"I do not understand you, Mr. Pons."
"No matter, colonel. I trust all will be made clear before many more days are past."
Colonel Loder exchanged a gloomy expression with the superintendent and then we were back in the corridor which led to his office.
"Now that we are here," said Solar Pons, "I have a mind to see some of your favorite treasures. What would you say was the most valuable part of the collection?"
Colonel Loder wrinkled up his forehead.
"The Chinese ceramics, undoubtedly. They mean little to the public and truth to tell, they do not make a spectacular display. But they are certainly the most valuable and the closest to my heart."
"Could we see them now?"
"By all means."
The colonel consulted his watch.
"It is another hour to closing, but with the passes I have prepared you may come and go at any time of the day and night. The Hsui-Ching Collection is in the Scott-Green Gallery, quite close by."
"If you'll forgive me, Mr. Pons, I have much to attend to."
Superintendent Heathfield excused himself and marched down the corridor with a firm tread after my companion had arranged to meet him back in the curator's office within the hour. The Scott-Green Gallery, named after the archaeologist who had unearthed these early Chinese treasures, was a long, broad, parquet-floored room whose glass exhibition cases were set about under hanging lights and interspersed with chests of carved sandalwood and fragile silk banners housed in glass frames screwed to the walls.
A bored attendant with a white, sedentary face uncoiled himself from a chair and assumed an alert posture as he recognized the curator. Colonel Loder smiled thinly. There was no one else in the gallery. The man saluted as we came up.
"You may get yourself a cup of tea at the canteen and absent yourself for the next half hour," Loder said pleasantly.
The attendant smiled, revealing two gold teeth.
"Thank you, sir."
He hurried off down the gallery as though eager to escape before the curator changed his mind.
"I am afraid the job of museum attendant is one of the most boring in the whole world, Mr. Pons," he observed. "Why they do it is beyond me, for the wages are small enough."
"It appeals to a certain type of mind," said Solar Pons equably. "And certainly it is clean, quite agreeable and not at all strenuous."
His lean form strode unerringly to two large cases at the center right of the long gallery.
"This is the Hsui-Ching porcelain?"
"Indeed, Mr. Pons. Your reputation has not been exaggerated."
Solar Pons smiled.
"I am an amateur only, but that peculiar dull shade of green is unmistakable to the trained eye."
I stared in consternation at the dozen or so saucers of a brown-green shade which the first case contained. To me they looked so nondescript that I would not have given them display space. Surely Pons and the curator could not be serious when they referred to these objects as priceless treasures? But one look at their faces convinced me of their probity and their enthusiasm; for something like a quarter of an hour they spoke learnedly of the finer points of the firing and glazing.
"Perfect, absolutely perfect, Mr. Pons," Colonel Loder breathed, moving from one case to another in absolute delight. Pons caught a glimpse of my bored face and turned away, his handkerchief pressed in front of his nose. I made a serious effort.
"What value would you place upon the contents of these two cases, Colonel?"
"Oh, something in the region of a quarter of a million pounds," he said casually. "These two sets are among the only half-dozen perfect ones extant in the world. There are another two in the Louvre which I would give the world to get my hands on, the Metropolitan in New York has another and there is one more in Italy. Of course, any number of museums scattered throughout the world have single specimens but complete, perfect sets like these are literally beyond price."
I was absolutely stupefied and my features must have shown it clearly for Colonel Loder and Pons exchanged a conspiratorial glance.
"But would there be any point in stealing such objects?" I asked, looking round at the grilles over the skylights and the thin wires which led to the burglar alarms.
"Good heavens, no," said Colonel Loder, "though we must, of course, take the usual precautions. Hardly anyone in the world would handle them. And certainly few could afford to buy them."
"Except for a mad collector, Pons?"
Solar Pons looked at me shrewdly, his eyes twinkling.
"You have a point, Parker," he said mildly. "Thank you indeed for showing me such treasures, Colonel. I think we have seen enough for one afternoon. Tomorrow is Sunday. Will the museum be open?"
Colonel Loder inclined his head.
"On Sundays in the season we open from ten A.M. until four o'clock. My deputy, Sir James Grieve, will be in charge but I can be reached at my home by telephone if my services are required."
"Thank you, but I fancy that will not be necessary," said Solar Pons. "Now, Parker, if you are ready we will have a quick word with Superintendent Heathfield before returning to 7B for one of Mrs. Johnson's excellent high teas."
4
I buttered a piece of toast and conveyed it to my mouth. Solar Pons sat opposite me silently drinking his tea, his deep-set eyes fixed somewhere far beyond me. I knew better than to interrupt him and it was not until Mrs. Johnson had removed the clutter from the table and silently withdrawn that he at last relaxed, drew up his chair to the fire and lit his pipe.
When he had it drawing to his satisfaction he glanced out the window where the first streetlamps were beginning to prick the dusk of this short October day, and finally broke the silence.
"I have not yet had the benefit of your thoughts on this matter, Parker."
"I, Pons?"
My friend nodded, blowing out lazy clouds of smoke toward the ceiling of our sitting room.
"You must have formed some impressions."
"I have formed many impressions, Pons, but nothing very much to the point."
Solar Pons shook his head slowly.
"That is because you have not given it your undivided attention, my dear fellow. When you have thought things out I am sure that light will begin to penetrate."
I shook my head.
"I am afraid I have not your ratiocinative gifts, Pons. For instance, all this business of Baku idols and then Hsui-Ching saucers is merely confusing. And then you tell Colonel Loder that the cut burglar alarm does not matter. Apart from the fact that none of us know what this fellow LaFontaine looks like."
Solar Pons chuckled.
"You are confused merely because you are not making the proper connections. Let us just take the points one at a time. We have a bold criminal, who has already netted many thousands of pounds in thefts from museums and private collections on the Continent. But this is the first time he has ever announced his arrival in advance. What does that suggest to you?"
I thought for a moment.
"Overconfidence, Pons."
My friend shook his head.
"There is a deeper and far more obvious reason than that. We know LaFontaine or rather the man behind his nom-de-plume is responsible, because of the copperplate writing; the hand itself, and the many details employed in the method. But why should he take such pains to draw attention to the Baku idols?"
I stared at Pons for a whole minute before light broke in. "It is a red herring! Because he has no intention of stealing them!"
Solar Pons pressed his fingers before him.
"Exactly, Parker. You are constantly improving. He wishes to concentrate attention on the gallery containing the Baku idols because he intends to strike elsewhere in the museum! That was why the burglar alarm wire was cut. It was intended to arrest Heathfield's attention. I will bet any sum you care to name that he will strike again at that gallery soon in order to concentrate all the available attendants and police officers there."