you here in Villa Ballarat."

Mr. Howell said he thought he would avail himself of the invitation for one or two months; he was a keen sportsman, and had long ago made up his mind to have a look at, and a try at, ski-running.

"That's right," cried old Frick, clinking his champagne glass against that of the Englishman. "The whole house and all that I possess is at the disposal of my old friend's son. After dinner you shall hear what I owe him. I don't suppose I need offer to assist you with any money, for in his last letter to me your father wrote that he would leave you everything he possessed, for your mother died when you were a little boy, and you were the only child. Your father was not so very rich, but I think he wrote something about L1200 a year."

"Yes, thereabouts," replied the young man, good-naturedly, and smiling at the kind old man's loquacity; "and that is more than enough for me."

"Then perhaps I had better strike out your name from my will; it has, until now, been standing beside those of Sigrid and Einar."

We all laughed heartily and rose from the table.

When we were drinking our coffee, and had lighted our cigars, old Frick began the story of his friendship with Howell the elder, and the adventures which had bound these two so closely together.

To tell the truth, I tried my best to slip away, hoping for a chat alone with Sigrid; but that couldn't be managed, and after having heard old Frick's story, I must confess that only a man in love could dream of anything more interesting than his account of it.

I should like to give it in all its detail, and in old Frick's words, but I cannot, and I must restrict myself to giving you the main points in his story.

Bartholomew Frick had left Norway and run away to sea in 1830; his desire for adventure and his dislike for the schoolroom had driven him to this.