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The Purloined Letter

The Purloined Letter image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
August
Year
1893
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Nil sapientlíe odiosiua acuinine nimio. -Séneca. At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18 - , I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum in company with my friend, C. Auguste Dupin, in his little back library or book closet, au troiBieme, 33 Rue Dunot, Faubourg St. Germain. For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence, while each, to any casual observer, might have seemed intently and exclusively occupie " with the curling eddies of smoke that oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself , however, I was rnentally discussing certain topics wliich had formed matter for conversation between us at an earlier period of the evening - I mean the affair of the rue morgue and the mystery attending the murder of Marie Roget. I looked upon it, therefore, as something of a coincidence when the door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our oíd acquaintance, M. G , the prefect of the Parisian pólice. We gave him a hearty welcome, for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the coutemptible about the man, and we had not seen him for several years. We had been sitting in the dark, and Dupin now arose for the purpose of lighting a lamp, but sat down again without doing so upon G 's saying that he had called to consult us, or rather to ask the opinión of my friend, about some official business which had occasionetl a great deal of trouble. "If it is any point requiringreflection," observed Dupin as he f orbore to enkindle the wiek, "we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark." "That is another of your odd notions," said the prefect, who had a fashion oí caüing everything "odd" that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute región of "oddities." "Very tra e," said Dupin as he supplied his visitor with a pipe and rolled toward him a comf ortable chair. "And what is the difficulty now?" I asked. "Nothing more in the assassination way, I hope?" "Oh, no; nothing of that nature. The fact is, the business is very simple indeed, and I make no doubt that we can manage it sufficiently well ourselves, but then I thought Dupin would like to hear the details of it because it is so excessively odd." "Simple and odd," said Dupin. "Why, yes, and not exactly that either. The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple and yet baffles us altogether." "Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault," said my friend. "What nonsense you do talk!" replied the prefect, laughing heartily. "Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain," said Dupin. "Oh, good heavens! Who ever heard of such an idea?" "A little too self evident." "Ha! ha! lm! hal ha! ha! ho! ho! ho!" roared our visitor, profoundly aniused. "Oh, Dupin, yon will be the death of me yet." "And what, af ter all, is the matter on hand?" I asked. "Why, I will teil you," replied the prefect as he gave a long, steady and contemplative pufE and settled hirnself in his chair. "I will teil you in a few words, but before I begin let me caution you that this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy, and that I should most probably lose the position I now hold were it known that I confided it to any one." "Proceed," said I. "Or not," said Dnpin. "Well, then, I have received personal information from a very high quarter that a certain document of the last iniportance has been purloined from th royal apartments. The individual who purloined it is known. This beyond a doubt. He was seen to take it. It is known also that it still remains in his possession." "How is this known?" asked Dupin. "Itisclearly inferred," replied the prefect, "from the nature of the document and from the nonappearance of certain resulta which would at once arise from its passing out of the robber's possession - that is to say, from his employing itas he must design in the end to employ it." "Be a little more explicit," I said. "Well, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its holder a certain power in a certain quarter where such power ia immensely valuable." The prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy. "Still I do not quite understand," said Dupin. "No? Well, the disclosure of the document to a third person, who shall be nameless, would bring in question the the honor of a personage of most exalted station, and this fact gives the hokler of the document au ascendency over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are so jeopardized." "But this ascendency," I interposed, "would depend upon the robber's knowlhMMtaéUOMIwflftflfcMasaUlAK&4lílttttÍlfMaiaí - - . i's Unowledge of the rob. . . W .. wmild ilare" i ief,"saidG , "is the Minister D . w.'io üarts all things, those unbe-i a i il as tliose becoining a man. The nietLod of the theft was not less ingenieras thon bold. The document in question - a letter, to be frank - had been reeeived by the personage robbed while alone in the royal boudoir. During its perusal she was suddenly interrupted by tho entrance of the other exalted personage from whoni especially it was her wish to conceal it. After a hurried and vain endeavor to thrust it into a drawer she was focced to place it, open as it was, upon a table. The address, however, was uppermost, and the contents thus unexposed the letter escaped jiotice. "At this juncture enters the Minister D . His lynx eye immediately perceives the paper, recognizes the handwriting of the address, observes the confusión of the personage addressed and fathoms her secret. After some business transactions, hurried through in his ordinary manner, he produces a letter somewhat similar to the one in question, opens it, pretends to read it and then places it in close juxtaposition to the other. Again he converses for some 15 minutes upon the