Collected Works of Poe | Page 4

his visiter with a pipe, and
rolled towards him a comfortable chair.
"And what is the difficulty now?" I asked. "Nothing more in the
assassination way, I hope?"
"Oh no; nothing of that nature. The fact is, the business is very simple
indeed, and I make no doubt that we can manage it sufficiently well
ourselves; but then I thought Dupin would like to hear the details of it,
because it is so excessively odd."
"Simple and odd," said Dupin.
"Why, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all been a
good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple, and yet baffles us
altogether."
"Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault,"
said my friend.

"What nonsense you do talk!" replied the Prefect, laughing heartily.
"Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain," said Dupin.
"Oh, good heavens! who ever heard of such an idea?"
"A little too self-evident."
"Ha! ha! ha - ha! ha! ha! - ho! ho! ho!" roared our visiter, profoundly
amused, "oh, Dupin, you will be the death of me yet!"
"And what, after all, is the matter on hand?" I asked.
"Why, I will tell you," replied the Prefect, as he gave a long, steady and
contemplative puff, and settled himself in his chair. "I will tell you in a
few words; but, before I begin, let me caution you that this is an affair
demanding the greatest secrecy, and that I should most probably lose
the position I now hold, were it known that I confided it to any one."
"Proceed," said I.
"Or not," said Dupin.
"Well, then; I have received personal information, from a very high
quarter, that a certain document of the last importance, has been
purloined from the royal apartments. The individual who purloined it is
known; this beyond a doubt; he was seen to take it. It is known, also,
that it still remains in his possession."
"How is this known?" asked Dupin.
"It is clearly inferred," replied the Prefect, "from the nature of the
document, and from the non-appearance of certain results which would
at once arise from its passing out of the robber's possession; that is to
say, from his employing it as he must design in the end to employ it."
"Be a little more explicit," I said.
"Well, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its holder a

certain power in a certain quarter where such power is immensely
valuable." The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy.
"Still I do not quite understand," said Dupin.
"No? Well; the disclosure of the document to a third person, who shall
be nameless, would bring in question the honor of a personage of most
exalted station; and this fact gives the holder of the document an
ascendancy over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are
so jeopardized."
"But this ascendancy," I interposed, "would depend upon the robber's
knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber. Who would dare -"
"The thief," said G., "is the Minister D--, who dares all things, those
unbecoming as well as those becoming a man. The method of the theft
was not less ingenious than bold. The document in question - a letter, to
be frank - had been received by the personage robbed while alone in the
royal boudoir. During its perusal she was suddenly interrupted by the
entrance of the other exalted personage from whom especially it was
her wish to conceal it. After a hurried and vain endeavor to thrust it in a
drawer, she was forced to place it, open as it was, upon a table. The
address, however, was uppermost, and, the contents thus unexposed,
the letter escaped notice. At this juncture enters the Minister D--. His
lynx eye immediately perceives the paper, recognises the handwriting
of the address, observes the confusion of the personage addressed, and
fathoms her secret. After some business transactions, hurried through in
his ordinary manner, he produces a letter somewhat similar to the one
in question, opens it, pretends to read it, and then places it in close
juxtaposition to the other. Again he converses, for some fifteen minutes,
upon the public affairs. At length, in taking leave, he takes also from
the table the letter to which he had no claim. Its rightful owner saw, but,
of course, dared not call attention to the act, in the presence of the third
personage who stood at her elbow. The minister decamped; leaving his
own letter - one of no importance - upon the table."
"Here, then," said Dupin to me, "you have precisely what you demand
to make the ascendancy complete - the robber's knowledge of the

loser's knowledge of the robber."
"Yes," replied the Prefect; "and