Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 96: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

246 It is wonderful the trustfulness of pas- sengers upon an ocean liner. Persons who are most careful about bolts and bars at home, sleep with the doors of their state- rooms on the hook. Serene in the impec- cability of those who have the price of a first class ticket, they go to their berths in peace. Remarkable it is that their confidence is so rarely abused. Thefts on board a liner do not often happen, perhaps because the thief is locked up on the ship with the vic- tim, and hiding places are hard to find. Nevertheless, a thief entered the state- room of Mrs. Potter-Dunlap while she slept and went away with the marvelous array of jewels which had adorned her at the ball. She had placed them in the safe with the purser upon coming on board, had found the purser’s office closed at the end of the dancing party,.and, not bothering to send for the ship’s official, she carried her gems to her stateroom and locked them in a small hand bag. In the morning she found a neat slit in the hand bag and a collection of pearls, dia- monds, rubies and emeralds which she valued at more than seventy-five thousand dollars, missing. Her squawks had drawn the steward and the stewardess, and, at the first suggestion of robbery, the purser came on winged feet. Cases of this kind are immediately brought to the attention of the captain of the ship. Captain Brown had hardly fin- ished his breakfast when he was summoned to the suite occupied by the Chicago mil- lionairess, by a haggard purser. The captain looked not unlike a head- quarters detective as he sat in an armchair in Mrs. Potter-Dunlap’s drawing-room and listened to her story. “ You heard no sound during the night?” he demanded. “ Certainly not. Neither did my daugh- ter. If we had we would have given an alarm.” “ Are you both heavy sleepers?” “ Not particularly.” “ Who knew you had the jewels?” _ “Everybody on the ship,” said Miss Potter-Dunlap. “I asked her not to wear them to that foolish dance.” ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ‘Who knew their value? Had you told anybody how much they were worth?” “1’m not in the habit of mentioning the price of my jewels,” she said haughtily. ‘I presume anybody who knows gems could tell very readily that they were expensive.” ‘* What acquaintances have you made on the ship?” “Very few. I am careful with whom I associate.” “What men have you and your daugh- ter met?” Mrs. Potter-Dunlap hesitated. ‘“‘ Why, Mr. Campbell was quite attentive to both my daughter and myself last evening. But I certainly should not suspect him.” “* Did he escort you to your stateroom?” “Why, yes, he did. In fact I invited him to come into the drawing-room, and we had some champagne. It seemed the thing to do after his devoting the evening to us.” “ Then Mr. Campbell knew that you had not returned your jewels to the purser’s safe last night.”’ “IT suppose so. But, surely, you do not think he took them?” “‘ Of course not,” said the captain. “ But by a process of elimination we can get down to the only person who knew that seventy- five thousand dollars’ worth of jewels were left unguarded over night. Did the steward or stewardess come in at all last night?” “The steward brought in a bottle of champagne.” “ Make a note of that,” said the captain to the purser. “Do you think T’ll get them back, cap- tain?” she wailed. ** It’s a certain thing that they are aboard the ship.. Nobody has got off since last night. If they are here we’ll find them, if we have to search every room on the ship. We have five days in which to recover them. [ think you can hope for the best.” He arose, shook hands and departed with his usual dignity. The purser followed. ‘““ Where does this fellow Campbell come from?” the captain demanded, when they were safely in the purser’s office. The purser looked through the passenger list, and then glanced at a card catalogue of information regarding passengers. It is : Gomichbooks Gol