THE AFFAIR OF THE TARTAN BOX by G. H. Teed

Author:G. H. Teed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sexton Blake
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE FOURTH CHAPTER.

How Sexton Blake Reasoned Things Out.

SEXTON BLAKE returned to Baker Street after leaving Jacob Marston’s offices in Bishopsgate Street. Tinker, who had been driving the Grey Panther and had waited outside while his master had his preliminary interview with the financier, drove the car round to the garage, and then joined Blake in the consulting-room, where he was already hard at work jotting down notes of his conversation with Marston, and tentative observations which he wished to make regarding his examinations there.

Tinker busied himself at his own desk until Blake threw his pencil down, and, rising, began to fill his pipe. And when the pipe was going he gave the lad the details of what had been told him and what he had seen, from the time of his arrival in Bishopsgate to the moment when he had taken his departure. Then he paced up and down the room in silence for some minutes.

"It bears all the earmarks of being a double job," he went on, "brought off on the same night. To my mind, there is not the shadow of doubt that the inspector is correct in his theory of the robbery on the ground floor. The front window was unquestionably forced by some instrument—probably a chisel or jemmy, and access was gained in that way. Whether there was only one person is a question yet; but whoever opened the safe in the insurance office knew his business. It was a good job.

"But now we come to the robbery on the third floor in the private office of Mr. Marston. That presents an entirely different phase, in my opinion. Firstly, take the case of the unfortunate night-watchman who was shot dead. As far as I can gather, no one seems to know exactly where he was while the thief or thieves were at work in the insurance office on the ground floor, and that never will be known. But the inspector seems to think the man must have been either in the basement, attending to the fires, or else on some of the upper floors, making his rounds, and I agree.

"At any rate, it seems fairly certain that the thief or thieves who robbed the safe in the insurance office decided to make even a bigger haul, and apparently thought themselves comparatively safe. Anyway, it appears that they started to investigate things above.

"Now, on the first floor are the offices of a real estate company, and it seems that the burglars must have thought there would be poor pickings there, for they passed it by. On the second floor there are two or three small produce, import, and export firms, and these, too, seem to have been ignored. But on the third floor the word ‘Financier’ under Jacob Marston’s name on the door must have attracted them, or else they were intending to go still higher, and we must not lose sight of the fact that it is just possible they may have been looking for some means of escape by the roof.

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