The New Adventures of Ellery Queen (14 page)

Fiske grinned, and Harkness drawled: “As long as we're splitting up, I choose Mrs. N. Looks as if you'll have to go it alone, General.”

“Perhaps,” said the General hopefully, “you young people would like to play by yourselves.…”

“By the way,” said Ellery, “all the clues are in the form of quotations, you know.”

“Oh, dear,” said Mrs. Nixon. “You mean such things as ‘First in war, first in peace'?”

“Ah—yes. Yes. Don't worry about the source; it's only the words themselves that concern you. Ready?”

“Wait a minute,” said Harkness. “What's the treasure?”

Ellery threw his cigarette, which had gone out, into an ashtray. “Mustn't tell. Get set, now! Let me quote you the first clue. It comes from the barbed quill of our old friend, Dean Swift—but disregard that. The quotation is”—he paused, and they leaned forward eagerly—“‘
First
(a
fish) should swim in the sea
.'”

The General said: “Hrrumph! Damned silly,” and settled in his chair. But Mrs. Nixon's amber eyes shone and she jumped up.

“Is
that
all?” she cried. “Goodness, that isn't the least bit difficult, Mr. Queen. Come on, Tarzan,” and she sped away over the lawns, followed by Harkness, who was grinning. They made for the parapet.

“Poor Dorothy,” sighed Leonie. “She means well, but she isn't exactly blessed with brains. She's taking the wrong tack, of course.”

“You'd put her hard a-port, I suppose?” murmured Ellery.

“
Mr
. Queen! You obviously didn't mean us to search the entire Hudson River. Consequently it's a more restricted body of water you had in mind.” She sprang off the veranda.

“The pool!” cried Lieutenant Fiske, scrambling after her.

“Remarkable woman, your daughter, sir,” said Ellery, following the pair with his eyes. “I'm beginning to think Dick Fiske is an extraordinarily fortunate young man.”

“Mother's brain,” said the General, beaming suddenly. “B'gad, I
am
interested.” He waddled rapidly off the porch.

They found Leonie complacently deflating a large rubber fish which was still dripping from its immersion in the pool.

“Here it is,” she said. “Come on, Dick, pay attention.
Not
now, silly! Mr. Queen's looking. What's this? ‘
Then it should swim in butter
.' Butter, butter … Pantry, of course!” And she was off like the wind for the house, the Lieutenant sprinting after.

Ellery replaced the note in the rubber fish, inflated it, stoppered the hole, and tossed the thing back into the pool.

“The others will be here soon enough. There they are! I think they've caught on already. Come along, General.”

Leonie was on her knees in the pantry, before the huge refrigerator, digging a scrap of paper out of a butter tub. “Goo,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Did you have to use butter? Read it, Dick. I'm filthy.”

Lieutenant Fiske declaimed: “‘
And at last, sirrah, it should swim in good claret
.'”

“Mr. Queen! I'm ashamed of you. This is too easy.”

“It gets harder,” said Ellery dryly, “as it goes along.” He watched the young couple dash through the doorway to the cellar, and then replaced the note in the tub. As he and the General closed the cellar door behind them, they heard the clatter of Mrs. Nixon's feet in the pantry.

“Damned if Leonie hasn't forgotten all about that necklace of hers,” muttered the General as they watched from the stairs. “Just like a woman!”

“I doubt very much if she has,” murmured Ellery.

“Whee!” cried Leonie. “Here it is.… What's this, Mr. Queen—Shakespeare?” She had pried a note from between two dusty bottles in the wine cellar and was frowning over it.

“What's it say, Leonie?” asked Lieutenant Fiske.

“‘
Under the greenwood tree'…
Greenwood tree.” She replaced the note slowly. “It
is
getting harder. Have we any greenwood trees, father?”

The General said wearily: “Blessed if I know. Never heard of 'em. You, Richard?” The Lieutenant looked dubious.

“All I know about the greenwood tree,” frowned Leonie, “is that it's something in
As You Like It
and a novel by Thomas Hardy. But—”

“Come
on
, Tarzan!” shrieked Mrs. Nixon from above them. “They're still here. Out of the way, you two men! No fair setting up hazards.”

