The Roman hat mystery A problem in deduction
except LL30 Left.”
The Inspector rose, smiling tiredly. “Djuna!” he said in a low voice.
“Some more coffee.”
Sampson stopped the boy with a protesting hand. “Thanks, Q, but I’ve
got to be going. Cronin and I have loads of work on this gang affair.
I couldn’t rest, though, until I got the whole story from your own
lips.... Q, old man,” he added awkwardly, “I’m really sincere when I
say that I think you’ve done a remarkable piece of work.”
“I never heard of anything like it,” put in Cronin heartily. “What a
riddle, and what a beautiful piece of clear reasoning, from beginning
to end!”
“Do you really think so?” asked the Inspector quietly. “I’m so glad,
gentlemen. Because all the credit rightfully belongs to Ellery.
I’m rather proud of that boy of mine....”
* * * * *
When Sampson and Cronin had departed and Djuna had retired to his tiny
kitchen to wash the breakfast dishes, the Inspector turned to his
writing-desk and took up his fountain-pen. He rapidly read over what he
had written to his son. Sighing, he put pen to paper once more.
* * * * *
Let’s forget what I just wrote. More than an hour has passed since
then. Sampson and Tim Cronin came up and I had to crystallize our work
on the case for their benefit. I never saw such a pair! Kids, both of
’em. Gobbled the story as if it were a fairy-tale.... As I talked,
I saw with appalling clarity how little I actually did and how much
you did. I’m pining for the day when you will pick out some nice girl
and be married, and then the whole darned Queen family can pack off
to Italy and settle down to a life of peace.... Well, El, I’ve got to
dress and go down to headquarters. A lot of routine work has collected
since last Monday and my job is just about cut out for me....
When are you coming home? Don’t think I want to rush you, but it’s so
gosh-awful lonesome, son. I—No, I guess I’m selfish as well as tired.
Just a doddering old fogey who needs coddling. But you _will_ come
home soon, won’t you? Djuna sends his regards. The rascal is taking my
ears off with the dishes in the kitchen.
Your loving
Father
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes
1. Italicised words are indicated by _underscores_.
2. Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the
paragraph.
3. Misspelled words have been corrected (see below). Archaic,
inconsistent and alternative spellings have been left unchanged.
Hyphenation has not been standardised.
4. Ellipsis placement has been modified in order to facilitate text
reflow. In most cases ellipses between sentences have been merged
with the closing punctuation of the preceding sentence. Ellipses
between words within a sentence have had spaces added before
and after.
5. “Edit Distance” in Corrections table below refers to the
Levenshtein Distance.
Corrections:
Page Source Correction Edit distance
v 57 56 1
vi 270 271 1
xv hypochrondiac hypochondriac 2
152 of couse of course 1
174 Professsor Professor 1
175 æsophagus œsophagus 1
226 distate distaste 1