That's understood, is it, before I undertake the case?""Yes, yes," agreed Blake."Get at the truth.We're not seeking to squirm out of meeting an honest liability.Only we want to make a signal example if it is as we have every reason to believe.There has been altogether too much of this sort of fake burglary to collect insurance, and as president of the underwriters it is my duty and intention to put a stop to it.Come on."Maloney nodded his head vigorously in assent with his chief."Never fear," he murmured."The truth is what will benefit the company, all right.She did it."The Branford estate lay some distance back from the railroad station, so that, although it took longer to go by automobile than by train, the car made us independent of the rather fitful night train service and the local cabmen.
We found the house not deserted by the servants, but subdued.The body of the maid had been removed to a local morgue, and a police officer was patrolling the grounds, though of what use that could be I was at a loss to understand.
Kennedy was chiefly interested in the safe.It was of the so-called "burglar-proof" variety, spherical in shape, and looking for all the world like a miniature piece of electrical machinery.
"I doubt if anything could have withstood such savage treatment as has been given to this safe," remarked Craig as he concluded a cursory examination of it."It shows great resistance to high explosives, chiefly, I believe, as a result of its rounded shape.
But nothing could stand up against such continued assaults."He continued to examine the safe while we stood idly by."I like to reconstruct my cases in my own mind," explained Kennedy, as he took his time in the examination."Now, this fellow must have stripped the safe of all the outer trimmings.His next move was to make a dent in the manganese surface across the joint where the door fits the body.That must have taken a good many minutes of husky work.In fact, I don't see how he could have done it without a sledge-hammer and a hot chisel.Still, he did it and then -""But the maid," interposed Maloney."She was in the house.She would have heard and given an alarm."For answer, Craig simply went to a bay-window and raised the curtain.
Pointing to the lights of the next house, far down the road, he said, "I'll buy the best cigars in the state if you can make them hear you on a blustery night like last night.No, she probably did scream.
Either at this point, or at the very start, the burglar must have chloroformed her.I don't see any other way to explain it.I doubt if he expected such a tough proposition as he found in this safe, but he was evidently prepared to carry it through, now that he was here and had such an unexpectedly clear field, except for the maid.He simply got her out of the way, or his confederates did - in the easiest possible way, poor girl."Returning to the safe, he continued: "Well, anyhow, he made a furrow perhaps an inch and a half long and a quarter of an inch wide and, Ishould say, not over an eighth of an inch deep.Then he commenced to burgle in earnest.Under the dent he made a sort of little cup of red clay and poured in the 'soup' - the nitroglycerin - so that it would run into the depression.Then he exploded it in the regular way with a battery and a fulminate cap.I doubt if it did much more than discolour the metal at first.Still, with the true persistency of his kind, he probably repeated the dose, using more and more of the 'soup' until the joint was stretched a little, and more of an opening made so that the 'soup' could run in.
"Again and again he must have repeated and increased the charges.
Perhaps he used two or three cups at a time.By this time the outer door must have been stretched so as to make it easy to introduce the explosive.No doubt he was able to use ten or twelve ounces of the stuff at a charge.It must have been more like target-practice than safe-blowing.But the chance doesn't often come - an empty house and plenty of time.Finally the door must have bulged a fraction of an inch or so, and then a good big charge and the outer portion was ripped off and the safe turned over.
There was still two or three inches of manganese steel protecting the contents, wedged in so tight that it must have seemed that nothing could budge it.But he must have kept at it until we have the wreck that we see here," and Kennedy kicked the safe with his foot as he finished.
Blake was all attention by this time, while Maloney gasped, "If Iwas in the safe-cracking business, I'd make you the head of the firm.""And now," said Craig, "let us go back to New York and see if we can find Mrs.Branford.""Of course you understand," explained Blake as we were speeding back, "that most of these cases of fake robberies are among small people, many of them on the East Side among little jewellers or other tradesmen.Still, they are not limited to any one class.
Indeed, it is easier to foil the insurance companies when you sit in the midst of finery and wealth, protected by a self-assuring halo of moral rectitude, than under less fortunate circumstances.
Too often, I'm afraid, we have good-naturedly admitted the unsolved burglary and paid the insurance claim.That has got to stop.Here's a case where we considered the moral hazard a safe one, and we are mistaken.It's the last straw."Our interview with Mrs.Branford was about as awkward an undertaking as I have ever been concerned with.Imagine yourself forced to question a perfectly stunning woman, who was suspected of plotting so daring a deed and knew that you suspected her.Resentment was no name for her feelings.She scorned us, loathed us.It was only by what must have been the utmost exercise of her remarkable will-power that she restrained herself from calling the hotel porters and having us thrown out bodily.That would have put a bad face on it, so she tolerated our presence.Then, of course, the insurance company had reserved the right to examine everybody in the household, under oath if necessary, before passing on the claim.
