The Silent Bullet ..................................................................................................................................................1

Arthur B. Reeve.......................................................................................................................................1

"It has always seemed strange to me that no one has ever endowed a professorship in criminal science in any

Craig Kennedy laid down his evening paper and filled his pipe with my tobacco. In college we had roomed

together, had shared everything, even poverty, and now that Craig was a professor of chemistry and I was on

the staff of the Star, we had continued the arrangement. Prosperity found us in a rather neat bachelor

"Why should there be a chair in criminal science?" I remarked argumentatively, settling back in my chair.

"I've done my turn at police headquarters reporting, and I can tell you, Craig, it's no place for a college

professor. Crime is just crime. And as for dealing with it, the good detective is born and bred to it. College

professors for the sociology of the thing, yes; for the detection of it, give me a Byrnes."

"On the contrary," replied Kennedy, his cleancut features betraying an earnestness which I knew indicated

that he was leading up to something important, "there is a distinct place for science in the detection of crime.

On the Continent they are far in advance of us in that respect. We are mere children beside a dozen

"Yes, but where does the college professor come in?" I asked, rather doubtfully.

"You must remember, Walter," he pursued, warming up to his subject, "that it's only within the last ten years

or so that we have had the really practical college professor who could do it. The silkstockinged variety is

out of date now. Today it is the college professor who is the third arbitrator in labour disputes, who reforms

our currency, who heads our tariff commissions, and conserves our farms and forests. We have professors of

Still, as I shook my head dubiously, he hurried on to clinch his point. "Colleges have gone a long way from

the old ideal of pure culture. They have got down to solving the hard facts of lifepretty nearly all, except

one. They still treat crime in the old way, study its statistics and pore over its causes and the theories of how

it can be prevented. But as for running the criminal himself down, scientifically, relentlesslybah! we

haven't made an inch of progress since the hammer and tongs method of your Byrnes."

"Doubtless you will write a thesis on this most interesting subject," I suggested, "and let it go at that."

"No, I am serious," he replied, determined for some reason or other to make a convert of me. "I mean exactly

what I say. I am going to apply science to the detection of crime, the same sort of methods by which you

trace out the presence of a chemical, or run an unknown germ to earth. And before I have gone far, I am

going to enlist Walter Jameson as an aide. I think I shall need you in my business."

"Well, for one thing, you will get a scoop, a beat,whatever you call it in that newspaper jargon of yours."

I smiled in a skeptical way, such as newspapermen are wont to affect toward a thing until it is doneafter

"Detectives in fiction nearly always make a great mistake," said Kennedy one evening after our first

conversation on crime and science. "They almost invariably antagonize the regular detective force. Now in

"Yes," I agreed, looking up from reading an account of the failure of a large Wall Street brokerage house,

Kerr Parker Co., and the peculiar suicide of Kerr Parker. "Yes, it's impossible, just as it is impossible for the

regular detectives to antagonize the newspapers. Scotland Yard found that out in the Crippen case."

"My idea of the thing, Jameson," continued Kennedy, "is that the professor of criminal science ought to, work

with, not against, the regular detectives. They're all right. They're indispensable, of course. Half the secret of

success nowadays is organisation. The professor of criminal science should be merely what the professor in a

technical school often isa sort of consulting engineer. For instance, I believe that organisation plus science

I expressed some doubt as to whether the regular police were enlightened enough to take that view of it.

"Some of them are," he replied. "Yesterday the chief of police in a Western city sent a man East to see me

Indeed I did. A wealthy banker of the town had been murdered on the road to the golf club, no one knew why

or by whom. Every clue had proved fruitless, and the list of suspects was itself so long and so impossible as

"He sent me a piece of a torn handkerchief with a deep bloodstain on it," pursued Kennedy. "He said it

clearly didn't belong to the murdered man, that it indicated that the murderer had himself been wounded in

the tussle, but as yet it had proved utterly valueless as a clue. Would I see what I could make of it?

"After his man had told me the story I had a feeling that the murder was committed by either a Sicilian

labourer on the links or a negro waiter at the club. Well, to make a short story shorter, I decided to test the

bloodstain. Probably you didn't know it, but the Carnegie Institution has just published a minute, careful,

"In fact, they have been able to reclassify the whole animal kingdom on this basis, and have made some most

surprising additions to our knowledge of evolution. Now I don't propose to bore you with the details of the

tests, but one of the things they showed was that the blood of a certain branch of the human race gives a

reaction much like the blood of a certain group of monkeys, the chimpanzees, while the blood of another

branch gives a reaction like that of the gorilla. Of course there's lots more to it, but this is all that need

"I tried the tests. The blood on the handkerchief conformed strictly to the latter test. Now the gorilla was, of

course, out of the questionthis was no Rue Morgue murder. Therefore it was the negro waiter."

"No buts, Walter. Here's a telegram I received at dinner: 'Congratulations. Confronted Jackson your evidence

"Well, Craig, I take off my hat to you," I exclaimed. "Next you'll be solving this Kerr Parker case for sure."

That night, without saying anything, I sauntered down to the imposing new police building amid the squalor

of Center Street. They were very busy at headquarters, but, having once had that assignment for the Star, I

had no trouble in getting in. Inspector Barney O'Connor of the Central Office carefully shifted a cigar from

"Well, Jameson," he said at length, "do you think this professor fellow is the goods?"

I didn't mince matters in my opinion of Kennedy. I told him of the Price case and showed him a copy of the

I reached for the telephone, found Craig in his laboratory finally, and in less than an hour he was in the office.

"This is a most bating case, Professor Kennedy, this case of Kerr Parker," said the inspector, launching at

once into his subject. "Here is a broker heavily interested in Mexican rubber. It looks like a good

thingplantations right in the same territory as those of the Rubber Trust. Now in addition to that he is

branching out into coastwise steamship lines; another man associated with him is heavily engaged in a

railway scheme from the United States down into Mexico. Altogether the steamships and railroads are

tapping rubber, oil, copper, and I don't know what other regions. Here in New York they have been

pyramiding stocks, borrowing money from two trust companies which they control. It's a lovely

schemeyou've read about it, I suppose. Also you've read that it comes into competition with a certain group

"Well, this depression in the market comes along. At once rumours are spread about the weakness of the trust

companies; runs start on both of them. The System,you know themmake a great show of supporting the

market. Yet the runs continue. God knows whether they will spread or the trust companies stand up under it

tomorrow after what happened today. It was a good thing the market was closed when it happened.

"Kerr Parker was surrounded by a group of people who were in his schemes with him. They are holding a

council of war in the directors' room. Suddenly Parker rises, staggers toward the window, falls, and is dead

before a doctor can get to him. Every effort is made to keep the thing quiet. It is given out that he committed

suicide. The papers don't seem to accept the suicide theory, however. Neither do we. The coroner, who is

working with us, has kept his mouth shut so far, and will say nothing till the inquest. For, Professor Kennedy,

"Now here comes the amazing part of the story. The doors to the offices on both sides were open at the time.

There were lots of people in each office. There was the usual click of typewriters, and the buzz of the ticker,

and the hum of conversation. We have any number of witnesses of the whole affair, but as far as any of them

knows no shot was fired, no smoke was seen, no noise was heard, nor was any weapon found. Yet here on my

desk is a thirtytwocalibre bullet. The coroner's physician probed it out of Parker's neck this afternoon and

Kennedy reached for the bullet, and turned it thoughtfully in his fingers for a moment. One side of it had

apparently struck a bone in the neck of the murdered man, and was flattened. The other side was still

perfectly smooth. With his inevitable magnifyingglass he scrutinised the bullet on every side. I watched his

"Extraordinary, most extraordinary," he said to himself as he turned it over and over. "Where did you say this

"In the fleshy part of the neck, quite a little back of and below his ear and just above his collar. There wasn't

"Inspector, I think we shall be able to put our hands on the murderer I think we can get a conviction, sir, on

"That's pretty much like a storybook," drawled the inspector incredulously, shaking his head.

"Perhaps," smiled Kennedy. "But there will still be plenty of work for the police to do, too. I've only got a

clue to the murderer. It will take the whole organisation to follow it up, believe me. Now, Inspector, can you

spare the time to go down to Parker's office and take me over the ground? No doubt we can develop

"Sure," answered O'Connor, and within five minutes we were hurrying down town in one of the department

We found the office under guard of one of the Central Office men, while in the outside office Parker's

confidential clerk and a few assistants were still at work in a subdued and awed manner. Men were working

in many other Wall Street offices that night during the panic, but in none was there more reason for it than

here. Later I learned that it was the quiet tenacity of this confidential clerk that saved even as much of

Parker's estate as was saved for his widowlittle enough it was, too. What he saved for the clients of the

firm no one will ever know. Somehow or other I liked John Downey, the clerk, from the moment I was

introduced to him. He seemed to me, at least, to be the typical confidential clerk who would carry a secret

The officer in charge touched his hat to the inspector, and Downey hastened to put himself at our service. It

was plain that the murder had completely mystified him, and that he was as anxious as we were to get at the

"Mr. Downey," began Kennedy, "I understand you were present when this sad event took place."

"Yes, sir, sitting right here at the directors' table," he replied, taking a chair, "like this."

"Now can you recollect just how Mr. Parker acted when he was shot? Could youercould you take his

"Yes, sir," said Downey. "He was sitting here at the head of the table. Mr. Bruce, who is the 'CO.' of the firm,

had been sitting here at his right; I was at the left. The inspector has a list of all the others present. That door

"Yes: Like a good many brokerage firms we have a ladies' room. Many ladies are among our clients. We

make a point of catering to them. At that time I recollect the door was openall the doors were open. It was

not a secret meeting. Mr. Bruce had just gone into the ladies' department; I think to ask some of them to stand

by the firm he was an artist at smoothing over the fears of customers, particularly women. Just before he

went in I had seen the ladies go in a group toward the far end of the roomto look down at the line of

depositors on the street, which reached around the corner from one of the trust companies, I thought. I was

making a note of an order to send into the outside office there on the left, and had just pushed this button here

under the table to call a boy to carry it. Mr. Parker had just received a letter by special delivery, and seemed

considerably puzzled over it. No, I don't know what it was about. Of a sudden I saw him start in his chair, rise

up unsteadily, clap his hand on the back of his head, stagger across the floor like thisand fall here."

"Why, I rushed to pick him up. Everything was confusion. I recall someone behind me saying, 'Here, boy,

take all these papers off the table and carry them into my office before they get lost in the excitement.' I think

it was Bruce's voice. The next moment I heard someone say, 'Stand back, Mrs. Parker has fainted.' But I

didn't pay much attention, for I was calling to someone not to get a doctor over the telephone, but to go down

to the fifth floor where one has an office. I made Mr. Parker as comfortable as I could. There wasn't much I

could do. He seemed to want to say something to me, but he couldn't talk. He was paralysed, at least his

throat was. But I did manage to make out finally what sounded to me like, 'Tell her I don't believe the

scandal, I don't believe it.' But before he could say whom to tell he had again become unconscious, and by the

time the doctor arrived he was dead. I guess you know everything else as well as I do."

"That's what puzzles me, sir. The only thing I can figure out is that it was fired from the outside

officeperhaps by some customer who had lost money and sought revenge. But no one out there heard it

either, any more than they did in the directors' room or the ladies' department."

"About that message," asked Kennedy, ignoring what to me seemed to be the most important feature of the

"No, sir; in fact I had forgotten about it till this moment when you asked me to reconstruct the circumstances

exactly. No, sir, I don't know a thing about it. I can't say it impressed itself on my mind at the time, either."

"Oh, she cried as I have never seen a woman cry before. He was dead by that time, of course."

"Bruce and I saw her down in the elevator to her car. In fact, the doctor, who had arrived; said that the sooner

"Out with it Downey," said the inspector. "What did she say as she was going down in the elevator?"

Kennedy leaned over suddenly and shot a remark at him, "Then it was about the note."

Downey was surprised, but not quickly enough. Still he seemed to be considering something, and in a

"I don't know what it was about, but I feel it is my duty, after all, to tell you. I heard her say, 'I wonder if he

"We entered the ladies' department. No one was there. A woman's automobilecoat was thrown over a chair

in a heap. Mr. Bruce picked it up. 'It's Mrs. Parker's,' he said. He wrapped it up hastily, and rang for a

We next went over the whole suite of offices, conducted by Mr. Downey. I noted how carefully Kennedy

looked into the directors' room through the open door from the ladies' department. He stood at such an angle

that had he been the assassin he could scarcely have been seen except by those sitting immediately next Mr.

Parker at the directors' table. The street windows were directly in front of him, and back of him was the chair

In Parker's own office we spent some time, as well as in Bruce's. Kennedy made a search for the note, but

finding nothing in either office, turned out the contents of Bruce's scrapbasket. There didn't seem to be

anything in it to interest him, however, even after he had pieced several torn bits of scraps together with much

difficulty, and he was about to turn the papers back again, when he noticed something sticking to the side of

the basket. It looked like a mass of wet paper, and that was precisely what it was.

"That's queer," said Kennedy, picking it loose. Then he wrapped it up carefully and put it in his pocket.

"Inspector, can you lend me one of your men for a couple of days?" he asked, as we were preparing to leave.

"I shall want to send him out of town tonight, and shall probably need his services when he gets back."

"Very well. Riley will be just the fellow. We'll go back to headquarters, and I'll put him under your orders."

It was not until late in the following day that haw Kennedy again. It had been a busy day at the Star. We had

gone to work that morning expecting to see the very financial heavens fall. But just about five minutes to ten,

before the Stock Exchange opened, the news came in over the wire from our financial man on Broad Street:

'The System' has forced James Bruce, partner of Kerr Parker, the dead banker; to sell his railroad, steamship,

and rubber holdings to it. On this condition it promises unlimited support to the market."

"Forced!" muttered the managing editor, as he waited on the office phone to get the composingroom, so as

to hurry up the few lines in red ink on the first page and beat our rivals on the streets with the first extras.

"Why, he's been working to bring that about for the past two weeks. What that System doesn't control isn't

worth havingit edits the news before our men get it, and as for grist for the divorce courts, and tragedies,

wellHello, Jenkins, yes, a special extra. Change the big headscopy is on the way uprush it."

"I know it. That's a pretty swift bunch of females that have been speculating at Kerr Parker Co.'s. I

understand there's one Titianhaired young ladywho, by the way, has at least one husband who hasn't yet

been divorcedwho is a sort of ringleader, though she rarely goes personally to her brokers' offices. She's

one of those uptown plungers, and the story is that she has a whole string of scalps of alleged Sundayschool

superintendents at her belt. She can make Bruce do pretty nearly anything, they say. He's the latest conquest.

I got the story on pretty good authority, but until I verified the names, dates, and places, of course I wouldn't

dare print a line of it. The story goes that her husband is a hangeron of the System, and that she's been

working in their interest, too. That was why he was so complacent over the whole affair. They put her up to

capturing Bruce, and after she had acquired an influence over him they worked it so that she made him make

love to Mrs. Parker. It's a long story, but that isn't all of it. The point was, you see, that by this devious route

they hoped to worm out of Mrs. Parker some inside information about Parker's rubber schemes, which he

hadn't divulged even to his partners in business. It was a deep and carefully planned plot, and some of the

conspirators were pretty deeply in the mire, I guess. I wish I'd had all the facts about who this redhaired

female Machiavelli waswhat a piece of muckraking it would have made! Oh, here comes the rest of the

news story over the wire. By Jove, it is said on good authority that Bruce will be taken in as one of the board

So that was how the wind layBruce making love to Mrs. Parker and she presumably betraying her

husband's secrets. I thought I saw it all: the note from somebody exposing the scheme, Parker's incredulity,

Bruce sitting by him and catching sight of the note, his hurrying out into the ladies' department, and then the

Kennedy was not at the apartment at dinner, and an inquiry at the laboratory was fruitless also. So I sat down

to fidget for a while. Pretty soon the buzzer on the door sounded, and I opened it to find a messengerboy

"Why, no, he doesn't" then I checked myself and added "He will be here presently. You can leave the

"Well, this is the parcel he telephoned for. His valet told me to tell him that they had a hard time to find it, but

I signed the book, feeling like a thief, and the boy departed. What it all meant I could not guess.

I pointed to the package. Kennedy made a dive for it and unwrapped it. It was a woman's pongee

automobilecoat. He held it up to the light. The pocket on the righthand side was scorched and burned, and

a hole was torn clean through it. I gasped when the full significance of it dawned on me.

"That's where organisation comes in," said Kennedy. "The police at my request went over every messenger

call from Parker's office that afternoon, and traced every one of them up. At last they found one that led to

Bruce's apartment. None of them led to Mrs. Parker's home. The rest were all business calls and satisfactorily

accounted for. I reasoned that this was the one that involved the disappearance of the automobilecoat. It was

a chance worth taking, so I got Downey to call up Bruce's valet. The valet of course recognised Downey's

voice and suspected nothing. Downey assumed to know all about the coat in the package received yesterday.

"But, Kennedy, do you think she" I stopped, speechless, looking at the scorched coat.

"Nothing to sayyet," he replied laconically. "But if you could tell me anything about that note Parker

I related what our managing editor had said that morning. Kennedy only raised his eyebrows a fraction of an

"I had guessed something of that sort," he said merely. "I'm glad to find it confirmed even by hearsay

evidence. This redhaired young lady interests me. Not a very definite description, but better than nothing at

all. I wonder who she is. Ah, well, what do you say to a stroll down the White Way before I go to my

We had got no further than the first theatre when Kennedy slapped me on the back. "By George, Jameson,

"The redhaired personshe must be an actress. Don't you remember the auburnhaired leading lady in the

'Follies'the girl who sings that song about 'Mary, Mary, quite contrary'? Her stage name, you know, is

Phoebe La Neige. Well, if it's she who is concerned in this case I don't think she'll be playing tonight. Let's

She wasn't playing, but just what it had to do with anything in particular I couldn't see, and I said as much.

"Why, Walter, you'd never do as a detective. You lack intuition. Sometimes I think I haven't quite enough of

it, either. Why didn't I think of that sooner? Don't you know she is the wife of Adolphus Hesse, the most

inveterate gambler in stocks in the System? Why, I had only to put two and two together and the whole thing

flashed on me in an instant. Isn't it a good hypothesis that she is the redhaired woman in the case, the tool of

the System in which her husband is so heavily involved? I'll have to add her to my list of suspects."

"Why, you don't think she did the shooting?" I asked, half hoping, I must admit, for an assenting nod from

"Well," he answered dryly, "one shouldn't let any preconceived hypothesis stand between him and the truth.

I've made a guess at the whole thing already. It may or it may not be right. Anyhow she will fit into it. And if

When we reached the laboratory on our return, the inspector's man Riley was there, waiting impatiently for

"I've got a list of purchasers of that kind oil revolver," he said. "We have been to every sportinggoods and

armsstore in the city which bought them from the factory, and I could lay my, hands on pretty nearly every,

one of those weapons in twentyfour hoursprovided, of course, they haven't been secreted or destroyed."

"Pretty nearly all isn't good enough," said Kennedy. "It will have to be all, unless"

"Oh, then it's all right," answered Kennedy, brightening up. "Riley, I will say that you're a wonder at using

the organisation in ferreting out such things. There's just one more thing I want you to do. I want a sample of

the notepaper in the private desks of every one of these people." He handed the policeman a list of his 9

"suspects," as he called them. It included nearly every one mentioned in the case.

Riley studied it dubiously and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "That's a hard one, Mr. Kennedy, sir. You see,

it means getting into so many different houses and apartments. Now you don't want to do it by means of a

"You're a pretty goodlooking chap yourself, Riley," said Kennedy. "I should think you could jolly a

housemaid, if necessary. Anyhow, you can get the fellow on the beat to do itif he isn't already to be found

"Oh, it's me that's the ladykiller, sir," grinned Riley. "I'm a regular Blarney stone when I'm out on a job of

"Bring me what you get, the first thing in the morning, even if you've landed only a few samples," said

Kennedy, as Riley departed, straightening his tie and brushing his hat on his sleeve.

"And now, Walter, you too must excuse me tonight," said Craig. "I've got a lot to do, and sha'n't be up to our

apartment till very lateor early. But I feel sure I've got a stranglehold on this mystery. If I get those

papers from Riley in good time tomorrow I shall invite you and several others to a grand demonstration here

tomorrow night. Don't forget. Keep the whole evening free. It will be a big story."

Kennedy's laboratory was brightly lighted when I arrived early the next evening. One by one his "guests"

dropped in. It was evident that they had little liking for the visit, but the coroner had sent out the "invitations,"

and they had nothing to do but accept. Each one was politely welcomed by the professor and assigned a seat,

much as he would have done with a group of students. The inspector and the coroner sat back a little. Mrs.

Parker, Mr. Downey, Mr. Bruce, myself, and Miss La Neige sat in that order in the very narrow and

At last Kennedy was ready to begin. He took his position behind the long, flattopped table which he used

for his demonstrations before his classes. "I realise, ladies and gentlemen," he began formally, "that I am

about to do a very unusual thing; but, as you all know, the police and the coroner have been completely

baffled by this terrible mystery and have requested me to attempt to clear up at least certain points in it. I will

begin what I have to say by remarking that the tracing out of a crime like this differs in nothing, except as

regards the subjectmatter, from the search for a scientific truth. The forcing of man's secrets is like the

forcing of nature's secrets. Both are pieces of detective work. The methods employed in the detection of

crime are, or rather should be, like the methods employed in the process of discovering scientific truth. In a

crime of this sort, two kinds of evidence need to be secured. Circumstantial evidence must first be

marshalled, and then a motive must be found. I have been gathering facts. But to omit motives and rest

contented with mere facts would be inconclusive. It would never convince anybody or convict anybody. In

other words, circumstantial evidence must first lead to a suspect, and then this suspect must prove equal to

accounting for the facts. It is my hope that each of you may contribute something that will be of service in

The tension was not relieved even when Kennedy stopped speaking and began to fuss with a little upright

target which he set up at one end of his table. We seemed to be seated over a powder magazine which

threatened to explode at any moment. I, at least, felt the tension so greatly that it was only after he had started

speaking again, that I noticed that the target was composed of a thick layer of some puttylike material.

Holding a thirtytwocalibre pistol in his right hand and aiming it at the target, Kennedy picked up a large

piece of coarse homespun from the table and held it loosely over the muzzle of the gun. Then he fired. The

bullet tore through the cloth, sped through the air, and buried itself in the target. With a knife he pried it out.

"I doubt if even the inspector himself could have told us that when an ordinary leaden bullet is shot through a

woven fabric the weave of that fabric is in the majority of cases impressed on the bullet, sometimes clearly,

Here Kennedy took up a piece of fine batiste and fired another bullet through it.

"Every leaden bullet, as I have said, which has struck such a fabric bears an impression of the threads which

is recognisable even when the bullet has penetrated deeply into the body. It is only obliterated partially or

entirely when the bullet has been flattened by striking a bone or other hard object. Even then, as in this case,

if only a part of the bullet is flattened the remainder may still show the marks of the fabric. A heavy warp, say

of cotton velvet or, as I have here, homespun, will be imprinted well on the bullet, but even a fine batiste,

containing one hundred threads to the inch, will show marks. Even layers of goods such as a coat, shirt, and

undershirt may each leave their marks, but that does not concern us in this case. Now I have here a piece of

pongee silk, cut from a woman's automobilecoat. I discharge the bullet through itso. I compare the bullet

now with the others and with the one probed from the neck of Mr. Parker. I find that the marks on that fatal

bullet correspond precisely with those on the bullet fired through the pongee coat."

Startling as was this revelation, Kennedy paused only an instant before the next.

"Now I have another demonstration. A certain note figures in this case. Mr. Parker was reading it, or perhaps

rereading it, at the time he was shot. I have not been able to obtain that noteat least not in a form such as I

could use in discovering what were its contents. But in a certain wastebasket I found a mass of wet and

pulplike paper. It had been cut up, macerated, perhaps chewed; perhaps it had been also soaked with water.

There was a washbasin with running water in this room. The ink had run, and of course was illegible. The

thing was so unusual that I at once assumed that this was the remains of the note in question. Under ordinary

circumstances it would be utterly valueless as a clue to anything. But today science is not ready to let

"I found on microscopic examination that it was an uncommon linen bond paper, and I have taken a large

number of microphotographs of the fibres in it. They are all similar. I have here also about a hundred

microphotographs of the fibres in other kinds of paper, many of them bonds. These I have accumulated from

time to time in my study of the subject. None of them, as you can see, shows fibres resembling this one in

question, so we may conclude that it is of uncommon quality. Through an agent of the police I have secured

samples of the notepaper of every one who could be concerned, as far as I could see, with this case. Here are

the photographs of the fibres of these various notepapers, and among them all is just one that corresponds to

the fibres in the wet mass of paper I discovered in the scrapbasket. Now lest anyone should question the

accuracy of this method I might cite a case where a man had been arrested in Germany charged with stealing

a government bond. He was not searched till later. There was no evidence save that after the arrest a large

number of spitballs were found around the courtyard under his cell window. This method of comparing the

fibres with those of the regular government paper was used, and by it the man was convicted of stealing the

bond. I think it is almost unnecessary to add that in the present case we know precisely who"

At this point the tension was so great that it snapped. Miss La Neige, who was sitting beside me, had been

leaning forward involuntarily. Almost as if the words were wrung from her she whispered hoarsely: "They

put me up to doing it; I didn't want to. But the affair had gone too far. I couldn't see him lost before my very

eyes. I didn't want her to get him. The quickest way out was to tell the whole story to Mr. Parker and stop it.

It was the only way I could think of to stop this thing between another man's wife and the man I loved better

"Calm yourself, madame," interrupted Kennedy soothingly. "Calm yourself. What's done is done. The truth

must come out. Be calm. Now," he continued, after the first storm of remorse had spent itself and we were all

outwardly composed again, "we have said nothing whatever of the most mysterious feature of the case, the

firing of the shot. The murderer could have thrust the weapon into the pocket or the folds of this coat"here

he drew forth the automobile coat and held it aloft, displaying the bullet hole" and he or she (I will not say

which) could have discharged the pistol unseen. By removing and secreting the weapon afterward one very

important piece of evidence would be suppressed. This person could have used such a cartridge as I have

here, made with smokeless powder, and the coat would have concealed the flash of the shot very effectively.

There would have been no smoke. But neither this coat nor even a heavy blanket would have deadened the

"What are we to think of that? Only one thing. I have often wondered why the thing wasn't done before. In

fact I have been waiting for it to occur. There is an invention that makes it almost possible to strike a man

down with impunity in broad daylight in any place where there is sufficient noise to cover up a click, a slight

"I refer to this little device of a Hartford inventor. I place it over the muzzle of the thirtytwocalibre

revolver I have so far been usingso. Now, Mr. Jameson, if you will sit at that typewriter over there and

writeanything so long as you keep the keys clicking. The inspector will start that imitation stockticker in

the corner. Now we are ready. I cover the pistol with a cloth. I defy anyone in this room to tell me the exact

moment when I discharged the pistol. I could have shot any of you, and an outsider not in the secret would

never have thought that I was the culprit. To a certain extent I have reproduced the conditions under which

"At once on being sure of this feature of the case I despatched a man to Hartford to see this inventor. The

man obtained from him a complete list of all the dealers in New York to whom such devices had been sold.

The man also traced every sale of those dealers. He did not actually obtain the weapon, but if he is working

on scheduletime according to agreement he is at this moment armed with a searchwarrant and is

ransacking every possible place where the person suspected of this crime could have concealed his weapon.

