“Mainwaring was traveling alone?” Lester Leith asked.
“His nurse was with him, sir.”
“His nurse, Scuttle?”
“Yes, sir. Mr. Mainwaring is suffering from an indisposition, an organic heart trouble. At times when he’s seized with an attack, it is necessary that a nurse administer a hypodermic at once.”
“A male nurse, Scuttle?”
“No, sir. A female nurse, and rather a good-looking nurse at that.”
“Heart trouble, did you say, Scuttle?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I can well understand it,” Leith said. “And the nurse was in India with him?”
“Yes, sir. Airdree Clayton is her name. There’s a photograph of both of them here if you’d like to see it, sir.”
Lester Leith nodded. The big spy passed across the newspaper photograph. Leith looked at it and then read the caption.
Peter B. Mainwaring and his nurse, Airdree Clayton, who have just returned from extensive travels in India and Africa. While customs officials were going through the baggage of himself and nurse with what Mainwaring indignantly insisted was unusual thoroughness, Miss Clayton sat on a table in the inspector’s office, chewed gum, and entertained Mr. Mainwaring’s pet monkey. This monkey was subsequently killed in a most mysterious holdup. Mainwaring threatened to report the customs officials for rudeness, unnecessary search, and unfounded accusations. Miss Clayton, on the other hand, said the customs inspector was “delightful,” and returned to his office after having been searched by a matron, to thank the inspector for his consideration.
Lester Leith said, “She chews gum, Scuttle?”
“So the newspaper article says. Apparently she chews gum vigorously.”
Leith digested that information for several thoughtful seconds.
“Scuttle,” he said, “I can imagine nothing more soothing to the nerves than a nurse who chews gum. There’s a quieting monotony in the repetition of chewing, as sedative in its effect as rain on a roof. I want a nurse who chews gum. Make a note of that, Scuttle.”
“A nurse who chews gum, sir!”
“Yes,” Leith said, “and she should be rather good-looking. I noticed that Miss Clayton’s... er... pedal extremities and the anatomical connecties are rather peculiarly adapted to photography.”
“Yes, sir,” the spy said. “Do I gather that you want a nurse with shapely legs, sir?”
“Not exactly that,” Lester Leith replied. “I want a nurse who chews gum. If her means of locomotion are attractive to the eye, Scuttle, that’d be an added inducement.”
“But there’s no reason why you should have a nurse, is there? That is, I mean, sir, you aren’t sick?”
“No,” Leith said. “I feel quite all right, Scuttle. Thank you.”
“Therefore,” the spy said, “begging your pardon, sir, employing a nurse would seem rather... er... conspicuous, would it not?”
“Perhaps so,” Lester said. “And yet, on the other hand, Scuttle, I can imagine nothing which would more readily reconcile me to Sergeant Ackley’s continued existence than association with a young woman with shapely pedal extremities, who makes a habit of placidly chewing gum.”
The spy blinked his small, black eyes rapidly as he strove to comprehend the significance of Leith’s remark.
“Therefore,” Leith went on, “since a nurse seems conspicuous, as you have termed it, I shall insist upon a gum-chewing secretary, Scuttle. Make a note to call the employment agencies asking for an adroit, expert, inveterate gum chewer, a secretary with pulchritude and bovine masticational habits, a careless parker— Here, Scuttle, take a pencil, and take this down as I dictate it.”
“Yes, sir,” the dazed spy said.
“A position at good salary is open,” Lester Leith dictated, “for a pulchritudinous young woman with shapely means of locomotion, amiable, easygoing, good-natured, acquiescent young woman preferred, one who never becomes nervous under any circumstances, a proficient, adroit, expert, and inveterate gum chewer, preferably a careless parker, must be able to pop her gum loudly. Salary, three hundred dollars per month with all traveling expenses... Have you got that, Scuttle?”
“Yes, sir,” the spy said, his voice showing dazed incredulity.
“Very good,” Leith observed.
“Telephone the employment agencies, and now let’s get back to Mainwaring.”
“Mainwaring got through customs on the evening of the thirteenth, sir. The customs officials found nothing which hadn’t been declared. It was then about seven o’clock and getting dark. Mainwaring’s chauffeur was waiting for him. He—”
“Just a minute, Scuttle. Mainwaring didn’t take his chauffeur on this tour with him, did he?”
“No, sir. The chauffeur stayed and acted as a caretaker at the house.”
“I see. Go on, Scuttle.”
“Well, the chauffeur loaded the hand baggage into the car, and they started for Mainwaring’s house. When they were somewhere around Eighty-sixth Street, the right rear tire blew out; and when the chauffeur went to fix it, he found the jack was broken. He knew of a garage some half dozen blocks away, and Mainwaring said he and Miss Clayton would wait in the car while the chauffeur went to the garage. The chauffeur had some difficulty as the garage was closed. He thinks he was gone perhaps some thirty minutes in all. The robber held up Mainwaring only a few minutes after the chauffeur started out. In fact the chauffeur saw the bandit drive past him, noticed him particularly because of his build. He was big, fat, massive, and with a swarthy complexion. The chauffeur actually saw his features, sir. He was the only one who did. The stickup man had put on a mask by the time he had driven abreast of the Mainwaring car.”
“Why did the chauffeur notice him so particularly, Scuttle?”
“Because he thought the man might stop, pick him up, and drive him to a garage, sir. The chauffeur had his livery on, and he stepped out from the curb and motioned to this man. The chauffeur’s quite thin himself, sir, and he naturally noticed the other’s corpulence.”
“The man didn’t stop, Scuttle?”
“No, sir. He seemed, according to the chauffeur, to be driving fast and with a purpose. When the chauffeur saw his swarthy complexion, he wondered if the man might not be following Mainwaring’s car; but he dismissed the thought as being a bit farfetched. Yet there can be no doubt of it that it was this man who held up Mainwaring and killed the monkey.”
“Killed the monkey!” Lester Leith exclaimed. “Do you mean that this was all the man accomplished?”
“Yes, sir. He killed the monkey. That seemed to be what he wanted to overtake the car for.”
“And didn’t take anything?”
“No, sir.”
“That’s odd,” Leith said. “And the man was masked?”
“Yes, sir, he was, but the nurse feels quite certain that he was a native of Southern India. Both she and Mainwaring agree that he was very fat although he moved with catlike quickness. He was driving a car which had been stolen.”
“How do they know the car was stolen?” Leith asked.
“Because the chauffeur, returning with the jack, saw this same car again. This time it was speeding away from the scene of the holdup. He noticed that the driver was wearing a mask which concealed his features, so he took occasion to notice the license number. He gave it to the police, of course, as soon as he learned of the holdup. The police found that the car had been stolen. Later on, they found the car itself parked on Ninety-third Street. It had been abandoned there.”