British Mystery Classics - Arthur Morrison Edition (Illustrated). Morrison Arthur

sunken Nicobar, Hewitt gave himself a holiday, and went aboard the tug about noon.

      Here he found Merrick, a big, pleasant man of thirty-eight or so. He was very glad to see Hewitt, but was a great deal puzzled as to the results of the morning’s work on the wreck. Two cases of gold bars were missing.

      “There was £200,000 worth of bullion on board,” he said, “that’s plain and certain. It was packed in forty cases, each of £5,000 value. But now there are only thirty-eight cases! Two are gone clearly. I wonder what’s happened?”

      “I suppose your men don’t know anything about it?” asked Hewitt.

      “No, they’re all right. You see, it’s impossible for them to bring anything up without its being observed, especially as they have to be unscrewed from their diving-dresses here on deck. Besides, bless you, I was down with them.”

      “Oh! Do you dive yourself, then?”

      “Well, I put the dress on sometimes, you know, for any such special occasion as this. I went down this morning. There was no difficulty in getting about on the vessel below, and I found the keys of the bullion-room just where the captain said I would, in his cabin. But the locks were useless, of course, after being a couple of days in salt water. So we just burgled the door with crowbars, and then we saw that we might have done it a bit more easily from outside. For that coasting-steamer cut clean into the bunker next the bullion-room, and ripped open the sheet of boiler-plate dividing them.”

      “The two missing cases couldn’t have dropped out that way, of course?”

      “Oh, no. We looked, of course, but it would have been impossible. The vessel has a list the other way — to starboard — and the piled cases didn’t reach as high as the torn part. Well, as I said, we burgled the door, and there they were, thirty-eight sealed bullion cases, neither more nor less, and they’re down below in the after-cabin at this moment. Come and see.”

      Thirty-eight they were; pine cases bound with hoop-iron and sealed at every joint, each case about eighteen inches by a foot, and six inches deep. They were corded together, two and two, apparently for convenience of transport.”

      “Did you cord them like this yourself?” asked Hewitt.

      “No, that’s how we found ’em. We just hooked ’em on a block and tackle, the pair at a time, and they hauled ’em up here aboard the tug.”

      “What have you done about the missing two — anything?”

      “Wired off to headquarters, of course, at once. And I’ve sent for Captain Mackrie — he’s still in the neighbourhood, I believe — and Brasyer, the second officer, who had charge of the bullion-room. They may possibly know something. Anyway, one thing’s plain. There were forty cases at the beginning of the voyage, and now there are only thirty-eight.”

      There was a pause; and then Merrick added, “By the bye, Hewitt, this is rather your line, isn’t it? You ought to look up these two cases.”

      Hewitt laughed. “All right,” he said; “I’ll begin this minute if you’ll commission me.”

      “Well,” Merrick replied slowly, “of course I can’t do that without authority from headquarters. But if you’ve nothing to do for an hour or so there is no harm in putting on your considering cap, is there? Although, of course, there’s nothing to go upon as yet. But you might listen to what Mackrie and Brasyer have to say. Of course I don’t know, but as it’s a £Io,000 question probably it might pay you, and if you do see your way to anything I’d wire and get you Commissioned at once.”

      There was a tap at the door and Captain Mackrie entered. “Mr. Merrick?” he said interrogatively, looking from one to another.

      “That’s myself, sir,” answered Merrick.

      “I’m Captain Mackrie, of the Nicobar. You sent for me, I believe. Something wrong with the bullion I’m told, isn’t it? ”

      Merrick explained matters fully. “I thought perhaps you might be able to help us, Captain Mackrie. Perhaps I have been wrongly informed as to the number of cases that should have been there?”

      “No; there were forty right enough. I think though — perhaps I might be able to give you a sort of hint “— and Captain Mackrie looked hard at Hewitt.

      “This is Mr. Hewitt, Captain Mackrie,” Merrick interposed. “You may speak as freely as you please before him. In fact, he’s sort of working on the business, so to speak.”

      “Well,” Mackrie said, “if that’s so, speaking between ourselves, I should advise you to turn your attention to Brasyer. He was my second officer, you know, and had charge of the stuff.”

      “Do you mean,” Hewitt asked, “that Mr. Brasyer might give us some useful information?”

      Mackrie gave an ugly grin. “Very likely he might,” he said, “if he were fool enough. But I don’t think you’d get much out of him direct. I meant you might watch him.”

      “What, do you suppose he was concerned in any way with the disappearance of this gold?”

      “I should think — speaking, as I said before, in confidence and between ourselves — that it’s very likely indeed. I didn’t like his manner all through the voyage.”

      “Why?”

      “Well, he was so eternally cracking on about his responsibility, and pretending to suspect the stokers and the carpenter, and one person and another, of trying to get at the bullion cases — that that alone was almost enough to make one suspicious. He protested so much, you see. He was so conscientious and diligent himself, and all the rest of it, and everybody else was such a desperate thief, and he was so sure there would be some of that bullion missing some day that — that — well, I don’t know if I express his manner clearly, but I tell you I didn’t like it a bit. But there was something more than that. He was eternally smelling about the place, and peeping in at the steward’s pantry — which adjoins the bullion-room on one side, you know — and nosing about in the bunker on the other side. And once I actually caught him fitting keys to the padlocks — keys he’d borrowed from the carpenter’s stores. And every time his excuse was that he fancied he heard somebody else trying to get in to the gold, or something of that sort; every time I caught him below on the orlop deck that was his excuse — happened to have heard something or suspected something or somebody every time. Whether or not I succeed in conveying my impressions to you, gentlemen, I can assure you that I regarded his whole manner and actions as very suspicious throughout the voyage, and I made up my mind I wouldn’t forget it if by chance anything did turn out wrong. Well, it has, and now I’ve told you what I’ve observed. It’s for you to see if it will lead you anywhere.”

      “Just so,” Hewitt answered. “But let me fully understand. Captain Mackrie. You say that Mr. Brasyer had charge of the bullion-room, but that he was trying keys on it from the carpenter’s stores. Where were the legitimate keys then?”

      “In my cabin. They were only handed out when I knew what they were wanted for. There was a Chubb’s lock between the two padlocks, but a duplicate wouldn’t have been hard for Brasyer to get. He could easily have taken a wax impression of my key when he used it at the port where we took the bullion aboard.”

      “Well, and suppose he had taken these boxes, where do you think he would keep them?”

      Mackrie shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “Impossible to say,” he replied. “He might have hidden ’em somewhere on board, though I don’t think that’s likely. He’d have had a deuce of a job to land them at Plymouth, and would have had to leave them somewhere while he came on to London. Bullion is always landed at Plymouth, you know, and if any were found to be missing, then the ship would be overhauled at once, every inch of her; so that he’d have to get his plunder ashore somehow before the rest of the gold was unloaded — almost impossible. Of course, if he’s done that it’s somewhere below there now, but that isn’t likely. He’d be