For, one of the persons intimately connected with this case purchased not long ago a silencer for a

thirtytwocalibre revolver, and I presume that that person carried the gun and the silencer at the time of the

Kennedy concluded in triumph, his voice high pitched, his eyes flashing. Yet to all outward appearance not a

heartbeat was quickened. Someone in that room had an amazing store of selfpossession. The fear flitted

"I had anticipated some such anticlimax," he continued after a moment. "I am prepared for it."

He touched a bell, and the door to the next room opened. One of Kennedy's graduate students stepped in.

"I may say," said Kennedy, "that each of your chairs is wired under the arm in such a way as to betray on an

appropriate indicator in the next room every sudden and undue emotion. Though it may be concealed from

the eye, even of one like me who stands facing you, such emotion is nevertheless expressed by physical

pressure on the arms of the chair. It is a test that is used frequently with students to demonstrate various

points of psychology. You needn't raise your arms from the chairs, ladies and gentlemen. The tests are all

The student read what he had been noting in the next room. At the production of the coat during the

demonstration of the markings of the bullet, Mrs. Parker had betrayed great emotion, Mr. Bruce had done

likewise, and nothing more than ordinary emotion had been noted for the rest of us. Miss La Neige's

automatic record during the tracing out of the sending of the note to Parker had been especially unfavourable

to her; Mr. Bruce showed almost as much excitement; Mrs. Parker very little and Downey very little. It was

all set forth in curves drawn by selfrecording pens on regular ruled paper. The student had merely noted

"At the mention of the noiseless gun," said Kennedy, bending over the record, while the student pointed it out

to him and we leaned forward to catch his words, "I find that the curves of Miss La Neige, Mrs. Parker, and

Mr. Downey are only so far from normal as would be natural. All of them were witnessing a thing for the first

time with only curiosity and no fear. The curve made by Mr. Bruce shows great agitation and"

I heard a metallic click at my side and turned hastily. It was Inspector Barney O'Connor, who had stepped out

There flashed on my mind, and I think on the minds of some of the others, a picture of another electrically

"I'm willing to wager you a box of cigars that you don't know the most fascinating story in your own paper

tonight," remarked Kennedy, as I came in one evening with the four or five newspapers I was in the habit of

reading to see whether they had beaten the Star in getting any news of importance.

"I'll bet I do," I said, "or I was one of about a dozen who worked it up. It's the Shaw murder trial. There isn't

"I am afraid the cigars will be on you, Walter. Crowded over on the second page by a lot of stale sensation

that everyone has read for the fiftieth time, now, you will find what promises to be a real sensation, a curious

I laughed. "Craig," I said, "when you put up a simple death from apoplexy against a murder trial, and such a

"Is it a simple case of apoplexy?" he asked, pacing up and down the room, while I wondered why he should

grow excited over what seemed a very ordinary news item, after all. Then he picked up the paper and read the

John Graham Fletcher, the aged philanthropist and steelmaker, was found dead in his library this morning at

his home at Fletcherwood, Great Neck, Long Island. Strangely, the safe in the library in which he kept his

papers and a large sum of cash was found opened, but as far as could be learned nothing is missing.

It had always been Mr. Fletcher's custom to rise at seven o'clock. This morning his housekeeper became

alarmed when he had not appeared by nine o'clock. Listening at the door, she heard no sound. It was not

locked, and on entering she found the former steelmagnate lying lifeless on the floor between his bedroom

and the library adjoining. His personal physician, Dr. W. C. Bryant, was immediately notified.

Close examination of the body revealed that his face was slightly discoloured, and the cause of death was

given by the physician as apoplexy. He had evidently been dead about eight or nine hours when discovered.

Mr. Fletcher is survived by a nephew, John G. Fletcher, II., who is the Blake professor of bacteriology at the

University, and by a grandniece, Miss Helen Bond. Professor Fletcher was informed of the sad occurrence

shortly after leaving a class this morning and hurried out to Fletcherwood. He would make no statement other

than that he was inexpressibly shocked. Miss Bond, who has for several years resided with relatives, Mr. and

"Walter," added Kennedy, as he laid down the paper and, without any more sparring, came directly to the

I had no need to express the interest I now really felt, and Kennedy hastened to take advantage of it.

"Just before you came in," he continued, "Jack Fletcher called me up from Great Neck. You probably don't

know it, but it has been privately reported in the inner circle of the University that old Fletcher was to leave

the bulk of his fortune to found a great school of preventive medicine, and that the only proviso was that his

nephew should be dean of the school. The professor told me over the wire that the will was missing from the

safe, and that it was the only thing missing. From his excitement I judge that there is more to the story than he

cared to tell over the 'phone. He said his car was on the way to the city, and he asked if I wouldn't come and

help himhe wouldn't say how. Now, I know him pretty well, and I'm going to ask you to come along,

Walter, for the express purpose of keeping this thing out of the newspapers understand?until we get to the

A few minutes later the telephone rang and the hallboy announced that the car was waiting. We hurried

down to it; the chauffeur lounged down carelessly into his seat and we were off across the city and river and

Already I began to feel something of Kennedy's zest for the adventure. I found myself half a dozen times on

the point of hazarding a suspicion, only to relapse again into silence at the inscrutable look on Kennedy's

face. What was the mystery that awaited us in the great lonely house on Long Island?

We found Fletcherwood a splendid estate directly on the bay, with a long driveway leading up to the door.

Professor Fletcher met us at the porte cochere, and I was glad to note that, far from taking me as an intruder,

he seemed rather relieved that someone who understood the ways of the newspapers could stand between him

He ushered us directly into the library and closed the door. It seemed as if he could scarcely; wait to tell his

"Kennedy," he began, almost trembling with excitement, "look at that safe door."

We looked. It had been drilled through in such a way as to break the combination. It was a heavy door,

closely fitting, and it was the best kind of small safe that the state of the art had produced. Yet clearly it had

been tampered with, and successfully. Who was this scientific cracksman who had apparently accomplished

the impossible? It was no ordinary hand and brain which had executed this "job."

Fletcher swung the door wide, and pointed to a little compartment inside, whose steel door had been jimmied

open. Then out of it he carefully lifted a steel box and deposited it on the library table.

A smile flitted across Fletcher's features. "I thought of that, Kennedy," he said. "I remembered what you once

told me about fingerprints. Only myself has touched it, and I was careful to take hold of it only on the sides.

The will was placed in this box, and the key to the box was usually in the lock. Well, the will is gone. That's

all; nothing else was touched. But for the life of me I can't find a mark on the box, not a fingermark. Now on

a hot and humid summer night like last night I should say it was pretty likely that anyone touching this metal

Kennedy nodded and continued to examine the place where the compartment had been jimmied. A low

whistle aroused us: coming over to the table, Craig tore a white sheet of paper off a pad lying there and

"I found them sticking on the jagged edges of the steel where it had been forced," he said. Then he whipped

out a pocket magnifyingglass. "Not from a rubber glove," he commented half to himself. "By Jove, one side

of them shows lines that look as if they were the lines on a person's fingers, and the other side is perfectly

smooth. There's not a chance of using them as a clue, exceptwell, I didn't know criminals in America knew

"Why, you know how keen the new detectives are on the fingerprint system? Well, the first thing some of

the uptodate criminals in Europe did was to wear rubber gloves so that they would leave no prints. But you

can't work very well with rubber gloves. Last fall in Paris I heard of a fellow who had given the police a lot of

trouble. He never left a mark, or at least it was no good if he did. He painted his hands lightly with a liquid

rubber which he had invented himself. It did all that rubber gloves would do and yet left him the free use of

his fingers with practically the same keenness of touch. Fletcher, whatever is at the bottom of this affair, I

"Do you suppose there are any relatives besides those we know of?" I asked Kennedy when Fletcher had left

"No," he replied, "I think not. Fletcher and Helen Bond, his second cousin, to whom he is engaged, are the

Kennedy continued to study the library. He walked in and out of the doors and examined the windows and

The old gentleman's bedroom is here," he said, indicating a door. "Now a good smart noise or perhaps even a

light shining through the transom from the library might arouse him. Suppose he woke up suddenly and

entered by this door. He would see the thief at work on the safe. Yes, that part of reconstructing the story is

Just then Fletcher returned with the servants. The questioning was long and tedious, and developed nothing

except that the butler admitted that he was uncertain whether the windows in the library were locked. The

gardener was very obtuse, but finally contributed one possibly important fact. He had noted in the morning

that the back gate, leading into a disused road closer to the bay than the main highway in front of the house,

was open. It was rarely used, and was kept closed only by an ordinary hook. Whoever had opened it had

evidently forgotten to hook it. He had thought it strange that it was unhooked, and in closing it he had noticed

in the mud of the roadway marks that seemed to indicate that an automobile had stood there.

After the servants had gone, Fletcher asked us to excuse him for a while, as he wished to run over to the

Greenes', who lived across the bay. Miss Bond was completely prostrated by the death of her uncle, he said,

and was in an extremely nervous condition. Meanwhile if we found any need of a machine we might use his

"Walter," said Craig, when Fletcher had gone, "I want to run back to town tonight, and I have something I'd

We were soon speeding back along the splendid road to Long Island City, while he laid out our programme.

"You go down to the Star office," he said, "and look through all the clippings on the whole Fletcher family.

Get a complete story of the life of Helen Bond, toowhat she has done in society, with whom she has been

seen mostly, whether she has made any trips abroad, and whether she has ever been engagedyou know,

anything likely to be significant. I'm going up to the apartment to get my camera and then to the laboratory to

get some rather bulky paraphernalia I want to take out to Fletcherwood. Meet me at the Columbus Circle

So we separated. My search revealed the fact that Miss Bond had always been intimate with the

ultrafashionable set, had spent last summer in Europe, a good part of the time in Switzerland and Paris with

the Greenes. As far as I could find out she had never been reported engaged, but plenty of fortunes as well as

Craig and I met at the appointed time. He had a lot of paraphernalia with him, and it did not add to our

comfort as we sped back, but it wasn't much over half an hour before we again found ourselves nearing Great

Instead of going directly back to Fletcherwood, however, Craig had told the chauffeur to stop at the plant of

the local electric light and power company, where he asked if he might see the record of the amount of

The curve sprawled across the ruled surface of the sheet by the automatic registeringneedle was irregular,

showing the ups and downs of the current, rising sharply from sundown and gradually declining after nine

o'clock, as the lights went out. Somewhere between eleven and twelve o'clock, however, the irregular fall of

Craig asked the men if that usually happened. They were quite sure that the curve as a rule went gradually

down until twelve o'clock, when the power was shut off. But they did not see anything remarkable in it. "Oh,

I suppose some of the big houses had guests," volunteered the foreman, "and just to show off the place

perhaps they turned on all the lights. I don't know, sir, what it was, but it couldn't have been a heavy drain, or

"Well," said Craig, "just watch and see if it occurs again tonight about the same time."

"And when you close down the plant for the night, will you bring the record card up to Fletcherwood?" asked

It was nearly halfpast eleven when Craig had got his apparatus set up in the library at Fletcherwood. Then

he unscrewed all the bulbs from the chandelier in the library and attached in their places connections with the

usual green silkcovered flexible wire rope. These were then joined up to a little instrument which to me

looked like a drill. Next he muffed the drill with a wad of felt and applied it to the safe door.

I could hear the dull tattat of the drill. Going into the bedroom and closing the door, I found that it was still

audible to me, but an old man, inclined to deafness and asleep, would scarcely have been awakened by it. In

about ten minutes Craig displayed a neat little hole in the safe door opposite the one made by the cracksman

"I'm glad you're honest," I said, "or else we might be afraid of youperhaps even make you prove an alibi

He ignored my bantering and said in a tone such as he might have used before a class of students in the gentle

art of scientific safecracking: "Now if the power company's curve is just the same tonight as last night, that

will show how the thing was done. I wanted to be sure of it, so I thought I'd try this apparatus which I

smuggled in from Paris last year. I believe the old man happened to be wakeful and heard it."

Then he pried off the door of the interior compartment which had been jimmied open. "Perhaps we may learn

something by looking at this door and studying the marks left by the jimmy, by means of this new instrument

On the library table he fastened an arrangement with two upright posts supporting a dial which he called a

"dynamometer." The uprights were braced in the back, and the whole thing reminded me of a miniature

"This is my mechanical detective," said Craig proudly. "It was devised by Bertillon himself, and he

personally gave me permission to copy his own machine. You see, it is devised to measure pressure. Now

let's take an ordinary jimmy and see just how much pressure it takes to duplicate those marks on this door."

Craig laid the piece of steel on the dynamometer in the position it had occupied in the safe, and braced it

tightly. Then he took a jimmy and pressed on it with all his strength. The steel door was connected with the

indicator, and the needle spun around until it indicated a pressure such as only a strong man could have

exerted. Comparing the marks made in the steel in the experiment and by the safecracker, it was evident that

no such pressure had been necessary. Apparently the lock on the door was only a trifling affair, and the steel

itself was not very, tough. The safemakers had relied on the first line of defence to repel attack.

Craig tried again and again, each time using less force. At last he got a mark just about similar to the original

"Well, well, what do you think of that?" he exclaimed reflectively. "A child could have done that part of the

Just then the lights went off for the night. Craig lighted the oillamp, and sat in silence until the electric light

plant foreman appeared with; the cardrecord, which showed a curve practically identical with that of the

A few moments later Professor Fletcher's machine came up the driveway, and he joined us with a worried

and preoccupied look on his face that he could not conceal. "She's terribly broken up by the suddenness of it

all," he murmured as he sank into an armchair. "The shock has been too much for her. In fact, I hadn't the

heart to tell her anything about the robbery, poor girl." Then in a moment he asked, "Any more clues yet,

"Well, nothing of first importance. I have only been trying to reconstruct the story of the robbery so that I can

reason out a motive and a few details; then when the real clues come along we won't have so much ground to

cover. The cracksman was certainly clever. He used an electric drill to break the combination and ran it by

"Whew!" exclaimed the professor, "is that so? He must have been above the average. That's interesting."

"By the way, Fletcher," said Kennedy, "I wish you would introduce me to your fiancee tomorrow. I would

"Gladly," Fletcher replied, "only you must be careful what you talk about. Remember, the death of uncle has

"I will," promised Kennedy, "and by the way, she may think it strange that I'm out here at a time like this.

Perhaps you had better tell her I'm a nerve specialist or something of that sort anything not to connect me

The next morning found Kennedy out bright and early, for he had not had a very good chance to do anything

during the night except reconstruct the details. He was now down by the back gate with his camera, where I

found him turning it enddown and photographing the road. Together we made a thorough search of the

After breakfast I improvised a dark room and developed the films, while Craig went down the back lane

along the shore "looking for clues," as he said briefly. Toward noon he returned, and I could see that he was

in a brown study. So I said nothing, but handed him the photographs of the road. He took them and laid them

down in a long line on the library floor. They seemed to consist of little ridges of dirt on either side of a series

of regular round spots, some of the spots very clear and distinct on the sides, others quite obscure in the

centre. Now and then where you would expect to see one of the spots, just for the symmetry of the thing, it

was missing. As I looked at the line of photographs on the floor I saw that they were a photograph of the

track made by the tire of an automobile, and I suddenly recalled what the gardener had said.

Next Craig produced the results of his morning's work, which consisted of several dozen sheets of white

paper, carefully separated into three bundles. These he also laid down in long lines on the floor, each package

in a separate line. Then I began to realise what he was doing, and became fascinated in watching him on his

hands and knees eagerly scanning the papers and comparing them with the photographs. At last he gathered

up two of the sets of papers very decisively and threw them away. Then he shifted the third set a bit, and laid

"Look at these, Walter," he said. "Now take this deep and sharp indentation. Well, there's a corresponding

one in the photograph. So you can pick them out one for another. Now here's one missing altogether on the

Almost like a schoolboy in his glee, he was comparing the little round circles made by the metal insertions in

an "antiskid" automobile tire. Time and again I had seen imprints like that left in the dust and grease of an

asphalted street or the mud of a road. It had never occurred to me that they might be used in any way. Yet

here Craig was, calmly tracing out the similarity before my very eyes, identifying the marks made in the

As I followed him, I had a most curious feeling of admiration for his genius. "Craig," I cried, "that's the

"There speaks the yellow journalist," he answered merrily. "'Thumb Print System Applied to Motor Cars'I

can see the Sunday feature story you have in your mind with that headline already. Yes, Walter, that's

precisely what this is. The Berlin police have used it a number of times with the most startling results."

"But, Craig," I exclaimed suddenly, "the paper prints, where did you get them? What machine is it?"

"It's one not very far from here," he answered sententiously, and I saw he would say nothing more that might

fix a false suspicion on anyone. Still, my curiosity was so great that if there had been an opportunity I

certainly should have tried out his plan on all the cars in the Fletcher garage.

Kennedy would say nothing more, and we ate our luncheon in silence. Fletcher, who had decided to lunch

with the Greenes, called Kennedy up on the telephone to tell him it would be all right for him to call on Miss

"And I may bring over the apparatus I once described to you to determine just what her nervous condition

is?" he asked. Apparently the answer was yes, for Kennedy hung up the receiver with a satisfied,

"Walter, I want you to come along with me this afternoon as my assistant. Remember I'm now Dr. Kennedy,

the nerve specialist, and you are Dr. Jameson, my colleague, and we are to be in consultation on a most

"Do you think that's fair?" I asked hotly, "to take that girl off her guard, to insinuate yourself into her

confidence as a medical adviser, and worm out of her some find of fact incriminating someone? I suppose

that's your plan, and I don't like the ethics, or rather the lack of ethics, of the thing."

"Now think a minute, Walter. Perhaps I am wrong; I don't know. Certainly I feel that the end will justify the

means. I have an idea that I can get from Miss Bond the only clue that I need, one that will lead straight to the

criminal. Who knows? I have a suspicion that the thing I'm going to do is the highest form of your socalled

ethics. If what Fletcher tells us is true that girl is going insane over this thing. Why should she be so shocked

over the death of an uncle she did not live with? I tell you she knows something about this case that it is

necessary for us to know, too. If she doesn't tell someone, it will eat her mind out. I'll add a dinner to the box

of cigars we have already bet on this case that what I'm going to do is for the bestfor her best."

Again I yielded, for I was coming to have more and more faith in the old Kennedy I had seen made over into

a firstclass detective, and together we started for the Greenes', Craig carrying something in one of those long

Fletcher met us on the driveway. He seemed to be very much affected, for his face was drawn, and he shifted

from one position to another nervously, from which we inferred that Miss Bond was feeling worse. It was late

afternoon, almost verging on twilight, as he led us through the receptionhall and thence onto a long porch

Miss Bond was half reclining in a wicker chair us we entered. She started to rise to greet us, but Fletcher

gently restrained her, saying, as he introduced us, that he guessed the doctors would pardon any informality

Fletcher was a pretty fine fellow, and I had come to like him; but I soon found myself wondering what he had

ever done to deserve winning such a girl as Helen Bond. She was what I should describe as the ideal type of

"new" woman,tall and athletic, yet without any affectation of mannishness. The very first thought that

struck me was the incongruousness of a girl of her type suffering from an attack of "nerves," and I felt sure it

must be as Craig had said, that she was concealing a secret that was having a terrible effect on her. A casual

glance might not have betrayed the true state of her feelings, for her dark hair and large brown eyes and the

tan of many suns on her face and arms betokened anything but the neurasthenic. One felt instinctively that

The sun sinking toward the hills across the bay softened the brown of her skin and, as I observed by watching

her closely, served partially to conceal the nervousness which was wholly unnatural in a girl of such poise.

When she smiled there was a false note in it; it was forced and it was sufficiently evident to me that she was

going through a mental hell of conflicting emotions that would have killed a woman of less selfcontrol.

I felt that I would like to be in Fletcher's shoesdoubly so when, at Kennedy's request, he withdrew, leaving

me to witness the torture of a woman of such fine sensibilities, already hunted remorselessly by her own

Still, I will give Kennedy credit for a tactfulness that I didn't know the old fellow possessed. He carried

through the preliminary questions very well for a pseudodoctor, appealing to me as his assistant on

inconsequential things that enabled me to "save my face" perfectly. When he came to the critical moment of

opening the black bag, he made a very appropriate and easy remark about not having brought any sharp shiny

"All I wish to do, Miss Bond, is to make a few, simple little tests of your nervous condition. One of them we

specialists call reaction time, and another is a test of heart action. Neither is of any seriousness at all, so I beg

of you not to become excited, for the chief value consists in having the patient perfectly quiet and normal.

After they are over I think I'll know whether to prescribe absolute rest or a visit to Newport."

She smiled languidly, as he adjusted a long, tightly fitting rubber glove on her shapely forearm and then

encased it in a larger, absolutely inflexible covering of leather. Between the rubber glove and the leather

covering was a liquid communicating by a glass tube with a sort of dial. Craig had often explained to me how

the pressure of the blood was registered most minutely on the dial, showing the varied emotions as keenly as

if you had taken a peep into the very mind of the subject. I think the experimental psychologists called the

Then he had an apparatus which measured association time. The essential part of this instrument was the

operation of a very delicate stopwatch, and this duty was given to me. It was nothing more nor less than

measuring the time that elapsed between his questions to her and her answers, while he recorded the actual

questions and answers and noted the results which I worked out. Neither of us was unfamiliar with the

process, for when we were in college these instruments were just coming into use in America. Kennedy had

never let his particular branch of science narrow him, but had made a practice of keeping abreast of all the

important discoveries and methods in other fields. Besides, I had read articles about the chronoscope, the

plethysmograph, the sphygmograph, and others of the new psychological instruments. Craig carried it off,

"Now, Miss Bond," he said, and his voice was so reassuring and persuasive that I could see she was not made

even a shade more nervous by our simple preparations, "the gameit is just like a children's parlour

gameis just this: I will say a wordtake 'dog,' for instance. You are to answer back immediately the first

word that comes into your mind suggested by itsay 'cat.' I will say 'chain,' for example, and probably you

will answer 'collar,' and so on. Do you catch my meaning? It may seem ridiculous, no doubt, but before we

are through I feel sure you'll see how valuable such a test is, particularly in a simple case of nervousness such

I don't think she found any sinister interpretation in his words, but I did, and if ever I wanted to protest it was

He was beginning. It was clearly up to me to give in and not interfere. As closely as I was able I kept my eyes

riveted on the watch and other apparatus, while my ears and heart followed with mingled emotions the low,

I will not give all the test, for there was much of it, particularly at the start, that was in reality valueless, since

it was merely leading up to the "surprise tests." From the colourless questions Kennedy suddenly changed. It

was done in an instant, when Miss Bond had been completely disarmed and put off her guard.

Yes, it was plain that time. But the words followed one another in quick succession. There was no rest. She

had no chance to collect herself. I noted the marked difference in the reaction time and, in my sympathy,

"Apaches." Craig gave it its Gallicised pronunciation, "Apash." "Really, Dr. Kennedy," she said, "there is

nothing I can associate with themwell, yes, les vaches, I believe. You had better count that question out.

"Very well, let us try again," he replied with a forced unconcern, though the answer seemed to interest him,

No lawyer could have revelled in an opportunity for putting leading questions more ruthlessly than did

"Electric light," he emphasised. "Broadway," she answered, endeavouring to force a new association of ideas

"Safe." "Vaults." Out of the corner of my eye I could see that the indicator showed a tremendously increased

heart action. As for the reaction time, I noted that it was growing longer and more significant. Remorselessly

"Lock." Again no answer. He hurried his words. I was leaning forward, tense with excitement and sympathy.

As the last word was uttered her air of frightened defiance was swept away. With a cry of anguish, she

swayed to her feet. "No, no, doctor, you must not, you must not," she cried with outstretched arms. "Why do

you pick out those words of all others? Can it be" If I had not caught her I believe she would have fainted.

The indicator showed a heart alternately throbbing with feverish excitement and almost stopping with fear.

What would Kennedy do next, I wondered, determined to shut him off as soon as I possibly could. From the

moment I had seen her I had been under her spell. Mine should have been Fletcher's place, I knew, though I

cannot but say that I felt a certain grim pleasure in supporting even momentarily such a woman in her time of

"Can it be that you have guessed what no one in the world, no, not even dear old Jack, dreams Oh, I shall go

Kennedy was on his feet in an instant, advancing toward her. The look in his eyes was answer enough for her.

"Miss Bond," he said in a voice that forced attentionit was low and vibrating with feeling "Miss Bond,

"So can I," came back the same tense voice, "when I know the truth about that friend."

Then for the first time tears came in a storm. Her breath was quick and feverish. "No one will ever believe, no

"Yes. No. Here it is. How could I destroy it, even though it was burning out my very soul?"

She literally tore the paper from the bosom of her dress and cast it from her in horror and terror.

Kennedy picked it up, opened it, and glanced hurriedly through it. "Miss Bond," he said, "Jack shall never

know a word of this. I shall tell him that the will has been found unexpectedly in John Fletcher's desk among

some other papers. Walter, swear on your honour as a gentleman that this will was found in old Fletcher's

"Dr. Kennedy, how can I ever thank you?" she exclaimed, sinking wearily down into a chair and pressing her

"By telling me just how you came by this will, so that when you and Fletcher are married I may be as good a

friend, without suspicion, to you as I am to him. I think a full confession would do you good, Miss Bond.

"This much I know, Miss Bond. Last summer in Paris with the Greenes you must have chanced to hear, of

Pillard, the Apache, one of the most noted cracksmen the world has ever produced. You sought him out. He

taught you how to paint your fingers with a rubber composition, how to use an electric drill, how to use the

oldfashioned jimmy. You went down to Fletcherwood by the back road about a quarter after eleven the

night of the robbery in the Greenes' little electric runabout. You entered the library by an unlocked window,

you coupled your drill to the electric light connections of the chandelier. You had to work quickly, for the

power would go off at midnight, yet you could not do the job later, when they were sleeping more soundly,

It was uncanny as Kennedy rushed along in his reconstruction of the scene, almost unbelievable. The girl

"John Fletcher was wakeful that night. Somehow or other he heard you at work. He entered the library and,

by the light streaming from his bedroom, he saw who it was. In anger he must have addressed you, and his

passion got the better of his agehe fell suddenly on the floor with a stroke of apoplexy. As you bent over

him he died. But why did you ever attempt so foolish an undertaking? Didn't you know that other people

knew of the will and its terms, that you were sure to be traced out in the end, if not by friends, by foes? How

did you suppose you could profit by destroying the will, of which others knew the provisions?"

Any other woman than Helen Bond would have been hysterical long before Kennedy had finished pressing

home remorselessly one fact after another of her story. But, with her, the relief now after the tension of many

What was it? Had she some secret lover for whom she had dared all to secure the family fortune? Or was she

shielding someone dearer to her than her own reputation? Why had Kennedy made Fletcher withdraw?

Her eyes dropped and her breast rose and fell with suppressed emotion. Yet I was hardly prepared for her

Neither of us spoke. I, at least, had fallen completely under the spell of this masterful woman. Right or

"Yes," she said as her voice thrilled with emotion, "strange as it may sound to you, it was not love of self that

made me do it. I was, I am madly in love with Jack. No other man has ever inspired such respect and love as

he has. His work in the university I have fairly gloated over. And yetand yet, Dr. Kennedy, can you not see

that I am different from Jack? What would I do with the income of the wife of even the dean of the new

school? The annuity provided for me in that will is paltry. I need millions. From the tiniest baby I have been

reared that way. I have always expected this fortune. I have been given everything I wanted. But it is different

when one is marriedyou must have your own money. I need a fortune, for then I could have the town

house, the country house, the yacht, the motors, the clothes, the servants that I needthey are as much a part

"And now it was all to slip from my hands. True, it was to go in such a way by this last will as to make Jack

happy in his new school. I could have let that go, if that was all. There are other fortunes that have been laid

at my feet. But I wanted Jack, and I knew Jack wanted me. Dear boy, he never could realise how utterly

unhappy intellectual poverty would have made me and how my unhappiness would have reacted on him in

the end. In reality this great and beneficent philanthropy was finally to blight both our love and our lives.