Leonie scowled. Mrs. Nixon came flying down the cellar stairs followed by Harkness, who was still grinning, and snatched the note from the shelf. Her face fell. “Greek to me.”

“Let me see it.” Harkness scanned the note, and laughed aloud. “Good boy, Queen,” he chuckled. “
Chlorosplenium aeruginosum
. You need a little botany in jungle work. I've seen that tree any number of times on the estate.” He bounded up the stairs, grinned once more at Ellery and Major-General Barrett, and vanished.

“Damn!” said Leonie, and she led the charge after Harkness.

When they came up with him, the big man was leaning against the bark of an ancient and enormous shade tree, reading a scrap of paper and scratching his handsome chin. The bole of the tree was a vivid green which looked fungoid in origin.

“Green wood!” exclaimed Mrs. Nixon. “That
was
clever, Mr. Queen.”

Leonie looked chagrined. “A man would take the honors. I'd never have thought it of you, Mr. Harkness. What's in the note?”

Harkness read aloud: “‘
And … seeks that which he lately threw away.…
'”

“Which who lately threw away?” complained the Lieutenant. “That's ambiguous.”

“Obviously,” said Harkness, “the pronoun couldn't refer to the finder of the note. Queen couldn't possibly have known who would track it down. Consequently … Of course!” And he sped off in the direction of the house, thumbing his nose.

“I don't
like
that man,” said Leonie. “Dickie, haven't you any brains at all? And now we have to follow him again. I think you're mean, Mr. Queen.”

“I leave it to you, General,” said Ellery. “Did
I
want to play games?” But they were all streaming after Harkness, and Mrs. Nixon was in the van, her red hair flowing behind her like a pennon.

Ellery reached the veranda, the General puffing behind him, to find Harkness holding something aloft out of reach of Mrs. Nixon's clutching fingers. “No, you don't. To the victor—”

“But how did you know, you nasty man?” cried Leonie.

Harkness lowered his arm; he was holding a half-consumed cigarette. “Stood to reason. The quotation had to refer to Queen himself. And the only thing I'd seen him ‘lately' throw away was this cigarette butt just before we started.” He took the cigarette apart; imbedded in the tobacco near the tip there was a tiny twist of paper. He smoothed it out and read its scribbled message.

Then he read it again, slowly.

“Well, for pity's sake!” snapped Mrs. Nixon. “Don't be a
pig
, Tarzan. If you don't know the answer, give the rest of us a chance.” She snatched the paper from him and read it. “‘
Seeking … even in the cannon's mouth
.'”

“Cannon's mouth?” panted the General. “Why—”

“Why, that's
pie
!” giggled the red-haired woman, and ran.

She was seated defensively astride the sunset gun overlooking the river when they reached her. “This is a fine how-d'ye-do,” she complained. “Cannon's mouth! How the deuce can you look into the cannon's mouth when the cannon's mouth is situated in thin air seventy-five feet over the Hudson River? Pull this foul thing back a bit, Lieutenant!”

Leonie was helpless with laughter. “You
idiot
! How do you think Magruder loads this gun—through the muzzle? There's a chamber in the back.”

Lieutenant Fiske did something expertly to the mechanism at the rear of the sunset gun, and in a twinkling had swung back the safelike little door of the breech block and revealed a round orifice. He thrust his hand in, and his jaw dropped. “It's the treasure!” he shouted. “By George Dorothy, you've won!”

Mrs. Nixon slid off the cannon, gurgling: “Gimme, gimme!” like an excited
gamine
. She bumped him rudely aside and pulled out a wad of oily cotton batting.

“What is it?” cried Leonie, crowding in.

“I … Why, Leonie, you
darling
!” Mrs. Nixon's face fell. “I knew it was too good to be true. Treasure! I should say so.”

“
My pearls
!” screamed Leonie. She snatched the rope of snowy gems from Mrs. Nixon, hugging them to her bosom; and then she turned to Ellery with the oddest look of inquiry.

“Well, I'll be—be blasted,” said the General feebly. “Did
you
take 'em, Queen?”

“Not exactly,” said Ellery. “Stand still, please. That means everybody. We have Mrs. Nixon and Mr. Harkness possibly at a disadvantage. You see, Miss Barrett's pearls were stolen this morning.”

“Stolen?” Harkness lifted an eyebrow.

