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Frisbee
had a ready answer.
"An iron ladder
would allow them to gain the
roof. It
seems likely that they used it to arrive
above
the sliding door to the boxcar. One must
have
lowered the other down the side of the moving
car
to attack the door's fastening."

"By
what means?" queried the sleuth.

"Cold
chisel."

"Which
requires a hammer. Which indicates two
free
hands, so the man was lowered by rope."

"I
would think so," stated Frisbee. "By the time
the
boxcar had rolled off the main line, the job was
probably
complete and they were ready to unload."

"Aided
by the third man," said Holmes.

"Where
did he come from?" I asked.

Holmes
patiently explained. "As soon as the treasure train passed the
spur line, someone had to
be there to
activate the switch so the boxcar would
leave
the main line on its return trip. Then the
third
man closed the switch and took after the
boxcar,
on foot, I would imagine. By the time the
boxcar
came to a stop, the third man was available to aid in the unloading.
One does not move a half
million in gold
in but a moment."

"Might
there not have been more robbers involved?" I asked. It
seemed a reasonable question.

"Not
it I were planning it," said Holmes. "The
more
tongues, the more talk."

Again
I blessed providence that my friend had
not
been born with a larcenous twist in his great
brain.
Had this been so, surely he would have made
the
infamous exploits of the late Professor Moriarty
seem
like something out of
Alice in
Wonderland.

Frisbee
was eyeing my friend shrewdly.
"Inspector
Stanley Hopkins was rushed to the
scene
from the Yard."

Holmes
smiled. "Our friend Lestrade will be
much
put out I'm sure."

Frisbee
continued: "Hopkins followed your line
of
thought regarding a member of the gang being
positioned
close to the spur line. He investigated
that
section closely but found no marks of a bicycle
or
horse."

"Then
we can assume one of the thieves was fleet
of
foot." The detective's next question surprised
me.
"What was the original purpose of the spur
line?"

"To
service a tin mine that petered out a number of years ago."

"The
boxcar came to a stop near the end of
track?"

"Quite
close to it." Frisbee let a silence grow, and
then
his eyes narrowed as he posed the key ques
tion.
"What do you think?"

"I
can give you a one-sentence summation,"
replied
Holmes. "It is a pity that the security
methods
of the Birmingham and Northern were
not
planned as carefully as the robbery."

"Had
they been, I would not be here," stated the
banker
laconically.

Holmes
shook his head. "I fear your visit, as
welcome
as it is, has been for naught."

"We
must talk of that."

"To
no avail," said Holmes, and there was a note
of
finality in his voice. "You stated that you had
heard
of our encounter"—his eyes flashed to me for
a
brief moment—"with Alvidon Daniel Chasseur of the B &
N. As a result of it, I vowed to have nothing
to
do with his stolen bullion."

"It's
not really his problem," stated Frisbee. "Or
his
bullion either. Chasseur took on this gold
transfer
with an eye to future business. Shipments
of
special cargo. That's a
nautical
expression, but it
has come to have
meaning with land transporta
tion as
well. If the thing had worked smoothly, his
armored-train
idea might have caught on in other
fields.
However, that much gold in one place
incurred
a risk, so he took a policy on the shipment
with
our Inter-Ocean insurance division. If the gold
isn't
recovered, we stand to lose half a million
pounds,
the face value of our short-term coverage."

Holmes'
manner had changed with Frisbee's words, but he stood by his guns,
albeit in a less
dogmatic manner.

"An
investigation would involve my coming in
contact
with that man again . . ."

"Holmes,
if we have to remit the insurance
money,
Chasseur's only problem is loss of face for
having
the bullion spirited out from under him.
This
matter has all the elements that I know you love so well. Take that
Herefordshire banker Trelawney, for instance."

"Ezariah
Trelawney?" exclaimed Holmes with a
lightning
glance in my direction. "What has he to
do
with it?"

"Trelawney
arranged the consortium of west
coast
banks that provided the gold in the first
place.
Murdered, you know."

"We
certainly do," I said forcefully.

Frisbee
registered surprise at my vehemence but shrewdly sensed that the wind
had shifted and held
his silence.

