I found him waiting for me in the drive;
without a word he led me to the picture-gallery, which was locked
and darkened, drew up a blind, and stood simply pointing to an
empty picture-frame. It was a long time before I could get a
word out of him. Then at last he told me that that frame had
contained one of the rarest and most valuable pictures in
England--in the world--an original Velasquez. I have checked
this," said the lawyer, "and it seems literally true; the picture
was a portrait of the Infanta Maria Teresa, said to be one of the
artist's greatest works, second only to another portrait of one
of the Popes in Rome--so they told me at the National Gallery,
where they had its history by heart. They say there that the
picture is practically priceless. And young Debenham has sold it
for five thousand pounds!"
"The deuce he has," said Raffles.
I inquired who had bought it.
"A Queensland legislator of the name of Craggs--the Hon. John
Montagu Craggs, M.L.C., to give him his full title. Not that we
knew anything about him on Tuesday last; we didn't even know for
certain that young Debenham had stolen the picture. But he had
gone down for money on the Monday evening, had been refused, and
it was plain enough that he had helped himself in this way; he
had threatened revenge, and this was it.
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