“Ah, but the man was not killed in that way. A seaman of whatever nationality would cut a throat, but would not use a slender instrument which scarcely drew any blood to get rid of Grison. The instrument used—which has not been discovered, by the way—suggests a refined criminal.”
“A slender instrument,” repeated Fuller musingly, “why not a stiletto which an Italian would use? And there are Italian seamen, you know.”
Dick nodded. “There is something in that,” he admitted, “but we’ll let that point alone for the time being. Evidently the peacock is worth more than its intrinsic value to a man who can solve its mystery. Now the question is, how did Grison get hold of the ornament?”
“I see no trouble in answering that, Dicky,” and again Alan told the story: this time that one which dealt with Grison’s dismissal from his post by Sorley on a charge of forgery, and with the visit of the sister to the big house. Then he related how Miss Grison had spoken to her host and also how she had talked about cryptograms. “Although,” concluded Alan, “since I was talking to Marie at the time, I don’t exactly know how she introduced that particular subject.”
“That she introduced it at all, shows two things,” said Latimer decisively. “One, that she knew her brother stole the peacock; and two, she was aware how he was searching for the solution of the cryptogram connected with the bird in order to secure the gems.”
“But how could he have learned about the Begum’s treasure?” asked Fuller.
“Undoubtedly in the same way as Marie did. Grison, as Sorley’s secretary, must have found the manuscript and——”
“But if he found it, why did he not take it with him?”
“I can’t explain that. He would have done better had he secured it so that no one else should learn the true value of the peacock. But it was to get the gems that he stole the ornament, and perhaps told the story in a moment of weakness to the third party who afterwards murdered him for its possession. That’s what I think. Have you any reason to believe that Sorley himself knows about the peacock cryptogram?”
Fuller jumped up and, laying down his pipe, began to pace the narrow confines of the office. “Yes, I do, and for these reasons. In the first place, Miss Grison would not have mentioned cryptograms to him without she guessed that he knew something; in the second, when I boasted purposely about my knowledge of secret writings, he would not have told me that he had a cryptogram which would baffle my skill, as he certainly did more or less; and in the third, Dicky, he would not have been afraid of Miss Grison.”