“You were an excellent banshee,” declared Farnsworth, “or whatever Miss Sylvia would call you.”
The dark cape quivered delicately from a shrug of Thara’s shoulders.
“It was simple,” explained Thara. “I often appeared as a spirit from beyond when I helped Dom Yuble in the voodoo ceremonies. These men assisted in those rites,” - Thara nodded toward the leopard crew - “so give them credit too.”
“Voodoo rites,” laughed Farnsworth. “Simple shams to impress tourists to the Caribbean. It was much more amazing - and more profitable - to transfer the game to Central Park.”
Eyeing the leopard men, Farnsworth added a compliment for himself.
“It was simple to release a trained leopard from the zoo,” he declared. “You break one lock on a cage and supply another afterward. The keepers never bothered to try those padlocks when they saw that they were locked. But with a real leopard supposedly at large, the police were not impressed by accounts of persons who saw my leopard men.”
As Farnsworth paused the glitter of the treasure captured his attention. His large smile spread in a manner that rendered it more ugly.
“It was Dom Yuble who discovered that the treasure was not in the Good Wind,” declared Farnsworth. “He saw that the brig had been blown open by a powder explosion and he told Niles Ronjan, who promptly guessed the truth. Master Glanvil of the Good Wind had transferred the treasure to the sloop Rover and its owner the smuggler Caleb Albersham.
“Where else would Albersham take it, but to the forgotten cavern that was still the property of the Van Woort family? Albersham wanted it for himself, but if his secret trip had been discovered, he could have claimed that he was acting in the interests of his employer, Thales Van Woort.”
Gloating as if pleased that there had been double-crossers back in the days of double-deckers, Farnsworth proceeded with his keen analysis.