FullReads

I understand they deliberately teach these dashed Boy Scouts to cultivate their powers of observation and deduction and what not. Devilish thoughtless and inconsiderate of them, I call it. Look at the trouble it causes.

“It sounds incredible,” said Uncle Willoughby, thereby bucking me up a trifle.

“Shall I go and look in his room?” asked young blighted Edwin. “I’m sure the parcel’s there.”

“But what could be his motive for perpetrating this extraordinary theft?”

“Perhaps he’s a–what you said just now.”

“A kleptomaniac? Impossible!”

“It might have been Bertie who took all those things from the very start,” suggested the little brute hopefully. “He may be like Raffles.”

“Raffles?”

“He’s a chap in a book who went about pinching things.”

“I cannot believe that Bertie would–ah–go about pinching things.”

“Well, I’m sure he’s got the parcel. I’ll tell you what you might do. You might say that Mr. Berkeley wired that he had left something here. He had Bertie’s room, you know. You might say you wanted to look for it.”

“That would be possible. I—-“

I didn’t wait to hear any more. Things were getting too hot. I sneaked softly out of my bush and raced for the front door. I sprinted up to my room and made for the drawer where I had put the parcel. And then I found I hadn’t the key. It wasn’t for the deuce of a time that I recollected I had shifted it to my evening trousers the night before and must have forgotten to take it out again.

Where the dickens were my evening things? I had looked all over the place before I remembered that Jeeves must have taken them away to brush. To leap at the bell and ring it was, with me, the work of a moment. I had just rung it when there was a footstep outside, and in came Uncle Willoughby.

“Oh, Bertie,” he said, without a blush, “I have–ah–received a telegram from Berkeley, who occupied this room in your absence, asking me to forward him his–er–his cigarette-case, which, it would appear, he inadvertently omitted to take with him when he left the house. I cannot find it downstairs; and it has, therefore, occurred to me that he may have left it in this room. I will–er–just take a look around.”

It was one of the most disgusting spectacles I’ve ever seen–this white-haired old man, who should have been thinking of the hereafter, standing there lying like an actor.

“I haven’t seen it anywhere,” I said.

“Nevertheless, I will search. I must–ah–spare no effort.”

“I should have seen it if it had been here–what?”

“It may have escaped your notice. It is–er–possibly in one of the drawers.”

He began to nose about. He pulled out drawer after drawer, pottering around like an old bloodhound, and babbling from time to time about Berkeley and his cigarette-case in a way that struck me as perfectly ghastly. I just stood there, losing weight every moment.

Then he came to the drawer where the parcel was.

“This appears to be locked,” he said, rattling the handle.

“Yes; I shouldn’t bother about that one. It–it’s–er–locked, and all that sort of thing.”

“You have not the key?”

A soft, respectful voice spoke behind me.

“I fancy, sir, that this must be the key you require. It was in the pocket of your evening trousers.”

It was Jeeves. He had shimmered in, carrying my evening things, and was standing there holding out the key. I could have massacred the man.

“Thank you,” said my uncle.

“Not at all, sir.”

The next moment Uncle Willoughby had opened the drawer. I shut my eyes.

“No,” said Uncle Willoughby, “there is nothing here. The drawer is empty. Thank you, Bertie. I hope I have not disturbed you. I fancy–er–Berkeley must have taken his case with him after all.”

When he had gone I shut the door carefully. Then I turned to Jeeves. The man was putting my evening things out on a chair.

“Er–Jeeves!”

“Sir?”

“Oh, nothing.”

It was deuced difficult to know how to begin.

“Er–Jeeves!”

“Sir?”

“Did you–Was there–Have you by chance—-“