Dorothea Hall Mysteries

Blind Luck

I agreed to the investigation and Mr. Walker left assured I would be able to prove the device's falseness. I turned to Emory and Freddy for their expertise in chess. My husband laughed and shook his head.

"You don't want me to come with you. Whoever has created this thing will be able to spot the people who are good at chess. You should take Freddy with you," Emory said. "No one would expect a young lady of her years to know anything about chess."

Freddy smirked. "I have an idea. I'll pretend to be blind."

"Why on Earth would you want to do that?" I asked.

"They're going to ask someone to come up and examine the machine. Wouldn't a blind girl and her older sister be the least threatening people to invite?"

"I take it I would be the older sister in this scenario?"

"It's a perfect plan."

"I think she's right," Emory said. "No one would get upset if a blind girl felt around inside their machine. They wouldn't be threatened by her."

It seemed I was outvoted. I wanted to say it could be dangerous, but what would happen if we were found out? It wasn't as if the owner of machine that played chess would get violent against two members of the fairer sex. At least I didn't think so. I wished I knew more about what happened with the original Automaton Chess Player. People had come from far and wide to see it and the current owner had it on display in America. Would he get violent over someone bringing a new one here in England? Would he have even heard about it?

"If Emory thinks you would be of assistance, who am I to say no? We shall consult the paper and see when and where the next demonstration will be," I said.

The owner of this marvelous chess machine was a man named Herbert Jephcot. He claimed to have found a genius inventor in Poland who created this true automaton and then conveniently died before he could submit a patent. This seemed suspicious to me. If someone had truly created a wonderful machine, they would race to get it patented, even if the inventor died. Surely this Polish man's notes wouldn't have disappeared.

At any rate, the next demonstration was to be two nights hence. Mr. Walker bought the tickets for Freddy and myself and we went to Miss Bella for costumes for the evening. I looked respectable enough, but Freddy didn't have clothes of her own which would be appropriate for our cover of being to respectable sisters out for a little excitement at the chess exhibit. Bella was just as excited as Carmella was going to be when she got my letters about our adventures in solving mysteries.

"I wish I could go with you, but I'm performing that night," she said when we told her about the exhibit.

"Are you a chess fan?" Freddy asked.

"As a matter of fact, it's the thing Mr. Harvey and I do together," Bella said. "My mother loved chess and taught me. Rue never got the hang of it. Maybe I'll arrange to see it later. I don't suppose your client is going to shut them down if they are a fraud?"

"He didn't say. Perhaps, or perhaps he just wants the satisfaction of proving the machine is false," I said.

"I shall have to suggest that Mr. Harvey go to this show, just in case it's the last."