The Scarab Murder Case quotes

“Scarlett, eh? Very annoyin’.… And why should he call on me when excited?

I infinitely prefer calm people.

… Did you offer him a brandy-and-soda—or some triple bromides?”

Vance held out his cigarette-case. “Do have one of my Régies.… And you’ll find that chair beside you most comfortable. A Charles chair: I picked it up in London.… Beastly mess, people getting murdered, what? But it really can’t be helped, don’t y’ know.

The human race is so deuced blood-thirsty.

”

“I’ll take over the procedure,” he replied at length. “It’s not so dashed complicated, and it varies according to circumstances.

One may call the police station, or stick one’s head out of the window and scream, or confide in a traffic officer, or simply ignore the corpse and wait for some one else to stumble on it.

It amounts to the same thing in the end—the murderer is almost sure to get safely away.… However, in the present case I’ll vary the system a bit by telephoning to the Criminal Courts Building.”

Scarlett and Heath talked together for five minutes or so, the Sergeant maintaining throughout the conversation an attitude of undisguised suspicion.

It was a basic principle with him that every one was guilty until his innocence had been completely and irrefutably established.

Vance in the meantime had been bending over Kyle’s body with an intentness that puzzled me. Presently his eyes narrowed slightly and he went down on one knee, thrusting his head forward to within a foot of the floor.

“A great deal more.” Vance spoke softly. “

A man doesn’t ordinarily commit murder and leave such obvious bits of direct evidence strewn all about the place.… It’s childish.

”

“Don’t be too positive, Sergeant.” Vance’s face had grown sombre. “

The obvious explanation is often the wrong one.

”

“Tell the Sergeant whatever you know,” Vance advised him. “This is no time for reticence. You can trust me. There’s no question of disloyalty now.

The truth, d’ ye see, is all that matters.

”

“Action—oh, my aunt!” Vance sighed deeply. “Always action—always pyrotechnics. The Rotarian ideal! Get busy—stir things up. Efficiency! …

Why do the powers of justice have to emulate the whirling dervish?

The human brain, after all, has certain functions.”

“Action—oh, my aunt!” Vance sighed deeply. “Always action—always pyrotechnics. The Rotarian ideal! Get busy—stir things up. Efficiency! … Why do the powers of justice have to emulate the whirling dervish?

The human brain, after all, has certain functions.

”

“None of these clews ring true, Markham,” Vance said. “There’s something here that doesn’t meet the eye.

It’s like a cypher that says one thing and means another.

I tell you the obvious explanation is the wrong one.… There’s a key to this affair—somewhere. And it’s staring us in the face… yet we can’t see it.”

“Typical police procedure,” murmured Vance. “

Book your man and then investigate. A sweet practice.

”

“Possible—yes.

I suppose that almost anything is possible in this illogical world.

But really, Markham, I can’t subscribe enthusiastically to your touchin’ theory of the doctor’s having picked up one shoe instead of two and not having known the difference. He’s much too orderly and methodical—too conscious of details.”

“A reasonable doubt, as it were—eh, what?” Vance grinned. “A beautiful phrase—meaningless, of course, but typically legal.

As if the mind of man were ever capable of being reasonable!

… And don’t overlook the fact, Markham, that, if the doctor had merely intended to brain Kyle with the statue of Sakhmet, the evidences of the death trap would not have been present.

“Is such a technic so unusual?” asked Vance. “Hasn’t many a murderer sought to throw suspicion on some one else?

Isn’t criminal history filled with cases of innocent men being convicted on convincing circumstantial evidence?

And is it not entirely possible that the misleading evidence in such cases was deliberately planted by the real culprits?”

Many people have wronged him. I am not even sure that Hani is altogether loyal to him. But my husband is not a fool—he is even too clever at times. I do not put murder beyond him—or beyond any one, for that matter.

Murder may sometimes be the highest form of courage.

However, if my husband had killed Mr. Kyle he would not have been stupid about it—certainly he would not have left evidence pointing to himself.…” She glanced again at her folded hands. “But if he had been contemplating murder, Mr.

“I know how you feel.” Despite the lightness of his tone there was unmistakable sympathy in his words. “

No one is acting as he should in this case. It’s as if every one were in a conspiracy to confuse and complicate matters for us.

”

“You think so?” Salveter was almost contemptuous. “You don’t know those people the way I do.

The Egyptians were working out intricate plots when the Nordic race were arboreans.

”

“That’s a hell of a way for a guy to write to a dame,” he commented, with surly disdain. “Give me a nice dirty shooting by a gangster.

These flossy crimes make me sick.

”

“A perfect criticism of Egyptologists, Sergeant,” Vance replied with a sympathetic grin. “Egyptology isn’t an archæological science—it’s a pathological condition, a cerebral visitation—dementia scholastica. Once the spirillum terrigenum enters your system, you’re lost—cursed with an incurable disease.

If you dig up corpses that are thousands of years old, you’re an Egyptologist; if you dig up recent corpses you’re a Burke or a Hare, and the law swoops down on you.

It all comes under the head of body-snatching.…”[20]

“A perfect criticism of Egyptologists, Sergeant,” Vance replied with a sympathetic grin. “

Egyptology isn’t an archæological science—it’s a pathological condition, a cerebral visitation—dementia scholastica.

Once the spirillum terrigenum enters your system, you’re lost—cursed with an incurable disease. If you dig up corpses that are thousands of years old, you’re an Egyptologist;

“It strikes me he is temperamentally incapable of sensing the classic ideals in the great symphonic works of Brahms and Beethoven.… I say, the tomato purée in this sauce is excellent, but the Madeira wine is too vineg’ry.

Prohibition, Markham, worked devastatin’ havoc on the food of this country: it practically eliminated gastronomic æsthetics.…

But to return to Toscanini. I’m positively amazed at the panegyrics with which the critics have showered him. His secret ideals, I’m inclined to think, are Puccini and Giordano and Respighi. And no man with such ideals should attempt to interpret the classics.

“I dare say he would. He’d no doubt have had every one in jail, including Brush and Dingle and the Curators of the Metropolitan Museum. Typical tactics: butcher innocent persons to make a journalistic holiday. I’m not entranced with that technic, though.

I’m far too humane—I’ve retained too many of my early illusions. Sentimentality, alas! will probably be my downfall.

”

“The law!” He spoke with unusual fervor. “And the rooms in which this law is put on public exhibition are called courts of justice. Justice!—oh, my precious aunt! Summum jus, summa injuria.

How can there be justice, or even intelligence, in echolalia?

… Here we three are—a District Attorney; a Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau; and a lover of Brahms’ B-flat piano concerto—with a known murderer within fifty feet of us; and we’re helpless! Why?

Hani was spoofing about the vengeance of Sakhmet; but, after all, that solar-disked lady would be just as effective as your silly statutes.

Mythological ideas are largely nonsense; but are they more nonsensical than the absurdities of present-day law?

…”

“That’s enough!” Markham rose. “Have a little sense of propriety.

Being an æsthete without responsibilities is no doubt delightful, but the world’s work must go on.…

”