"She's a Woman of the World and Will Bear Watching"

"The 'Double Thirteen'."
By Norman J. Bonney (?-?).
First appearance: Adventure Magazine, February 28, 1922.
Short short story (9 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).

"I'm off chess for life."

Ordinarily the cruise from Yokohama to San Francisco aboard the Isota Maru is uneventful, and so it is up until the moment when Frank Blodwen, awakening from a drugged stupor, discovers that the valuable necklace (the "Double Thirteen"), which he acquired in Japan, has gone missing. Blodwen is certain he knows who took the necklace and appeals to the ship's captain and the Customs Service officials to detain and search a woman named Mrs. Mere-dith, but for reasons that will become clear later they refuse. By story's end, Frank Blodwen will have good reason to lament ever agreeing to teach a beginner how to play chess . . .

Comment: If you figure this one out before the last page, then hasten to submit your appli-cation for Mensa membership.

Resource:
- The only thing we could find out about Norman J. Bonney (credited with only eight stories, one of them SFnal) comes from FictionMags: "Bank clerk. Probably from Boston, Massa-chusetts."

The bottom line: "Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs."
— Malcolm Forbes