Through a cousin who works with Gelder, he
found out the retail firms who had bought the busts. He managed
to find employment with Morse Hudson, and in that way tracked
down three of them. The pearl was not there. Then, with the
help of some Italian employe, he succeeded in finding out where
the other three busts had gone. The first was at Harker's. There
he was dogged by his confederate, who held Beppo responsible
for the loss of the pearl, and he stabbed him in the scuffle which
followed."
"If he was his confederate, why should he carry his photo-
graph?" I asked.
"As a means of tracing him, if he wished to inquire about him
from any third person. That was the obvious reason. Well, after
the murder I calculated that Beppo would probably hurry rather
than delay his movements. He would fear that the police would
read his secret, and so he hastened on before they should get
ahead of him. Of course, I could not say that he had not found
the pearl in Harker's bust. I had not even concluded for certain
that it was the pearl, but it was evident to me that he was looking
for something, since he carried the bust past the other houses in
order to break it in the garden which had a lamp overlooking it.
Pages:
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353