"What was I to do? Stand by and see my life and my love ruined or refuse Jack for the fortune of a man I did

not love? Helen Bond is not that kind of a woman, I said to myself. I consulted the greatest lawyer I knew. I

put a hypothetical case to him, and asked his opinion in such a way as to make him believe he was advising

me how to make an unbreakable will. He told me of provisions and clauses to avoid, particularly in making

benefactions. That was what I wanted to know. I would put one of those clauses in my uncle's will. I

practised uncle's writing till I was as good a forger of that clause as anyone could have become. I had picked

Then I went to Paris and, as you have guessed, learned how to get things out of a safe like that of uncle's.

Before God, all I planned to do was to get that will, change it, replace it, and trust that uncle would never

notice the change. Then when he was gone, I would have contested the will. I would have got my full share

either by court proceedings or by settlement out of court. You see, I had planned it all out. The school would

have been foundedI, we would have founded it. What difference, I said, did thirty millions or fifty millions

make to an impersonal school, a school not yet even in existence? The twenty million dollars or so difference,

"I had planned to steal the cash in the safe, anything to divert attention from the will and make it look like a

plain robbery. I would have done the altering of the will that night and have returned it to the safe before

morning. But it was not to be. I had almost opened the safe when my uncle entered the room. His anger

completely unnerved me, and from the moment I saw him on the floor to this I haven't had a sane thought. I

forgot to take the cash, I forgot everything but that will. My only thought was that I must get it and destroy it.

I doubt if I could have altered it with my nerves so upset. There, now you have my whole story. I am at your

"No," said Kennedy, "believe me, there is a mental statute of limitations that as far as Jameson and myself are

"Fletcher," said Kennedy, "a night's rest is all Miss Bond really needs. It is simply a case of overwrought

nerves, and it will pass off of itself. Still, I would advise a change of scene as soon as possible. Good

A halfhour later, Kennedy, with wellsimulated excitement, was racing me in the car up to the Greenes'

"Fletcher, Fletcher," cried Kennedy, "look what Walter and I have just discovered in a tin strongbox poked

Fletcher seized the will and by the dim light that shone through from the hall read it hastily. "Thank God," he

Kennedy was deeply immersed in writing a lecture on the chemical compositions of various bacterial toxins

and antitoxins, a thing which was as unfamiliar to me as Kamchatka, but as familiar to Kennedy as Broadway

"Really," he remarked, laying down his fountainpen and lighting his cigar for the hundredth time, "the more

one thinks of how the modern criminal misses his opportunities the more astonishing it seems. Why do they

stick to pistols, chloroform, and prussic acid when there is such a splendid assortment of refined methods

"Give it up, old man," I replied helplessly, "unless it is because they haven't any imagination. I hope they

don't use them. What would become of my business if they did? How would you ever get a really dramatic

news feature for the Star out of such a thing? 'Dotted line marks route taken by fatal germ; cross indicates

spot where antitoxin attacked it'ha! ha! not much for the yellow journals in that, Craig."

"To my mind, Walter, it would be the height of the dramaticfar more dramatic than sending a bullet into a

man. Any fool can shoot a pistol or cut a throat, but it takes brains to be uptodate."

"It may be so;" I admitted, and went on reading, while Kennedy scratched away diligently on his lecture. I

mention this conversation both because it bears on my story, by a rather peculiar coincidence, and because it

showed me a new side of Kennedy's amazing researches. He was as much interested in bacteria as in

It was perhaps a quarter of an hour later when the buzzer on our hall door sounded. Imagine my surprise on

opening the door to discover the slight figure of what appeared to be a most fascinating young lady who was

heavily veiled. She was in a state almost bordering on hysteria, as even I, in spite of my usual obtuseness,

The presence of a lady in our apartment was such a novelty that really I forgot to disappear, but busied myself

straightening the furniture and opening a window to allow the odour of stale tobacco to escape.

"My name is Eveline Bisbee," she began. "I have heard, Professor Kennedy, that you are an adept at getting

"You flatter me;" he said in acknowledgment. "Who was so foolish as to tell you that"

"I beg your pardon," I interrupted, "I didn't mean to intrude. I think I'll go out. I'll be back in an hour or two."

"If it is possible I wish you would stay and hear my story. I am told that you and Professor Kennedy always

"Mrs. Fletcher, of Great Neck," she explained, "has told me. I believe Professor Kennedy performed a great

service for the Fletchers, though I do not know what it was. At any rate, I have come to you with my case, in

which I have small hope of obtaining assistance unless you can help me. If Professor Kennedy cannot solve

it, well, I'm afraid nobody can." She paused a moment, then added, "No doubt you have read of the death of

Of course we had. Who did not know that "Jim" Bisbee, the southern California oilmagnate, had died

suddenly of typhoid fever at the private hospital of Dr. Bell, where he had been taken from his magnificent

apartment on Riverside Drive? Kennedy and I had discussed it at the time. We had commented on the

artificiality of the twentieth century. No longer did people have homes; they had apartments, I had said. They

didn't fall ill in the good oldfashioned way any more, either in fact, they even hired special rooms to die in.

They hired halls for funeral services. It was a wonder that they didn't hire graves. It was all part of our

twentieth century breakup of tradition. Indeed we did know about the death of Jim Bisbee. But there was

nothing mysterious about it. It was just typical in all its surroundings of the first decade of the twentieth

century in a great, artificial citya lonely death of a great man surrounded by all that money could buy.

We had read of his ward, too, the beautiful Miss Eveline Bisbee, a distant relation. As under the heat of the

room and her excitement, she raised her veil, we were very much interested in her. At least, I am sure that

"There is something about my guardian's death," she began in a low and tremulous voice, "that I am sure will

bear investigating. It may be only a woman's foolish fears, butI haven't told this to a soul till now, except

Mrs. Fletcher. My guardian had, as you perhaps know, spent his summer at his country place at Bisbee Hall,

New Jersey, from which he returned rather suddenly about a week ago. Our friends thought it merely a

strange whim that he should return to the city before the summer was fairly over, but it was not. The day

before he returned, his gardener fell sick of typhoid. That decided Mr. Bisbee to return to the city on the

following day. Imagine his consternation to find his valet stricken the very next morning. Of course they

motored to New York immediately, then he wired to me at Newport, and together we opened his apartment at

"But that was not to be the end of it. One after another, the servants at Bisbee Hall were taken with the

disease until five of them were down. Then came the last blowMr. Bisbee fell a victim in New York. So

far I have been spared. But who knows how much longer it will last? I have been so frightened that I haven't

eaten a meal in the apartment since I came back. When I am hungry I simply steal out to a hotela different

one every time. I never drink any water except that which I have surreptitiously boiled in my own room over

a gasstove. Disinfectants and germicides have been used by the gallon, and still I don't feel safe. Even the

health authorities don't remove my fears. With my guardian's death I had begun to feel that possibly it was

over. But no. This morning another servant who came up from the hall last week was taken sick, and the

doctor pronounces that typhoid, too. Will I be the next? Is it just a foolish fear? Why does it pursue us to New

I don't think I ever saw a living creature more overcome by horror, by an invisible, deadly fear. That was why

it was doubly horrible in a girl so attractive as Eveline Bisbee. As I listened I felt how terrible it must be to be

pursued by such a fear. What must it be to be dogged by a disease as relentlessly as the typhoid had dogged

her? If it had been some great, but visible, tangible peril how gladly I could have faced it merely for the smile

of a woman like this. But it was a peril that only knowledge and patience could meet. Instinctively I turned

"Is there anyone you suspect of being the cause of such an epidemic?" he asked. "I may as well tell you right

now that I have already formed two theoriesone perfectly natural, the other diabolical. Tell me

"Well, I had expected to receive a fortune of one million dollars, free and clear, by his will and this morning I

am informed by his lawyer, James Denny, that a new will had been made. It is still one million. But the

remainder, instead of going to a number of charities in which he was known to be interested, goes to form a

trust fund for the Bisbee School of Mechanical Arts, of which Mr. Denny is the sole trustee. Of course, I do

not know much about my guardian's interests while he was alive, but it strikes me as strange that he should

have changed so radically, and, besides, the new will is so worded that if I die without children my million

"Oh, I can't express them. Maybe after all it's only a woman's silly intuition. But often I have thought in the

past few days about this illness of my guardian. It was so queer. He was always so careful. And you know the

She hesitated. "No," she replied, "but if you had known Mr. Bisbee you would think it strange, too. He had a

horror of infectious and contagious diseases. His apartment and his country home were models. No

sanitarium could have been more punctilious. He lived what one of his friends called an antiseptic life.

Maybe I am foolish, but it keeps getting closer and closer to me now, andwell, I wish you'd look into the

case. Please set my mind at rest and assure me that nothing is wrong, that it is all natural."

"I will help you, Miss Bisbee. Tomorrow night I want to take a trip quietly to Bisbee Hall. You will see that

it is all right, that I have the proper letters so I can investigate thoroughly"

I shall never forget the mute and eloquent thanks with which she said good night after Kennedy's promise.

Kennedy sat with his eyes shaded under his hand for fully an hour after she had left. Then he suddenly

jumped up. "Walter," he said, "let us go over to Dr. Bell's. I know the head nurse there. We may possibly

As we sat in the waitingroom with its thick Oriental rugs and handsome mahogany furniture, I found myself

going back to our conversation of the early evening. "By Jove, Kennedy, you were right," I exclaimed. "If

there is anything in this germplot idea of hers it is indeed the height of the dramaticit is diabolical. No

Just then the head nurse came in, a large woman breathing of germlessness and cheerfulness in her spotless

uniform. We were shown every courtesy. There was, in fact, nothing to conceal. The visit set at rest my last

suspicion that perhaps Jim Bisbee had been poisoned by a drug. The charts of his temperature and the

sincerity of the nurse were absolutely convincing. It had really been typhoid, and there was nothing to be

Back at the apartment, Craig began packing his suitcase with the few things he would need for a journey. "I'm

going out to Bisbee Hall tomorrow for a few days, Walter, and if you could find it convenient to come along I

"You needn't be. I'm going down to the army post on Governor's Island first to be vaccinated against typhoid.

Then I am going to wait a few hours till it takes effect before going. It's the only place in the city where one

can be inoculated against it, so far as I know. While three inoculations are really best, I understand that one is

Down at the army post the next morning we had no difficulty in being inoculated against the disease. The

work of immunising our army was going on at that time, and several thousands of soldiers in various parts of

the country had already been vaccinated, with the best of results. "Do many civilians come over to be

"Only their nameswe can't follow them up outside the army, to see how it works. Still, when they come to

us as you and Mr. Jameson have done we are perfectly willing to vaccinate them. The Army Medical Corps

takes the position that if it is good for the army it is good for civil life, and as long as only a few civilians

Kennedy glanced hurriedly through the short list of names, pulled out his notebook, made an entry, and

Bisbee Hall was a splendid place set in the heart of a great park whose area was measured by square miles

rather than by acres. But Craig did not propose to stay there, for he arranged for accommodations in a

nearby town, where we were to take our meals also. It was late when we arrived, and we spent a restless

night, for the inoculation "took." It wasn't any worse than a light attack of the grippe, and in the morning we

were both all right again, after the passing of what is called the "negative phase." I, for one, felt much safer.

The town was very much excited over the epidemic at the hall, and if I had been wondering why Craig

wanted me along my wonder was soon set at rest. He had me scouring the town and country looking up every

case or rumour of typhoid for miles around. I made the local weekly paper my headquarters, and the editor

was very obliging. He let me read all his news letters from his local correspondent at every crossroads. I

waded through accounts of new calves and colts, new fences and barns, who "Sundayed" with his brother,

etc., and soon had a list of all the cases in that part of the country. It was not a long one, but it was scattered.

After I had traced them out, following Kennedy's instructions, they showed nothing, except that they were

Meanwhile, Kennedy was very busy there. He had a microscope and slides and testtubes and chemicals for

testing things, and I don't know what all, for there was not time to initiate me into all the mysteries. He tested

the water from the various driven wells and in the watertank, and the milk from the cows;he tried to find

out what food had come in from outside, though there was practically none, for the hall was selfsupporting.

When I rejoined him that night he was clearly perplexed. I don't think my report decreased his perplexity,

"There is only one thing left as far as I have been able to discover after one day's work," he said, after we had

gone over our activities for the day. "Jim Bisbee never drank the water from his own wells. He always drank

a bottled water shipped down from a camp of his in New York State, where he had a remarkable mountain

spring. I tested a number of the full bottles at the hall, but they were perfectly pure. There wasn't a trace of

the bacillus typhosus in any of them. Then it occurred to me that, after all, that was not the thing to do. I

should test the empty ones. But there weren't any empty ones. They told me they had all been taken down to

the freight station yesterday to be shipped back to the camp. I hope they haven't gone yet. Let's drive around

The freightmaster was just leaving, but when he learned we were from the hall he consented to let us

examine the bottles. They were corked and in wooden cases, which protected them perfectly. By the light of

the station lamps and the aid of a pocketlens, Kennedy examined them on the outside and satisfied himself

that after being replaced in the wooden cases the bottles themselves had not been handled.

"Will you let me borrow some of these bottles tonight" he asked the agent. "I'll give you my word that they

The stationagent reluctantly yielded; especially as a small green banknote figured in the transaction. Craig

and I tenderly lifted the big bottles in their cases into our trap and drove back to our rooms in the hotel. It

quite excited the hangerson to see us drive up with a lot of empty fivegallon bottles and carry them

upstairs, but I had long ago given up having any fear of public opinion in carrying out anything Craig

In our room we worked far into the night. Craig carefully swabbed out the bottom and sides of each bottle by

inserting a little piece of cotton on the end of a long wire. Then he squeezed the water out of the cotton swab

on small glass slides coated with agaragar, or Japanese seaweed, a medium in which germcultures multiply

rapidly. He put the slides away in a little oven with an alcohollamp which he had brought along, leaving

I had noticed all this time that he was very particular not to touch any of the bottles on the outside. As for me,

I wouldn't have touched them for the world. In fact, I was getting so I hesitated to touch anything. I was

almost afraid to breathe, though I knew there was no harm in that. However, it was not danger of infection in

touching the bottles that made Craig so careful. He had noted, in the dim light of the station lamps, what

seemed to be fingermarks on the bottles, and they had interested him, in fact, had decided him on a further

"I am now going to bring out these very faint fingerprints on the bottles," remarked Craig, proceeding with

his examination in the better light of our room. "Here is some powder known to chemists as 'grey

powder'mercury and chalk. I sprinkle it over the faint markings, so, and then I brush it off with a

camel'shair brush lightly. That brings out the imprint much more clearly, as you can see. For instance, if you

place your dry thumb on a piece of white paper you leave no visible impression. If grey powder is sprinkled

over the spot and then brushed off a distinct impression is seen. If the impression of the fingers is left on

something soft, like wax, it is often best to use printers' ink to bring out the ridges and patterns of the

fingermarks. And so on for various materials. Quite a science has been built up around fingerprints.

"I wish I had that enlarging camera which I have in my laboratory. However, my ordinary camera will do, for

all I want is to preserve a record of these marks, and I can enlarge the photographs later. In the morning I will

photograph these marks and you can do the developing of the films. Tonight we'll improvise the bathroom

as a darkroom and get everything ready so that we can start in bright and early."

We were, indeed, up early. One never has difficulty in getting up early in the country: it is so noisy, at least to

a citybred man. City noise at five A.M. is sepulchral silence compared with bucolic activity at that hour.

There were a dozen negatives which I set about developing after Craig had used up all our films. Meanwhile,

he busied himself adjusting his microscope and testtubes and getting the agar slides ready for examination.

Shirtsleeves rolled up, I was deeply immersed in my work when I heard a shout in the next room, and the

He shut the door with a bang. "Hurrah, Walter!" he exclaimed. "I think I have it, at last. I have just found

I almost dropped the pan of acid I was holding, in my excitement. "Well," I said, concealing my own

surprise, "I've found out something, too. Every one of these fingerprints so far is from the same pair of

We scarcely ate any breakfast, and were soon on our way up to the hall. Craig had provided himself at the

local stationer's with an inkingpad, such as is used for rubber stamps. At the hall he proceeded to get the

It was quite a long and difficult piece of work to compare the fingerprints we had taken with those

photographed, in spite of the fact that writers descant on the ease with which criminals are traced by this

system devised by the famous Galton. However, we at last finished the job between us; or rather Craig

finished it, with an occasional remark from me. His dexterity amazed me; it was more than mere book

For a moment we sat regarding each other hopelessly. None of the fingerprints taken at the hall tallied with

the photographed prints. Then Craig rang for the housekeeper, a faithful old soul whom even the typhoid

"Are you sure I have seen all the servants who were at the hall while Mr. Bisbee was here" asked Craig.

"Why, no, siryou didn't ask that. You asked to see all who are here now. There is only one who has left,

the cook, Bridget Fallon. She left a couple of days agosaid she was going back to New York to get another

job. Glad enough I was to get rid of her, too, for she was drunk most of the time after the typhoid appeared."

"Well, Walter, I guess we shall have to go back to New York again, then," exclaimed Kennedy. "Oh, I beg

pardon, Mrs. Rawson, for interrupting. Thank you ever so much. Where did Bridget come from?"

"She came well recommended, sir. Here is the letter in my writingdesk. She had been employed by the

"H'm!" exclaimed Craig. "Well, it will not be so hard for us to unravel this matter, after all, when we get back

to the city. We must make that noon train, Walter. There is nothing more for us to do here."

Emerging from the "Tube" at Ninth Street, Craig hustled me into a taxicab, and in almost no time we were at

Fortunately, Inspector Barney O'Connor was in and in an amiable mood, too, for Kennedy had been careful

that the Central Office received a large share of credit for the Kerr Parker case. Craig sketched hastily the

details of this new case. O'Connor's face was a study. His honest blue Irish eyes fairly bulged in wonder, and

when Craig concluded with a request for help I think O'Connor would have given him anything in the office,

"First, I want one of your men to go to the surrogate's office and get the original of the will. I shall return it

within a couple of hoursall I want to do is to make a photographic copy. Then another man must find this

lawyer, James Denny, and in some way get his fingerprintsyou must arrange that yourself. And send

another fellow up to the employment offices on Fourth Avenue and have him locate this cook, Bridget

Fallon. I want her fingerprints, too. Perhaps she had better be detained, for I don't want her to get away. Oh,

and say, O'Connor, do you want to finish this case up like the crack of a whip tonight?"

"Let me see. It is now four o'clock. If you can get hold of all these people in time I think I shall be ready for

the final scene tonightsay, at nine. You know how to arrange it. Have them all present at my laboratory at

nine, and I promise we shall have a story that will get into the morning papers with leaded type on the front

"Now, Walter," he added, as we hurried down to the taxicab again, "I want you to drop off at the Department

of Health with this card to the commissioner. I believe you know Dr. Leslie. Well, ask him if he knows

anything about this Bridget Fallon. I will go on uptown to the laboratory and get my apparatus ready. You

needn't come up till nine, old fellow, for I shall be busy till then, but be sure when you come that you bring

I didn't understand it, but I took the card and obeyed implicitly. It is needless to say that I was keyed up to the

greatest pitch of excitement during my interview with the health commissioner, when I finally got in to see

him. I hadn't talked to him long before a great light struck me, and I began to see what Craig was driving at.

"If you don't mind, Mr. Jameson." he said, after I had told him as much of my story as I could, "will you call

up Professor Kennedy and tell him I'd like very much to be present tonight myself?"

"Certainly I will," I replied, glad to get my errand done in firstclass fashion in that way.

Things must have been running smoothly, for while I was sitting in our apartment after dinner, impatiently

waiting for halfpast eight, when the commissioner had promised to call for me and go up to the laboratory,

"Walter, might I ask a favour of you?" he said. "When the commissioner comes ask him to stop at the Louis

Quinze and bring Miss Bisbee up, too. Tell her it is important. No more now. Things are going ahead fine."

Promptly at nine we were assembled, a curious crowd. The health commissioner and the inspector, being

members of the same political party, greeted each other by their first names. Miss Bisbee was nervous,

Bridget was abusive, Denny was sullen. As for Kennedy, he was, as usual, as cool as a lump of ice. And

At one end of the room Craig had placed a large white sheet such as he used in his stereopticon lectures,

while at the top of the tier of seats that made a sort of little amphitheatre out of his lectureroom his

"Not exactly," said Craig, "thoughyes, they will be moving in another sense. Now, if we are all ready, I'll

Kennedy snapped a little announcer such as lecturers use. "Let me invite your attention to these enlargements

of fingerprints," he began, as a huge thumb appeared on the screen. "Here we have a series of fingerprints

which I will show one after another slowly. They are all of the fingers of the same person, and they were

found on some empty bottles of spring water used at Bisbee Hall during the two weeks previous to the

"Here are, in succession, the fingerprints of the various servants employed about the houseand of a

guest," added Craig, with a slight change of tone. "They differ markedly from the fingerprints on the glass,"

he continued, as one after another appeared, "all except this last one. That is identical. It is, Inspector, what

we call a composite type of fingerprintin this case a combination of what is called the 'loop' and 'whorl'

No sound broke the stillness save the sputtering of the oxygen on the calcium of the stereopticon.

"The owner of the fingers from which these prints were made is in this room. It was from typhoid germs on

these fingers that the fever was introduced into the drinking water at Bisbee Hall."

Kennedy paused to emphasise the statement, then continued. "I am now going to ask Dr. Leslie to give us a

little talk on a recent discovery in the field of typhoid feveryou understand, Commissioner, what I mean, I

"Well," began Dr. Leslie, clearing his throat, "within the past year or two we have made a most weird and

startling discovery in typhoid fever. We have found what we now call 'typhoid carriers'persons who do not

have the disease themselves, perhaps never have had it, but who are literally living testtubes of the typhoid

bacillus. It is positively uncanny. Everywhere they go they scatter the disease. Down at the department we

have the records of a number of such instances, and our men in the research laboratories have come to the

conclusion that, far from being of rare occurrence, these cases are comparatively common. I have in mind one

particular case of a servant girl, who, during the past five or six years, has been employed in several families.

"In every family typhoid fever has later broken out. Experts have traced out at least thirty, cases and several

deaths due to this one person. In another case we found an epidemic up in Harlem to be due to a typhoid

carrier on a remote farm in Connecticut. This carrier, innocently enough, it is true, contaminated the

milksupply coming from that farm. The result was over fifty cases of typhoid here in this city.

"However, to return to the case of the servant I have mentioned. Last spring we had her under surveillance,

but as there was no law by which we could restrain her permanently she is still at large. I think one of the

Sunday papers at the time had an account of her they called her 'Typhoid Bridget,' and in red ink she was

drawn across the page in gruesome fashion, frying the skulls of her victims in a fryingpan over a roaring

"Excuse me, Commissioner, if I interrupt, but I think we have carried this part of the programme far enough

to be absolutely convincing," said Craig. "Thank you very much for the clear way in which you have put it."

Craig snapped the announcer, and a letter appeared on the screen. He said nothing, but let us read it through.

This is to certify that Bridget Fallon has been employed in my family at Shelter Island for the past season and

"Before God, Mr. Kennedy, I'm innocent," screeched Bridget. "Don't have me arrested. I'm innocent. I'm

Again the announcer snapped. This time the last page of Mr. Bisbee's will appeared on the sheet, ending with

"I'm now going to show these two specimens of handwriting very greatly enlarged," he said, as the

"An author of many scientific works, Dr. Lindsay Johnson, of London, has recently elaborated a new theory

with regard to individuality in handwriting. He maintains that in certain diseases a person's pulse beats are

individual, and that no one suffering from any such disease can control, even for a brief space of time, the

frequency or peculiar irregularities of his heart's action, as shown by a chart recording his pulsation. Such a

chart is obtained for medical purposes by means of a sphygmograph, an instrument fitted to the patient's

forearm and supplied with a needle, which can be so arranged as to record automatically on a prepared sheet

of paper the peculiar force and frequency of the pulsation. Or the pulsation may be simply observed in the

rise and fall of a liquid in a tube. Dr. Johnson holds the opinion that a pen in the hand of a writer serves, in a

modified degree, the same end as the needle in the firstnamed form of the sphygmograph and that in such a

person's handwriting one can see by projecting the letters, greatly magnified, on a screen, the scarcely

perceptible turns and quivers made in the lines by the spontaneous action of that person's peculiar pulsation.

"To prove this, the doctor carried out an experiment at Charing Cross Hospital. At his request a number of

patients suffering from heart and kidney diseases wrote the Lord's Prayer in their ordinary handwriting. The

different manuscripts were then taken and examined microscopically. By throwing them, highly magnified,

on a screen, the jerks or involuntary motions due to the patient's peculiar pulsations were distinctly visible.

The handwriting of persons in normal health, says Dr. Johnson, does not always show their pulse beats. What

one can say, however, is that when a document, purporting to be written by a certain person, contains traces

of pulse beats and the normal handwriting of that person does not show them, then clearly that document is a

"Now, in these two specimens of handwriting which we have enlarged it is plain that the writers of both of

them suffered from a certain peculiar disease of the heart. Moreover, I am prepared to show that the pulse

beats exhibited in the case of certain penstrokes in one of these documents are exhibited in similar strokes in

the other. Furthermore, I have ascertained from his family physician, whose affidavit I have here, that Mr.

Bisbee did not suffer from this or any other form of heart disease. Mr. CaswellJones, in addition to wiring

me that he refused to write Bridget Fallon a recommendation after the typhoid broke out in his country house,

also says he does not suffer from heart disease in any form. From the tremulous character of the letters and

figures in both these documents, which when magnified is the more easily detected, I therefore conclude that

both are forgeries, and I am ready to go farther and say that they are forgeries from the same hand.

"It usually takes a couple of weeks after infection for typhoid to develop, a time sufficient in itself to remove

suspicion from acts which might otherwise be scrutinised very carefully if happening immediately before the

disease developed. I may add, also, that it is well known that stout people do very poorly when they contract

typhoid, especially if they are old. Mr. Bisbee was both stout and old. To contract typhoid was for him a

virtual deathwarrant. Knowing all these facts, a certain person purposely sought out a crafty means of

introducing typhoid fever into Mr. Bisbee's family. That person, furthermore, was inoculated against typhoid

three times during the month before the disease was devilishly and surreptitiously introduced into Bisbee

Hall, in order to protect himself or herself should it become necessary for that person to visit Bisbee Hall.

That person, I believe, is the one who suffered from an aneurism of the heart, the writer, or rather the forger,

of the two documents I have shown, by one of which he or she was to profit greatly by the death of Mr.

Bisbee and the founding of an alleged school in a distant part of the countrya subterfuge, if you recall,

used in at least one famous case for which the convicted perpetrator is now under a life sentence in Sing Sing.

