“I weighed the situation,” went on the detective. “A robber would be enough of a gem expert to know the stones were imitations and would have taken the others. But—some Hindu fanatic, in India, where the emeralds came from originally, might have a fixed idea that they must be destroyed. He might not know imitations from real ones.”
“That would explain why acid was put on them,” agreed Dick. “It wouldn’t explain any other attempts, though.”
“No! I argued that as soon as a Hindu accomplished the entry to the hotel and believed he had destroyed the stones, he would stop.”
“Then why did you and Mr. Everdail fly out to meet the yacht?”
“We wanted to take every precaution, Larry. There was a chance that no Hindu was involved. It might be someone with what the French call an idee fixee—a fixed notion—a demented purpose of destroying emeralds—no other stones were treated with acid except those lying in the little pool around the emeralds.”
“Are there people as crazy as that? And going around, loose?”
“Once in awhile you hear of such people, Dick.”
“Well, wouldn’t anybody in England give up then?” asked Larry.
“Anybody who remained in England would have to—he’d be left there. But—” Mr. Whiteside leaned forward and spoke meaningly, “—a man sailed from England—and although I did not know it at the time, I have checked up, since, and the man from London is an English circus acrobat—who went in for ‘stunting’ on airplanes.”
“The man who claimed to be a secret agent of a London insurance firm?” asked Dick, amazed.