An Artist in Crime

by Rodrigues Ottolengui

"Your cool impudence will not avail you in this instance. These are the stolen jewels."

"Indeed! Do you discover that, as you claim to have detected the thief, simply by looking at them?" Mr. Mitchel assumed that sarcastic tone which had several times irritated the detective.

"Have done with child's play," said Mr. Barnes. "I have a list of the lost jewels, and this case with its contents accurately matches the description. What is more, this list in your possession, is the fac-simile, of the one which I have in my pocket."

"Ah! Now we come to tangible facts and leave the realm of psychology," said Mr. Mitchel leaning forward, with evident interest. "Let me understand this. You have a list of the stolen jewels. That paper is a fac-simile of this one here. The description too tallies with the case and jewels. Is that right?"

"That is quite right. Now can your remarkable inventive faculty fashion a story to meet this emergency?"

"Mr. Barnes, you do me an injustice. I am no romancer. That is the difference between myself and the criminal class, with which you deal. Those poor devils commit a crime and depend upon a sequence of lies to clear themselves. On the contrary I follow this rule: 'Refuse to answer all questions, or else answer truthfully.' Now in this case there are some points, as puzzling to me as to yourself. Them I shall not attempt to explain. One of them is how you can possibly have a duplicate list of my jewels, for these are mine I assure you."

"Here is the list," said the detective, taking it from his pocket and comparing it with the other; "and by heavens," he continued, "the writing is the same."

"That is interesting, let me look," said Mr. Mitchel. With which he arose, walked around to the other side of the table and stood leaning over the detective. "You see, I do not ask you to let me take your paper from you. You might suspect that I would destroy it." Mr. Barnes handed both papers to him without a word. Mr. Mitchel bowed as he took them and returned to his seat. After a moment's careful examination he handed them back saying: