THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JUNE 24, 1938
THE MYSTERY OF A HAT AND COAT
(Continued from Page 1)
"See," he said, "that small cir- cular hole, drilled deeply into the ground, a yard or so from the dead man's feet."
The inspector, stooping, 'ex- amined the hole closely.
"This looks," he suggested, “as if it might have been made with, the point of a walking-stick."
"It was, I think, made," said Bennett, "with a walking-stick."
by A search, conducted
the detective-sergeant and his assis- tants, in the most obvious hiding place, the shrubbery bordering the path, disclosed walking- stick, presumably the property of the dead man, which fitted exactly into the hole, and, with pressure, was made to stand upright in the ground.
a
The inspector looked on per- plexedly.
"Most extraordinary!" he said. He turned to Bennett. "What d'you make of it?"
But Bennett, still questing, like a bloodhound with its nose to the ground, in ever, widening circles around the body, paid no attention to him.
The inspector did some hard thinking, trying to perceive the significance of the walking-stick fixed upright in the ground, but without any enlightenment.
"Hullo! What's this?
Bennett had picked up and was exhibiting a penny, a trick penny, hav-a head on both sides.
"It's been dropped, has rolled aside, and could not be found in the darkness," he explained.
He handed the coin to the in- spector.
The inspector stared at coin.
1
the
"But what the dickens!" he ex- claimed, "does it mean?"
"Presumably," answered Ben- nett, "that some point at issue be- tween the two men was decided by a spin of the coin, which the man who supplied_the_penny and tossed it was determined the other could not possibly win."
The inspector sighed profound- ly.
The entire case, with its extra- ordinary combination of fantastic circumstances, had him complete- ly non-plussed.
"It's a puzzling affair!" he de- clared.
Bennett smiled. "So, like the penny, you can't make head or tail of it!"
"Well! what the devil do you make of it?" snapped the inspec- tor, irritably.
Bennett laughed.
“Of course,” he said drily, "any! theory I may have formed is not conclusive, it is merely specula- tive."
With the available approaches to the dead man's identity-the tailor's name on his clothing, the outfitter's name inside his hat, laundry marks on the underlinen -Scotland Yard established within a few hours who and what he was.
Inspector M'Cabe, wearing a red rose, and an expression of triumph, called on Maxwell Ben- nett at his chambers next day, with full particulara..
1
"We've got his complete re-
cord."
Bennett congratulated him. "Who was the man?”.
The big inspector, filling the
.
revolution, in the household of the Prince and Princess Anton Vosnitzin. Betrayed his master. and.mistress, after having robbed them, to death at the hands of the revolutionaries. Later, made a district kommissar under the the Soviet. Used his office to ex- act bribes and pilfer public funds. Was found out, fled, and was exiled. Has lived since in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and, lately, in London.""
"I have traced Blotz'a' move- ntents during last night. He spent the evening, I have learned, at a night club named 'The Merry Mouse'."
**I
Bennett know the den," laughed. "It sports an electric skysign showing mice in top hats and tailed coats going gay behind the representatively wifely cat's back."
"That's the place," said the in- spector, continuing:
"Blotz left "The Merry Mouse' about eleven o'clock, more or less drunk, in a taxi-cab.”
"Ah! So it was a taxi-cab!” "Yes.
summoned A taxi-cab for Blotz by the hall porter at "The Merry Mouse,' from a near- by rank."
"Quite so. Consequently, you had no difficulty in tracing it."
The inspector nodded.
"Of course you questioned the driver?"
"The driver, having been on night duty, was not at the gar- age; but I questioned him at his home."
"What did he tell you?"
ነ
"A pack of lies, to begin with. But, after lying had got him into a nasty mess, he told me that he had not driven his car himself last night. He had hired it, with his uniform coat and cap, he said, to a man who had paid him five pounds. The car was re- turned to him, as arranged, later. The affair was a joke, the man told him, on one of his friends." "A grim joke!" commented Bennett.
He summed-up-the-facts: "You
have discovered, then, that the taxi-cab was borrowed by someone, who, masquerading as a taxi chauffeur, picked up Blotz, drunk, at "The Merry.... Mouse', and drove him, hazy as to where he was being taken, to the park."
"Exactly so," nodded spector.
the in-
"What description," asked Ben- net, "did the taxi driver give of the man who borrowed his cab?"
"Foreigner, speaking educated English; of military appearance, tall, well-built, with pointed, black beard (believed fal »); age, thirty to thirty-five years; wear- ing dark blue trench-coat over dark suit, and
black soft hat. Was carrying, under arm, small, flat case made, of some highly polished wood. Description: Type
domestic. of case used to hold cutlery."
Bennett laughed.
"You may take it, my dear M'Cabe, that the gentleman in question was not carrying home the family knives and forks!".
"Tut! What does it matter, any- way 7"
"Only this," Bald. Bennett. "That the case contained the ex- planation of the entire mystery." The inspector stared in 48 tonishment:
"What do you think," said Ben-
armchair alongside the maho-nett, "the small, flat case made
gany consulting table, read from
his notebook:
"Ivan Blotz, Born Moscow Age 58 years. A servant, before the
of polished wood contained?”..
The arrest and trial of Prince Leo Vognitizin, who took the mis- guided step of killing Ivan Blotz:
to avenge the betrayal of a be- loved father and mother on the eve of their flight from revolu- tionary Russia, to death by the hands of a firing party in a Bol- shevik prison yard, may be re- membered by many of the gen-. eral public because, in sequence of these romantic cir- cumstances, the case provided at the time a minor press sensation.
con-
The point of interest, however, is that the evidence led at the, trial confirmed, in toto, Maxwell-
elucidation of Bennett's clever the facts.
"What do you think," Bennett repeated his question, "the small, flat case made of polished wood contained?"
Inspector M'Cabe shook head.
Bennett stated confidently: "A brace of pistols."
his
The inspector was incredulous.
"Consider what happened in the park," said Bennett. "The two men, after divesting themselves of coats and hats, which they hung upon adjacent trees, took up positions, facing each other across a walking-stick fixed up- right in the ground. With what purpose? .
The inspector looked blank.
Obviously, with the pur- pose of fighting a duel.”
"Bui," objected. the inspector, "Blotz was certainly not killed by a builet!"
"I can tell
-
"No, was the astonishing statement; "because 'the pistols were not loaded."
"What!"
"The pistols were not loaded.
"That is the natural conclusion to be drawn," said Bennett, "from the penny with two heads, which was used in order that Blotz must shoot first. With an empty pistol."
"But what sense would, there be," the inspector protested, "in fighting a duel with empty pis-
·tols !".
Bennett smiled grimly.
"Ah! mad as a duel with empty pistols may seem,” he said, "there was method in the madness."
The inspector, exasperated, ex- ploded:
"Then, for heaven's sake, ex- plain it!"
Bennett explained:
"Blotz had a swelling of the main heart artery. An aortic aneur- ism. The man who planned the duel with empty pistol knew that Blotz's heart was in a condition so dangerous that shock would kill him just as certainly as a bullet.
"Blotz fired first, as tossing the penny with two heads made certain that he must. With an empty pistol. He thought the pis- tol had missed fire, it was his op- ponent's turn to shoot next, he imagined he was about to be shot burat dead-and his aneurism from sheer shock of fright."
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