The Great Thinking Machine by Jacques Futrelle & Edited by: E. F. Bleiler

Author:Jacques Futrelle & Edited by: E. F. Bleiler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2018-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

II

The Thinking Machine did not seem to regard the problem as at all difficult when it came to his attention a couple of days later. Hutchinson Hatch, reporter, brought it to him. Hatch had some good friends in the Customs office where Conway had told his story. He learned from them that that office had refused to have anything to do with the case, insisting that the Scotland Yard man must be mistaken.

Crushed in spirit, mangled in reputation and taunted by Leighton's final words Conway took a desolate view of life. Momentarily he lost even that bull-dog tenacity which had never before faltered—lost it all except in so far as he still believed that Leighton was the man. It was about this time Hatch met him. Would he talk? He was burning to talk; caution was a senseless thing anyway. Then Hatch took him gently by the hand and led him to The Thinking Machine.

Conway unburdened himself at length and with vitriolic emphasis. For an hour he went on while the scientist leaned back in his chair with his great yellow head pillowed on a cushion and squinted aggressively at the ceiling. At the end of the hour The Thinking Machine knew as much of the Varron problem as Conway knew and knew as much of Leighton as any man knew, except Leighton.

‘How many stones were in the necklace,’ the scientist asked.

‘One hundred and seventy-two,’ replied Conway.

‘Was the man in the motor boat—Harry Cheshire you call him—an Englishman?’

‘Yes, in speech, manner and appearance.’

For a long time The Thinking Machine twiddled his fingers while Conway and the reporter sat staring at him impatiently. Hatch knew, from the past, that something tangible, something that led somewhere, would come from that wonderful analytical brain; Conway not knowing, was only hopefully curious. But like most men of his profession he wanted action; sitting down and thinking didn't seem to get anywhere.

‘You see, Mr. Conway,’ said the scientist as last, ‘you haven't proven anything. Your investigations, as a matter of fact, indicate that Leighton did not take the pearls, therefore did not bring them with him. There is only one thing that indicates that he might have. That is the throwing of the newspapers into the motor boat. That one act seems to have been a senseless one, unless——’

‘Unless the pearls were concealed in the bundle,’ interrupted the Scotland Yard man.

‘Or unless he was amusing himself at your expense and is perfectly innocent,’ added The Thinking Machine. ‘It is perfectly possible that if he were an innocent man and discovered that you were on his track that he has merely made a fool of you. If we take any other view of it we must base it on an assumption which has no established fact to support it. We will have to dispose of every other person who might have stolen the necklace and pin it down to Leighton. Further, we will have to assume out of hand that he brought the jewels to this country.

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