Minute Mysteries [Detectograms] 7 – Ripley · Library Across
Literature · Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
Minute Mysteries [Detectograms] 7Chapter 6
18
Literature · Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
Minute Mysteries [Detectograms] 7
Chapter 6
RipleyEnglish
A Valuable Formula
‘I had just stepped behind that screen near the door to wash my hands when a man, gun in hand, entered the room and stood motionless for a few seconds,’ said Hyde. ‘Apparently satisfied no one was here, he walked to the desk over there by the window. As he rummaged through the papers in the drawer, I hastily dialed headquarters, leaving the receiver off the hook, trusting you would trace the call. I was afraid to talk because I was unarmed and he looked like a desperate fellow.’
‘You say he took nothing but a valuable formula from your desk?’ inquired the Professor.
‘That’s all; he touched nothing else.’
‘Rather careless to leave such an important paper lying about like that, wasn’t it?’
‘Well, I suppose so, though it was only a copy. I sold the original to Schmitz yesterday for twenty thousand dollars and I intended to destroy the duplicate tonight.’
‘Would that formula be valuable to anyone else?’
‘Yes, it would be worth twice as much to Schmitz’s competitors.’
‘Why didn’t you sell it to them in the first place, then?’
‘Schmitz financed me while I was perfecting the formula, so I thought it only right to sell it to him, even though I could have got more for it from the other firm.’
‘As this is such a small, bright room and you observed so much through that crack in the screen,’ said Fordney sarcastically, ‘you should be able to give us a very good description of the intruder.’
‘Oh, I can do that,’ Hyde replied, with assurance. ‘He was a big fellow about six feet tall and weighed around two hundred pounds. He had jet-black hair, swarthy complexion, an unusually large nose, and a vicious-looking mouth. As he left obviously unaware of my presence, I noticed he had a big rip in the back of his blue coat.’
‘Well, Hyde, as part of your story is incredible, you can’t expect me to believe any of it.’
