“Well,” said the jewel dealer, “somebody's going to ship nine hundred horses. Where's the mystery?”
The Baronet shrugged his big shoulders.
“The mystery,” he said, “is everywhere. It's before and after and in the body of this message. There's hardly anything to it but mystery.”
“Who sent it?” said Hargrave.
“That's one of the mysteries,” replied the Baronet.
“Ah!” said the jewel dealer. “Who received it?”
“That's another,” he answered.
“At any rate,” continued Hargrave, “you know where you got it.”
“Right,” replied the Baronet. “I know where I got it.” He took three newspapers out of the pocket of his big tweed coat. “There it is,” he said, “in the personal column of three newspapers—today's Times printed in London; the Matin printed in Paris; and a Dutch daily printed in Amsterdam.”
And there was the message set up in English, in two sentences precisely word for word, in three newspapers printed on the same day in London, Paris and Amsterdam.