“Stolen!” gasped Mrs. Nixon. “So that's why—”

“Yes,” said Ellery. “Now, perceive. Someone filches a valuable necklace. Problem: to get it away. Was the necklace still on the premises? It was; it had to be. There are only two physical means of egress from the estate: by the cliffroad yonder, at the entrance to which is Magruder's cottage; and by the river below. Everywhere else there are perpendicular cliffs impossible to climb. And their crests are so high that it was scarcely feasible for an accomplice, say, to let a rope down and haul the loot up.… Now, since before six Magruder had the land exit under observation and Braun the river exit. Neither had seen a soul; and Braun said that nothing had been thrown over the parapet to the beach or water, or he would have heard the impact or splash. Since the thief had made no attempt to dispose of the pearls by the only two possible routes, it was clear then that the pearls were still on the estate.”

Leonie's face was pinched and pale now, and she kept her eyes steadfastly on Ellery. The General looked embarrassed.

“But the thief,” said Ellery, “must have had a plan of disposal, a plan that would circumvent all normal contingencies. Knowing that the theft might be discovered at once, he would expect an early arrival of the police and plan accordingly; people don't take the loss of a twenty-five-thousand-dollar necklace without a fight. If he expected police, he expected a search; and if he expected a search, he could not have planned to hide his loot in an obvious place—such as on his person, in his luggage, in the house, or in the usual places on the estate. Of course, he might have meant to dig a hole somewhere and bury the pearls; but I didn't think so, because he would in that case still have the problem of disposal, with the estate guarded.

“As a matter of fact, I myself searched every inch of the house; and the General's servants searched every inch of the grounds and outbuildings … just to make sure. We called no police, but acted as police ourselves. And the pearls weren't found.”

“But—” began Lieutenant Fiske in a puzzled way.

“Please, Lieutenant. It was plain, then, that the thief, whatever his plan, had discarded any
normal
use of either the land or water route as a means of getting the pearls off the estate. Had he intended to walk off with them himself, or mail them to an accomplice? Hardly, if he anticipated a police investigation and surveillance. Besides, remember that he deliberately planned and committed his theft with the foreknowledge that a detective was in the house. And while I lay no claim to exceptional formidability, you must admit it took a daring, clever thief to concoct and carry out a theft under the circumstances. I felt justified in assuming that, whatever his plan was, it was itself daring and clever; not stupid and commonplace.

“But if he had discarded the
normal
means of disposal, he must have had, in mind an extraordinary means, still using one of the only two possible routes. And then I recalled that there was one way the river route could be utilized to that end which was so innocent in appearance that it would probably be successful even if a whole regiment of infantry were on guard. And I knew that must be the answer.”

“The sunset gun,” said Leonie in a low voice.

“Precisely, Miss Barrett, the sunset gun. By preparing a package with the pearls inside, opening the breech block of the gun and thrusting the package into the chamber and walking away, he disposed very simply of the bothersome problem of getting the pearls away. You see, anyone with a knowledge of ordnance and ballistics would know that this gun, like all guns which fire salutes, uses ‘blank' ammunition. That is, there is no explosive shell; merely a charge of powder which goes off with a loud noise and a burst of smoke.

“Now, while this powder is a noise-maker purely, it still possesses a certain propulsive power—not much, but enough for the thief's purpose. Consequently Magruder would come along at sundown today, slip the blank into the breech, pulling the firing cord, and—boom! away go the pearls in a puff of concealing smoke, to be hurled the scant twenty feet or so necessary to make it clear the little beach below and fall into the water.”

“But how—” spluttered the General, red as a cherry.

“Obviously, the container would have to float. Aluminum, probably, or something equally strong yet light. Then an accomplice must be in the scheme—someone to idle along in the Hudson below in a boat at sunset, pick up the container, and cheerfully sail away. At that time Braun is not on duty, as he told me; but even if he were, I doubt if he would have noticed anything in the noise and smoke of the gun.”

“Accomplice, eh?” roared the General. “I'll phone—” Ellery sighed. “Already done, General. I telephoned the local police at one o'clock to be on the lookout. Our man will be waiting at sundown, and if you stick to schedule with your salute to the dying sun, they'll nab him red-handed.”