The Baker Street Boys - The Case of the Ranjipur Ruby by Anthony Read Page B

doubt that you would have disposed of your nephew in the same way, had it not been for my splendid Irregulars. Well done, Wiggins. Well done, my Boys.”
    Wiggins grinned happily. Outside, the clatter ofhooves in the Bazaar announced the arrival of a carriage bringing Inspector Lestrade to arrest the criminals, and a police van to carry them away to jail.
    “You’re quite safe now, Your Highness,” Mr Holmes told Ravi as they watched the villains being marched away. “Your uncle wanted to become the Raja and so gain the riches of Ranjipur, but the only way he could achieve his dastardly aim was to remove your father and yourself.”
    “We know,” Ravi replied. “Wiggins worked that out.”
    “Did he, indeed? And what about the ruby?”
    “The captain wanted that,” said Wiggins. “’Cos he needed the money.”
    “Excellent. But how did you know?”
    “His boots,” said Shiner. “They needed mending, and he couldn’t afford to buy new ones.”
    “Well, I never,” said Lord Holdhurst.
    “Excellent!” said Mr Holmes. “I could hardly have done better myself. By the way, where exactly
is
the ruby?”
    “Wiggins hid it,” said Beaver, “so they couldn’t take it off him if they caught us.”
    “Splendid,” said Mr Holmes. “Good thinking. But where?”
    “Somewhere they’d never think of looking.” Wiggins turned to the tableau and reached out for the jewel on its velvet cushion being presented to Queen Victoria by the waxwork Ravi. He picked it up and held it out on the flat of his hand. It sparkled in the gaslight and glowed with an inner fire.
    “Pretty, ain’t it?” he asked with a broad grin.
    Back in Lord Holdhurst’s drawing room, although it was the middle of the night, the Boys were treated to tea and cakes and lemonade while they recounted their story from the beginning. They were served by William the footman and Lily, the other maid, since Lord Holdhurst had insisted that Annie sat with them. She was wearing a bandage around her head instead of her usual lace cap. Mr Holmes and Lord Holdhurst had found her on the floor of the study after being knocked over by Prince Sanjay and Captain Nicholson while she tried to keep them out of the room and the tunnel. She was, said Wiggins, a proper heroine,and His Lordship promised she would be duly rewarded for her bravery.
    “What I don’t understand,” said Lord Holdhurst, “is where this Moriarty fellow fits into all this.”
    “Quite,” said Dr Watson. “I was wondering that myself.”
    Mr Holmes looked at Wiggins and raised one eyebrow in a question.
    “Well,” Wiggins began, “the way I see it is this. Captain Nicholson owed a lot of money, and he thought as how if he had the ruby he’d be able to pay off all his debts. But he needed the professor to sell it for him.”
    “Good,” Mr Holmes congratulated him. “As far as it goes. But I suspect it goes much further. I suspect that Professor Moriarty was behind the whole thing from the very beginning. I suspect that he deliberately drew the captain into debt, perhaps through gambling, so that he could force him to steal the ruby for him, as payment.”
    “And Prince Sanjay?” Lord Holdhurst asked.
    “Ah, that is the truly diabolical cleverness of the plot. No doubt Moriarty knew that the princewas jealous of his brother, and wanted his throne and all the wealth and power that goes with it. I am sure we shall find that it was Moriarty who provided the so-called Thugs, in order to create a diversion.”
    “Right,” said Wiggins. “So everybody would think they’d took the ruby, as well as murdering Ravi and his dad, and all for their goddess, Kali. So it would look like it wasn’t nothing to do with Prince Sanjay getting to be the Raja, nor Captain Nicholson paying off Moriarty.”
    “Exactly,” said Mr Holmes. “Well done, Wiggins.”
    “As you say,” said Lord Holdhurst. “Truly diabolical. I shall make it my business to have this Moriarty fellow locked