public affairs. At length, in taking leave, he takes also from the table the letter to which he had no claim. lts rightful owner saw, but of course aared not cali attention to the act in the presence of the third personage, who stood at her elbow. The minister decamped, leaving his own letter- one of no importance - upon the table." "Here, then," said Dupin to me, "yon have precisely what you demand to make the ascendency complete - the robber' s knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber." "Yes," replied the prefect, "and the power thus attained has for some months past been wielded for political purposes toaverydangerousextent. The personage robbed is more thoroughly convinced every day of the necessity of reclaiming her letter, but this of course cannot be done openly. In fine, driven to despair, she has committed the matter to me." "Than whom," said Dupin, amid a perfect whirlwind of smoke, "no more sagacious agent could, I suppose, be desired or even imagined." "You natter me," replied the prefect, "but it is possible that some such opinión may have been entertained." "It is clear," said I, "as you observe that the letter is still in the possession of the minister, since it is this possession and not any employment of the letter which bestows the power. With the employment the power departs." ' 'True," said Q , "and upon this conviction I proceeded. My first case was to make thorough search of the minister's hotel, and here my chief embarrassment lay in the necessity of searching without his knowledge. Beyond all things I have been warned of the danger which would result from giving him reason to suspect our design." "But," said I, "you are quite au fait in these investigations. The Parisian pólice have done this thing of ten bef ore." 'Oh, yes, and for this reason I did not despair. The habits of the minister gave me, too, a great advantage. He is frequently absent from home all night. His servants are by no means numerous. They sleep at a distance from their master's apartment, and beingchiefly Neapolitans are readily made dronk. I have keys, as you kuow, with which I can open any chamber or cabinet in Paris. For three months a night has not passed during the greater part of which I have nót been engaged personally in ransacking the D hotel. My honor is interested, and, to mention a great secret, the reward is enormous. So I did not abandon the search until I had become f nlly satisfied that the thief is a more astute man than myself. I fancy that I have investigated every nook and corner of the premises in which it is possible that the paper can be concealed." "But is it not possible," I suggested, "that although the letter may be in possession of the minister, as it unquestionably is, he may have concealed it elsewhere than upon his own premises?" "This is barely possible," said Dupin. "The present peculiar condition of affairs at court, and especially of those intrigues in which D is known to be involved, would render the instant availability of the document - its susceptibility of being produced at a moment's notice - a point of nearly equal importance with its possession." "lts susceptibility of being produced'" said I. "That is to say, of being destroyed," said Dupin. "True," I observed; "the paper is clearly then upon the premises. As for its being upon the person of the minister, we may consider that as out of the question." "Entirely," said the prefect. "He has been twice waylaid, as if by footpads, and his person rigorously searched under my own inspection." "You might have spared yourself this trouble," said Dupin. "D , I presume, is not altogether a fooi, and if not must have anticipated these waylayings as a matter of course." "Not altogether a fooi," said 6 , "but then he's a poet, which I take to be only one remove from a fooi." "True," said Dupin after a long and thoughtful whiff from his meerschaum "although I have been guilty of certain doggerel myself." "Suppose you detail," said I, "the particulars of y our search." "Why, the f act is, we took our time and we searched everywhere. I hav had long experience in these affairs. 3 took the entire building, room by room devoting the nights of a whole week to each. We examined first the furniture of each apartment. We opened every possible drawer, and I presume you know that to a properly trained pólice agent such a thing as a secret drawer is impossible. Any man is a dolt who per mits a secret drawer to escape him in a search of this kind. The thing is so plain. There is a certain amount of bulk - of space - to be accounted for in everj cabinet. Then we have accurate rules The fif tieth part of a line could not escape us. After the cabinets we took the chairs. The cushlons we 'probed with the fine long needies you have seen me employ. From the tablea we removed the tops." "Why so?" "Sometimes the top of a table or other Bimilarly arrangeü piece of furniture is removed by the person wishing to conceal an article; then the leg isexcavated, the article deposited within the cavity, and the top replaced. The bottoms and tops of bed posts are employed in the same way." "But could not the cavity be detected by soimding'í" I aeked. "By no means if when the article is dopo8ited a sufficient wadding of cotton 3e placed around it. Besides, in our case we were obliged to proceed without noise." 