"I will ask Dr. Leslie to take this stethoscope and examine the hearts of everyone in the room and tell me

The calcium light ceased to sputter. One person after another was examined by the health commissioner. Was

it merely my imagination, or did I really hear a heart beating with wild leaps as if it would burst the bonds of

its prison and make its escape if possible? Perhaps it was only the engine of the commissioner's machine out

on the campus driveway. I don't know. At any rate, he went silently from one to the other, betraying not even

by his actions what he discovered with the stethoscope. The suspense was terrible. I felt Miss Bisbee's hand

involuntarily grasp my arm convulsively. Without disturbing the silence, I reached a glass of water standing

The commissioner was bending over the lawyer, trying to adjust the stethoscope better to his ears. The

lawyer's head was resting heavily on his hand, and he was heaped up in an awkward position in the cramped

lectureroom seat. It seemed an age as Dr. Leslie tried to adjust the stethoscope. Even Craig felt the

excitement. While the commissioner hesitated, Kennedy reached over and impatiently switched on the

As the light flooded the room, blinding us for the instant, the large form of Dr. Leslie stood between us and

"What does the stethoscope tell you, Doctor?" asked Craig, leaning forward expectantly. He was as

"It tells me that a higher court than those of New York has passed judgment on this astounding criminal. The

I felt a soft weight fall on my shoulder. The Morning Star did not have the story, after all. I missed the

greatest "scoop" of my life seeing Eveline Bisbee safely to her home after she had recovered from the shock

"For Heaven's sake, Gregory, what is the matter?" asked Craig Kennedy as a tall, nervous man stalked into

our apartment one evening. "Jameson, shake hands with Dr. Gregory. What's the matter, Doctor? Surely your

The doctor shook hands with me mechanically. His hand was icy. "The blow has fallen," he exclaimed, as he

In red ink on the first page, in the little square headed "Latest News," Kennedy read the caption, "Society

"A terrible tragedy was revealed in the suit begun today," continued the article, "by Mrs. Huntington Close

against Dr. James Gregory, an Xray specialist with offices at Madison Avenue, to recover damages for

injuries which Mrs. Close alleges she received while under his care. Several months ago she began a course

of Xray treatment to remove a birthmark on her neck. In her complaint Mrs. Close alleges that Dr. Gregory

has carelessly caused Xray dermatitis, a skin disease of cancerous nature, and that she has also been

rendered a nervous wreck through the effects of the rays. Simultaneously with filing the suit she left home

and entered a private hospital. Mrs. Close is one of the most popular hostesses in the smart set, and her loss

"What am I to do, Kennedy" asked the doctor imploringly. "You remember I told you the other day about this

casethat there was something queer about it, that after a few treatments I was afraid to carry on any more

and refused to do so? She really has dermatitis and nervous prostration, exactly as she alleges in her

complaint. But, before Heaven, Kennedy, I can't see how she could possibly have been so affected by the few

treatments I gave her. And tonight, just as I was leaving the office, I received a telephone call from her

husband's attorney, Lawrence, very kindly informing me that the case would be pushed to the limit. I tell you,

"Do? Do you suppose any jury is going to take enough expert testimony to outweigh the tragedy of a

beautiful woman? Do? Why, they can ruin me, even if I get a verdict of acquittal. They can leave me with a

"Gregory, you can rely on me," said Kennedy. "Anything I can do to help you I will gladly do. Jameson and I

were on the point of going out to dinner. Join us, and after that we will go down to your office and talk things

"You are really too kind," murmured the doctor. The air of relief that was written on his face was pathetically

"Now not a word about the case till we have had dinner," commanded Craig. "I see very plainly that you have

been worrying about the blow for a long time. Well, it has fallen. The neat thing to do is to look over the

Dinner over, we rode downtown in the subway, and Gregory ushered us into an officebuilding on Madison

Avenue, where he had a very handsome suite of several rooms. We sat own in his waitingroom to discuss

"It is indeed a very tragic case," began Kennedy, "almost more tragic than if the victim had been killed

outright. Mrs. Huntington Close isor rather I suppose I should say wasone of the famous beauties of the

city. From what the paper says, her beauty has been hopelessly ruined by this dermatitis, which, I understand,

Dr. Gregory nodded, and I could not help following his eyes as he looked at his own rough and scarred hands.

"Also," continued Craig, with his eyes half closed and his fingertips together, as if, he were taking a mental

inventory of the facts in the case, "her nerves are so shattered that she will be years in recovering, if she ever

"Yes," said the doctor simply. "I myself, for instance, am subject to the most unexpected attacks of neuritis.

But, of course, I am under the influence of the rays fifty or sixty times a day, while she had only a few

"Now, on the other hand," resumed Craig, "I know you, Gregory, very well. Only the other day, before any of

this came out, you told me the whole story with your fears as to the outcome. I know that that lawyer of

Close's has been keeping this thing hanging over your head for a long time. And I also know that you are one

of the most careful Xray operators in the city. If this suit goes against you, one of the most brilliant men of

science in America will be ruined. Now, having said this much, let me ask you to describe just exactly what

The doctor led us into his Xray room adjoining. A number of Xray tubes were neatly put away in a great

glass case, and at one end of the room was an operatingtable with an Xray apparatus suspended over it. A

"Not over a dozen, I should say;" replied Gregory. "I have a record of them and the dates, which I will give

you presently. Certainly they were not numerous enough or frequent enough to have caused a dermatitis such

as she has. Besides, look here. I have an apparatus which, for safety to the patient, has few equals in the

country. This big leadglass bowl, which is placed over my Xray tube when in use, cuts off the rays at

He switched on the electric current, and the apparatus began to sputter. The pungent odour of ozone from the

electric discharge filled the room. Through the leadglass bowl I could see the Xray tube inside suffused

with its peculiar, yellowishgreen light, divided into two hemispheres of different shades. That, I knew, was

the cathode ray, not the Xray, for the Xray itself, which streams outside the tube, is invisible to the human

eye. The doctor placed in our hands a couple of fluoroscopes, an apparatus by which Xrays can be detected.

It consists simply of a closed box with an opening to which the eyes are placed. The opposite end of the box

is a piece of board coated with a salt such as platinobarium cyanide. When the Xray strikes this salt it

makes it glow, or fluoresce, and objects held between the Xray tube and the fluoroscope cast shadows

With the leadglass bowl removed, the Xray tube sent forth its wonderful invisible radiation and made the

back of the fluoroscope glow with light. I could see the bones of my fingers as I held them up between the

Xray tube and the fluoroscope. But with the leadglass bowl in position over the tube, the fluoroscope was

simply a black box into which I looked and saw nothing. So very little of the radiation escaped from the bowl

that it was negligibleexcept at one point where there was an opening in the bottom of the bowl to allow the

rays to pass freely through exactly on the spot on the patient where they were to be used.

"The dermatitis, they say, has appeared all over her body, particularly on her head and shoulders," added Dr.

Gregory. "Now I have shown you my apparatus to impress on you how really impossible it would have been

for her to contract it from her treatments here. I've made thousands of exposures with never an Xray burn

before except to myself. As for myself, I'm as careful as I can be, but you can see I am under the rays very

To illustrate his care he pointed out to us a cabinet directly back of the operatingtable, lined with thick

sheets of lead. From this cabinet he conducted most of his treatments as far as possible. A little peephole

enabled him to see the patient and the Xray apparatus, while an arrangement of mirrors and a fluorescent

screen enabled him to see exactly what the Xrays were disclosing, without his leaving the leadlined

"I can think of no more perfect protection for either patient or operator," said Kennedy admiringly. "By the

"No, the first time Mr. Close came with her. After that, she came with her French maid."

The next day we paid a visit to Mrs. Close herself at the private hospital. Kennedy had been casting about in

his mind for an excuse to see her, and I had suggested that we go as reporters from the Star. Fortunately after

sending up my card on which I had written Craig's name we were at length allowed to go up to her room.

We found the patient reclining in an easy chair, swathed in bandages, a wreck of her former self. I felt the

tragedy keenly. All that social position and beauty had meant to her had been suddenly blasted.

"You will pardon my presumption," began Craig, "but, Mrs. Close, I assure you that I am actuated by the best

"Isn't it terrible enough that I should suffer so," she interrupted, "but must the newspapers hound me, too?"

"I beg your pardon, Mrs. Close," said Craig, "but you must be aware that the news of your suit of Dr. Gregory

has now become public property. I couldn't stop the Star, much less the other papers, from talking about it.

But I can and will do this, Mrs. Close. I will see that justice is done to you and all others concerned. Believe

me, I am not here as a yellow journalist to make newspaper copy out of your misfortune. I am here to get at

the truth sympathetically. Incidentally, I may be able to render you a service, too."

"You can render me no service except to expedite the suit against that careless doctorI hate him."

"Perhaps," said Craig. "But suppose someone else should be proved to have been really responsible? Would

"I merely want permission to visit your rooms at your home and to talk with your maid. I do not mean to spy

on you, far from it; but consider, Mrs. Close, if I should be able to get at the bottom of this thing, find out the

real cause of your misfortune, perhaps show that you are the victim of a cruel wrong rather than of

carelessness, would you not be willing to let me go ahead? I am frank to tell you that I suspect there is more

"No, you are mistaken, Mr. Kennedy. I know the cause of it. It was my love of beauty. I couldn't resist the

temptation to get rid of even a slight defect. If I had left well enough alone I should not be here now. A friend

recommended Dr. Gregory to my husband, who took me there. My husband wishes me to remain at home,

but I tell him I feel more comfortable here in the hospital. I shall never go to that house againthe memory

of the torture of sleepless nights in my room there when I felt my good looks going, going"she

shuddered"is such that I can never forget it. He says I would be better off there, but no, I cannot go. Still,"

Kennedy noted attentively what she was saying. "I thank you, Mrs. Close," he replied. "I am sure you will not

She rang, dictated a short note to a nurse, signed it, and languidly dismissed us.

I don't know that I ever felt as depressed as I did after that interview with one who had entered a living death

to ambition, for while Craig had done all the talking I had absorbed nothing but depression. I vowed that if

Gregory or anybody else was responsible I would do my share toward bringing on him retribution.

The Closes lived in a splendid big house in the Murray Hill section. The presentation of the note quickly

brought Mrs. Close's maid down to us. She had not gone to the hospital because Mrs. Close had considered

Yes, the maid had noticed how her mistress had been failing, had noticed it long ago, in fact almost at the

time when she had begun the Xray treatment. She had seemed to improve once when she went away for a

few days, but that was at the start, and directly after her return she grew worse again, until she was no longer

"Did Dr. Gregory, the Xray specialist, ever attend Mrs. Close at her home, in her room?" asked Craig.

"Yes, once, twice, he call, but he do no good," she said with her French accent.

"Yes, on business and on business, too, when he was not at home. He is the attorney, m'sieur."

"Oh, yes, always on business, but well, madame, she was a very beautiful woman. Perhaps he like beautiful

womeneh bien? That was before the Doctor Gregory treated madame. After the doctor treated madame

"Are you thoroughly devoted to Mrs. Close? Would you do a favour for her?" asked Craig pointblank.

"I don't ask you to give your life for her, Marie," said Craig, "but you can do her a great service, a very great

"Tonight," said Craig, "I want you to sleep in Mrs. Close's room. You can do so, for I know that Mr. Close

is living at the St. Francis Club until his wife returns from the sanitarium. Tomorrow morning come to my

laboratory"Craig handed her his card"and I will tell you what to do next. By the way, don't say anything

to anyone in the house about it, and keep a sharp watch on the actions of any of the servants who may go into

"Well," said Craig, "there is nothing more to be done immediately." We had once more regained the street

"Yes," mused Craig, "there is something you can do, after all, Walter. I would like you to look up Gregory

and Close and Lawrence. I already know something about them. But you can find out a good deal with your

newspaper connections. I would like to have every bit of scandal that has ever been connected with them, or

with Mrs. Close, or," he added significantly, "with any other woman. It isn't necessary to say that not a breath

I found a good deal of gossip, but very little of it, indeed, seemed to me at the time to be of importance.

Dropping in at the St. Francis Club, where I had some friends, I casually mentioned the troubles of the

Huntington Closes. I was surprised to learn that Close spent little of his time at the Club, none at home, and

only dropped into the hospital to make formal inquiries as to his wife's condition. It then occurred to me to

drop into the office of Society Squibs, whose editor I had long known. The editor told me, with that nameless

look of the cynical scandalmonger, that if I wanted to learn anything about Huntington Close I had best watch

Mrs. Frances Tulkington, a very wealthy Western divorcee about whom the smart set were much excited,

particularly those whose wealth made it difficult to stand the pace of society as it was going at present.

"And before the tragedy," said the editor with another nameless look, as if he were imparting a most valuable

piece of gossip, "it was the talk of the town, the attention that Close's lawyer was paying to Mrs. Close. But to

her credit let me say that she never gave us a chance to hint at anything, andwell, you know us; we don't

The editor then waged even more confidential, for if I am anything at all, I am a good listener, and I have

found that often by sitting tight and listening I can get more than if I were a tooeager questioner.

"It really was a shame,the way that man Lawrence played his game," he went on. "I understand that it was

he who introduced Close to Mrs. T. They were both his clients. Lawrence had fought her case in the courts

when she sued old Tulkington for divorce, and a handsome settlement he got for her, too. They say his fee ran

up into the hundred thousandscontingent, you know. I don't know what his game was"here he lowered

his voice to a whisper "but they say Close owes him a good deal of money. You can figure it out for yourself

as you like. Now, I've told you all I know. Come in again, Jameson, when you want some more scandal, and

The following day the maid visited Kennedy at his laboratory while I was reporting to him on the result of

She looked worn and haggard. She had spent a sleepless night and begged that Kennedy would not ask her to

"I can promise you, Marie," he said, "that you will rest better tonight. But you must spend one more night in

Mrs. Close's room. By the way, can you arrange for me to go through the room this morning when you go

Marie said she could, and an hour or so later Craig and I quietly slipped into the Close residence under her

guidance. He was carrying something that looked like a miniature barrel, and I had another package which he

had given me, both carefully wrapped up. The butler eyed us suspiciously, but Marie spoke a few words to

Within the room that the unfortunate woman had occupied Kennedy took the coverings off the packages. It

was nothing but a portable electric vacuum cleaner, which he quickly attached and set running. Up and down

the floor, around and under the bed he pushed the cleaner. He used the various attachments to clean the

curtains, the walls, and even the furniture. Particularly did he pay attention to the base board on the wall back

of the bed. Then he carefully removed the dust from the cleaner and sealed it up in a leaden box.

He was about to detach and pack up the cleaner when another idea seemed to occur to him. "Might as well

make a thorough job of it, Walter," he said, adjusting the apparatus again. "I've cleaned everything but the

mattress and the brass bars behind the mattress on the bed. Now I'll tackle them. I think we ought to go into

the suctioncleaning businessmore money in it than in being a detective, I'll bet."

The cleaner was run over and under the mattress and along every crack and cranny of the brass bed. This

done and this dust also carefully stowed away, we departed, very much to the mystification of Marie and, I

could not help feeling, of other eyes that peered in through keyholes or cracks in doors.

"At any rate," said Kennedy exultingly, "I think we have stolen a march on them. I don't believe they were

prepared for this, not at least at this stage in the game. Don't ask me any questions, Walter. Then you will

have no secrets to keep if anyone should try to pry them loose. Only remember that this man Lawrence is a

"What's the matter, mademoiselle?" asked Craig. "Didn't you pass a better night?"

"Oh, mon Dieu, I rest well, yes. But this morning, while I am at breakfast, Mr. Close send for me. He say that

I am discharged. Some servant tell of your visit and he Verry angrry. And now what is to become of

"Walter, we have been discovered," exclaimed Craig with considerable vexation. Then he remembered the

poor girl who had been an involuntary sacrifice to our investigation. Turning to her he said: "Marie, I know

several very good families, and I am sure you will not suffer for what you have done by being faithful to your

mistress. Only be patient a few days. Go live with some of your folks. I will see that you are placed again."

"I hadn't anticipated having my hand forced so soon," said Craig after she had gone, leaving her address.

"However, we are on the right track. What was it that you were going to tell me when Marie came in?"

"Something that may be very important, Craig," I said, "though I don't understand it myself. Pressure is being

brought to bear on the Star to keep this thing out of the papers, or at least to minimise it."

"I'm not surprised," commented Craig. "What do you mean by pressure being brought?"

"Why, Close's lawyer, Lawrence, called up the editor this morning I don't suppose that you know, but he

has some connection with the interests which control the Starand said that the activity of one of the

reporters from the Star, Jameson by name, was very distasteful to Mr. Close and that this reporter was

"I don't understand it, Craig;" I confessed, "but here one day they give the news to the papers, and two days

"It is perplexing," said Craig, with the air of one who was not a bit perplexed, but rather enlightened.

He pulled down the district telegraph messenger lever three times, and we sat in silence for a while.

"I want these two notes delivered right away," said Craig to the boy; "here's a quarter for you. Now mind you

don't get interested in a detective story and forget the notes. If you are back here quickly with the receipts I'll

Then, after the boy had gone, he said casually to me: "Two notes to Close and Gregory, asking them to be

present with their attorneys tonight. Close will bring Lawrence, and Gregory will bring a young lawyer

named Asche, a very clever fellow. The notes are so worded that they can hardly refuse the invitation."

Meanwhile I carried out an assignment for the Star, and telephoned my story in so as to be sure of being with

Craig at the crucial moment. For I was thoroughly curious about his next move in the game. I found him still

in his laboratory attaching two coils of thin wire to the connections on the outside of a queerlooking little

"What's that" I asked, eyeing the sinister looking little box suspiciously. "An infernal machine? You're not

"Never mind what it is, Walter. You'll find that out in due time. It may or it may not be an infernal machine

of a different sort than any you have probably ever heard of. The less you know now the less likely you are to

give anything away by a look or an act. Come now, make yourself useful as well as ornamental. Take these

wires and lay them in the cracks of the floor, and be careful not to let them show. A little dust over them will

Craig now placed the black box back of one of the chairs well down toward the floor, where it could hardly

have been perceived unless one were suspecting something of the sort. While he was doing so I ran the wires

"There," he said, taking the wires from me. "Now I'll complete the job by carrying them into the next room.

And while I'm doing it, go over the wires again and make sure they are absolutely concealed."

That night six men gathered in Kennedy's laboratory. In my utter ignorance of what was about to happen I

was perfectly calm, and so were all the rest, except Gregory. He was easily the most nervous of us all, though

"Mr. Close," began Kennedy, "if you and Mr. Lawrence will sit over here on this side of the room while Dr.

Gregory and Mr. Asche sit on the opposite side with Mr. Jameson in the middle, I think both of you opposing

parties will be better suited. For I apprehend that at various stages in what I am about to say both you, Mr.

Close, and you, Dr. Gregory, will want to consult your attorneys. That, of course, would be embarrassing, if

not impossible, should you be sitting near each other. Now, if we are ready, I shall begin."

Kennedy placed a small leaden casket on the table of his lecture hall. "In this casket," he commenced

solemnly, "there is a certain substance which I have recovered from the dust swept up by a vacuum cleaner in

One could feel the very air of the room surcharged with excitement. Craig drew on a pair of gloves and

carefully opened the casket. With his thumb and forefinger he lifted out a glass tube and held it gingerly at

arm's length. My eyes were riveted on it, for the bottom of the tube glowed with a dazzling point of light.

Both Gregory and his attorney and Close and Lawrence whispered to each other when the tube was

displayed, as indeed they did throughout the whole exhibition of Kennedy's evidence.

"No infernal machine was ever more subtle," said Craig, "than the tube which I hold in my hand. The

imagination of the most sensational writer of fiction might well be thrilled with the mysteries of this fatal

tube and its power to work fearful deeds. A larger quantity of this substance in the tube would produce on

me, as I now hold it, incurable burns, just as it did on its discoverer before his death. A smaller amount, of

course, would not act so quickly. The amount in this tube, if distributed about, would produce the burns

"And now, having shown it to you, for my own safety I will place it back in its leaden casket."

"I have found out by a cablegram today that seven weeks ago an order for one hundred milligrams of

radium bromide at thirtyfive dollars a milligram from a certain person in America was filled by a

Kennedy said this with measured words, and I felt a thrill run through me as he developed his case.

"At that same time, Mrs. Close began a series of treatments with an Xray specialist in New York," pursued

Kennedy. "Now, it is not generally known outside scientific circles, but the fact is that in their physiological

effects the Xray and radium are quite one and the same. Radium possesses this advantage, however, that no

elaborate apparatus is necessary for its use. And, in addition, the emanation from radium is steady and

constant, whereas the Xray at best varies slightly with changing conditions of the current and vacuum in the

"A few days before this order was placed I recall the following despatch which appeared in the New York

"'Liege, Belgium, Oct. , 1910. What is believed to be the first criminal case in which radium figures as a

deathdealing agent is engaging public attention at this university town. A wealthy old bachelor, Pailin by

name, was found dead in his flat. A stroke of apoplexy was at first believed to have caused his death, but a

close examination revealed a curious discolouration of his skin. A specialist called in to view the body gave

as his opinion that the old man had been exposed for a long time to the emanations of Xray or radium. The

police theory is that M. Pailin was done to death by a systematic application of either Xrays or radium by a

"Now here, I believe, was the suggestion which this American criminal followed, for I cut it out of the paper

rather expecting sooner or later that some clever person would act on it. I have thoroughly examined the room

of Mrs. Close. She herself told me she never wanted to return to it, that her memory of sleepless nights in it

was too vivid. That served to fix the impression that I had already formed from reading this clipping. Either

the Xray or radium had caused her dermatitis and nervousness. Which was it? I wished to be sure that I

would make no mistake. Of course I knew it was useless to look for an Xray machine in or near Mrs.

Close's room. Such a thing could never have been concealed. The alternative? Radium! Ah! that was

different. I determined on an experiment. Mrs. Close's maid was prevailed on to sleep in her mistress's room.

Of course radiations of brief duration would do her no permanent harm, although they would produce their

effect, nevertheless. In one night the maid became extremely nervous. If she had stayed under them several

nights no doubt the beginning of a dermatitis would have affected her, if not more serious trouble. A

systematic application, covering weeks and months, might in the end even have led to death.

"The next day I managed, as I have said, to go over the room thoroughly with a vacuum cleanera new one

of my own which I had bought myself. But tests of the dust which I got from the floors, curtains, and

furniture showed nothing at all. As a last thought I had, however, cleaned the mattress of the bed and the

cracks and crevices in the brass bars. Tests of that dust showed it to be extremely radioactive. I had the dust

dissolved, by a chemist who understands that sort of thing, recrystallised, and the radium salts were extracted

from the refuse. Thus I found that I had recovered all but a very few milligrams of the radium that had been

originally purchased in London. Here it is in this deadly tube in the leaden casket.

"It is needless to add that the night after I had cleaned out this deadly element the maid slept the sleep of the

justand would have been all right when next I saw her but for the interference of the unjust on whom I had

Craig paused while the lawyers whispered again to their clients. Then he continued: "Now three persons in

this room had an opportunity to secrete the contents of this deadly tube in the crevices of the metal work of

Mrs. Close's bed. One of these persons must have placed an order through a confidential agent in London to

purchase the radium from the English Radium Corporation. One of these persons had a compelling motive,

something to gain by using this deadly element. The radium in this tube in the casket was secreted, as I have

said, in the metal work of Mrs. Close's bed, not in large enough quantities to be immediately fatal, but mixed

with dust so as to produce the result more slowly but no less surely, and thus avoid suspicion. At the same

time Mrs. Close was persuadedI will not say by whomthrough her natural pride, to take a course of

Xray treatment for a slight defect. That would further serve to divert suspicion. The fact is that a more

horrible plot could hardly have been planned or executed. This person sought to ruin her beauty to gain a

"Now I wish to state that anything you gentlemen may say will be used against you. That is why I have asked

you to bring your attorneys. You may consult with them, of course, while I am getting ready my next

As Kennedy had developed his points in the case I had been more and more amazed. But I had not failed to

With half a sneer on his astute face, Lawrence drawled: "I cannot see that you have accomplished anything

by this rather extraordinary summoning of us to your laboratory. The evidence is just as black against Dr.

Gregory as before. You may think you're clever, Kennedy, but on the very statement of facts as you have

brought them out there is plenty of circumstantial evidence against Gregorymore than there was before. As

for anyone else in the room, I can't see that you have anything on usunless perhaps this new evidence you

speak of may implicate Asche, or Jameson," he added, including me in a wave of his hand, as if he were

already addressing a jury. "It's my opinion that twelve of our peers would be quite as likely to bring in a

verdict of guilty against them as against anyone else even remotely connected with this case, except Gregory.

No, you'll have to do better than this in your next case, if you expect to maintain that socalled reputation of

As for Close, taking his cue from his attorney, he scornfully added: "I came to find out some new evidence

against the wretch who wrecked the beauty of my wife. All I've got is a tiresome lecture on Xrays and

radium. I suppose what you say is true. Well, it only bears out what I thought before. Gregory treated my

wife at home, after he saw the damage his office treatments had done. I guess he was capable of making a

complete job out of itcovering up his carelessness by getting rid of the woman who was such a damning

Never a shade passed Craig's face as he listened to this tirade. "Excuse me a moment," was all he said,

opening the door to leave the room. "I have just one more fact to disclose. I will be back directly."

Kennedy was gone several minutes, during which Close and Lawrence fell to whispering behind their, hands,

with the assurance of those who believed that this was only Kennedy's method of admitting a defeat. Gregory

and Asche exchanged a few words similarly, and it was plain that Asche was endeavouring to put a better

As Kennedy reentered, Close was buttoning up his coat preparatory to leaving, and Lawrence was lighting a

In his hand Kennedy held a notebook. "My stenographer writes a very legible shorthand; at least I find it

sofrom long practice, I suppose. As I glance over her notes I find many facts which will interest you

"'But he can't do that. No one could ever have recognised you on your flying trip to London disguised as a

diamond merchant who had just learned that he could make his faulty diamonds good by applications of

"'Still, we'll have to drop the suit against Gregory after all, in spite of what I said. That part is hopelessly

"'Yes, I suppose so. Oh, well, I'm free now. She can hardly help but consent to a divorce now, and a quiet

settlement. She brought it on herselfwe tried every other way to do it, but sheshe was too good to fall

"'Yes, you'll get a good divorce now. But can't we shut up this man Kennedy? Even if he can't prove anything

against us, the mere rumour of such a thing coming to the ears of Mrs. Tulkington would be unpleasant.'

"'Go as far as you like, Lawrence. You know what the marriage will mean to me. It will settle my debts to

Close's face was livid. "It's a pack of lies!" he shouted, advancing toward Kennedy, "a pack of lies! You are a

fakir and a blackmailer. I'll have you in jail for this, by Godand you too, Gregory."

"One moment, please," said Kennedy calmly. "Mr. Lawrence, will you be so kind as to reach behind your

Lawrence lifted up the plain black box and with it he pulled up the wires which I had so carefully concealed

"That," said Kennedy, "is a little instrument called the microphone. Its chief merit lies in the fact that it will

magnify a sound sixteen hundred times, and carry it to any given point where you wish to place the receiver.

