The Great Game (45 page)

             
"Just so.
A large kite."

             
It was two in the morning. Madeleine and Jenny Vernet had gone to their well-earned sleep, leaving Moriarty, Holmes, Watson, and the prince and princess sitting around the table in Prince Ariste's railroad car drinking tea and discussing the impending rescue of the Barnetts. Professor Moriarty had a plan. Sherlock Holmes was not amused.

             
"A man-carrying kite?"

             
"It's been done before," the professor commented dryly.
"By whom?"

             
"By me.
I have some experience using a kite of a modified Burmese design, constructed for me in London by Prince Tseng Li-chang. In addition to his usual trade of creating Chinese antiquities for the European market, the prince aids me in the construction of astronomical devices. We found that a tethered kite can be quite stable for long periods of time. Usually I loft special dry-plate cameras, or recording manometers and thermometers, but on occasion I have permitted a man to go up."

             
"It must be quite exciting," Princess Diane commented.

             
"So I believe," Moriarty said. "As the kites will bear the weight of only a very light person, I have never been able to make the experiment myself."

             
"Yes, but in the middle of the night?" the prince asked. "Isn't it considerably more dangerous in the dark?"

             
"Many of my experiments have been conducted in the middle of the night," Moriarty explained. "Most of them are designed to further my astronomical research, although a few have had other purposes. Some things cannot easily be accomplished in daylight."

             
Holmes gave the table a resounding slap. "Well, I'm damned!" he said.
"The Tainsburn and Belaugh Mint robbery—that's how it was done!"

             
Everyone turned to look at him, and Holmes explained: "it was a year ago February, I believe. I was called in to investigate a robbery at the Tainsburn and Belaugh
Mint,
a private company that engraves and prints the currency of many small countries that don't possess the
facilities for such precise and delicate work themselves. On this night four specially constructed trunks full of Maldavian currency had been prepared for shipping the following morning. Someone—some gang—broke in during the night and made off with all four trunks, taking currency to the value of about two million pounds."

             
"I remember that, Holmes," Watson said. "It was one of your few failures, I believe."

             
Holmes glared at Watson silently for a moment, and then went on: "You will also remember, old
friend, that
the Scotland Yard refused to act on my suggestion. I cannot affirm that the case would have been solved if they had, but as they did not, I take no responsibility for their failure."

             
Watson wrinkled his brow.
"Your suggestion?
Oh, yes, I remember. When Inspector Lestrade asked you what you thought of the robbery, you replied: 'I call your attention to the footsteps on the roof.' "

             
"Indeed." Holmes turned to the others. "You must understand that the building housing the mint is, of necessity, a fortress. Six stories high, and standing alone on its block. All the windows are barred and, at night, securely locked from the inside. The trunks were taken out through a side door which was kept secure by dropping steel bars into slots on the inside. There was no possible way to open it from the outside as it had neither handle nor key. Nonetheless it lay open the next morning and the trunks were gone. The night watchman was found trussed up on the floor of the manager's office. He claimed that he had been struck on the head from behind while he was making his rounds."

             
"The footsteps on the roof?"
Princess Diane asked.

             
"I discovered the marks of some footsteps in the dust on the roof—marks that must have been made on the day of the robbery as there was a heavy rainfall the night before which would have removed them."

             
Princess Diane raised an enquiring hand. "Why was there dust on the roof, so soon after a heavy rain?"

             
"It's London, your highness. There is dust on everything within hours of its being cleaned. Some attribute it to the coal fires burning in every hearth."

             
"And Scotland Yard failed to act on your information?" Prince Ariste asked.

             
"Inspector Lestrade arrested the night watchman. He said the footsteps could have been made by anyone. I pointed out to him that they began abruptly in the middle of the roof, as though someone had dropped from the sky, and went straight to the roof door."

             
"That's right, Holmes," Watson averred. "I remember. Lestrade said that if you wanted to go crawling about on the roof looking for
footsteps, that
was all right with him, as long as you left him alone to do his job."

             
Holmes pointed his forefinger at Moriarty. "There was no way anyone could have climbed up to the roof," he said. "I thought of a balloon, remembering that you have a fondness for balloons, but a balloon couldn't be controlled that finely. Besides, a balloon large enough to carry a man would surely have been seen. But a kite! That never occurred to me."

             
"I remember Lestrade's remarks were particularly pointed when you said that you detected the hand of Professor Moriarty in the crime," Watson added.
" 'When
has there been a crime in which you didn't see the hand of Professor Moriarty?' he asked you.
And perhaps with some justification."

