"Parlour Tricks" by Ralph Plummer (first published in the Passing Show Christmas Holiday Annual, 1930; reprinted in Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards, 2015)
Not much is known about Ralph Plummer, who was most likely a British writer. He has 69 stories from 1926 to 1932 to his credit listed in the FictionMags Index -- 49 of them published in The 20-Story Magazine, a monthly publication from London's Odhams Press. The 20-Story Magazine emphasized adventure and mystery fiction, and later added romance stories to its mix. "Parlour Tricks" appears to be the only story by Plummer to be reprinted. Martin Edwards (who in addition to being a talented author and editor, is also a noted historian of the mystery genre) only became aware of it when Robert Adey, noted mystery fiction scholar, recommended the story.
It is a slight story, somewhat in the vein of the "stranded travelers during Christmas" motif. A diverse group of people -- including "a bevy of old ladies, a stern-looking man with side-whiskers, and a retired colonel who divided his time between staring fiercely into space, twisting his moustache, and emptying glasses of port. Also in the group are Eric Glover, a young man who entertains the group with his humorous stories and parlour tricks, and Peter Mullinger, our point-of-view character. The people are at the Grand Private Hotel and, for reasons yet to be explained, are not allowed to leave by order of the hotel management; they have been confined for days -- a stay made somewhat lighter by Eric Glover's amusing stories and antics. It's Christmas time, and most of the guests are happy with Glover's constant and pleasant patter; the colonel is happy because there has been no cessation in the port.
Glover says he has what some might call a magic trick. He said he could leave a full glass of water on a table, leave the room, and when he next walked back into the room the glass would be empty -- while the glass remained in full view of everyone present. This resulted in a minor wager with Mullinger, which Glover accepted. a glass was filled with water, placed on the table, and Glover left the room while everyone else kept a close watch on the glass. One minute later, Glover returned -- on his hands and knees -- and crawled to the table, drank the glass of water, then crawled back out. a few minutes later, Glover walked back into the room, pointed to the empty glass, and accepted his wager.
This led Mullinger to propose another wager. He, Mullinger, would be blindfolded while the rest of the group placed an unknown object somewhere in the room. Mullinger would be turned around a number of times while still blindfolded, and would then be led around the room where he would stop at the point where the object was hidden. He stopped exactly where the group had place the object -- an orange. Less the group think he had cheated somehow, he offered to do it once again; this time, blindfolded, he would find a sum of money...
It turns out that the hotel safe had been robbed in the early hours of Christmas Eve morning. The thief had not been able to leave the hotel, so the money was hidden until it could be safely retrieved. How Mullinger was able to located the stolen money and identify the thief is explained in the last few paragraphs.
The solution turns out to be somewhat commonplace for the modern reader, but the elaborate preparation for this "parlour trick" is kind of neat.
The story is one of fifteen mysteries included in Edwards' anthology; well-known writers include Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Nicholas Blake, and Edmund Crispin; less familiar stories are from Edgar Wallace, Leo Bruce, Gabrielle Margaret Vere Long ( both as "Marjorie Bowen" and as "Joseph Shearing"), Ethel Lina White, J. Jefferson Farjeon, Raymund Allen, and -- of course -- Ralph Plummer. As with all of Martin Edwards' anthologies, Silent Nights is a pleasing and varied mix of great stories and is highly recommended.