Originally this device was invented for the aid of the deaf, but I see no reason why it should not be used to

aid the law. One needn't eavesdrop at the keyhole with this little instrument about. Inside that box there is

nothing but a series of plugs from which wires, much finer than a thread, are stretched taut. Yet a fly walking

near it will make a noise as loud as a drafthorse. If the microphone is placed in any part of the room,

especially if near the persons talkingeven if they are talking in a whispera whisper such as occurred

several times during the evening and particularly while I was in the next room getting the notes made by my

"You two men, Close and Lawrence, may consider yourselves under arrest for conspiracy and whatever other

indictments will lie against such creatures as you. The police will be here in a moment. No, Close, violence

"Dr. James Hanson, Coroner's Physician, Criminal Courts Building," read Craig Kennedy, as he held a

visitor's card in his hand. Then to the visitor he added, "Take a chair, Doctor."

The physician thanked him and sat down. "Professor Kennedy," he began, "I have been referred to you by

Inspector O'Connor of the Detective Bureau. It may seem an impertinence for a city official to call on you for

assistance, butwell, you see, I'm completely floored. I think, too, that the case will interest you. It's the

If Dr. Hanson had suddenly turned on the current of an induction coil and I had been holding the handles I

don't think the thrill I received could have been any more sudden. The Vandam case was the sensation of the

moment, a triple puzzle, as both Kennedy and myself had agreed. Was it suicide, murder, or sudden death?

"I have read only what the newspapers have published," replied Craig to the doctor's look of inquiry. "You

see, my friend Jameson here is on the staff of the Star, and we are in the habit of discussing these cases."

"Very glad to meet you, Mr. Jameson," exclaimed Dr. Hanson at the implied introduction. "The relations

between my office and your paper have always been very satisfactory, I can assure you."

"Thank you, Doctor. Depend on me to keep them so," I replied, shaking his proffered hand.

"Now, as to the case," continued the doctor slowly. "Here is a beautiful woman in the prime of life, the wife

of a very wealthy retired banker considerably older than herselfperhaps nearly seventyof very fine

family. Of course you have read it all, but let me sketch it so you will look at it from my point of view. This

woman, apparently in good health, with every luxury money can buy, is certain within a very few years, from

her dower rights, to be numbered among the richest women in America. Yet she is discovered in the middle

of the night by her maid, seated at the table in the library of her home, unconscious. She never regains

"The coroner is called in, and, as his physician, I must advise him. The family physician has pronounced it

due to natural causes, the uremic coma of latent kidney trouble. Some of the newspapers, I think the Star

among them, have hinted at suicide. And then there are others, who have flatly asserted it was murder."

The coroner's physician paused to see if we were following him. Needless to say Kennedy was ahead of him.

"Have you any facts in your possession which have not been given to the public yet?" asked Craig.

"I'm coming to that in a moment," replied Dr. Hanson. "Let me sketch the case first. Henry Vandam had

becomewell, very eccentric in his old age, we will say. Among his eccentricities none seems to have

impressed the newspapers more than his devotion to a medium and her manager, Mrs. May Popper and Mr.

Howard Farrington. Now, of course, the case does not go into the truth or falsity of spiritualism, you

understand. You have your opinion, and I have mine. What this aspect of the case involves is merely the

character of the medium and her manager. You know, of course, that Henry Vandam is completely under

"You asked me if I was in possession of any facts which have not been given to the press. Yes, I am. And just

there lies the trouble. They are so very conflicting as to be almost worse than useless, as far as I can see. We

found near the unfortunate woman a small pillbox with three capsules still in it. It was labelled 'One before

retiring' and bore the name of a certain druggist and the initials 'Dr. C. W. H.' Now, I am convinced that the

initials are merely a blind and do not give any clue. The druggist says that a maid from the Vandam house

brought in the prescription, which of course he filled. It is a harmless enough prescriptioncontains, among

other things, four and a half grains of quinine and onesixth of a grain of morphine. Six capsules were

"Now, of course my first thought was that she might have taken several capsules at once and that it was a

case of accidental morphine poisoning, or it might even be suicide. But it cannot be either, to my mind, for

only three of the six capsules are gone. No doubt, also, you are acquainted with the fact that the one

invariable symptom of morphine poisoning is the contraction of the pupils of the eyes to a pinpointoften

so that they are unrecognisable. Moreover, the pupils are symmetrically contracted, and this symptom is the

one invariably present in coma from morphine poisoning and distinguishes it from all other forms of death.

"On the other hand, in the coma of kidney disease one pupil is dilated and the other contractedthey are

unsymmetrical. But in this case both the pupils are normal, or only a very little dilated, and they are

symmetrical. So far we have been able to find no other poison than the slight traces of morphine remaining in

the stomach after so many hours. I think you are enough of a chemist to know that no doctor would dare go

on the stand and swear to death from morphine poisoning in the face of such evidence against him. The

Kennedy scrutinised them sharply. "I shall need these," he said. "Of course you understand I will take very

"Really, I don't know," said the physician dubiously. "It's rather out of my province, but perhaps you would

think it important. It's mighty uncanny anyhow. Henry Vandam, as you doubtless know, was much more

deeply interested in the work of this medium than was his wife. Perhaps Mrs. Vandam was a bit jealousI

don't know. But she, too, had an interest in spiritualism, though he was much more deeply influenced by Mrs.

"Here's the strange part of it. The old man believes so thoroughly in rappings and materialisations that he

constantly keeps a notebook in his pocket in which he records all the materialisations he thinks he sees and

the rappings he hears, along with the time and place. Now it so happened that on the night Mrs. Vandam was

taken ill, he had retiredI believe in another part of the house, where he has a regular seanceroom.

According to his story, he was awakened from a profound sleep by a series of rappings. As was his custom,

he noted the time at which they occurred. Something made him uneasy, and he said to his 'control'at least

"The three answering raps were so vigorous that he sprang out of bed and called for his wife's maid. The

maid replied that Mrs. Vandam had not gone to bed yet, but that there was a light in the library and she would

go to her mistress immediately. The next moment the house was awakened by the screams of the maid calling

"That was three nights ago. On each of the two succeeding nights Henry Vandam says he has been awakened

at precisely the same hour by a rapping, and on each night his 'control' has given him a message from his

dead wife. As a man of science, I attribute the whole thing to an overwrought imagination. The original

rappings may have been a mere coincidence with the fact of the condition of Mrs. Vandam. However, I give

Craig said nothing, but, as was his habit, shaded his eyes with the tips of his fingers, resting his elbows on the

arms of his chair: "I suppose," he said, "you can give me the necessary authority to enter the Vandam house

"Certainly," assented the physician, "but you will find it a queer place. There are spirit paintings and spirit

photographs in every room, and Vandam's own part of the housewell, it's creepy, that's all I can say."

"And also I suppose you have performed an autopsy on the body and will allow me to drop into your

"At ten sharp, then, tomorrow I shall be there," said Craig. "It is now eightthirty. Do you think I can see

"Why, yes, you surely will be able to see him tonight. He hasn't stirred from the house since his wife died.

He told me he momentarily expected messages from her direct when she had got strong enough in her new

world. I believe they had some kind of a compact to that effect. The rappings come at twelvethirty."

"Ah, then I shall have plenty of time to run over to my laboratory before seeing Mr. Vandam and get some

apparatus I have in mind. No, Doctor, you needn't bother to go with me. Just give me a card of introduction.

I'll see you tomorrow at ten. Goodnightoh, by the way, don't give out any of the facts you have told me."

"Jameson," said Craig, when we were walking rapidly over toward the university, "this promises to be an

"As I view it now," I said, "I have suspicions of everybody concerned in it. Even the view of the Star, that it

"It might even be a natural death," Craig added. "And that would make it a greater mystery than evera case

for psychical research. One thing that I am going to do tonight will tell me much, however."

At the laboratory he unlocked a glass case and took out a little instrument which looked like two horizontal

pendulums suspended by fine wires. There was a large magnet near each pendulum, and the end of each

pendulum bore a needle which touched a circular drum driven by clockwork. Craig fussed with and adjusted

the apparatus, while I said nothing, for I had long ago learned that in applying a new apparatus to doing old

We had no trouble in getting in to see Mr. Vandam in his seanceroom. His face was familiar to me, for I had

seen him in public a number of times, but it looked strangely altered. He was nervous, and showed his age

It was as the coroner's physician had said. The house was littered with reminders of the cult, books, papers,

curious daubs of paintings handsomely framed, and photographs; hazy overexposures, I should have called

them, but Mr. Vandam took great pride in them, and Kennedy quite won him over by his admiration for

They talked about the rappings, and the old man explained where and when they occurred. They proceeded

from a little cabinet or closet at one end of the room. It was evident that he was a thorough believer in them

Craig carefully noted everything about the room and then fell to admiring the spirit photographs, if such they

"The best of all I do not display, they are too precious," said the old man. "Would you like to see them?"

Craig assented eagerly, and Vandam left us for a moment to get them. In an instant Craig had entered the

cabinet, and in a dark corner on the floor he deposited the mechanism he had brought from the laboratory.

Then he resumed his seat, shutting the box in which he had brought the mechanism, so that it would not

Artfully he led the conversation along lines that interested the old man until he seemed to forget the hour. Not

so, Craig. He knew it was nearing halfpast twelve. The more they talked the more uncanny did this house

and room of spirits seem to me. In fact, I was rapidly reaching the point where I could have sworn that once

or twice something incorporeal brushed by me. I know now that it was purely imagination, but it shows what

Five times came a curiously hollow noise from the cabinet. If it had been possible I should certainly have

fled, it was so sudden and unexpected. The hall clock downstairs struck the halfhour in those chimes written

Craig leaned over to me and whispered hoarsely, "Keep perfectly stilldon't move a hand or foot."

The old man seemed utterly to have forgotten us. "Is that you, John?" he asked expectantly.

Then, after a pause, the rapping started slowly, and distinctly to spell out words. It was so weird and uncanny

that I scarcely breathed. Letter after letter the message came, nineteen raps for "s," eight for "h," five for "e,"

according to the place in the alphabet, numerically, of the required letter. At last it was complete.

"She thinks you are not well. She asks you to have that prescription filled again."

"John, John, don't go yet," pleaded the old man earnestly. It was easy to see how thoroughly he believed in

"John," as perhaps well he might after the warning of his wife's death three nights before. "Won't you answer

For several minutes the old man sat absorbed in thought, trancelike. Then, gradually, he seemed to realise

that we were in the room with him. With difficulty he took up the thread of the conversation where the

"We were talking about the photographs," he said slowly. "I hope soon to get one of my wife as she is now

He was gathering up his treasures preparatory to putting them back in their places of safekeeping. The

moment he was out of the room Craig darted into the cabinet and replaced his mechanism in the box. Then he

began softly to tap the walls. At last he found the side that gave a noise similar to that which we had heard,

and he seemed pleased to have found it, for he hastily sketched on an old envelope a plan of that part of the

Kennedy almost dragged me back to our apartment, he was in such a hurry to examine the apparatus at his

leisure. He turned on all the lights, took the thing out of its case, and stripped off the two sheets of ruled paper

wound around the two revolving drums. He laid them flat on the table and studied them for some minutes

I looked dubiously at the irregular upanddown scrawl on the paper, while he rang up the Homicide Bureau

of the Central Office and left word for O'Connor to call him up the first thing in the morning.

Still eyeing with satisfaction the record traced on the sheets of paper, he lighted a cigarette in a

matteroffact way and added: "It proves to be a very much fleshandblood ghost, this 'John.' It walked up

to the wall back of that cabinet, rapped, listened to old Vandam, rapped some more, got the answer it wanted,

and walked deliberately away. The cabinet, as you may have noticed, is in a corner of the room with one side

"Not so fast, Walter," laughed Craig. "Isn't it enough for one night that we have found out that much?"

Fortunately I was tired, or I certainly should have dreamed of rappings and of "John" that night. I was

awakened early by Kennedy talking with someone over the telephone. It was Inspector O'Connor.

Of course I heard only one side of the conversation, but as near as I could gather Kennedy was asking the

inspector to obtain several samples of ink for him. I had not heard the first part of the conversation, and was

"Vandam had the prescription filled again early this morning, and it will soon be in the hands of O'Connor. I

hope I haven't spoiled things by acting too soon, but I don't want to run the risk of a double tragedy."

"Well," I said, "it is incomprehensible to me. First I suspected suicide. Then I suspected murder. Now I

almost suspect a murder and a suicide. The fact is, I don't know just what I suspect. I'm like Dr.

Hansonfloored. I wonder if Vandam would voluntarily take all the capsules at once in order to be with his

"One of them alone would be quite sufficient if the 'ghost' should take a notion, as I think it will, to walk in

the daytime," replied Craig enigmatically. "I don't want to run any chances, as I have said. I may be wrong in

my theory of the case, Walter, so let us not discuss this phase of it until I have gone a step farther and am sure

of my ground. O'Connor's man will get the capsules before Vandam has a chance to take the first one,

anyhow. The 'ghost' had a purpose in that message, for O'Connor tells me that Vandam's lawyer visited him

yesterday and in all probability a new will is being made, perhaps has already been made."

We breakfasted in silence and later rode down to the office of Dr. Hanson, who greeted us enthusiastically.

Kennedy looked gravely over the analysis which Dr. Hanson shoved into his hand, and seemed very much

interested in the probable quantity of morphine that must have been taken to yield such an analysis. The

"Our old ideas of the infallible test of morphine poisoning are all exploded," he said, excitedly beginning to

"'I have thought that inequality of the pupils, that is to say, where they are not symmetrically contracted, is

proof that a case is not one of narcotism, or morphine poisoning. But Professor Taylor has recorded a case of

"There, now, until I happened to run across that in one of the authorities I had supposed the symmetrical

contraction of the pupils of the eyes to be the distinguishing symptom of morphine poisoning Professor

Kennedy, in my opinion we can, after all, make out our case as one of morphine poisoning."

"Is that case in the book all you base your opinion on?" asked Craig with excessive politeness.

"Well," said Kennedy quietly, "if you will investigate that case quoted from Professor Taylor, you will find

"No, I do not say that. All I say is that expert testimony would refute us as far as we have gone. But if you

will let me make a few tests of my own I can readily clear up that end of the case, I now feel sure. Let me

I was surprised when we ran into Inspector O'Connor waiting for us in the corridor of the Criminal Courts

Building as we left the office of the coroner's physician. He rushed up to Kennedy and shoved into his hand a

pillbox in which six capsules rattled. Kennedy narrowly inspected the box, opened it, and looked

"One of these capsules would have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to 'John,'" said Craig

contemplatively, as he shut the box and deposited it carefully in his inside vest pocket. "I don't believe I even

said good morning to you, O'Connor," he continued. "I hope I haven't kept you waiting here long. Have you

"Yes, Professor. Here they are. As soon as you telephoned this morning I sent my men out separately to get

them. There's the ink from the druggist, this is from the Vandam library, this is from Farrington's room, and

"Thank you, Inspector. I don't know what I'd do without your help," said Kennedy, eagerly taking four small

vials from him. "Science is all right, but organisation enables science to work quickly. And quickness is the

During the afternoon Kennedy was very busy in his laboratory, where I found him that night after my hurried

"What, is it after dinnertime?" he exclaimed, holding up a glass beaker and watching the reaction of

"Craig, I believe that when you are absorbed in a case, you would rather work than eat. Did you have any

"I don't think so," he replied, regarding the beaker and not his answer. "Now, Walter, old fellow, I don't want

you to be offended with me, but really I can work better if you don't constantly remind me of such things as

"Certainly. I am as interested in the case as you are, but I can't make heads or tails of it," I replied.

"Then, I wish you would look up Mrs. Popper tonight and have a private seance with her. What I want you

to do particularly is to get a good idea of the looks of the room in which she is accustomed to work. I'm going

to duplicate it here in my laboratory as nearly as possible. Then I want you to arrange with her for a private

'circle' here tomorrow night. Tell her it is with a few professors at the university who are interested in

psychical research and that Mr. Vandam will be present. I'd rather have her come willingly than to force her

to come. Incidentally watch that manager of hers, Farrington. By all means he must accompany her."

That evening I dropped casually in on Mrs. Popper. She was a woman of great brilliance and delicacy, both in

her physical and mental perceptions, of exceptional vivacity and cleverness. She must have studied me more

closely than I was aware of, for I believe she relied on diverting my attention whenever she desired to

produce one of her really wonderful results. Needless to say, I was completely mystified by her performance.

She did spirit writing that would have done credit to the immortal Slade, told me a lot of things that were

true, and many more that were unverifiable or hopelessly vague. It was really worth much more than the

price, and I did not need to feign the interest necessary to get her terms for a circle in the laboratory.

Of course I had to make the terms with Farrington. The first glance aroused my suspicions of him. He was

shiftyeyed, and his face had a hard and mercenary look. In spite of, perhaps rather because of, my

repugnance we quickly came to an agreement, and as I left the apartment I mentally resolved to keep my eye

Craig came in late, having been engaged in his chemical analyses all the evening. From his manner I inferred

that they had been satisfactory, and he seemed much gratified when I told him that I had arranged

As we were talking over the case a messenger arrived with a note from O'Connor. It was written with his

usual brevity: "Have just found from servants that Farrington and Mrs. P. have key to Vandam house. Wish I

Craig looked at his watch. It was a quarter after one. "The ghost won't walk tonight, Walter," he said as he

entered his bedroom for a muchneeded rest. "I guess I was right after all in getting the capsules as soon as

possible. The ghost must have flitted unobserved in there this morning directly after the maid brought them

Again, the next morning, he had me out of bed bright and early. As we descended from the Sixth Avenue

"L," he led me into a peculiar little shop in the shadow of the "L" structure. He entered as though he knew the

place well; but, then, that air of assurance was Kennedy's stock in trade and sat very well on him.

Few people, I suppose, have ever had a glimpse of this workshop of magic and deception. This little shop of

Marina's was the headquarters of the magicians of the country. Levitation and ghostly disappearing hands

were on every side. The shelves in the back of the shop were full of nickel, brass, wire, wood, and

papiermache contrivances, new and strange to the eye of the uninitiated. Yet it was all as systematic as a

"Is Signor Marina in?" asked Craig of a girl in the first room, given up to picture postcards. The room was

as deceptive as the trade, for it was only an anteroom to the storeroom I have described above. This

storeroom was also a factory, and half a dozen artisans were hard at work in it.

Yes, the signor was in, the girl replied, leading us back into the workshop. He proved to be a short man with a

"I have arranged for a circle with Mrs. May Popper," began Kennedy, handing the man his card. "I suppose

"Well, I want to hire for tonight just the same sort of tables, cabinets, carpets, everything that she hasonly

hire, you understand, but I am willing to pay you well for them. It is the best way to get a good sitting, I

The little man thought a moment, then replied: "Si, signor yes very nearly, near enough. I would do

"My friend here, Mr. Jameson, has had seances with her in her own apartment," interposed Craig. "Perhaps

"I know very well, signor. I have the duplicate bill, the bill which was paid by that Farrington with a check

"Then you will get the stuff together this morning and have it up to my place this afternoon"

"Yes, Professor, yes. It is a bargain. I would do anything for Mrs. Poppershe is a fine woman."

Late that afternoon I rejoined Craig at his laboratory. Signor Marina had already arrived with a truck and was

disposing the paraphernalia about the laboratory. He had first laid a thick black rug. Mrs. Popper very much

affected black carpets, and I had noticed that Vandam's room was carpeted in black, too. I suppose black

A cabinet with a black curtain, several chairs, a light deal table, several banjos, horns, and other instruments

were disposed about the room. With a few suggestions from me we made a fair duplication of the hangings

on the walls. Kennedy was manifestly anxious to finish, and at last it was done.

After Marina had gone, Kennedy stretched a curtain over the end of the room farthest from the cabinet.

Behind it he placed on a shelf the apparatus composed of the pendulums and magnets. The beakers and

He had also arranged that the cabinet should be so situated that it was next a hallway that ran past his

"Tonight, Jameson," he said, indicating a spot on the hall wall just back of the cabinet, "I shall want you to

bring my guests out here and do a little spirit rappingI'll tell you just what to do when the time comes."

That night, when we gathered in the transformed laboratory, there were Henry Vandam, Dr. Hanson,

Inspector O'Connor, Kennedy, and myself. At last the sound of wheels was heard, and Mrs. Popper drove up

in a hansom, accompanied by Farrington. They both inspected the room narrowly and seemed satisfied. I had,

as I have said, taken a serious dislike to the man, and watched him closely. I did not like his air of calm

The lights were switched off, all except one sixteencandlepower lamp in the farthest corner, shaded by a

deepred globe. It was just light enough to see to read very, large print with difficulty.

Mrs. Popper began immediately with the table. Kennedy and I sat on her right and left respectively, in the

circle, and held her hands and feet. I confess to a real thrill when I felt the light table rise first on two legs,

then on one, and finally remain suspended in the air, whence it dropped with a thud, as if someone had

The medium sat with her back to the curtain of the cabinet, and several times I could have sworn that a hand

reached out and passed close to my head. At least it seemed so. The curtain bulged at times, and a breeze

After some time of this sort of work Craig led gradually up to a request for a materialisation of the control of

Vandam, but Mrs. Popper refused. She said she did not feel strong enough, and Farrington put in a hasty

word that he, too, could feel that "there was something working against them." But Kennedy was importunate

and at last she consented to see if "John" would do some rapping, even if he could not materialise.

Rap! rap! rap! came the faint reply from the cabinet. Or rather it seemed to me to come from the floor near

Craig paused a moment to frame the question, then shot it out pointblank: "Does Mrs. Vandam know now in

the other world whether anyone in this room substituted a morphine capsule for one of those ordered by her

three days before she died? Does she know whether the same person has done the same thing with those later

"John" seemed considerably perturbed at the mention of capsules. It was a long time before any answer was

forthcoming. Kennedy was about to repeat the question when a faint sound was heard.

Suddenly came a wild scream. It was such a scream as I had never heard before in my life. It came as though

a dagger had been thrust into the heart of Mrs. Popper. The lights flashed up as Kennedy turned the switch.

A man was lying flat on the floorit was Inspector O'Connor. He had succeeded in slipping noiselessly, like

a snake, below the curtain into the cabinet. Craig had told him to look out for wires or threads stretched from

Mrs. Popper's clothing to the bulging curtain of the cabinet. Imagine his surprise when he saw that she had

simply freed her foot from the shoe, which I was carefully holding down, and with a backward movement of

the leg was reaching out into the cabinet behind her chair and was doing the rapping with her toes.

Lying on the floor he had grasped her foot and caught her heel with a firm hand. She had responded with a

Hysterically Mrs. Popper began to upbraid the inspector as he rose to his feet, but Farrington quickly

"Something was working against us tonight, gentlemen. Yet you demanded results. And when the spirits

will not come, what is she to do? She forgets herself in her trance; she produces, herself, the things that you

The mere sound of Farrington's voice seemed to rouse in me all the animosity of my nature. I felt that a man

who could trump up an excuse like that when a person was caught with the goods was capable of almost

"Enough of this fake seance," exclaimed Craig. "I have let it go on merely for the purpose of opening the eyes

of a certain deluded gentleman in this room. Now, if you will all be seated I shall have something to say that

will finally establish whether Mary Vandam was the victim of accident, suicide, or murder."

Craig took the beakers and testtubes from the shelf behind the curtain and placed them on the little deal

"The increasing frequency with which tales of murder by poison appear in the newspapers," he began

formally, "is proof of how rapidly this new civilisation of ours is taking on the aspects of the older

civilisations across the seas. Human life is cheap in this country; but the ways in which human life has been

taken among us have usually been direct, simple, aboveboard, in keeping with our democratic and pioneer

traditions. The pistol and the bowieknife for the individual, the rope and the torch for the mob, have been

the usual instruments of sudden death. But when we begin to use poisons most artfully compounded in order

to hasten an expected bequest and remove obstacles in its waywell, we are practising an art that calls up all

"In this beaker," he continued, "I have some of the contents of the stomach of the unfortunate woman. The

coroner's physician has found that they show traces of morphine. Was the morphine in such quantities as to

be fatal? Without doubt. But equally without doubt analysis could not discover and prove it in the face of one

inconsistency. The usual test which shows morphine poisoning failed in this case. The pupils of her eyes were

"Now, the murderer must have known of this test. This clever criminal also knew that to be successful in the

use of this drug where others had failed, the drug must be skilfully mixed with something else. In that first

box of capsules there were six. The druggist compounded them correctly according to the prescription. But

between the time when they came into the house from the druggist's and the time when she took the first

capsule, that night, someone who had access to the house emptied one capsule of its harmless contents and

refilled it with a deadly dose of morphine a white powder which looks just like the powder already in the

"Why, then, the normal pupils of the eyes? Simply because the criminal put a little atropine, or belladonna,

with the morphine. My tests show absolutely the presence of atropine, Dr. Hanson," said Craig, bowing to the

"The best evidence, however, is yet to come. A second box of six capsules, all intact, was discovered

yesterday in the possession of Henry Vandam. I have analysed the capsules. One contains no quinine at

allit is all morphine and atropine. It is, without doubt, precisely similar to the capsule which killed Mrs.

The old man groaned. Two such exposures had shaken him. He looked from one of us to another as if not

"Who was it that gave the prescription to Mrs. Vandam originally? She is dead and cannot tell. The others

won't tell, for the person who gave her that prescription was the person who later substituted the fatal capsule

in place of the harmless. The original prescription is here. I have been able to discover from it nothing at all

by examining the handwriting. Nor does the texture of the paper indicate anything to me. But the inkah,

"Most inks seem very similar, I suppose, but to a person who has made a study of the chemical composition

of ink they are very different. Ink is composed of iron tannate, which on exposure to air gives the black of

writing. The original pigmentsay blue or blueblack inkis placed in the ink, to make the writing visible

at first, and gradually fades, giving place to the black of the tannate which is formed. The dyestuffs employed

in the commercial inks of today vary in colour from pale greenish blue to indigo and deep violet. No two

give identical reactionsat all events not when mixed with the iron tannate to form the pigment in writing.

"It is owing to the difference in these provisional colouring matters that it is possible to distinguish between

writing written with different kinds of ink. I was able easily to obtain samples of the inks used by the

Vandams, by Mrs. Popper, by Mr. Farrington, and by the druggist. I have compared the writing of the

original prescription with a colour scale of my own construction, and I have made chemical tests. The

druggist's ink conforms exactly to the writing on the two pillboxes, but not to the prescription. One of the

other three inks conforms by test absolutely to the ink in that prescription signed 'Dr. C. W. H.' as a blind. In

a moment my chain of evidence against the owner of that bottle of ink will be complete."

I could not help but think of the two pendulums on the shelf behind the curtain, but Craig said nothing for a

moment to indicate that he referred to that apparatus. We sat dazed. Farrington seemed nervous and ill at

ease. Mrs. Popper, who had not recovered from the hysterical condition of her exposure, with difficulty

"I have not only arranged this laboratory so as to reproduce Mrs. Popper's seanceroom," began Craig afresh,

"but I have had the cabinet placed in relatively the same position a similar cabinet occupies in Mr. Vandam's

"One night, Mr. Jameson and myself were visiting Mr. Vandam. At precisely twelvethirty we heard most

unaccountable rappings from that cabinet. I particularly noted the position of the cabinet. Back of it ran a

hallway. That is duplicated here. Back of this cabinet is a hallway. I had heard of these rappings before we

went, but was afraid that it would be impossible for me to catch the ghost red handed. There is a limit to what

you can do the first time you enter a man's house, and, besides, that was no time to arouse suspicion in the

mind of anyone. But science has a way out of every dilemma. I determined to learn something of these

Craig paused and glanced first at Farrington, then at Mrs. Popper, and then at Mr. Vandam.

"Mr. Jameson," he resumed, "will escort the doctor, the inspector, Mr. Farrington, Mrs. Popper, and Mr.

