“You will be enlightened in due course, Parker. And on second thoughts, if it is not too much trouble, Mr. Biggs, a cup of coffee would not come amiss.”
“Of course not, Mr. Pons. I will arrange it at once.”
The Curator bustled over to his own telephone on the massive desk and Pons quietly shut the door behind him and followed me into the room. A low gas-fire burned in the hearth and gave off a comforting glow and I sank into a leather chair at one side while Pons stooped to light a spill of paper at the fire. He puffed contentedly at his pipe until he was wreathed in aromatic blue smoke. He sat down opposite me and extended his legs toward the fire.
“Firstly, Parker, I would be greatly obliged if you would step outside for a moment and make sure Mr. Biggs re-locks the strong-room properly.”
I stared at him.
“But there is only pottery there, Pons. The Valley of the Kings treasure is in the ground-floor vault.”
“I am aware of it, Parker, but I would still appreciate your attending to the matter. And then perhaps you would be good enough to ask Mr. Biggs to let me have the keys.”
“There are some things about the case I would like to discuss with you, Pons.”
“By all means. But I suggest we do so after your little errand and after we have consumed the coffee. There are a few points still to be sifted in my mind.”
Before I could reply there was a heavy foot-fall on the floor and the thickset figure of Inspector Jamison came hurrying across the inner room toward us. His florid features bore a grim expression and he came to the point without any preliminaries.
“I am just making my dispositions for the night, Mr. Pons,” he began heavily, “and I wondered whether you had any observations to make.”
My companion took his pipe from his mouth slowly. “Upon what, Jamison?”
A frown of irritation passed across the Scotland Yard man’s face.
“Why, upon my arrangements, Mr. Pons. And this chap Inspector Achmed, for example. He had all the proper credentials. That Cairo telegram doesn’t make sense.”
Pons smiled enigmatically.
“Ah, Inspector, you have your methods. I have mine. Parker and I will make our own plans and will endeavour not to get in your way.”
Jamison’s stolid features went a shade pinker.
“I did not mean that, Mr. Pons, and you well know it.”
Solar Pons blew out a languid plume of smoke from his pipe.
“Then you should make yourself clearer, my dear fellow. If you are asking my advice, I have already given it, as you will no doubt recall.”
Jamison scratched his head.
“I have placed a heavy guard upon the ground-floor vaults, Mr. Pons. These fellows will stop at nothing to gain this treasure.”
He could not keep the expression of amazement from his face.
“Why, you have not even visited the main strong-room, Mr. Pons!”
My companion smiled, shooting me a quick glance from his deep-set eyes.
“That is because I have no doubt that everything possible will be done by the official force. I could not possibly hope to improve upon your arrangements and I mean that sincerely, Jamison.”
The Inspector shifted embarrassedly from foot to foot.
“It is very good of you to say so,” he observed haltingly. “But what will you be doing, Mr. Pons?”
My companion laid his forefinger alongside his nose in a cautionary gesture.
“Your precautions will leave myself and the doctor free to follow our own line of thought. I shall be keeping close to Mr. Biggs.”
“Of course,” said the Inspector heavily. “His safety is of paramount importance. Now, this Morticott chap…”
“Tut, it is obvious,” said Pons with a flash of acerbity. “He is enormous in size, even more powerful in strength, and has been with the Museum for fifteen years! That should tell you a good deal.”
“I don’t think I follow, Mr. Pons.”
“No doubt,” said Pons a trifle tartly, it appeared to me. “But now, if you will excuse us I see our coffee approaching.”
Jamison stood stock-still for a moment, then turned on his heel and went out, slamming the door behind him. Solar Pons chuckled throatily.
“You were a little hard on him, Pons,” I observed.
“Perhaps, Parker, perhaps,” he said absently, as the neat-looking woman in white overalls laid a tray with cups and saucers and a steaming coffee-pot on the desk.
“But I fancy friend Jamison will be doubly on the alert tonight. So we have nothing to fear from that quarter.”
“I do not quite understand, Pons.”
My companion sat down behind the desk, thanking the waitress absently, who withdrew with a nervous smile. He tented his thin fingers on the desk before him.
“Let us just have your observations on this affair, Parker. After you have secured those keys.”
I stared at him.
“Good heavens, Pons! I am sorry. I quite forgot what you had asked me to do.”
I hurried out to find that Mr. Biggs had already re-locked the strong-room door. He willingly relinquished the keys and when I had explained Pons’ requirements said he would be working in his own office for the next hour or so. I re-joined Pons who was sitting at the desk, sipping his coffee slowly, while thin spirals of smoke from his pipe, which was resting in the ash-tray, ascended in lazy whorls toward the ceiling. He took the bunch of keys from me without a word and thrust them into his pocket.
He looked at me quizzically.
“Just why are you so certain that something will happen tonight, Pons?”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Tut, Parker, it is obvious. Mr. Biggs will not take long to get through those existing artefacts. By tomorrow afternoon at latest he will be at the heart of the matter.”
-8-
I broke a momentary silence.
“Why does not Inspector Jamison believe the telegram about Inspector Achmed, Pons?”
“Because he is working from a pre-conceived theory, Parker, and distorting his facts to fit them.”
A quarter of an hour had passed and the air was blue with smoke as we still sat at our coffee.
“But if the man who accompanied Mr. Biggs from Egypt and who fell under the bus, was not a Cairo detective, who on earth was he? You yourself said that he was a detective.”
My companion smiled faintly and blew out a plume of fragrant smoke.
“And so I did, Parker. All the facts pointed to it. But, unlike friend Jamison’s, my mind is flexible. On learning that my assumption was incorrect, I immediately re-adjusted my data to the new set of circumstances. He was a cool rascal at any event. Though a fake, he reported to Scotland Yard in Achmed’s persona, to put the Cairo Police off the track. And of course, the real Achmed’s body had not then been recovered.”
“That is all very well, Pons,” I grumbled. “But we have the most incredible jumble of mysteries here.”
Pons shook his head.
“And yet, if we start unravelling the threads in sequence all becomes simple and everything falls into place. Let us just hear your reconstruction, my dear fellow.”
“I hardly know where to begin, Pons.”
“Begin at the beginning, Parker. At the diggings in the Valley of the Kings.”
“An attempt was made to steal some of the treasures.”
Pons nodded, his head to one side as he stared at me.
“A correction, Parker. Some of the artefacts. There is a distinct difference.”
I stared back at him.
“I do not see the distinction, Pons.”
He sighed wearily.
“There is a great deal, my dear fellow. The pottery and so forth came from the on-site excavations up the Nile. The treasures came from the Cairo Museum.”