The Case of the Shipping Clerk's Inkstand

It was the second Saturday of July 1894 when a constable's wire from the Leadenhall Street office of Hardynge & Cole, brokers, called us down at half past nine.

The shipping clerk, Mr Joseph Crase, had been found at twenty past nine by his deputy, Mr Tobias Fenn, slumped at his desk with his head upon the blotter. The doctor, called at twenty-five past, had pronounced an apoplexy. The office had been locked from within; Mr Fenn had unlocked it with his own duplicate key when the clerk did not answer at nine. The matter would have been a sad commonplace but for the deputy's later observation that the inkstand had been moved from the right of the blotter to the left and that a single page of the ledger lay torn at the spine.

We took a hansom to the City. On the Leadenhall Street rank a thin dark-green four-wheeler waited, the chip on its off-side lamp catching the gas, its driver a heavy-shouldered man with a port-wine stain on his left temple and a hat with a green band; he touched his whip-handle to the brim as we passed. The shipping office lay above a tea-importer's. Mr Fenn met us at the door, his face composed and his account already long.

The Scene

Hand-drawn case map for The Case of the Shipping Clerk's Inkstand, showing Hardynge & Cole, shipping brokers, Leadenhall Street, City of London. — The ground in question.

Setting: Hardynge & Cole, shipping brokers, Leadenhall Street, City of London
Time: Saturday morning, second Saturday of July 1894
Weather: Hot; a still City summer; the river haze visible from the window
Atmosphere: A panelled City office over a tea-warehouse; the smell of dust and dry tea; one ledger-press by the inner wall; a small grate cold at the back.

The Suspects

Mr Tobias Fenn

Deputy clerk; the discoverer; the most vivid witness

A spare, attentive man of forty, second-in-command at the office these six years. He had a quiet life in Stoke Newington and an unusual command of small detail. He gave, that morning, the most thorough account of the body's posture and the disordered desk that any of us had heard from a layman in such an hour.
Mr Quigley

Office porter, fourteen years' service

A heavy man of sixty, who had let Mr Crase in by the side door at a quarter to nine and had been at his post in the lobby until the doctor was called. He had heard nothing untoward.
Mr Drewett

Regular client of the firm; in dispute over a freight account

A prosperous man of fifty-five, who had had a long-running quarrel with Mr Crase over the carriage of a Cape consignment in May. He had not been at the office that morning.
Master Pyne

Office boy, sixteen, three months in post

A clean-faced lad of sixteen, on his first place. He had been in the lobby with the porter from a quarter to nine, and had been the first up the stair when the deputy raised the alarm.

The Evidence

The doctor's certificate

Dr Arden, called at twenty-five past nine, had pronounced an apoplexy on the strength of the position of the body and the absence of any wound or mark. The certificate had been written and signed before the deputy raised any question of the inkstand or the ledger.
Mr Fenn's account before the office was entered

The constable's slate records, at twenty to ten on the front stair before either had crossed the threshold, Mr Fenn naming the inkstand's left position, the body's right hand at the corner of the desk, and the open ledger's torn page as the Cape consignment of June. No man who entered the office for the first time at ten o'clock could have known any of these particulars from outside the door - and the only person who had been within between the porter's morning watch and the constable's arrival was the deputy himself.
The inkstand at our arrival

When we entered the office at ten o'clock, the inkstand stood on the right of the blotter, where the ink-pot's draught against the morning's air had carried a faint blot upon the right edge - the stand's habitual place for some weeks past, by Mr Quigley's confirmation.
Mr Drewett's freight dispute

The disputed freight account showed a quarrel of some twenty pounds between the office and Mr Drewett. He had been in dispute for two months and had not, by his own account, called at the office that week.
The torn ledger-page

The single torn page of the ledger, lying upon the desk by ten o'clock, contained the entries for a particular Cape voyage of June. The torn edge was clean and recent. The page itself was missing from its binding; whoever had taken it had carried it out of the office in his pocket.

Statements & Testimony

Mr Quigley Reliable

Office porter

“"Mr Crase came in by the side door at quarter to nine, sir. The boy and I were at the lobby until ten o'clock. The deputy came up the front stair at five past nine. He let himself into the master's office at nine, by his duplicate key. He came down at twenty past nine and called for the doctor."”
Mr Fenn Partial

Deputy clerk

“"The master was at his desk, sir, his head upon the blotter. I called the doctor; the doctor pronounced an apoplexy at half past. I waited at the front stair for the constable; the constable came at twenty to ten and we entered together at ten o'clock to make our survey of the room."”

The Scene

The Suspects

The Evidence

The doctor's certificate

Mr Fenn's account before the office was entered

The inkstand at our arrival

Mr Drewett's freight dispute

The torn ledger-page

Statements & Testimony

Your Verdict