“Is there anything that furnishes any sort of clue?”
“Yes, sir, there is. There’s this, which we found in the safe.” He produced a small parcel which he proceeded to unfasten, looking somewhat queerly at Thorndyke the while. It contained various odds and ends of jewellery, and a smaller parcel formed of a pocket-handkerchief tied with tape. This the detective also unfastened, revealing half-a-dozen silver teaspoons, all engraved with the same crest, two salt-cellars and a gold locket bearing a monogram. There was also a half sheet of notepaper on which was written, in a manifestly disguised hand: “There are the goods I told you about.—F. B.” But what riveted Thorndyke’s attention and mine was the handkerchief itself (which was not a very clean one and was sullied by one or two small bloodstains), for it was marked in one corner with the name “F. Belfield,” legibly printed in marking-ink with a rubber stamp.
Thorndyke and the superintendent looked at one another and both smiled.
“I know what you are thinking, sir,” said the latter.
“I am sure you do,” was the reply, “and it is useless to pretend that you don’t agree with me.”
“Well, sir,” said Miller doggedly, “if that handkerchief has been put there as a plant, it’s Belfield’s business to prove it. You see, doctor,” he added persuasively, “it isn’t this job only that’s affected. Those spoons, those salt-cellars and that locket are part of the proceeds of the Winchmore Hill burglary, and we want the gentleman who did that crack—we want him very badly.”
“No doubt you do,” replied Thorndyke, “but this handkerchief won’t help you. A sharp counsel—Mr. Anstey, for instance—would demolish it in five minutes. I assure you, Miller, that handkerchief has no evidential value whatever, whereas it might prove an invaluable instrument of research. The best thing you can do is to hand it over to me and let me see what I can learn from it.”
The superintendent was obviously dissatisfied, but he eventually agreed, with manifest reluctance, to Thorndyke’s suggestion.
“Very well, doctor,” he said; “you shall have it for a day or two. Do you want the spoons and things as well?”
“No. Only the handkerchief and the paper that was in it.”