'But you could not have removed - ('ou could not have taken to pieces all articles of furniture in which it would ïave been possible to make a deposit in ;he manner you mention. A letter may be compressed into a thin spiral roll not dilïering much in shape or bulk from a large knitting needie, and in this form it might be inserted into the rung of a ehair, f or exaniple. You did not take to pieces all the chairs?" "Certainly not; but we did better - we examined the rungs of every chair in the hotel, and indeed the jointings of every description of furniture, by the aid of a inost powerful microscope. Had there been any traces of recent disturbance we should not have failed to detect it instantly. A single grain of gimlet dust, for example, would have been as obvious as an apple. Any disorder in the gluing, any unusual gaping in the joints, would have sufflced to insure detection."' "I presume you looked to the mirrors. between the boards and the plates, and you probed the beds and the bedclothes as well as the curtains and carpets." "That, of course. And when we hatl absolutely completed every particle ol the furniture in this way, then we examined the house itself. We divided its entire surface into compartments, which we numbered, so that none might be missed; then we scrutinized each individual square inch throughout the premises, including the two houses immediately adjoining, with the microscope as bef ore." "The two houses adjoining!" I exclaimed. You must have had a great deal of trouble." "We had, but the reward offered is prodigious." "You include the grounds about the houses?" "All the grounds are paved with brick. They gave us comparatively little trouble. We examined the moss between the bricks and found it undisturbed." "You looked among D 's papers, of course, and into the books of the Iibrary?" "Certainly. We opened every package and parcel. We not only openeJ everj book, but we turned over every lea f in cach volume, not contenting ourselves with a mere shake, according to the faahion of some of our pólice officers. We also measured the thickness of every book cover with the most accurate measurements and applied to each the most jealous scrutiny of the microscope. Had any of the bindings been recently meddled with it would have been utterly impossible that the fact should have escaped observation. Some five or six volumes just from the hands of the binder we carefully probed longitudinally with the needies." "You explored the floors beneath the carpeta?" "Beyond doubt. We removed every carpet and examined the boards with the microscope." "And the paper on the walls?" "Yes." "You looked into the cellars?" "We did." "Then," I said, "you have been making a miscalculation, and the letter is not upon the premises, as you suppose." "I fear you are right there," said the prefect. "And now, Dupin, what would you advise me to do?" "To make a thorough research of the prexnises." "That is absolutely needless," replied q , "I am not more sure that I breathe than I am that the letter is not at the hotel." "I have no better advice to give you," said Dupin. "You have of course an accurate description of the letter?" "Oh, yes!" And here the prefect, producing a memorandum book, proceeded to read aloud a minute account of the internal, and especially of the erternal, appearance of the missing document. Boon after finishing the perusal of this description he took his departure, more entirely depressed in spirits than I had ever known the gooJ gentleman before. In about a month afterward he paid us another visit and found us occnpied very nearly as before. He took a pipe and a chair and entered into some ordinary conversatiou. At length I said: "Well, but, Q , what of the purloined letter? I presume that you have at last made up your mind that there is no such thing as overreaching the minister?" "Confound him. say I- yes. I made the re-exaiuination, however, as Dupin iuggested, bat it was all labor lost, as 1 cnew it would be." "How ïnuch was the reward offered, did you say?" asked Dupin. Why, a very great deal - a very liberal reward - I don't like to say how nuch precisely. But one thing I will say - that I wouldn't mind giving my individual check for 50,000 francs to any one who could obtain mo that letter. The f act is, it is becoming of more and more importance every day, and the reward has been lately doubled. If it were rebled, however, I could do no mora :han I have done." "Why, yes," said Dupin drawlingly etween the whiSs of his ineerschaum, "I really - think, Gr-, you have not exerted yourself- to the utmost in this matter. You inight - do a little more, I think. Eh?" "How? In what v.'ayV" "Why- puft'. pufE- you might - puff, puff - einploy counsel in the inatter. eb! - puff, puil', puflf. Do you remember the story they teil of Abernethy?" "No; hang Abemethy!" "To be stire; hang him and welcome. But once upon a time a certain rich miser conceived the design of sponging upon this Abernethy for medical opinión. Getting up for this purpose an ordinary conversation in a private company, he insinuated his case to the physician as that of an ordinary individual. " 'We will suppose,' said the miser, 'that his symptoms are such and such. Now, doctor, what would you have directed him to take?' " Take!' said Abemethy; 'why, take advice, to be 6ure.' " "But," said the prefect, a little discomposed, "I am perfectly willing to take advice and to pay for it. I would really give 50,000 francs to any one who would aid me in the matter." "In that case," replied Dupin, opening a drawer and producing a checkbook, "you may as well fill me up a check for theanw.nt meutioned. When you have signed it, I will hand you the letter." I was aatounded. The prefect appeared absolutely thunderstruck. For some minutes he remained Bpeechlesa and motionless, looking incredulou-sly ut my friend with open mouth and eyes that seemed starting froin their sockets. Then, apparently recovering himself in some measure, he selzed a pen, and after several pauses and vacant stares finally ailed up and r.igned a check for 00,000 francs and hamled it acroas the table to Dupin. The latter examined it carefully and deposited it in his pocketbook, then unlocking an escritoire took thence a letter and gave it to the prefect. The functionary grasped it in a perfect agony of joy, opened it with a trenibling hand, cast a rapid glance at its contents, and then, scrambling and struggling to the door, rushed at length unceremoniously from the room and from the house without havmg uttered a syllable since Dupin had requeeted him to lili up the check. (contisukd )

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