Vandam into my imitation hall of the Vandam mansion. I want each of you in turn to tiptoe up that hall to a

spot indicated on the wall, back of the cabinet, and strike that spot several sharp blows with your knuckles."

I did as Craig instructed tiptoeing up myself first so that they could not mistake his meaning. The rest

followed separately, and after a moment we returned silently in suppressed excitement to the room.

Craig was still standing by the table, but now the pendulums with the magnets and needles and the drums

"Another person outside the Vandam family had a key to the Vandam mansion," he began gravely. "That

person, by the way, was the one who waited, night by night, until Mrs. Vandam took the fatal capsule, and

then when she had taken it apprised the old man of the fact and strengthened an already blind faith in the

"That other person who, unobserved, had free access to the house," he continued in the breathless stillness, "is

He was looking at O'Connor as if for corroboration. O'Connor nodded. "Information derived from the butler,"

"I did not know this until yesterday," Kennedy continued, "but I suspected that something of the sort existed

when I was first told by Dr. Hanson of the rappings. I determined to hear those rappings, and make a record

of them. So, the night Mr. Jameson and I visited Mr. Vandam, I carried this little instrument with me."

Almost lovingly he touched the pendulums on the table. They were now at rest and kept so by means of a

"See, I release this levernow, let no one in the room move. Watch the needles on the paper as the clockwork

revolves the drums. I take a stepever so lightly. The pendulums vibrate, and the needles trace a broken line

on the paper on each drum. I stop; the lines are practically straight. I take another step and another, ever so

lightly. See the delicate pendulums vibrate? See, the lines they trace are jagged lines."

He stripped the paper off the drums and laid it flat on the table before him, with two other similar pieces of

"Just before the time of the rapping I placed this instrument in the corner of the Vandam cabinet, just as I

placed it in this cabinet after Mr. Jameson conducted you from the room. In neither case were suspicions

aroused. Everything in both cases was perfectly normalI mean the 'ghost' was in ignorance of the presence,

"This is an improved seismograph," he explained, "one after a very recent model by Prince Galitzin of the

Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. The seismograph, as you know, was devised to register earthquakes at a

distance. This one not only measures the size of a distant earthquake, but the actual direction from which the

"The magnetic arrangement is to cut short the vibrations set up in the pendulums, to prevent them from

continuing to vibrate after the first shock. Thus they are ready in an instant to record another tremor. Other

seismographs continue to vibrate for a long time as a result of one tremor only. Besides, they give little

"I think you must all appreciate that your tiptoeing up the hall must cause a far greater disturbance in this

delicate seismograph than even a very severe earthquake thousands of miles away, which it was built to

"This is the record made by the 'ghost's' walk the other night," he said, holding up two of them in his left

hand. "Here on the table, on two other longer sheets, I have records of the vibrations set up by those in this

"Here is Mr. Jameson'shis is not a bit like the ghost's. Nor is Mr. Vandam's. Least of all are Dr. Hanson's

"Now here is Mr. Farrington's"he bent down closely, "he is a light man, and the ghost was light."

Suddenly I felt something brush by me, and with a swish of air and of garments I saw Mrs. Popper fling

herself wildly at the table that bore the incriminating records. In another instant Farrington was on his feet

It was done so quickly that I must have acted first and thought afterward. I found myself in the midst of a

melee with my hand at his throat and his at mine. O'Connor with a jiujitsu movement bent Farrington's other

In front of me I saw Craig grasping Mrs. Popper's wrists as in a vise. She was glaring at him like a tigress.

"Do you suppose for a moment that that toy is going to convince the world that Henry Vandam has been

deceived and that the spirit which visited him was a fraud? Is that why you have lured me here under false

pretences, to play on my feelings, to insult me, to take advantage of a lone, defenceless woman, surrounded

by hostile men? Shame on you," she added contemptuously. "You call yourself a gentleman, but I call you a

Kennedy, always calm and collected, ignored the tirade. His voice was as cold as steel as he said: "It would

do little good, Mrs. Popper, to destroy this one link in the chain I have forged. The other links are too heavy

for you. Don't forget the evidence of the ink. It was your ink. Don't forget that Henry Vandam will not any

longer conceal that he has altered his will in favour of you. Tonight he goes from here to his lawyer's to

draw up a new will altogether. Don't forget that you have caused the Vandams separately to have the

prescription filled, and that you are now caught in the act of a double murder. Don't forget that you had

access to the Vandam mansion, that you substituted the deadly for the harmless capsules. Don't forget that

your rappings announced the death of one of your victims and urged the other, a cruelly wronged and

credulous old man, to leave millions to you who had deceived and would have killed him.

"No, the record of the ghost on the seismograph was not Mr. Farrington's, as I implied at the moment when

you so kindly furnished this additional proof of your guilt by trying to destroy the evidence. The ghost was

you, Mrs. Popper, and you are at liberty to examine the markings as minutely as you please, but you must not

destroy them. You are an astute criminal, Mrs. Popper, but tonight you are under arrest for the murder of

"I've called, Professor Kennedy, to see if we can retain you in a case which I am sure will tax even your

The visitor was a large, wellbuilt man. He placed his hat on the table and, without taking off his gloves, sat

"Andrews is my namethird vicepresident of the Great Eastern Life Insurance Company. I am the nominal

head of the company's private detective force, and though I have some pretty clever fellows on my staff we've

got a case that, so far, none of us has been able to unravel. I'd like to consult you about it."

Kennedy expressed his entire willingness to be consulted, and after the usual formalities were over, Mr.

"I suppose you are aware that the large insurance companies maintain quite elaborate detective forces and

follow very keenly such of the cases of their policyholders as look at all suspicious. This case which I wish

to put in your hands is that of Mr. Solomon Morowitch, a wealthy Maiden Lane jeweller. I suppose you have

read something in the papers about his sudden death and the strange robbery of his safe?"

"Of course not, of course not," said Mr. Andrews with some show of gratification. "I flatter myself that we

have pulled the wires so as to keep the thing out of the papers as much as possible. We don't want to frighten

the quarry till the net is spread. The point is, though, to find out who is the quarry. It's most baffling."

"I am at your service," interposed Craig quietly, "but you will have to enlighten me as to the facts in the case.

"Oh, certainly, certainly. That is to say, you know nothing at all and can approach it without bias." He paused

and then, seeming to notice something in Craig's manner, added hastily: "I'll be perfectly frank with you. The

policy in question is for one hundred thousand dollars, and is incontestable. His wife is the beneficiary. The

company is perfectly willing to pay, but we want to be sure that it is all straight first. There are certain

suspicious circumstances that in justice to ourselves we think should be cleared up. That is allbelieve me.

"What are these suspicious circumstances?" asked Craig, apparently satisfied with the explanation.

"This is in strict confidence, gentlemen," began Mr. Andrews. "Mr. Morowitch, according to the story as it

comes to us, returned home late one night last week, apparently from his office, in a very weakened, a

semiconscious, condition. His family physician, Doctor Thornton, was summoned, not at once, but shortly.

He pronounced Mr. Morowitch to be suffering from a congestion of the lungs that was very like a sudden

"Mr. Morowitch had at once gone to bed, or at least was in bed, when the doctor arrived, but his condition

grew worse so rapidly that the doctor hastily resorted to oxygen, under which treatment he seemed to revive.

The doctor had just stepped out to see another patient when a hurry call was sent to him that Mr. Morowitch

was rapidly sinking. He died before the doctor could return. No statement whatever concerning the cause of

his sudden illness was made by Mr. Morowitch, and the deathcertificate, a copy of which I have, gives

pneumonia as the cause of death. One of our men has seen Doctor Thornton, but has been able to get nothing

There was something in his tone that made me take particular note of this last fact, especially as he paused for

"Now, perhaps there would be nothing surprising about it all, so far at least, were it not for the fact that the

following morning, when his junior partner, Mr. Kahan, opened the place of business, or rather went to it, for

it was to remain closed, of course, he found that during the night someone had visited it. The lock on the

great safe, which contained thousands of dollars' worth of diamonds, was intact; but in the top of the safe a

huge hole was foundan irregular, round hole, big enough to put your foot through. Imagine it, Professor

Kennedy, a great hole in a safe that is made of chrome steel, a safe that, short of a safetydeposit vault, ought

"Why, that steel would dull and splinter even the finest diamonddrill before it made an impression. The

mere taking out and refitting of drills into the brace would be a most lengthy process. Eighteen or twenty

hours is the time by actual test which it would take to bore such a hole through those laminated plates, even if

there were means of exerting artificial pressure. As for the police, they haven't even a theory yet."

"All goneeverything of any value was gone. Even the letterfiles were ransacked. His desk was broken

open, and papers of some nature had been taken out of it. Thorough is no name for the job. Isn't that enough

"So you shall, so you shall," said Mr. Andrews. "Then we may retain you in our service? My car is waiting

"You may retain me on one condition," said Craig without moving. "I am to be free to get at the truth whether

"Hats on," agreed Mr. Andrews, reaching in his vest pocket and pulling out three or four brevas. "My

We drove up to the university and stopped on the campus while Craig hurried into the Chemistry Building to

"I like your professor of criminal science;" said Andrews to me, blowing a huge fragrant cloud of smoke.

I, for my part, liked the vicepresident. He was a man who seemed thoroughly to enjoy life, to have most of

the good things, and a capacity for getting out of them all that was humanly possible. He seemed to be

"He has solved some knotty cases," was all I said. "I've come to believe there is no limit to his

I did not even resent the "my boy." Andrews was one of those men in whom we newspaper writers

instinctively believe. I knew that it would be "pens lifted" only so long as the case was incomplete. When the

time comes with such men they are ready to furnish us the best "copy" in the world.

Kennedy quickly rejoined us, carrying a couple of little glass bottles with groundglass stoppers.

Morowitch Co. was, of course, closed when we arrived, but we had no trouble in being admitted by the

Central Office man who had been detailed to lock the barn door after the horse was stolen. It was precisely as

Mr. Andrews had said. Mr. Kahan showed us the safe. Through the top a great hole had been madeI say

made, for at the moment I was at a loss to know whether it had been cut, drilled, burned, blown out, or

Kennedy examined the edges of the hole carefully, and just the trace of a smile of satisfaction flitted over his

face as he did so. Without saying a word he took the glass stopper out of the larger bottle which he had

brought and poured the contents on the top of the safe near the hole. There it lay, a little mound of reddish

Kennedy took a little powder of another kind from the other bottle and lighted it with a match.

"Stand backclose to the wall," he called as he dropped the burning mass on the red powder. In two or three

Almost instantly a dazzling, intense flame broke out, and sizzled and crackled. With bated breath we

watched. It was almost incredible, but that glowing mass of powder seemed literally to be sinking, sinking

right down into the cold steel. In tense silence we waited. On the ceiling we could still see the reflection of

the molten mass in the cup which it had burned for itself in the top of the safe.

At last it fell through into the safefell as the burning roof of a frame building would fall into the building.

No one spoke a word, but as we cautiously peered over the top of the safe we instinctively turned to Kennedy

for an explanation. The Central Office man, with eyes as big as halfdollars, acted almost as if he would have

liked to clap the irons on Kennedy. For there in the top of the safe was another hole, smaller but identical in

"Thermit?" echoed Andrews, shifting the cigar which he had allowed to go out in the excitement.

"Yes, an invention of a chemist named Goldschmidt, of Essen, Germany. It is a compound of iron oxide, such

as comes off a blacksmith's anvil or the rolls of a rollingmill, and powdered metallic aluminum. You could

thrust a redhot bar into it without setting it off, but when you light a little magnesium powder and drop it on

thermit, a combustion is started that quickly reaches fiftyfour hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It has the

peculiar property of concentrating its heat to the immediate spot on which it is placed. It is one of the most

powerful oxidising agents known, and it doesn't even melt the rest of the steel surface. You see how it ate its

way through the steel. Either black or red thermit will do the trick equally well."

"Someone uncommonly clever, or instructed by someone uncommonly clever, must have done that job,"

added Craig. "Well, there is nothing more to be done here," he added, after a cursory look about the office.

"Mr. Andrews, may I have a word with you? Come on, Jameson. Good day, Mr. Kahan. Good day, Officer."

"I shall want to see Mr. Morowitch's papers at home," said Craig, "and also to call on Doctor Thornton. Do

"Not at all," replied Mr. Andrews, "not at all. I will go with you myself and see that you have none. Say,

Professor Kennedy," he broke out, "that was marvellous. I never dreamed such a thing was possible. But don't

you think you could have learned something more up there in the office by looking around?"

"I did learn it," answered Kennedy. "The lock on the door was intactwhoever did the job let himself in by a

Andrews gave a low whistle and glanced involuntarily up at the window with the sign of Morowitch Co. in

"Don't look up. I think that was Kahan looking out at us," he said, fixing his eyes on his cigar. "I wonder if he

knows more about this than he has told! He was the 'company,' you know, but his interest in the business was

"Not too fast, Mr. Andrews," interrupted Craig. "We have still to see Mrs. Morowitch and the doctor before

"A very handsome woman, too," said Andrews, as we seated ourselves in the car: "A good deal younger than

Morowitch. Say, Kahan isn't a badlooking chap, either, is he? I hear he was a very frequent visitor at his

Mr. Andrews introduced us to Mrs. Morowitch, who was in very deep mourning, which served, as I could not

help noticing, rather to heighten than lessen her beauty. By contrast it brought out the rich deep colour of her

face and the graceful lines of her figure. She was altogether a very attractive young widow.

She seemed to have a sort of fear of Andrews, whether merely because he represented the insurance company

on which so much depended or because there were other reasons for fear, I could not, of course, make out.

Andrews was very courteous and polite, yet I caught myself asking if it was not a professional rather than a

personal politeness. Remembering his stress on the fact that she was alone with her husband when he died, it

suddenly flashed across my mind that somewhere I had read of a detective who, as his net was being woven

about a victim, always grew more and more ominously polite toward the victim. I know that Andrews

suspected her of a close connection with the case. As for myself, I don't know what I suspected as yet.

No objection was offered to our request to examine Mr. Morowitch's personal effects in the library, and

accordingly Craig ransacked the desk and the letterfile. There was practically nothing to be discovered.

"Had Mr. Morowitch ever received any threats of robbery?" asked Craig, as he stood before the desk.

"Not that I know of," replied Mrs. Morowitch. "Of course every jeweller who carries a large stock of

diamonds must be careful. But I don't think my husband had any special reason to fear robbery. At least he

"Oh, nothing. I merely thought there might be some hint as to the motives of the robbery," said Craig. He was

fingering one of those deskcalendars which have separate leaves for each day with blank spaces for

"'Close deal Poissan,'" he read slowly from one of the entries, as if to himself. "That's strange. It was the

correspondence under the letter 'P' that was destroyed at the office, and there is nothing in the letterfile here,

Mrs. Morowitch hesitated, either from ignorance or from a desire to evade the question. "A chemist, I think,"

she said doubtfully. "My husband had some dealings with himsome discovery he was going to buy. I don't

"Really, Mr. Kennedy, you had better ask Mr. Kahan. My husband talked very, little to me about business

"I don't know. I only heard Mr. Morowitch and Mr. Kahan refer to some deal about a discovery regarding

"Thank you, Mrs. Morowitch," said Kennedy, when it was evident that she either could not or would not add

"No trouble at all," she replied graciously, though I could see she was intent on every word and motion of

Kennedy stopped the car at a drugstore a few blocks away and asked for the business telephone directory. In

an instant, under chemists, he put his finger on the name of Poissan"Henri Poissan, electric

Doctor Thornton was an excellent specimen of the genus physician to the wealthypolished, cool, suave.

One of Mr. Andrews's men, as I have said, had seen him already, but the interview had been very

unsatisfactory. Evidently, however, the doctor had been turning something over in his mind since then and

As he closed the doors to his office, he began to pace the floor. "Mr. Andrews," he said, "I am in some doubt

whether I had better tell you or the coroner what I know. There are certain professional secrets that a doctor

must, as a duty to his patients, conceal. That is professional ethics. But there are also cases when, as a matter

"I don't mind telling you that I dislike the publicity that would attend any statement I might make to the

"Exactly," said Andrews. "I appreciate your position exactly. Your other patients would not care to see you

involved in a scandalor at least you would not care to have them see you so involved, with all the

Doctor Thornton shot a quick glance at Andrews, as if he would like to know just how much his visitor knew

Andrews drew a paper from his pocket. "This is a copy of the deathcertificate," he said. "The Board of

Health has furnished it to us. Our physicians at the insurance company tell me it is rather extraordinary

vague. A word from us calling the attention of the proper authorities to it would be sufficient, I think. But,

Doctor, that is just the point. We do not desire publicity any more than you do. We could have the body of

Mr. Morowitch exhumed and examined, but I prefer to get the facts in the case without resorting to such

"It would do no good," interrupted the doctor hastily. "And if you'll save me the publicity, I'll tell you why."

Andrews nodded, but still held the deathcertificate where the doctor was constantly reminded of it.

"In that certificate I have put down the cause of death as congestion of the lungs due to an acute attack of

pneumonia. That is substantially correct, as far as it goes. When I was summoned to see Mr. Morowitch I

found him in a semiconscious state and scarcely breathing. Mrs. Morowitch told me that he had been brought

home in a taxicab by a man who had picked him up on William Street. I'm frank to say that at first sight I

thought it was a case of plain intoxication, for Mr. Morowitch sometimes indulged a little freely when he

made a splendid deal. I smelled his breath, which was very feeble. It had a sickish sweet odour, but that did

not impress me at the time. I applied my stethoscope to his lungs. There was a very marked congestion, and I

made as my working diagnosis pneumonia. It was a case for quick and heroic action. In a very few minutes I

"In the meantime I had thought over that sweetish odour, and it flashed on my mind that it might, after all, be

a case of poisoning. When the oxygen arrived I administered it at once. As it happens, the Rockefeller

Institute has just published a report of experiments with a new antidote for various poisons, which consists

simply in a new method of enforced breathing and throwing off the poison by oxidising it in that way. In

either casethe pneumonia theory or the poison theorythis line of action was the best that I could have

adopted on the spur of the moment. I gave him some strychnine to strengthen his heart and by hard work I

had him resting apparently a little easier. A nurse had been sent for, but had not arrived when a messenger

came to me telling of a very sudden illness of Mrs. Morey, the wife of the steelmagnate. As the Morey

home is only a halfblock away, I left Mr. Morowitch, with very particular instructions to his wife as to what

"I had intended to return immediately, but before I got back Mr. Morowitch was dead. Now I think I've told

you all. You see, it was nothing but a suspicionhardly enough to warrant making a fuss about. I made out

the deathcertificate, as you see. Probably that would have been all there was to it if I hadn't heard of this

incomprehensible robbery. That set me thinking again. There, I'm glad I've got it out of my system. I've

The doctor hesitated. "Mind, it is only a suspicion. Cyanide of potassium or cyanogen gas; either would give

"I know that they were much interested in photography. Cyanide of potassium is used in certain processes in

"Both of them," repeated the doctor hastily. It was evident how Andrews's questions were tending, and it was

also evident that the doctor did not wish to commit himself or even to be misunderstood.

Kennedy had sat silently for some minutes, turning the thing over in his mind. Apparently disregarding

Andrews entirely, he now asked, "Doctor, supposing it had been cyanogen gas which caused the congestion

of the lungs, and supposing it had not been inhaled in quantities large enough to kill outright, do you

nevertheless feel that Mr. Morowitch was in a weak enough condition to die as a result of the congestion

produced by the gas after the traces of the cyanogen had been perhaps thrown off?"

"Might I ask whether in his semiconscious state he said anything that might at all serve as a clue?"

"He talked ramblingly, incoherently. As near as I can remember it, he seemed to believe himself to have

become a millionaire, a billionaire. He talked of diamonds, diamonds, diamonds. He seemed to be picking

them up, running his fingers through them, and once I remember he seemed to want to send for Mr. Kahan

and tell him something. 'I can make them, Kahan,' he said, 'the finest, the largest, the whitestI can make

"You know," concluded the doctor, "that in cyanogen poisoning there might be hallucinations of the wildest

I could see by the way Kennedy acted that for the first time a ray of light had dawned upon him in tracing out

the case. As we rose to go, the doctor shook hands with us. His last words were said with an air of great

As we parted for the night Kennedy faced Andrews. "You recall that you promised me one thing when I took

"Then take no steps until I tell you. Shadow Mrs. Morowitch and Mr. Kahan, but do not let them know you

suspect them of anything. Let me run down this Poissan clue. In other words, leave the case entirely in my

hands in other respects. Let me know any new facts you may unearth, and some time tomorrow I shall call

on you, and we will determine what the next step is to be. Good night. I want to thank you for putting me in

It was late the following afternoon before I saw Kennedy again. He was in his laboratory winding two strands

of platinum wire carefully about a piece of porcelain and smearing on it some peculiar black glassy granular

substance that came in a sort of pencil, like a stick of sealingwax. I noticed that he was very particular to

keep the two wires exactly the same distance from each other throughout the entire length of the piece of

porcelain, but I said nothing to distract his attention, though a thousand questions about the progress of the

Instead I watched him intently. The black substance formed a sort of bridge connecting and covering the

wires. When he had finished he said: "Now you can ask me your questions, while I heat and anneal this little

Kennedy continued to heat the wirecovered porcelain. "I did, and he is going to give me a demonstration of

"You remember Morowitch's 'hallucination;' as the doctor called it? That was no hallucination; that was a

reality. This man Poissan says he has discovered a way to make diamonds artificially out of pure carbon in an

electric furnace. Morowitch, I believe, was to buy his secret. His dream of millions was a realityat least to

"Oh, just a byproduct made in the manufacture of sulphuric acid," answered Kennedy airily, adding, as if to

change the subject: "I want you to go with me tonight. I told Poissan I was a professor in the university and

that I would bring one of our younger trustees, the son of the banker, T. Pierpont Spencer, who might put

some capital into his scheme. Now, Jameson, while I'm finishing up my work here, run over to the apartment

and get my automatic revolver. I may need it tonight. I have communicated with Andrews, and he will be

ready. The demonstration will take place at halfpasteight at Poissan's laboratory. I tried to get him to give

Half an hour later I rejoined Craig at his laboratory, and we rode down to the Great Eastern Life Building.

Andrews was waiting for us in his solidly furnished office. Outside I noted a couple of husky men, who

>From the manner in which the vicepresident greeted us it was evident that he was keenly interested in what

Kennedy was about to do. "So you think Morowitch's deal was a deal to purchase the secret of

"I feel sure of it," replied Craig. "I felt sure of it the moment I looked up Poissan and found that he was a

manufacturer of electric furnaces. Don't you remember the famous Lemoine case in London and Paris?"

"Yes, but Lemoine was a fakir of the first water;" said Andrews. "Do you think this man is, too?"

"That's what I'm going to find out tonight before I take another step," said Craig. "Of course there can be no

doubt that by proper use the electric furnace will make small, almost microscopic diamonds. It is not

unreasonable to suppose that some day someone will be able to make large diamonds synthetically by the

"Maybe this man has done it," agreed Andrews. "Who knows? I'll wager that if he has and that if Morowitch

had bought an interest in his process Kahan knew of it. He's a sharp one. And Mrs. Morowitch doesn't let

grass grow under her feet, when it comes to seeing the main chance as to money. Now just supposing Mr.

Morowitch had bought an interest in a secret like that and supposing Kahan was in love with Mrs. Morowitch

"Let us suppose nothing, Mr. Andrews," interrupted Kennedy. "At least not yet. Let me see; it is now ten

minutes after eight. Poissan's place is only a few blocks from here. I'd like to get there a few minutes early.

As we left the office, Andrews signalled to the two men outside, and they quietly followed a few feet in the

Poissan's laboratory was at the top of a sort of loft building a dozen stories or so high. It was a peculiar

building, with several entrances besides a freight elevator at the rear and fireescapes that led to adjoining

We stopped around the corner in the shadow, and Kennedy and Andrews talked earnestly. As near as I could

make out Kennedy was insisting that it would be best for Andrews and his men not to enter the building at

all, but wait downstairs while he and I went up. At last the arrangement was agreed on.

"Here," said Kennedy, undoing a package he had carried, "is a little electric bell with a couple of fresh dry

batteries attached to it, and wires that will reach at least four hundred feet. You and the men wait in the

shadow here by this side entrance for five minutes after Jameson and I go up. Then you must engage the night

watchman in some way. While he is away you will find two wires dangling down the elevator shaft. Attach

them to these wires from the bell and the batteriesthese twoyou know how to do that. The wires will be

hanging in the third shaftonly one elevator is running at night, the first. The moment you hear the bell

begin to ring; jump into the elevator and come up to the twelfth floorwe'll need you."

As Kennedy and I rode up in the elevator I could not help thinking what an ideal place a downtown office

building is for committing a crime, even at this early hour of the evening. If the streets were deserted, the

officebuildings were positively uncanny in their grim, black silence with only here and there a light.

The elevator in the first shaft shot down again to the ground floor, and as it disappeared Kennedy took two

spools of wire from his pocket and hastily shoved them through the lattice work the third elevator shaft. They

quickly unrolled, and I could hear them strike the top of the empty car below in the basement. That meant

that Andrews on the ground floor could reach the wires and attach them to the bell.

Quickly in the darkness Kennedy attached the ends of the wires to the curious little coil I had seen him

working on in the laboratory, and we proceeded down the hall to the rooms occupied by Poissan, Kennedy

had allowed for the wire to reach from the elevatorshaft up this hall, also, and as he walked he paid it out in

such a manner that it fell on the floor close to the wall, where, in the darkness, it would never be noticed or

Around an "L" in the hall I could see a groundglass window with a light shining through it. Kennedy

stopped at the window and quickly placed the little coil on the ledge, close up against the glass, with the

"On time to the minute, Professor," exclaimed Poissan, snapping his watch. "And this, I presume, is the

banker who is interested in my great discovery of making artificial diamonds of any size or colour?" he

I shook hands with as much dignity as I could assume, for the role of impersonation was a new one to me.

Kennedy carelessly laid his coat and hat on the inside ledge of the groundglass window, just opposite the

spot where he had placed the little coil on the other side of the glass. I noted that the window was simply a

large pane of wireglass set in the wall for the purpose of admitting light in the daytime from the hall outside.

The whole thing seemed eerie to meespecially as Poissan's assistant was a huge fellow and had an evil

look such as I had seen in pictures of the inhabitants of quarters of Paris which one does not frequent except

in the company of a safe guide. I was glad Kennedy had brought his revolver, and rather vexed that he had

not told me to do likewise. However, I trusted that Craig knew what he was about.

We seated ourselves some distance from a table on which was a huge, plain, oblong contrivance that

reminded me of the diagram of a parallelopiped which had caused so much trouble in my solid geometry at

"That's the electric furnace, sir," said Craig to me with an assumed deference, becoming a college professor

explaining things to the son of a great financier. "You see the electrodes at either end? When the current is

turned on and led through them into the furnace you can get the most amazing temperatures in the crucible.

The most refractory of chemical compounds can be broken up by that heat. What is the highest temperature

"Something over three thousand degrees Centigrade," replied Poissan, as he and his assistant busied

"Ah, gentlemen, now I am ready," he exclaimed at length, when everything was arranged to his satisfaction.

