THE STOLEN LETTER

Edgar Allen Poe



PART I

At Paris, just after dark one evening in the autumn of 18--, I was enjoying the company of an old friend, C Auguste Dupin, in his library. The door of the room as opened suddenly and an old accquantance, Monsieur G, head of the Paris police, entered.

We were glad to see him, for we had not seen hime for several years. Monsieur G said that he had come to consult us, or rather to ask the opinion of my friend Dupin, about some official business which was causing hime a great deal of trouble.

“I will tell you in a few words what it is,” he said, “but before I bagin, let me tell you that this is a matter of the greatest secrecy and I might lose my position if it became known that I had told someone about it.”

“Proceed”, said i.

“Well. I have received confidential information that a document of great importance has been stolen from the royal apartments. The thrief is Minister D--. The person from whom the letter was stolen needs the letter badly. But, of course, he cannot proceed openly. And he has asked me to take care of the problem.”

“May first act,” he went on, “was to make a careful inspection of the minister’s apartment. Of course, I had to do this secrectly and qithout his knowledge because we do not want the minister to know that we suspect him. Fortunately, the daily habits of the minister helped me greatly. He is frequently absent from home at night. He has only a few servants and they do not sleep in his apartment. I have keys, as you know, with which I can open any doors in Paris. For three months, a night has not passed in which I have not been busy personally searching his apartment. It is now a question of my honor and my reputation. In addtion, to mention a great secrect, the reward is enormous. Therefore I did not discontinue the search until I was completely satisfied that the thrief is a more clever man than I am. I am sure that I have examined every corner of the apartment in which it is possible that the paper can be hidden.”

“But it is not possible,” I suggested, “that although the minister has the letter, he has hidden it somewhere outside the apartment?”

“Oh, no!” said the police officer. “Twice he has been stopped on the street by my old men, pretending to be thieves, and they have searched him carefully under my own inspection.”

“Tell us,” said I, “exactly what you did in your search of the apartment”

“I have had long experience in these matters,” answered the polce officer. “Thus, I examined the apartment room by room, spending an entire week in each room. We examined the furniture. We opened every drawer, and I suppose you know that for ab experienced police officer such a thing as a secret drawer is impossible. Next, we examined the chairs. We removed the tops from all the tables.”

“But,” I said, “You were not able to take apart all the pieces of furniture. That would be impossible.”

“Of course,”, he answered. “But we did better. We examined every section of each piece of furniture under a very powerful microscope- and found no indications or marks that furniture had been touched or disturbed in any way to create a hiding place for the letter. After we had examined the furniture, we examined the apartment itself. We divided the entire surface into sections, and gave a number to each section so that we could not possibly miss any. That we inspected each square inch of the apartment.”



PART II



“You examined thae grounds around the house?”

“Yes- but that gave us a little trouble. The grounds are paved with bricks. We examined each bricks and also the grass between the bricks and found no indication that anything had been touched or moved.”

“You looked among the minister’s papers, of course, and into the books of his library?”

“Certainly, we opened every package. We not only opened every book but trurned every page in each volume. We also inspected carefully the cover of each bok with out microscope.”

“You examined the floors beneath the carpets?”

“Certainly! We removed every carpet and examined every board beneath the carpets.”

“And the papers on the walls?”

“Yes.”

“You looked in the cellar?”

“We did.”

“Then,” I said, “you have been making a mistake, and the letter is not in the apartment.”

“I am afraid you are right,” said the officer. “And now, Dupin, what would you advise me to do?”

“I would advise you to make a second careful search of the apartment,” said Dupin.

“But I am sure the letter is not in the apartment,” said the officer.

“I have nos better advice to give you,” said Dupin. “Of course, you have an axccurate desciption of the letter.”

“Oh yes,” said the officer. Then, producing a memorandum book he began to read aloud a detailed desciption of the missing letter. Soon afterward he left, more sad in spirit than I had ever seen him before.”Well, what about the missing letter?” I asked him after he had taken a chair. “I suppose you have decided at last that the minister is too clever to be caught.”

“Damn it, yes,” he said. “I examined the apartment again, as Dupin suggested but without success.

“How much money has been offered as the reward?” asked Dupin.

“A great deal,” he said. “In fact, the amount has been doubled recently. But if it were three times as much I couldn’t do anything more toward finding the letter. But I will say this- that I will give my personal check for fifty thousand francs to anyone who gets that letter for me.”

“In that case,” said Dupin, opening a drawer and producing a checkbox, “you can write me a check for that amount. When you have signed the check, I will give you the letter.”

Both the police officer and I were greatly surprised. For a moment, the officer remained speechless, but then recovering himself, he picked up a pen and wrote a check for fifty thousand francs and handed it to Dupin. Dupin examined the check carefully and then put it into his pocket. Then he unclocked a drawer and took out a letter and gave it to a police officer. It was the stolen letter. The police officer accepted it with trembing hand. He read its contents hurriedly and then rushed from the room and from the house. When he had gone Dupin began to explain to me how he had gotten the letter.



PART III



I knew the minister in question very well, he said. He is a mathematician and a poet- and also a very clever and daring man. I knew that such a man would be familiar with all the usual actions of the police and that he would prepare himself against them. His frequant absences from home at night were only a trick in my estimation. He knew that the police would search every corner of his apartment, and so he permitted them to do it freely. I saw that as a result of all this he would be forced to do something very simple.

“But this is a point; it appears, somewhat above otr below the understanding of the police. The police officer, for example, never once suspected that it was possible that the minister had placed the letter clearly under the nose of everybody in order to prevent anyone from seeing it.

“Full of these ideas, I put on a pair of black glasses and went to visit the minister one fine mrning in his apartment. I told hime that my eyes were very weak and that, therefore, I had to wear dark glasses. But with my black glasses I was able to inspect the whole apartment without his noticing the movement of my eyes. Finally, I noticed a small box in full view on the mantelpiece. In this box these were five or sis visiting cards and a letter. The letter was very dirty and was torn across the middle. It had been put carelessly into one of the sections of the bos. As soon as I saw the letter, I was sure it was the one I was looking for. Certainly it was in appearance different from the original letter. The address on the envelope was different; the handwriting on the envelope had also been changed and was small and feminine in form as if the letter had been written by a woman. But the size was the same. All these things, full in the view of every visitor to the apartment, made me suspicious. I examined the letter as carefully as I could without the minister noticing me, and it was clear to me that the letter had been turned inside out, like a glove, and re-addressed and changed slightly. I later said good-bye to the minister but left my cigarette case on the table intentionally.

“The next morning I called upon hime again to get my cigarette case. We bagan to converse again, but suddenly there was a pistol shot in the street. D ……………..rushed to the window and remained there several minutes looking into the street. Really, it was all part of my plan. One of my own men had fired the shot in order to attract attention. Anyway, while D………was busy at the window, I stepped to the mantelpiece, took the letter, and replaced it with an exact copy which I had prepared atr home and brought with me.

“But why did you replace the letter with a copy? Why didn’t you take the letter openly on your first visit and leave?”

“D………is a clever and dangerous man,” Dupin replied. “There are many men in the house whom he employs. If I had done the foolish thing which you suggest it is possible I would never have left the place alive and the good people or Paris would never have heard of me again.”