The Egyptian Cross Mystery

“Now,” added Inspector Vaughn, “that we’ve found the red checker near the totem pole.”

“You’ve gone through the rest of the house, I suppose?” remarked Ellery, strolling about.

“Oh, yes, in a routine way. Brad’s bedroom, and so on. Absolutely nothing of interest.”

Ellery turned his attention to the circular reading table. Taking from his pocket the glassine envelope of tobacco fragments from the pipe found on the summerhouse floor, he unscrewed the cap of a large humidor lying on the table and dug his hand into it. It emerged with a fistful of tobacco identical in color and cut — the uncommon cube-cut — with the tobacco from the pipe.

He laughed. “Well, no question about the filthy weed, at any rate. Another clue gone up the chimney. It was Brad’s, if this humidor was Brad’s.”

“And it was,” said Isham.

Experimentally, Ellery opened a tiny drawer whose outline was visible beneath the table’s circular top. It was, he found, cluttered with a veritable collection of pipes, all of them of excellent quality, all well-used, but all in the conventional shapes — the usual bowls with straight or curved stems. There were Meerschaums, briers, and bakelites; two were thin and very long — old English clay churchwardens.

“Hmm,” he said. “Mr. Brad belonged to the inner shrine. Checkers and pipes — they invariably go together. I’m surprised that there’s no dog before the hearth. Well, nothing here.”

“Any like this one?” demanded Vaughn, producing the Neptune-and-trident pipe.

Ellery shook his head. “You’d scarcely expect to find another, would you? A man wouldn’t have two like that. No case, either. I should think he’d get lockjaw just holding that monstrosity in his mouth. It must have been a gift.”

Ellery turned his attention to the main exhibit — the object which stood to the left of the open secretary on the same wall, across the room from the divan.

It was an ingenious device: a collapsible checker table which, it was evident, could be folded and swung back into a shallow niche in the wall directly behind it, to which it was attached by hinges. A sliding shutter, now resting above the niche, could be lowered to conceal the entire contrivance. In addition, there were two wall chairs, one at each side of the table, which could be similarly swung back into the wall.

“Brad must have been an addict indeed,” remarked Ellery, “to have installed built-in apparatus. Hmm... I suppose this is as he left it. It hasn’t been touched?”

“Not by us, anyway,” said Isham indifferently. “See what you can make of it.”

The top of the table, a glittering piece of craftsmanship, was inlaid in the usual design of sixty-four alternating white and black squares, all surrounded by a rich mother-of-pearl border. There was a wide margin at each player’s side for the stacking of pieces not in play. In the margin, on the side nearer the secretary, nine red checkers lay scattered — red pieces captured by the Black side. In the opposite margin were three black pieces, captured by Red. On the board itself, in position of play, lay three black “kings” (made by placing one black piece above another), and three single black pieces; also two single red pieces, one of which was situated on Black’s first, or starting, row of squares.

Ellery studied the board and the margins thoughtfully. “Where’s the box these came from?”

Isham kicked in the direction of the secretary. On the open dropleaf lay a cheap cardboard rectangular box, empty.

“Eleven red pieces,” said Ellery, gazing at the wall. “There should be twelve, of course. One red piece of the identical description found near the totem post.”

“Right,” sighed Isham. “Checked over with the rest of the household; there aren’t any other checker sets in the house. So that red piece we found must have come from here.”

“Quite so,” said Ellery. “This is interesting, most interesting.” He looked down at the pieces again.

“You think so?” said Isham sourly. “You won’t in a minute. I know what you’ve got in mind. It isn’t so. Wait till I get Brad’s butler in here.”

He went to the door and said to the detective: “Get that Stallings fellow in here again. The butler.”

Ellery raised eyebrows that spoke eloquently, but he said nothing. He went to the secretary and idly picked up the empty cardboard checker box. Isham watched him with a little snarling grin.

“And that, too,” said Isham unexpectedly.

Ellery looked up. “Yes, I wondered about that the moment I came in here. Why an inveterate player who goes to the trouble and expense of installing an elaborate checker outfit should use cheap wooden pieces.”

“You’ll find out in a minute. Nothing startling, I can promise you that.”

The detective opened the door from the hall, and a tall thin man with sallow cheeks and bland eyes entered. He was dressed simply in black. There was something obsequious about him.