"DERLETH, August - The Adventure of the Late Mr. Faversham (A Solar Pons story)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Derleth August)

"Common sort of house, isn't it, Meeker?" observed Pons in greeting, looking at the ordinary, one-storey stuccoed house that faced us.

"Like most of the others on this street, Mr. Pons. This one was built by Faversham about three years ago."

"All boarded up, just as the papers had it."

"Yes, for the length of Faversham's leave. A good job, too. He couldn't possibly have got out by any passage but this front door." His intelligent young fare clouded in perplexity.

"And he's not in the house?"

'Certainly not, Mr. Pons. We searched it from top to bottom. No tunnels, no secret passages, nothing. We did look, on the theory that we can't afford to neglect any openings, no matter how improbable."

"Dear me!" said Pons with a thin smile. "If Faversham isn't in the house, and couldn't have got out any other way than this front door--then he must have come out the front."

"And that's just what he did not do."

"No?"

"No! Professor von Ruda swears that the door was not lost to his sight for a moment. Not only that, but from the time he gave up Faversham as lost, I was here at the door."

"That is most singular. How did it come about?"

"Von Ruda had been visiting Faversham. When he got ready to leave, Faversham kindly offered to walk to the Strand with him, and to wait there with him until an omnibus came. The two men came out on the stoop. It was a frightfully foggy and wet night, and Faversham went back into the house to get his waterproof. Von Ruda remained standing on the stoop, waiting for Faversham to return. When he tired at last, he went into the house and directly down the short hall to the alcove where he knew Faversham kept his waterproof.

"The coat was there, but the professor was not. All this time he had the front door in sight. When von Ruda could not find the professor, he called him and finally came back to the stoop. I was passing, and hearing his calls, I came up the walk where von Ruda discovered me and related the incident. I instructed him to wait, which he did, and called Inspector Jamison. The door was therefore not out of our sight for so much as a moment."

Pons gazed reflectively at Mecker, taking out his pipe now and filling it. "You admit that the fellow simply couldn't have vanished into air?"

"Certainly, Mr. Pons. But where did he go? We've ransacked the house even to the extent of digging up the basement floor."

"Well, one of two solutions presents itself. Faversham either went out this door, or he did not."

"I give you my word that he did not go out of it," said Mecker.

Mecker looked sharply at Pons. "But von Ruda insists that he did. He saw him."

"Then you may take my word that he never went in."

"What about von Ruda?"

"Retired from Bonn in 1921. As far as we know, he has a perfect record. He lectured in philosophy, with part time in law and logic; he has a string of degrees that would put the alphabet to shame. We wired the university immediately."

"Von Ruda is being held, I take it?"

"Jamison insisted on it. He's in a temper by this time, to my way of thinking. He's booked to sail tomorrow, and as it looks now, he won't get away until we find some clue to Faversham's disappearance."

Pons chuckled. "Count one for Jamison; he has had the good sense to see that there is a serious flaw somewhere in this fabrication, and he's taking no chance of allowing his star witness to escape!"

Mecker threw open the front door, and we found ourselves gazing down a short hall, at the far end of which was the alcove where a waterproof coat hung in plain sight. Pons stood briefly on the threshold; then he strode rapidly down to the alcove, where he turned and looked speculatively at us.