"You see, here is a lump of sugar carbonpure amorphous carbon: Diamonds, as you know, are composed

of pure carbon crystallised under enormous pressure. Now, my theory is that if we can combine an enormous

pressure and an enormous heat we can make diamonds artificially. The problem of pressure is the thing, for

here in the furnace we have the necessary heat. It occurred to me that when molten cast iron cools it exerts a

"You know, Spencer, solid iron floats on molten iron like solid water icefloats on liquid water,"

Poissan nodded. "I take this sugar carbon and place it in this soft iron cup. Then I screw on this cap over the

cup, so. Now I place this mass of iron scraps in the crucible of the furnace and start the furnace."

He turned a switch, and long yellowishblue sheets of flame spurted out from the electrodes on either side. It

was weird, gruesome. One could feel the heat of the tremendous electric discharge.

As I looked at the bluishyellow flames they gradually changed to a beautiful purple, and a sickish sweet

odour filled the room. The furnace roared at first, but as the vapors increased it became a better conductor of

In almost no time the mass of iron scraps became molten. Suddenly Poissan plunged the castiron cup into

the seething mass. The cup floated and quickly began to melt. As it did so he waited attentively until the

proper moment. Then with a deft motion he seized the whole thing with a long pair of tongs and plunged it

I felt a drowsy sensation stealing over me as the sickish sweet smell from the furnace increased. Gripping the

chair, I roused myself and watched Poissan attentively. He was working rapidly. As the molten mass cooled

Then his assistant began to hammer it with careful, sharp blows, chipping off the outside.

"You see, we have to get down to the core of carbon gently," he said, as he picked up the little pieces of iron

and threw them into a scrapbox. "First rather brittle cast iron, then hard iron, then iron and carbon, then

"Ah! we are getting to them. Here is a small diamond. See, Mr. Spencergently Francoiswe shall come to

"One moment, Professor Poissan," interrupted Craig; "let your assistant break them out while I stand over

There was something peculiar about his insistence, but after he picked out the next diamond I was hardly

"I merely wish to convince you, 'Mr. Spencer,'" said Kennedy to me, "that it is no sleightofhand trick and

that the professor has not several uncut stones palmed in his hand like a prestidigitator."

The Frenchman faced us, his face livid with rage. "You call me a prestidigitator, a fraudyou shall suffer for

that! Sacrebleu! Ventre du Saint Gris! No man ever insults the honour of Poissan. Francois, water on the

The assistant dashed a few drops of water on the electrodes. The sickish odour increased tremendously. I felt

myself almost going, but with an effort I again roused myself. I wondered how Craig stood the fumes, for I

"Stop!" Craig thundered. "There's enough cyanogen in this room already. I know your gamethe water

forms acetylene with the carbon, and that uniting with the nitrogen of the air under the terrific heat of the

electric arc forms hydrocyanic acid. Would you poison us, too? Do you think you can put me unconscious out

on the street and have a society doctor diagnose my case as pneumonia? Or do you think we shall die quietly

in some hospital as a certain New York banker did last year after he had watched an alchemist make silver

The effect on Poissan was terrible. He advanced toward Kennedy, the veins in his face fairly standing out.

Shaking his forefinger, he shouted: "You know that, do you? You are no professor, and this is no banker. You

are spies, spies. You come from the friends of Morowitch, do you? You have gone too far with me."

Kennedy said nothing, but retreated and took his coat and hat off the window ledge. The hideous penetrating

light of the tongues of flame from the furnace played on the groundglass window.

"Put down your hat and coat, Mistair Kennedy," he hissed. "The door has been locked ever since you have

been here. Those windows are barred, the telephone wire is cut, and it is three hundred feet to the street. We

shall leave you here when the fumes have overcome you. Francois and I can stand them up to a point, and

Instead of being cowed Kennedy grew bolder, though I, for my part, felt so weakened that I feared the

outcome of a handtohand encounter with either Poissan or Francois, who appeared as fresh as if nothing

"That would do you no good," Kennedy rejoined, "for we have no safe full of jewels for you to rob. There are

no keys to offices to be stolen from our pockets. And let me tell youyou are not the only man in New York

who knows the secret of thermit. I have told the secret to the police, and they are only waiting to find who

destroyed Morowitch's correspondence under the letter 'P' to apprehend the robber of his safe. Your secret is

"Revenge! revenge!" Poissan cried. "I will have revenge. Francois, bring out the jewelsha! ha!here in

this bag are the jewels of Mr. Morowitch. Tonight Francois and I will go down by the back elevator to a

secret exit. In two hours all your police in New York cannot find us. But in two hours you two impostors will

be suffocatedperhaps you will die of cyanogen, like Morowitch, whose jewels I have at last."

He went to the door into the hall and stood there with a mocking laugh. I moved to make a rush toward them,

Just then we heard the elevator door clang, and hurried steps came down the long hall.

Craig whipped out his automatic and began pumping the bullets out in rapid succession. As the smoke

cleared I expected to see Poissan and Francois lying on the floor. Instead, Craig had fired at the lock of the

door. He had shattered it into a thousand bits. Andrews and his men were running down the hall.

"Curse you!" muttered Poissan as he banged the now useless lock, "who let those fellows in? Are you a

"On the windowsill outside is a selenium cell. Selenium is a bad conductor of electricity in the dark, and an

excellent conductor when exposed to light. I merely moved my coat and hat, and the light from the furnace

which was going to suffocate us played through the glass on the cell, the circuit was completed without your

suspecting that I could communicate with friends outside, a bell was rung on the street, and here they are.

Andrews, there is the murderer of Morowitch, and there in his hands are the Morowitch"

Poissan had moved toward the furnace. With a quick motion he seized the long tongs. There was a cloud of

choking vapour. Kennedy leaped to the switch and shut off the current. With the tongs he lifted out a

"All that is left of the priceless Morowitch jewels," he exclaimed ruefully. "But we have the murderer."

"And tomorrow a certified check for one hundred thousand dollars goes to Mrs. Morowitch with my

humblest apologies and sympathy," added Andrews. "Professor Kennedy, you have earned your retainer."

Files of newspapers and innumerable clippings from the press bureaus littered Kennedy's desk in rank

profusion. Kennedy himself was so deeply absorbed that I had merely said good evening as I came in and had

started to open my mail. With an impatient sweep of his hand, however, he brushed the whole mass of

"It seems to me, Walter," he exclaimed in disgust, "that this mystery is considered insoluble for the very

reason which should make it easy to solvethe extraordinary character of its features."

Inasmuch as he had opened the subject, I laid down the letter I was reading. "I'll wager I can tell you just why

you made that remark, Craig," I ventured. "You're reading up on that WainwrightTempleton affair."

"You are on the road to becoming a detective yourself, Walter," he answered with a touch of sarcasm. "Your

ability to add two units to two other units and obtain four units is almost worthy of Inspector O'Connor. You

are right and within a quarter of an hour the district attorney of Westchester County will be here. He

telephoned me this afternoon and sent an assistant with this mass of dope. I suppose he'll want it back," he

added, fishing the newspapers out of the basket again. "But, with all due respect to your profession, I'll say

that no one would ever get on speaking terms with the solution of this case if he had to depend solely on the

"No," he repeated emphatically. "Here one of the most popular girls in the fashionable suburb of Williston,

and one of the leading younger members of the bar in New York, engaged to be married, are found dead in

the library of the girl's home the day before the ceremony. And now, a week later, no one knows whether it

was an accident due to the fumes from the antique charcoalbrazier, or whether it was a double suicide, or

suicide and murder, or a double murder, ororwhy, the experts haven't even been able to agree on

whether they have discovered poison or not," he continued, growing as excited as the city editor did over my

"They haven't agreed on anything except that on the eve of what was, presumably, to have been the happiest

day of their lives two of the best known members of the younger set are found dead, while absolutely no one,

as far as is known, can be proved to have been near them within the time necessary to murder them. No

wonder the coroner says it is simply a case of asphyxiation. No wonder the district attorney is at his wits' end.

You fellows have hounded them with your hypotheses until they can't see the facts straight. You suggest one

The doorbell sounded insistently, and without waiting for an answer a tall, spare, loosejointed individual

"Good evening, Professor Kennedy," he began brusquely. "I am District Attorney Whitney, of Westchester. I

"Quite wrong," answered Craig. "Let me introduce my friend, Mr. Jameson, of the Star. Sit down. Jameson

knows what I think of the way the newspapers have handled this case. I was about to tell him as you came in

that I intended to disregard everything that had been printed, to start out with you as if it were a fresh subject

and get the facts at first hand. Let's get right down to business. First tell us just how it was that Miss

The district attorney loosened the cords of the green bag and drew out a bundle of documents. "I'll read you

the affidavit of the maid who found them," he said, fingering the documents nervously. "You see, John

Templeton had left his office in New York early that afternoon, telling his father that he was going to visit

Miss Wainwright. He caught the threetwenty train, reached Williston all right, walked to the Wainwright

house, and, in spite of the bustle of preparation for the wedding, the next day, he spent the rest of the

afternoon with Miss Wainwright. That's where the mystery begins. They had no visitors. At least, the maid

who answers the bell says they had none. She was busy with the rest of the family, and I believe the front

"Mrs. Wainwright and Miss Marian Wainwright, the sister, were busy about the house. Mrs. Wainwright

wished to consult Laura about something. She summoned the maid and asked if Mr. Templeton and Miss

Wainwright were in the house. The maid replied that she would see, and this is her affidavit. Ahem! I'll skip

the legal part: 'I knocked at the library door twice, but obtaining no answer, I supposed they had gone out for

a walk or perhaps a ride across country as they often did. I opened the door partly and looked in. There was a

silence in the room, a strange, queer silence. I opened the door further and, looking toward the davenport in

the corner, I saw Miss Laura and Mr. Templeton in such an awkward position. They looked as if they had

fallen asleep. His head was thrown back against the cushions of the davenport, and on his face was a most

awful look. It was discoloured. Her head had fallen forward on his shoulder, sideways, and on her face, too,

was the same terrible stare and the same discolouration. Their right hands were tightly clasped.

"'I called to them. They did not answer. Then the horrible truth flashed on me. They were dead. I felt giddy

for a minute, but quickly recovered myself, and with a cry for help I rushed to Mrs. Wainwright's room,

shrieking that they were dead. Mrs. Wainwright fainted. Miss Marian called the doctor on the telephone and

helped us restore her mother. She seemed perfectly cool in the tragedy, and I do not know what we servants

should have done if she had not been there to direct us. The house was frantic, and Mr. Wainwright was not

"'I did not detect any odour when I opened the library door. No glasses or bottles or vials or other receptacles

which could have held poison were discovered or removed by me, or to the best of my knowledge and belief

"The family physician arrived and sent for the coroner immediately, and later for myself. You see, he thought

"Yes, the coroner has declared the case to be accidental. He says that the weight of evidence points positively

to asphyxiation. Still, how can it be asphyxiation? They could have escaped from the room at any time; the

door was not locked. I tell you, in spite of the fact that the tests for poison in their mouths, stomachs, and

blood have so far revealed nothing, I still believe that John Templeton and Laura Wainwright were

Kennedy looked at his watch thoughtfully. "You have told me just enough to make me want to see the

coroner himself," he mused. "If we take the next train out to Williston with you, will you engage to get us a

"Surely. But we'll have to start right away. I've finished my other business in New York. Inspector

O'Connorah, I see you know himhas promised to secure the attendance of anyone whom I can show to

be a material witness in the case. Come on, gentlemen: I'll answer your other questions on the train."

As we settled ourselves in the smoker, Whitney remarked in a low voice, "You know, someone has said that

there is only one thing more difficult to investigate and solve than a crime whose commission is surrounded

by complicated circumstances and that is a crime whose perpetration is wholly devoid of circumstances."

"Are you so sure that this crime is wholly devoid of circumstances?" asked Craig.

"Professor," he replied, "I'm not sure of anything in this case. If I were I should not require your assistance. I

would like the credit of solving it myself, but it is beyond me. Just think of it: so far we haven't a clue, at least

none that shows the slightest promise, although we have worked night and day for a week. It's all darkness.

The facts are so simple that they give us nothing to work on. It is like a blank sheet of paper."

Kennedy said nothing, and the district attorney proceeded: "I don't blame Mr. Nott, the coroner, for thinking

it an accident. But to my mind, some master criminal must have arranged this very baffling simplicity of

circumstances. You recall that the front door was unlocked. This person must have entered the house

unobserved, not a difficult thing to do, for the Wainwright house is somewhat isolated. Perhaps this person

brought along some poison in the form of a beverage, and induced the two victims to drink. And then, this

person must have removed the evidences as swiftly as they were brought in and by the same door. That, I

"That is not the only solution. It is one solution," interrupted Kennedy quietly.

"I think," replied Craig, carefully measuring his words, "that if poison was given them it must have been by

No one said a word, until at last I broke the silence. "I know from the gossip of the Star office that many

Williston people say that Marian was very jealous of her sister Laura for capturing the catch of the season.

Whitney produced another document from that fertile green bag. It was another affidavit. He handed it to us.

"Before God, my daughter Marian is innocent. If you wish to find out all, find out more about the past history

of Mr. Templeton before he became engaged to Laura. She would never in the world have committed suicide.

She was too bright and cheerful for that, even if Mr. Templeton had been about to break off the engagement.

My daughters Laura and Marian were always treated by Mr. Wainwright and myself exactly alike. Of course

they had their quarrels, just as all sisters do, but there was never, to my certain knowledge, a serious

disagreement, and I was always close enough to my girls to know. No, Laura was murdered by someone

Kennedy did not seem to attach much importance to this statement. "Let us see," he began reflectively. "First,

we have a young woman especially attractive and charming in both person and temperament. She is just

about to be married and, if the reports are to be believed, there was no cloud on her happiness. Secondly, we

have a young man whom everyone agrees to have been of an ardent, energetic, optimistic temperament. He

had everything to live for, presumably. So far, so good. Everyone who has investigated this case, I

understand, has tried to eliminate the doublesuicide and the suicideandmurder theories. That is all right,

providing the facts are as stated. We shall see, later, when we interview the coroner. Now, Mr. Whitney,

suppose you tell us briefly what you have learned about the past history of the two unfortunate lovers."

"Well, the Wainwrights are an old Westchester family, not very wealthy, but of the real aristocracy of the

county. There were only two children, Laura and Marian. The Templetons were much the same sort of

family. The children all attended a private school at White Plains, and there also they met Schuyler

Vanderdyke. These four constituted a sort of little aristocracy in the school. I mention this, because

Vanderdyke later became Laura's first husband. This marriage with Templeton was a second venture."

"About three years ago. I'm coming to that in a moment. The sisters went to college together, Templeton to

law school, and Vanderdyke studied civil engineering. Their intimacy was pretty well broken up, all except

Laura's and Vanderdyke's. Soon after he graduated he was taken into the construction department of the

Central Railroad by his uncle, who was a vicepresident, and Laura and he were married. As far as I can

learn he had been a fellow of convivial habits at college, and about two years after their marriage his wife

suddenly became aware of what had long been well known in Williston, that Vanderdyke was paying marked

"No sooner had Laura Vanderdyke learned of this intimacy of her husband," continued Whitney, "than she

quietly hired private detectives to shadow him, and on their evidence she obtained a divorce. The papers were

"As far as I can find out, Vanderdyke then disappeared from her life. He resigned his position with the

railroad and joined a party of engineers exploring the upper Amazon. Later he went to Venezuela. Miss

Laporte also went to South America about the same time, and was for a time in Venezuela, and later in Peru.

"Vanderdyke seems to have dropped all his early associations completely, though at present I find he is back

in New York raising capital for a company to exploit a new asphalt concession in the interior of Venezuela.

Miss Laporte has also reappeared in New York as Mrs. Ralston, with a mining claim in the mountains of

"No, none. Of course he had had love affairs, mostly with the countryclub set. He had known Miss Laporte

pretty well, too, while he was in law school in New York. But when he settled down to work he seems to

have forgotten all about the girls for a couple of years or so. He was very anxious to get ahead, and let

nothing stand in his way. He was admitted to the bar and taken in by his father as junior member of the firm

of Templeton, Mills Templeton. Not long ago he was appointed a special master to take testimony in the

getrichquickcompany prosecutions, and I happen to know that he was making good in the investigation."

"Very popular," replied the district attorney, "both at the country club and in his profession in New York. He

was a fellow of naturally commanding temperamentthe Templetons were always that way. I doubt if many

young men even with his chances could have gained such a reputation at thirtyfive as his. Socially he was

very popular, too, a great catch for all the sly mamas of the country club who had marriageable daughters. He

liked automobiles and outdoor sports, and he was strong in politics, too. That was how he got ahead so fast.

"Well, to cut the story short, Templeton met the Wainwright girls again last summer at a resort on Long

Island. They had just returned from a long trip abroad, spending most of the time in the Far East with their

father, whose firm has business interests in China. The girls were very attractive. They rode and played tennis

and golf better than most of the men, and this fall Templeton became a frequent visitor at the Wainwright

"People who know them best tell me that his first attentions were paid to Marian, a very dashing and

ambitious young woman. Nearly every day Templeton's car stopped at the house and the girls and some

friend of Templeton's in the country club went for a ride. They tell me that at this time Marian always sat

with Templeton on the front seat. But after a few weeks the gossipsnothing of that sort ever escapes

Willistonsaid that the occupant of the front seat was Laura. She often drove the car herself and was very

As he walked up from the pretty little Williston station Kennedy asked: "One more question, Mr. Whitney.

The district attorney hesitated. "I will be perfectly frank, Mr. Kennedy," he answered. "The countryclub

people tell me that the girls were very cool toward each other. That was why I got that statement from Mrs.

We found the coroner quite willing to talk, in spite of the fact that the hour was late. "My friend, Mr.

Whitney, here, still holds the poison theory," began the coroner, "in spite of the fact that everything points

absolutely toward asphyxiation. If I had been able to discover the slightest trace of illuminatinggas in the

room I should have pronounced it asphyxia at once. All the symptoms accorded with it. But the asphyxia was

"There was an antique charcoalbrazier in the room, and I have ascertained that it was lighted. Now, anything

like a brazier will, unless there is proper ventilation, give rise to carbonic oxide or carbon monoxide gas,

which is always present in the products of combustion, often to the extent of from five to ten per cent. A very

slight quantity of this gas, insufficient even to cause an odour in a room, will give a severe headache, and a

case is recorded where a whole family in Glasgow was poisoned without knowing it by the escape of this gas.

A little over one per cent of it in the atmosphere is fatal, if breathed for any length of time. You know, it is a

product of combustion, and is very deadly it is the muchdreaded white damp or afterdamp of a mine

"I'm going to tell you a secret which I have not given out to the press yet. I tried an experiment in a closed

room today, lighting the brazier. Some distance from it I placed a cat confined in a cage so it could not

The coroner concluded with an air of triumph that quite squelched the district attorney.

Kennedy was all attention. "Have you preserved samples of the blood of Mr. Templeton and Miss

The coroner, who was also a local physician, led us back into his private office.

Quickly Kennedy drew off a little of the blood of the cat and held it up to the light along with the human

"You see," he explained, "carbon monoxide combines firmly with the blood, destroying the red colouring

matter of the red corpuscles. No, Doctor, I'm afraid it wasn't carbonic oxide that killed the lovers, although it

Doctor Nott was crestfallen, but still unconvinced. "If my whole medical reputation were at stake," he

repeated, "I should still be compelled to swear to asphyxia. I've seen it too often, to make a mistake. Carbonic

"I have always inclined toward the cyanideofpotassium theory, either that it was administered in a drink or

perhaps injected by a needle," he said. "One of the chemists has reported that there was a possibility of slight

"If it had been cyanide," replied Craig, looking reflectively at the two jars before him on the table, "these

blood specimens would be blue in colour and clotted. But they are not. Then, too, there is a substance in the

saliva which is used in the process of digestion. It gives a reaction which might very easily be mistaken for a

slight trace of cyanide. I think that explains what the chemist discovered; no more, no less. The cyanide

"One chemist hinted at nux vomica," volunteered the coroner. "He said it wasn't nux vomica, but that the

blood test showed something very much like it. Oh, we've looked for morphine chloroform, ether, all the

ordinary poisons, besides some of the little known alkaloids. Believe me, Professor Kennedy, it was

I could tell by the look that crossed Kennedy's face that at last a ray of light had pierced the darkness. "Have

The coroner shook his head and took a step toward the telephone as if to call the drugstore in town.

Craig poured a little of one of the blood samples from the jar into a tube and added a few drops of ether. A

cloudy dark precipitate formed. He smiled quietly and said, half to himself, "I thought so."

Craig shook his head as he stared at the black precipitate. "You were perfectly right about the asphyxiation,

Doctor," he remarked slowly, "but wrong as to the cause. It wasn't carbon monoxide or illuminatinggas.

And you, Mr. Whitney, were right about the poison, too. Only it is a poison neither of you ever heard of."

"Let me take these samples and make some further tests. I am sure of it, but it is new to me. Wait till

tomorrow night, when my chain of evidence is completed. Then you are all cordially invited to attend at my

laboratory at the university. I'll ask you, Mr. Whitney, to come armed with a warrant for John or Jane Doe.

Please see that the Wainwrights, particularly Marian, are present. You can tell Inspector O'Connor that Mr.

Vanderdyke and Mrs. Ralston are required as material witnessesanything so long as you are sure that these

We rode back to the city in silence, but as we neared the station, Kennedy remarked: "You see, Walter, these

people are like the newspapers. They are floundering around in a sea of unrelated facts. There is more than

they think back of this crime. I've been revolving in my mind how it will be possible to get some inkling

about this concession of Vanderdyke's, the mining claim of Mrs. Ralston, and the exact itinerary of the

Wainwright trip in the Far East. Do you think you can get that information for me? I think it will take me all

day tomorrow to isolate this poison and get things in convincing shape on that score. Meanwhile if you can

see Vanderdyke and Mrs. Ralston you can help me a great deal. I am sure you will find them very interesting

"I have been told that she is quite a female high financier," I replied, tacitly accepting Craig's commission.

"Her story is that her claim is situated near the mine of a group of powerful American capitalists, who are

opposed to having any competition, and on the strength of that story she has been raking in the money right

and left. I don't know Vanderdyke, never heard of him before, but no doubt he has some equally interesting

"Don't let them think you connect them with the case, however," cautioned Craig.

Early the next morning I started out on my quest for facts, though not so early but that Kennedy had preceded

me to his work in his laboratory. It was not very difficult to get Mrs. Ralston to talk about her troubles with

the government. In fact, I did not even have to broach the subject of the death of Templeton. She volunteered

the information that in his handling of her case he had been very unjust to her, in spite of the fact that she had

known him well a long time ago. She even hinted that she believed he represented the combination of

capitalists who were using the government to aid their own monopoly and prevent the development of her

mine. Whether it was an obsession of her mind, or merely part of her clever scheme, I could not make out. I

noted, however, that when she spoke of Templeton it was in a studied, impersonal way, and that she was at

pains to lay the blame for the governmental interference rather on the rival mineowners.

It quite surprised me when I found from the directory that Vanderdyke's office was on the floor below in the

same building. Like Mrs. Ralston's, it was open, but not doing business, pending the investigation by the

Vanderdyke was a type of which I had seen many before. Well dressed to the extreme, he displayed all those

evidences of prosperity which are the stock in trade of the man with securities to sell. He grasped my hand

when I told him I was going to present the other side of the postoffice cases and held it between both of his

as if he had known me all his life. Only the fact that he had never seen me before prevented his calling me by

my first name. I took mental note of his stock of jewellery, the pin in his tie that might almost have been the

Hope diamond, the heavy watch chain across his chest, and a very brilliant seal ring of lapis lazuli on the

"My dear fellow, we have deposits of that stuff that would make a fortune if we could get the machinery to

get at it. Why, sir, there is lapis lazuli enough on our claim to make enough ultramarine paint to supply all the

artists to the end of the world. Actually we could afford to crush it up and sell it as paint. And that is merely

incidental to the other things on the concession. The asphalt's the thing. That's where the big money is. When

When it came to talking about the suits, however, Vanderdyke was not so communicative as Mrs. Ralston,

"Poor Templeton," he said. "I used to know him years ago when we were boys. Went to school with him and

all that sort of thing, you know, but until I ran across him, or rather he ran across me, in this investigation I

hadn't heard much about him. Pretty clever fellow he was, too. The state will miss him, but my lawyer tells

me that we should have won the suit anyhow, even if that unfortunate tragedy hadn't occurred. Most

unaccountable, wasn't it? I've read about it in the papers for old time's sake, and can make nothing out of it."

I said nothing, but wondered how he could pass so lightheartedly over the death of the woman who had once

been his wife. However, I said nothing. The result was he launched forth again on the riches of his

Venezuelan concession and loaded me down with "literature," which I crammed into my pocket for future

My next step was to drop into the office of a SpanishAmerica paper whose editor was especially well

"Do I know Mrs. Ralston?" he repeated, thoughtfully lighting one of those black cigarettes that look so

vicious and are so mild. "I should say so. I'll tell you a little story about her. Three or four years ago she

turned up in Caracas. I don't know who Mr. Ralston wasperhaps there never was any Mr. Ralston.

Anyhow, she got in with the official circle of the Castro government and was very successful as an

adventuress. She has considerable business ability and represented a certain group of Americans. But, if you

recall, when Castro was eliminated pretty nearly everyone who had stood high with him went, too. It seems

that a number of the old concessionaires played the game on both sides. This particular group had a man

named Vanderdyke on the antiCastro side. So, when Mrs. Ralston went, she just quietly sailed by way of

Panama to the other side of the continent, to Peruthey paid her welland Vanderdyke took the title role.

"Oh, yes, she and Vanderdyke were very good friends, very, indeed. I think they must have known each other

here in the States. Still they played their parts well at the time. Since things have settled down in Venezuela,

the concessionaires have found no further use for Vanderdyke either, and here they are, Vanderdyke and Mrs.

Ralston, both in New York now, with two of the most outrageous schemes of financing ever seen on Broad

Street. They have offices in the same building, they are together a great deal, and now I hear that the state

With this information and a very meagre report of the Wainwright trip to the Far East, which had taken in

some outoftheway places apparently, I hastened back to Kennedy. He was surrounded by bottles, tubes,

jars, retorts, Bunsen burners, everything in the science and art of chemistry, I thought.

I didn't like the way he looked. His hand was unsteady, and his eyes looked badly, but he seemed quite put

out when I suggested that he was working too hard over the case. I was worried about him, but rather than say

anything to offend him I left him for the rest of the afternoon, only dropping in before dinner to make sure

that he would not forget to eat something. He was then completing his preparations for the evening. They

were of the simplest kind, apparently. In fact, all I could see was an apparatus which consisted of a rubber

funnel, inverted and attached to a rubber tube which led in turn into a jar about a quarter full of water.

There were several jars of various liquids on the table and a number of chemicals. Among other things was a

sort of gourd, encrusted with a black substance, and in a corner was a box from which sounds issued as if it

I did not trouble Kennedy with questions, for I was only too glad when he consented to take a brisk walk and

It was a large party that gathered in Kennedy's laboratory that night, one of the largest he had ever had. Mr.

and Mrs. Wainwright and Miss Marian came, the ladies heavily veiled. Doctor Nott and Mr. Whitney were

among the first to arrive. Later came Mr. Vanderdyke and last of all Mrs. Ralston with Inspector O'Connor.

"I shall begin," said Kennedy, "by going over, briefly, the facts in this case."