Holmes
had risen again and unconsciously retrieved his cherrywood.
Chewing on its stem, he
stared into
space for a moment before returning his
intense
gaze to Frisbee.
"Sometimes fate
steps in," he stated. "All right,
I'll
take on the bullion case on behalf of Inter-Ocean
Trust."

Chapter
5

The
Armored Train

ONCE
MY FRIEND had committed himself, Claymore Frisbee hastened
proceedings by the simple
method of
saying yes to everything. He seemed
plagued
by the fear that the great sleuth might
change
his mind. I could have reassured him on
that
point, for when Holmes decided on a course of
action,
he stuck to it with the tenacity of the
English
bulldog. The banker agreed to arrange an
appointment
with Richard Ledger, the B & N head
of
security, and while Holmes was gazing out the bow window considering
other necessary lines of
investigation,
Frisbee handed me an unmarked envelope that had to be a pre-prepared
persuasion
ploy.

I
could guess what it contained. Holmes' habitu
al
reserve was most apparent in his reluctance to
consider
or discuss money, an enduring neurosis of the English upper middle
class. Frisbee, who knew his man, had written a generous check for
expenses
to nail down the detective's
involvement in the
bullion problem.
Regardless of his motive, I men
tally
thanked the banker, for this case gave indica
tions
of a widespread search and Holmes was sure to involve what his
brother, Mycroft, referred to as
the
"ragtag army" at his command. When deputiz
ing
the shadowland group he used, Holmes seemingly gave no thought
to expenditures. However,
his methods
were not as Croesus like as might seem
at
first sight. The most precious commodity in the
sleuth's
opinion was time. "Who can place a price,
Watson,
on an hour?" he was wont to ask on
occasion,
and I must admit that my native frugality
could
find no response to this.

After
the departure of Claymore Frisbee, Holmes
was
at the desk, a sheaf of foolscap at his elbow and
a
quill pen in his hand. I knew that Billy would be
summoned
shortly and dispatched to the cable
office
with communiqués, and throughout London,
and
in other places as well, the machinery of the
great
sleuth would grind into action.

Prior
to dinner, he revealed some of the thoughts
coursing
through his superb mind. This delighted
me,
since it was not a customary procedure so early
in
the game. It crossed my mind that the bullion
robbery
being a major coup of the lawless, Holmes
must
have anticipated being drawn into it. Perhaps
he
was already more
au courant
with
the matter
than I had thought, and
indeed, he might have
made some plans as
to his initial moves before the
summons
from the B & N Railroad or the entrance
of
the Inter-Ocean Trust upon the scene.

"Our
first step, I fear, will be in a fruitless
direction,"
he stated with a wry smile. "No matter,
we
must make it."

"Where
is the gold?"

He
threw me a surprised glance. "Quite right.
The
raison d'
ê
tre
of the robbery is no small matter,
and one does not just toddle around town
with that
much precious metal in one's
pocket. It has to be stored somewhere."

"Your
thoughts being that the gold might guild
the
path to the culprits."

Again
he registered faint surprise. "Right on, old
chap.
What other thoughts do you have in mind?"

It
was my turn to be surprised. Usually Holmes
revealed
his ideas almost as though speaking to himself. My questions and
comments were the rhythm background to his analytic violins, a
leit
motif
of the Holmes symphony. Now, with
the
baton thrust into my hand, I was at
a momentary
loss but determined to wave
it in some direction if
only to make my
presence known.

"We
are not wanting for a motive," I said. "Greed
inspired
by the rare substance that has driven men
to
desperate deeds throughout history."

"Or
need," responded Holmes dreamily. "A beg
gar
might purloin a shilling for fish and chips and a
night's
lodging, whereas one higher on the social ladder, beset by
obligations he cannot meet, risks
disgrace
for a greater sum."

"The
motive being the same despite the differ
ence
in the value of the stolen object," I echoed.

"Exactly.
Please continue, Watson."

Drat
it
, I thought.
The
ball is back in my court.

"You
mentioned, Holmes, how well the robbery
had
been planned. Does that not indicate a knowl
edge
of the terrain and of railway procedure?"

"A
shrewd thrust, that last part."

"Not
too revealing, however. Any number of
people
could have a working knowledge of the
B
& N."