Lester Leith grinned.
“Well,” he said, “I had better amplify that. You can pick up anything you can on the side, provided you leave my pockets alone.”
Bentley matched Lester Leith’s grin.
“Okay, Captain,” he said. “That’s a go.”
Lester Leith climbed in the taxicab and returned to his apartment.
A vision of loveliness greeted him as he opened the door. Dixie Dormley had adorned herself in garments which looked as though they had been tailored to order in the most exclusive shops.
She smiled a welcome to Lester Leith.
“I kept the cost as low as I could,” she said, “in order to get the effect that you wanted.”
“You certainly got the effect,” complimented Lester Leith, staring at her with very evident approval. “Yes, I think you have done very well, indeed, and we will all go to dinner tonight — the four of us. You, Miss Dormley, Mr. Vare, and, Scuttle, I’m going to include you too.”
The spy blinked his eyes. “Yes, sir.”
“By the way,” said Lester Leith, “did you have the imitation ruby made?”
The spy nodded.
“It’s rather a swell affair,” he said, “so far as the ruby is concerned. The gold setting is rather cleverly done too. The jeweler insisted upon doing it in a very soft gold. He said that the Indian gold was very yellow and very soft, without much alloy in it. He’s duplicated the border design very accurately.”
“Quite right, Scuttle,” said Lester Leith. “The man knows what he is doing. Let’s see it.”
The spy handed Lester Leith a little casket, which Leith opened.
The girl exclaimed in admiration.
“Good heavens,” she said, “it looks genuine!”
Lester Leith nodded. “It certainly does,” he said. “They are able to make excellent imitations of rubies these days.”
He lifted the imitation jewel from the case and dropped it carelessly in his side pocket.
“All right, Dixie,” he said. “If you’ll dress for dinner, we’ll leave rather early. I have an important appointment at nine thirty. By the way, I don’t want either of you to mention to a living soul that this ruby is an imitation.”
At dinner that evening Lester Leith was in rare form. He was suave and courteous, acting very much the gentleman, and discharging his duties as host. It was when the dessert had been cleared away that Leith gravely surveyed Harry Vare’s countenance.
“Vare,” he said, “you have had your first lesson this afternoon. Do you think that you have profited by it?”
Vare flushed.
“I’ll say one thing,” he said, “no pickpocket will ever get near you again as long as I’m around.”
Lester Leith nodded.
“That’s fine,” he said. “Now then, I have a rather valuable bauble here that I want to have guarded carefully. I am going to ask you to put it in your pocket.”
And Lester Leith slipped from his pocket the imitation ruby and passed it across the table to Vare.
Vare gave a gasp, and his eyes bulged.
“Good heavens,” he said, “this is worth a fortune!”
Leith shrugged. “I am making no comments, Vare,” he said, “on its value. It is merely something which is entrusted to you for safekeeping, as a part of your training in detective work.”
Vare slipped the gem hurriedly into his pocket.
Lester Leith caught the eye of the waiter and secured the check, which he paid.
“I want you folks to take a little walk with me,” he said. “Vare is going to have another lesson as a detective, and I would like to have all of you present.”
The spy was plainly ill at ease.
“You want me there also, sir?” he asked.
“Certainly,” said Lester Leith.
“Very well, sir,” said the spy.
Leith helped the young woman on with her wraps, saw that she was seated comfortably in the taxicab, and told the driver to take them to the depot.
The spy stared at him curiously.
“You’re leaving town, sir?” he asked.
“Oh, no,” said Lester Leith. “We’re just going down to the depot, and I’m going to walk around the way I did this afternoon. Vare is going to see that my pocket isn’t picked.”
There was not as large a crowd in the depot at night, and Lester Leith had some difficulty in finding a crowd of sufficient density to suit his purpose. In his side pocket was a note:
“The young man who is following me around has an imitation ruby in his pocket. He is watching me to make certain that no one picks my pocket. See if you can get the ruby from him, and after you have it, return it to me later.”
Bentley, the pickpocket, stood on the outskirts of a crowd of people who were waiting in line at a ticket window, and gave Lester Leith a significant glance. Leith gestured toward his pocket.
Leith pushed his way into the crowd, and, as he did so, felt Bentley’s fingers slip the printed instructions from his pocket.
Thereafter, Lester Leith wandered aimlessly about the depot, until suddenly he heard a choked cry from Harry Vare.
Lester Leith turned and retraced his steps to the young man, who was standing with a sickly gray countenance, his eyes filled with despair.
“What is it?” asked Lester Leith.
Vare indicated a gaping cut down the side of his coat and through his vest.
“I put that gem in the inside of my vest,” he said, “where I knew that it would be safe from pickpockets, and look what happened!”
Lester Leith summoned the undercover man.
“Scuttle,” he said, “will you notice what has happened? This young man whom I was training to be a detective has allowed the property with which I entrusted him to be stolen.”
The valet blinked.
“I didn’t see anyone, sir,” he said, “and I was keeping my own eye peeled.”
“Scuttle,” Lester Leith said, “I am going to ask you to take Vare back to his apartment. Let him sit down and meditate carefully for two hours upon everything that happened and every face he saw while he was here at the depot. I want to see if he can possibly identify the man who is guilty of picking his pocket.”
Vare said humbly: “I’m afraid, sir, that you picked a poor student.” Lester Leith smiled.
“Tut, tut, Vare,” he said, “that’s something for me to determine. I told you that I was going to give you an education, and I am. You’re getting a free scholarship as well as wages. So don’t worry about it. Go on to your apartment, and sit down and concentrate.”
Vare said: “It certainly is wonderful of you to take the thing this way.”
“That’s all right, Vare.”
As the undercover man took Vare’s arm and piloted him toward a taxicab, Lester Leith turned to Dixie Dormley with a smile.
“I’ve got to meet a party here in a few minutes,” he said, “and then we can go and dance.”
They continued to hang around the depot for fifteen or twenty minutes. Lester Leith began to frown and to consult his wrist watch. Suddenly Sid Bentley, the pickpocket, materialized through one of the doorways and hurried toward them.
“It’s okay,” he said.
Leith frowned at him.
“You took long enough doing it,” he said.
“I’m sorry I kept you waiting,” Bentley said, “but there was one thing that I had to do. You should have figured it out yourself, Chief.”
“What was that?”
“I had to go to a good fence and make sure that the thing I had was an imitation,” said Bentley.
“Well,” Leith said, “there’s nothing like being frank.”
“That’s the way I figure it, Chief,” he said. “You know, I’ve got a duty to you, but I’ve got a duty to my profession, too. I certainly would have been a dumb hick to have had my hands on a fortune and let it slip.”
Lester Leith felt the weight of the jewel in his pocket. He nodded and turned away.