             
"You and Lestrade do me an injustice, Watson," Holmes said, leaning back in his chair and tucking the interlaced fingers of his hands under his chin. "I don't see the hand of my friend the professor in every crime.
Only in those which elude solution and show a degree of cunning way beyond that of the average criminal."

             
Moriarty
chuckled
a hard-edged chuckle. "Confess it, Holmes," he said, "whenever you walk down a country lane, you see my minions crouching beneath every bush."

             
The two men glared at each other. Prince Ariste raised his hand as though inserting a barrier between them. "As pleasant as these reminiscences must be for both of you," he said, "we do have something of rather pressing importance to discuss."

             
Moriarty nodded and turned away from Holmes. "I have spoken with Herr Heerschmit, your artificer," he told the prince, "and he has constructed the device according to my rough sketch. It is about eighteen feet long and twelve feet across. The body is sailcloth and the frame is, I believe, willow. I use bamboo, but Herr Heerschmit assures me that this is strong enough. He also obtained five hundred meters of half-centimeter line from the railroad supply shed. It will be more than strong enough."

             
"Are we going to go ahead tonight?" Prince Ariste asked.

             
"I see no advantage to waiting," Moriarty said,
P
rincess Diane put down her cup. "May I express a concern?" she asked.

             
"Of course," Moriarty told her. "What is it?"

             
"Will not the escape of Jenny Vernet alert those in the castle to our presence?" she asked. "I don't mean
our
presence specifically, since we assume they don't know who we are, but the presence of some force inimical to their goals. Might they not be expecting an attempt to rescue the Barnetts? If so, will even the advantage of approaching the castle from an unfamiliar direction be enough to offset the loss of surprise?"

             
Watson slapped his knee. "By gad, I hadn't thought of that," he said.

             
"That is possible," Moriarty admitted, "but I don't believe it's probable. Graf von Linsz cannot be sure how Miss Vernet managed to escape. Since she, apparently, went through two locked doors, he will be more inclined to blame those inside the castle than to look for an outside antagonist. He may well credit the mythical 'Moriarty' whom he seems to regard as his nemesis with being involved somehow, but he will assume that 'Moriarty' has subverted someone in his household."

             
"Let's hope you're right," Prince Ariste said. "What's the plan?"

             
"Very simple," Moriarty told him, sketching a triangle with rounded corners on the sheet of paper in front of him. "Here's the castle. This"—he made an X—"is the front, and here"—another X—"is the room in which the Barnetts are being held.
It's
two floors below the roof. We can't approach from the front because of all the people on the meadow tonight. The kite will be sailed from this side," he pointed, "as there seems to be a prevailing wind from the south."

             
"It's very gusty," Prince Ariste said. "Will we have any trouble keeping the kite up?"

             
"My experience is that winds tend to be gusty near the ground, but that at twenty or thirty feet up they are usually fairly steady," Moriarty told him.

             
"I say," Watson said. "How are you going to get the contraption in the air in the first place?"

             
"A good question," Moriarty said. "I had thought of pulling it with a steam engine, but the tracks are on the wrong side. Besides, the noise will wake people whom we would prefer to stay asleep."

             
"Yes?"

             
"So we'll use a horse.
Or rather a man on horseback.
We'll tie rags around the horse's hooves to muffle the sound.
"

             
"
Can a horse do it?
"

             
"
Oh, yes; the weight is negligible."

             
"And then? When we have a man on the roof, then what?"

             
"Then he drops a length of fishing line to the ground over around on this side, where with any luck no one is watching, and a waiting man attaches a heavy rope that has been knotted every few feet to make it easier to climb, which he pulls up and fastens to— whatever. Then your volunteers climb up to the roof and enter the castle from above, which will be an entirely unexpected, and thus unguarded, direction."

             
"Will they know what to do?" Ariste asked.

             
"I shall instruct them beforehand, and accompany them," Moriarty said.

             
"Ah!" Ariste smiled. "And I shall join you."

             
"And I," Holmes added. "You and Madame Verlaine rescued my cousin—very quickly and adroitly, let me say. I shall contribute what I can to this effort."

             
"And I," Watson said. "After all, you might have need of a doctor."

             
"Gentlemen," Moriarty said, "I thank you all.
"

             
"
Who is going to ride the kite?"

             
"The mummer has volunteered. He is even now working out the harness to tie man and craft together. He is, I believe, the only one light enough."

             
"I'm light enough," Princess Diane said.