The Classic Mystery Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle [3487]
Mr. Grimm drew a long breath.
"She intended to take, perhaps, only what she desperately needed--but at sight of it all--do you see what must have been the temptation then? We get out here."
There were many unanswered questions in Mr. Grimm's mind. He repressed them for the time, stepped out and assisted Miss Thorne to alight. The carriage had turned out of Pennsylvania Avenue, and at the moment he didn't quite place himself. A narrow passageway opened before them--evidently the rear entrance to a house possibly in the next street. Miss Thorne led the way unhesitatingly, cautiously unlocked the door, and together they entered a hall. Then there was a short flight of stairs, and they stepped into a room, one of a suite. She closed the door and turned on the lights.
"The bags of gold are in the next room," she said with the utmost composure.
Mr. Grimm dragged them out of a dark closet, opened one--there were ten--and allowed the coins to dribble through his fingers. Finally he turned and stared at Miss Thorne, who, pallid and weary, stood looking on.
"Where are we?" he asked. "What house is this?"
"The Venezuelan legation," she answered. "We are standing less than forty feet from the safe that was robbed. You see how easy--!"
"And whose room?" inquired Mr. Grimm slowly.
"Must I answer?" she asked appealingly.
"You must!"
"Senorita Rodriguez--my hostess! Don't you see what you've made me do? She and Mr. Cadwallader made the trip to Baltimore in his automobile, and--and--!" She stopped. "He knows nothing of it," she added.
"Yes, I know," said Mr. Grimm.
He stood looking at her in silence for a moment, staring deeply into the pleading eyes; and a certain tense expression about his lips passed. For an instant her hand trembled on his arm, and he caught the fragrance of her hair.
"Where is she now?" he asked.
"Playing bridge," replied Miss Thorne, with a sad little smile. "It is always so--at least twice a week, and she rarely returns before two or half-past." She extended both hands impetuously, entreatingly. "Please be generous, Mr. Grimm. You have the gold; don't destroy her."
Senor Rodriguez, the minister from Venezuela, found the gold in his safe on the following morning, with a brief note from Mr. Grimm, in which there was no explanation of how or where it had been found.... And two hours later Monsieur Boissegur, ambassador from France to the United States, disappeared from the embassy, vanished!
XII
THE VANISHING DIPLOMATIST
It was three days after the ambassador's disappearance that Monsieur Rigolot, secretary of the French embassy and temporary _charge-d'affaires_, reported the matter to Chief Campbell in the Secret Service Bureau, adding thereto a detailed statement of several singular incidents following close upon it. He told it in order, concisely and to the point, while Grimm and his chief listened.
"Monsieur Boissegur, the ambassador, you understand, is a man whose habits are remarkably regular," he began. "He has made it a rule to be at his desk every morning at ten o'clock, and between that time and one o'clock he dictates his correspondence, and clears up whatever routine work there is before him. I have known him for many years, and have been secretary of the embassy under him in Germany and Japan and this country. I have never known him to vary this general order of work unless because of illness, or necessary absence.
"Well, Monsieur, last Tuesday--this is Friday--the ambassador was at his desk as usual. He dictated a dozen or more letters, and had begun another--a private letter to his sister in Paris. He was well along in this letter when,