Story of a Detective Expert

From the Knickerbocker for March

The reader of the “Lost Jewels of Achmet Bey,” in a late number of Knickerbocker, will need no added inducement to peruse the following, which proceeds from the same pen:

“The circumstances which occurred in Cairo to which I alluded in my account of the jewels of Achmet Bey, happened in this wise:

“I had been to Petra and Mount Sinai and had reached Cairo en route for Upper Egypt. Departing from my regular custom of sleeping at a Khan, I put up at Shephard’s Hotel, determined to atone for past fatigue by a fortnight’s rest. Our caravan arrived late in the evening, and when I sat down to tea I found but one companion. He was a large and rather handsome Englishman, whose gigantic frame and ruddy countenance evidently bespoke a traveler for pleasure and not for health. The usual courtesies of strangers passed between us on meeting, and it was not until we were nearly through our meal, that an active conversation commenced.

“Finding our taste somewhat similar, and being much predisposed in his favor, at my solicitation he accompanied me to my room, where there was a good fire, more for appearance than for necessity, and soon being involved in a dense cloud of Latakia (for which my heart now sighs) we unfolded our several histories. He had for some years been the chief “detective” in a large English city; having grown weary of his calling, and possessing some property, he had determined to travel. – “Not,” as he bluntly and honestly confessed, “Because he was a scholar, and wished to see that of which he had read, but because he simply wished to enlarge his views, and enjoy himself.”  He entertained me until long after midnight, with detailed accounts of the adventures and difficulty he had experienced in ferreting out offenders, although he frankly confessed that it was an unpleasant thing to… Read More