Twenty-nine FURTHER EXPLANATIONS

“You owe us an explanation, I think, Mr. Cade,” said Herman Isaacstein,somewhat later in the evening.
“There’s nothing much to explain,” said Anthony modestly. “I went toDover and Fish followed me under the impression that I was King Victor.
We found a mysterious stranger imprisoned¹ there, and as soon as weheard his story we knew where we were. The same idea again, you see.
The real man kidnapped, and the false one—in this case King Victor him-self—takes his place. But it seems that Battle here always thought therewas something fishy² about his French colleague, and wired to Paris for hisfingerprints and other means of identification.”
“Ah!” cried the Baron⁴. “The fingerprints³. The Bertillon measurementsthat that scoundrel talked about?”
“It was a clever idea,” said Anthony. “I admired it so much that I feltforced to play it up. Besides, my doing so puzzled the false Lemoineenormously. You see, as soon as I had given the tip about the ‘rows’ andwhere the jewel really was, he was keen to pass on the news to his accom-plice, and at the same time to keep us all in that room. The note was reallyto Mademoiselle Brun. He told Tredwell to deliver it at once, and Tredwelldid so by taking it upstairs to the schoolroom. Lemoine accused me of be-ing King Victor, by that means creating a diversion and preventing anyonefrom leaving the room. By the time all that had been cleared up and weadjourned to the library to look for the stone, he flattered himself that thestone would be no longer there to find!”
George cleared his throat.
“I must say, Mr. Cade,” he said pompously⁶, “that I consider your actionin that matter highly reprehensible⁷. If the slightest hitch⁸ had occurred inyour plans, one of our national possessions might have disappeared bey-ond the hope of recovery. It was foolhardy, Mr. Cade, reprehensibly fool-hardy.”

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