Tersely he summarised it, to my surprise laying great stress on the proof that the couple had been

"But it was no ordinary asphyxiation," he continued. "We have to deal in this case with a poison which is

apparently among the most subtle known. A particle of matter so minute as to be hardly distinguishable by

the naked eye, on the point of a needle or a lancet, a prick of the skin scarcely felt under any circumstances

and which would pass quite unheeded if the attention were otherwise engaged, and not all the power in the

worldunless one was fully preparedcould save the life of the person in whose skin the puncture had

Craig paused a moment, but no one showed any evidence of being more than ordinarily impressed.

"This poison, I find, acts on the socalled endplates of the muscles and nerves. It produces complete

paralysis, but not loss of consciousness, sensation, circulation, or respiration until the end approaches. It

seems to be one of the most powerful sedatives I have ever heard of. When introduced in even a minute

quantity it produces death finally by asphyxiationby paralysing the muscles of respiration. This asphyxia is

"I will now inject a little of the blood serum of the victims into a white mouse."

He took a mouse from the box I had seen, and with a needle injected the serum. The mouse did not even

wince, so lightly did he touch it, but as we watched, its life seemed gently to ebb away, without pain and

Next he took the gourd I had seen on the table and with a knife scraped off just the minutest particle of the

black licoricelike stuff that encrusted it. He dissolved the particle in some alcohol and with a sterilised

needle repeated his experiment on a second mouse. The effect was precisely similar to that produced by the

It did not seem to me that anyone showed any emotion except possibly the slight exclamation that escaped

Miss Marian Wainwright. I fell to wondering whether it was prompted by a soft heart or a guilty conscience.

We were all intent on what Craig was doing, especially Doctor Nott, who now broke in with a question.

"Professor Kennedy, may I ask a question? Admitting that the first mouse died in an apparently similar

manner to the second, what proof have you that the poison is the same in both cases? And if it is the same can

you show that it affects human beings in the same way, and that enough of it has been discovered in the blood

of the victims to have caused their death? In other words, I want the last doubt set aside. How do you know

absolutely that this poison which you discovered in my office last night in that black precipitate when you

If ever Craig startled me it was by his quiet reply. "I've isolated it in their blood, extracted it, sterilised it, and

"Altogether I was able to recover from the blood samples of both of the victims of this crime six centigrams

of the poison," he pursued. "Starting with two centigrams of it as a moderate dose, I injected it into my right

arm subcutaneously. Then I slowly worked my way up to three and then four centigrams. They did not

produce any very appreciable results other than to cause some dizziness, slight vertigo, a considerable degree

of lassitude, and an extremely painful headache of rather unusual duration. But five centigrams considerably

improved on this. It caused a degree of vertigo and lassitude that was most distressing, and six centigrams,

the whole amount which I had recovered from the samples of blood, gave me the fright of my life right here

"Perhaps I was not wise in giving myself so large an injection on a day when I was overheated and below par

otherwise because of the strain I have been under in handling this case. However that may be, the added

centigram produced so much more on top of the five centigrams previously taken that for a time I had reason

to fear that that additional centigram was just the amount needed to bring my experiments to a permanent

"Within three minutes of the time of injection the dizziness and vertigo had become so great as to make

walking seem impossible. In another minute the lassitude rapidly crept over me, and the serious disturbance

of my breathing made it apparent to me that walking, waving my arms, anything, was imperative. My lungs

felt glued up, and the muscles of my chest refused to work. Everything swam before my eyes, and I was soon

reduced to walking up and down the laboratory with halting steps, only preventing falling on the floor by

holding fast to the edge of this table. It seemed to me that I spent hours gasping for breath. It reminded me of

what I once experienced in the Cave of the Winds of Niagara, where water is more abundant in the

atmosphere than air. My watch afterward indicated only about twenty minutes of extreme distress, but that

twenty minutes is one never to be forgotten, and I advise you all, if you ever are so foolish as to try the

"How much was administered to the victims, Doctor Nott, I cannot say, but it must have been a good deal

more than I took. Six centigrams, which I recovered from these small samples, are only ninetenths of a

"And what is this deadly poison?" continued Craig, anticipating our thoughts. "I have been fortunate enough

to obtain a sample of it from the Museum of Natural History. It comes in a little gourd, or often a calabash.

This is in a gourd. It is blackish brittle stuff encrusting the sides of the gourd just as if it was poured in in the

liquid state and left to dry. Indeed, that is just what has been done by those who manufacture this stuff after a

He placed the gourd on the edge of the table where we could all see it. I was almost afraid even to look at it.

"The famous traveller, Sir Robert Schomburgh first brought it into Europe, and Darwin has described it. It is

now an article of commerce and is to be found in the United States Pharmacopoeia as a medicine, though of

"At least one person in this room will appreciate the local colour of a little incident I am going to readto

illustrate what death from this poison is like. Two natives of the part of the world whence it comes were one

day hunting. They were armed with blowpipes and quivers full of poisoned darts made of thin charred

pieces of bamboo tipped with this stuff. One of them aimed a dart. It missed the object overhead, glanced off

the tree, and fell down on the hunter himself. This is how the other native reported the result:

"'Quacca takes the dart out of his shoulder. Never a word. Puts it in his quiver and throws it in the stream.

Gives me his blowpipe for his little son. Says to me goodbye for his wife and the village. Then he lies

down. His tongue talks no longer. No sight in his eyes. He folds his arms. He rolls over slowly. His mouth

moves without sound. I feel his heart. It goes fast and then slow. It stops. Quacca has shot his last woorali

We looked at each other, and the horror of the thing sank deep into our minds. Woorali. What was it? There

were many travellers in the room who had been in the Orient, home of poisons, and in South America. Which

"Woorali, or curare," said Craig slowly, "is the wellknown poison with which the South American Indians

of the upper Orinoco tip their arrows. Its principal ingredient is derived from the Strychnos toxifera tree,

A great light dawned on me. I turned quickly to where Vanderdyke was sitting next to Mrs. Ralston, and a

little behind her. His stony stare and laboured breathing told me that he had read the purport of Kennedy's

A trace of a smile flitted over Vanderdyke's features, as much as to say that he was beyond our interference.

"Vanderdyke," said Craig, with what seemed to me a brutal calmness, "then it was you who were the visitor

who last saw Laura Wainwright and John Templeton alive. Whether you shot a dart at them I do not know.

Vanderdyke raised his hand as if to assent. It fell back limp, and I noted the ring of the bluest lapis lazuli.

Mrs. Ralston threw herself toward him. "Will you not do something? Is there no antidote? Don't let him die!"

Again the hand moved in confession, and he feebly moved the finger on which shone the ring.

Our attention was centred on Vanderdyke. Mrs. Ralston, unobserved, went to the table and picked up the

gourd. Before O'Connor could stop her she had rubbed her tongue on the black substance inside. It was only a

little bit, for O'Connor quickly dashed it from her lips and threw the gourd through the window, smashing the

Without looking up, he said: "Oh, one can swallow itit's strange, but it is comparatively inert if swallowed

even in a pretty goodsized quantity. I doubt if Mrs. Ralston ever heard of it before except by hearsay. If she

If Craig had been indifferent to the emergency of Vanderdyke before, he was all action now that the

confession had been made. In an instant Vanderdyke was stretched on the floor and Craig had taken out the

"I am prepared for this," he exclaimed quickly. "Here is the apparatus for artificial respiration. Nott, hold that

rubber funnel over his nose, and start the oxygen from the tank. Pull his tongue forward so it won't fall down

his throat and choke him. I'll work his arms. Walter, make a tourniquet of your handkerchief and put it tightly

on the muscles of his left arm. That may keep some of the poison in his arm from spreading into the rest of

Kennedy was working feverishly, going through the motions of first aid to a drowned man. Mrs: Ralston was

on her knees beside Vanderdyke, kissing his hands and forehead whenever Kennedy stopped for a minute,

"Schuyler, poor boy, I wonder how you could have done it. I was with him that day. We rode up in his car,

and as we passed through Williston he said he would stop a minute and wish Templeton luck. I didn't think it

strange, for he said he had nothing any longer against Laura Wainwright, and Templeton only did his duty as

a lawyer against us. I forgave John for prosecuting us, but Schuyler didn't, after all. Oh, my poor boy, why

did you do it? We could have gone somewhere else and started all over againit wouldn't have been the first

At last came the flutter of an eyelid and a voluntary breath or two. Vanderdyke seemed to realise where he

was. With a last supreme effort he raised his hand and drew it slowly across his face. Then he fell back,

But he had at last put himself beyond the reach of the law. There was no tourniquet that would confine the

poison now in the scratch across his face. Back of those lacklustre eyes he heard and knew, but could not

move or speak. His voice was gone, his limbs, his face, his chest, and, last, his eyes. I wondered if it were

possible to conceive a more dreadful torture than that endured by a mind which so witnessed the dying of one

organ after another of its own body, shut up, as it were, in the fulness of life, within a corpse.

I looked in bewilderment at the scratch on his face. "How did he do it?" I asked.

Carefully Craig drew off the azure ring and examined it. In that part which surrounded the blue lapis lazuli,

he indicated a hollow point, concealed. It worked with a spring and communicated with a little receptacle

behind, in such a way that the murderer could give the fatal scratch while shaking hands with his victim.

I shuddered, for my hand had once been clasped by the one wearing that poison ring, which had sent

Kennedy and I had risen early, for we were hustling to get off for a weekend at Atlantic City. Kennedy was

tugging at the straps of his grip and remonstrating with it under his breath, when the door opened and a

Craig impatiently seized the pencil, signed his name in the book, and tore open a night letter. From the

prolonged silence that followed I felt a sense of misgiving. I, at least, had set my heart on the Atlantic City

outing, but with the appearance of the messengerboy I intuitively felt that the board walk would not see us

"I'm afraid the Atlantic City trip is off, Walter," remarked Craig seriously. "You remember Tom Langley in

I laid down my safety razor and took the message. Tom had not spared words, and I could see at a glance at

the mere length of the thing that it must be important. It was from Camp Hangout in the Adirondacks.

"Dear old K.," it began, regardless of expense, "can you arrange to come up here by next train after you

receive this? Uncle Lewis is dead. Most mysterious. Last night after we retired noticed peculiar odour about

house. Didn't pay much attention. This morning found him lying on floor of livingroom, head and chest

literally burned to ashes, but lower part of body and arms untouched. Room shows no evidence of fire, but

full of sort of oily soot. Otherwise nothing unusual. On table near body siphon of seltzer, bottle of imported

limes, and glass for rickeys. Have removed body, but am keeping room exactly as found until you arrive.

Bring Jameson. Wire if you cannot come, but make every effort and spare no expense. Anxiously, Tom

"Hurry, Walter," he exclaimed. "We can just catch the Empire State. Never mind shavingwe'll have a

stopover at Utica to wait for the Montreal express. Here, put the rest of your things in your grip and jam it

shut. We'll get something to eat on the trainI hope. I'll wire we're coming. Don't forget to latch the door."

Kennedy was already halfway to the elevator, and I followed ruefully, still thinking of the ocean and the

It was a good tenhour journey up to the little station nearest Camp Hangout and at least a two hour ride

after that. We had plenty of time to reflect over what this death might mean to Tom and his sister and to

speculate on the manner of it. Tom and Grace Langley were relatives by marriage of Lewis Langley, who,

after the death of his wife, had made them his proteges. Lewis Langley was principally noted, as far as I

could recall, for being a member of some of the fastest clubs of both New York and London. Neither

Kennedy nor myself had shared in the world's opinion of him, for we knew how good he had been to Tom in

college and, from Tom, how good he had been to Grace. In fact, he had made Tom assume the Langley name,

and in every way had treated the brother and sister as if they had been his own children.

Tom met us with a smart trap at the station, a sufficient indication, if we had not already known, of the

"roughing it" at such a luxurious Adirondack "camp" as Camp Hangout. He was unaffectedly glad to see us,

and it was not difficult to read in his face the worry which the affair had already given him.

"Tom; I'm awfully sorry to" began Craig when, warned by Langley's look at the curious crowd that always

gathers at the railroad station at train time, he cut it short. We stood silently a moment while Tom was

As we swung around the bend in the road that cut off the little station and its crowd of lookerson, Kennedy

was the first to speak. "Tom," he said, "first of all, let me ask that when we get to the camp we are to be

simply two old classmates whom you had asked to spend a few days before the tragedy occurred. Anything

will do. There may be nothing at all to your evident suspicions, and then again there may. At any rate, play

the game safelydon't arouse any feeling which might cause unpleasantness later in case you are mistaken."

"I quite agree with you," answered Tom. "You wired, from Albany, I think, to keep the facts out of the papers

as much as possible. I'm afraid it is too late for that. Of course the thing became vaguely known in Saranac,

although the county officers have been very considerate of us, and this morning a New York Record

correspondent was over and talked with us. I couldn't refuse, that would have put a very bad face on it."

"Too bad," I exclaimed. "I had hoped, at least, to be able to keep the report down to a few lines in the Star.

But the Record will have such a yellow story about it that I'll simply have to do something to counteract the

"Yes," assented Craig. "Butwait. Let's see the Record story first. The office doesn't know you're up here.

You can hold up the Star and give us time to look things over, perhaps get in a beat on the real story and set

things right. Anyhow, the news is out. That's certain. We must work quickly. Tell me, Tom, who are at the

"No," he replied, guardedly measuring his words. "Uncle Lewis had invited his brother James and his niece

and nephew, Isabelle and James, juniorwe call him Junior. Then there are Grace and myself and a distant

relative, Harrington Brown, andoh, of course, uncle's physician, Doctor Putnam."

"He's on the other side of the Langley family, on Uncle Lewis's mother's side. I think, or at least Grace thinks,

that he is quite in love with Isabelle. Harrington Brown would be quite a catch. Of course he isn't wealthy,

but his family is mighty well connected. Oh, Craig," sighed Langley, "I wish he hadn't done itUncle Lewis,

I mean. Why did he invite his brother up here now when he needed to recover from the swift pace of last

winter in New York? You know or you don't know, I suppose, but you'll know it nowwhen he and

Uncle Jim got together there was nothing to it but one drink after another. Doctor Putnam was quite

disgusted, at least he professed to be, but, Craig," he lowered his voice to a whisper, as if the very forest had

ears, "they're all alikethey've been just waiting for Uncle Lewis to drink himself to death. Oh," he added

bitterly, "there's no love lost between me and the relatives on that score, I can assure you."

"How did you find him that morning?" asked Kennedy, as if to turn off this unlocking of family secrets to

"That's the worst part of the whole affair," replied Tom, and even in the dusk I could see the lines of his face

tighten. "You know Uncle Lewis was a hard drinker, but he never seemed to show it much. We had been out

on the lake in the motorboat fishing all the afternoon andwell, I must admit both my uncles had had

frequent recourse to 'pocket pistols,' and I remember they referred to it each time as 'bait.' Then after supper

nothing would do but fizzes and rickeys. I was disgusted, and after reading a bit went to bed. Harrington and

my uncles sat up with Doctor Putnamaccording to Uncle Jimfor a couple of hours longer. Then

Harrington, Doctor Putnam, and Uncle Jim went to bed, leaving Uncle Lewis still drinking. I remember

waking in the night, and the house seemed saturated with a peculiar odour. I never smelt anything like it in

my life. So I got up and slipped into my bathrobe. I met Grace in the hall. She was sniffing.

"I said I did and started downstairs to investigate. Everything was dark, but that smell was all over the

house. I looked in each room downstairs as I went, but could see nothing. The kitchen and diningroom

were all right. I glanced into the livingroom, but, while the smell was more noticeable there, I could see no

evidence of a fire except the dying embers on the hearth. It had been coolish that night, and we had had a few

logs blazing. I didn't examine the roomthere seemed no reason for it. We went back to our rooms, and in

the morning they found the gruesome object I had missed in the darkness and shadows of the livingroom."

"Harrington," replied Tom. "He roused us. Harrington's theory is that uncle set himself on fire with a spark

We found Tom's relatives a saddened, silent party in the face of the tragedy. Kennedy and I apologised very

profusely for our intrusion, but Tom quickly interrupted, as we had agreed, by explaining that he had insisted

on our coming, as old friends on whom he felt he could rely, especially to set the matter right in the

I think Craig noticed keenly the reticence of the family group in the mysteryI might almost have called it

suspicion. They did not seem to know just whether to take it as an accident or as something worse, and each

Mr. Langley's attorney in New York had been notified, but apparently was out of town, for he had not been

Dinner over, the family group separated, leaving Tom an opportunity to take us into the gruesome

livingroom. Of course the remains had been removed, but otherwise the room was exactly as it had been

when Harrington discovered the tragedy. I did not see the body, which was lying in an anteroom, but

After he rejoined us, Kennedy next examined the fireplace. It was full of ashes from the logs which had been

lighted on the fatal night. He noted attentively the distance of Lewis Langley's chair from the fireplace, and

Before the chair, on the floor where the body had been found, he pointed out to us the peculiar ashmarks for

some space around, but it really seemed to me as if something else interested him more than these ashmarks.

We had been engaged perhaps half an hour in viewing the room. At last Craig suddenly stopped.

"Tom," he said, "I think I'll wait till daylight before I go any further. I can't tell with certainty under these

lights, though perhaps they show me some things the sunlight wouldn't show. We'd better leave everything

We were sitting in silence, each occupied with his own thoughts on the mystery, when the telephone rang. It

proved to be a longdistance call from New York for Tom himself. His uncle's attorney had received the

news at his home out on Long Island and had hurried to the city to take charge of the estate. But that was not

"That was uncle's lawyer, Mr. Clark, of Clark Burdick," he said. "He has opened uncle's personal safe in the

offices of the Langley estateyou remember them, Craigwhere all the property of the Langley heirs is

administered by the trustees. He says he can't find the will, though he knows there was a will and that it was

The full purport of this information at once flashed on me, and I was on the point of blurting out my

sympathy, when I saw by the look which Craig and Tom exchanged that they had already realised it and

understood each other. Without the will the bloodrelatives would inherit all of Lewis Langley's interest in

It was late, yet we sat for nearly an hour longer, and I don't think we exchanged a halfdozen sentences in all

that time. Craig seemed absorbed in thought. At length, as the great hallclock sounded midnight, we rose as

"Tom," said Craig, and I could feel the sympathy that welled up in his voice, "Tom, old man, I'll get at the

"I know you will, Craig," responded Tom, grasping each of us by the hand. "That's why I so much wanted

Early in the morning Kennedy aroused me. "Now, Walter, I'm going to ask you to come down into the

I hurried into my clothes, and together we quietly went down. Starting with the exact spot where the

unfortunate man had been discovered, Kennedy began a minute examination of the floor, using his pocket

lens. Every few moments he would stop to examine a spot on the rug or on the hardwood floor more intently.

Several times I saw him scrape up something with the blade of his knife and carefully preserve the scrapings,

Sitting idly by, I could not for the life of me see just what good it did for me to be there, and I said as much.

"You're a material witness, Walter," he replied. "Perhaps I shall need you some day to testify that I actually

Just then Tom stuck his head in. "Can I help?" he asked. "Why didn't you tell me you were going at it so

"No, thanks," answered Craig, rising from the floor. "I was just making a careful examination of the room

before anyone was up so that nobody would think I was too interested. I've finished. But you can help me,

after all. Do you think you could describe exactly how everyone was dressed that night?"

"Why, I can try. Let me see. To begin with, uncle had on a shootingjacketthat was pretty well burnt, as

you know. Why, in fact, we all had our shootingjackets on. The ladies were in white."

Craig pondered a little, but did not seem disposed to pursue the subject further, until Tom volunteered the

information that since the tragedy none of them had been wearing their shooting jackets.

"Could you get your Uncle James and your Cousin Junior to go with you for an hour or two this morning on

"Really, Craig," responded Tom doubtfully, "I ought to go to Saranac to complete the arrangements for

"Very well, persuade them to go with you. Anything, so long as you keep me from interruption for an hour or

They agreed on doing that, and as by that time most of the family were up, we went in to breakfast, another

After breakfast Kennedy tactfully withdrew from the family, and I did the same. We wandered off in the

direction of the stables and there fell to admiring some of the horses. The groom, who seemed to be a sensible

and pleasant sort of fellow, was quite ready to talk, and soon he and Craig were deep in discussing the game

"Many rabbits about here?" asked Kennedy at length, when they had exhausted the larger game.

"Oh, yes, aliveI don't want you to violate the game laws. This is the closed season, isn't it?"

"Bring them to me this afternoon, orno, keep them here in the stable in a cage and let me know when you

Craig handed a small treasury note to the groom, who took it with a grin and touched his hat.

As we walked slowly back from the stables we caught sight of Tom down at the boathouse just putting off

in the motorboat with his uncle and cousin. Craig waved to him, and he walked up to meet us.

"While you're in Saranac," said Craig, "buy me a dozen or so testtubes. Only, don't let anyone here at the

While they were gone Kennedy stole into James Langley's room and after a few minutes returned to our room

with the huntingjacket. He carefully examined it with his pocket lens. Then he filled a drinkingglass with

warm boiled water and added a few pinches of table salt. With a piece of sterilised gauze from Doctor

Putnam's medicinechest, he carefully washed off a few portions of the coat and set the glass and the gauze

soaking in it aside. Then he returned the coat to the closet where he had found it. Next, as silently, he stole

into Junior's room and repeated the process with his huntingjacket, using another glass and piece of gauze.

"While I am out of the room, Walter," he said, "I want you to take these two glasses, cover them, and number

them and on a slip of paper which you must retain, place the names of the owners of the respective coats. I

don't like this part of itI hate to play spy and would much rather come out in the open, but there is nothing

else to do, and it is much better for all concerned that I should play the game secretly just now. There may be

no cause for suspicion at all. In that case I'd never forgive myself for starting a family row. And then again

After I had numbered and recorded the glasses Kennedy returned, and we went downstairs again.

"Curious about the will, isn't it?" I remarked as we stood on the wide verandah a moment.

"Yes," he replied. "It may be necessary to go back to New York to delve into that part of it before we get

At this point the groom interrupted us to say that he had caught the rabbits. Kennedy at once hurried to the

stable. There he rolled up his sleeves, pricked a vein in his arm, and injected a small quantity of his own

It was late in the afternoon when Tom returned from town with his uncle and cousin. He seemed even more

agitated than usual. Without a word he hurried up from the landing and sought us out.

"What do you think of that?" he cried, opening a copy of the Record, and laying it flat on the library table.

"It's all out," groaned Tom, as we bent over to read the account. "And such a story!"

Lewis Langley, well known as sporting man and club member in New York, and eldest son of the late Lewis

Langley, the banker, was discovered dead under the most mysterious circumstances this morning at Camp

The Death of "Old Krook" in Dickens's "Bleak House" or of the victim in one of Marryat's most thrilling tales

was not more gruesome than this actual fact. It is without doubt a case of spontaneous human combustion,

such as is recorded beyond dispute in medical and medicolegal textbooks of the past two centuries.

Scientists in this city consulted for the Record agree that, while rare, spontaneous human combustion is an

established fact and that everything in this curious case goes to show that another has been added to the

already wellauthenticated list of cases recorded in America and Europe. The family refuse to be

interviewed, which seems to indicate that the rumours in medical circles in Saranac have a solid basis of fact.

Then followed a circumstantial account of the life of Langley and the events leading up to the discovery of

"The Record man must have made good use of his time here," I commented, as I finished reading the

despatch. "Andwell, they must have done some hard work in New York to get this story up so

completelysee, after the despatch follow a lot of interviews, and here is a short article on spontaneous

"What's this we hear about the Record having an article?" Harrington asked. "Read it aloud, Professor, so we

"'Spontaneous human combustion, or catacausis ebriosus,"' began Craig, "'is one of the baffling human

scientific mysteries. Indeed, there can be no doubt but that individuals have in some strange and inexplicable

"'Some have attributed it to gases in the body, such as carbureted hydrogen. Once it was noted at the Hotel

Dieu in Paris that a body on being dissected gave forth a gas which was inflammable and burned with a

bluish flame. Others have attributed the combustion to alcohol. A toper several years ago in Brooklyn and

New York used to make money by blowing his breath through a wire gauze and lighting it. Whatever the

cause, medical literature records seventysix cases of catacausis in two hundred years.

"'The combustion seems to be sudden and is apparently confined to the cavities, the abdomen, chest, and

head. Victims of ordinary fire accidents rush hither and thither frantically, succumb from exhaustion, their

limbs are burned, and their clothing is all destroyed. But in catacausis they are stricken down without

warning, the limbs are rarely burned, and only the clothing in contact with the head and chest is consumed.

The residue is like a distillation of animal tissue, grey and dark, with an overpoweringly fetid odour. They are

said to burn with a flickering stifled blue flame, and water, far from arresting the combustion, seems to add to

it. Gin is particularly rich in inflammable, empyreumatic oils, as they are called, and in most cases it is

"'Within the past few years cases are on record which seem to establish catacausis beyond doubt. In one case

the heat was so great as to explode a pistol in the pocket of the victim. In another, a woman, the victim's

husband was asphyxiated by the smoke. The woman weighed, one hundred and eighty pounds in life, but the

ashes weighed only twelve pounds: In all these cases the proof of spontaneous combustion seems

As Craig finished reading, we looked blankly, horrified, at one another. It was too dreadful to realise.

"What do you think of it, Professor" asked James Langley, at length. "I've read somewhere of such cases, but

to think of its actually happeningand to my own brother. Do you really think Lewis could have met his

Kennedy made no reply. Harrington seemed absorbed in thought. A shudder passed over us as we thought

about it. But, gruesome as it was, it was evident that the publication of the story in the Record had relieved

the feelings of the family group in one respectit at least seemed to offer an explanation. It was noticeable

that the suspicious air with which everyone had regarded everyone else was considerably dispelled.

Tom said nothing until the others had withdrawn. "Kennedy," he burst out, then, "do you believe that such

combustion is absolutely spontaneous? Don't you believe that something else is necessary to start it?"

"I'd rather not express an opinion just yet, Tom," answered Craig carefully. "Now, if you can get Harrington

and Doctor Putnam away from the house for a short time, as you did with your uncle and cousin this

Again Kennedy stole into another bedroom, and returned to our room with a huntingjacket. Just as he had

done before, he carefully washed it off with the gauze soaked in the salt solution and quickly returned the

coat, repeating the process with Doctor Putnam's coat and, last, that of Tom himself. Finally he turned his

The next day was spent mainly in preparations for the journey to New York with the body of Lewis Langley.

Kennedy was very busy on what seemed to me to be preparations for some mysterious chemical experiments.

I found myself fully occupied in keeping special correspondents from all over the country at bay.

That evening after dinner we were all sitting in the open summer house over the boathouse. Smudges of

green pine were burning and smoking on little artificial islands of stone near the lake shore, lighting up the

trees on every side with a red glare. Tom and his sister were seated with Kennedy and myself on one side,

while some distance from us Harrington was engaged in earnest conversation with Isabelle. The other

members of the family were further removed. That seemed typical to me of the way the family group split up.

"Mr. Kennedy," remarked Grace in a thoughtful, low tone, "what do you make of that Record article?"

"Hush," whispered Tom, for Isabelle and Harrington had ceased talking and might perhaps be listening.

Tom hastily opened it and read the message eagerly in the corner of the summer house nearest one of the

glowing smudges. I felt instinctively that it was from his lawyer. He turned and beckoned to Kennedy and

New York papers full of spontaneous combustion story. Record had exclusive story yesterday, but all papers

today feature even more. Is it true? Please wire additional details at once. Also immediate instructions

regarding loss of will. Has been abstracted from safe. Could Lewis Langley have taken it himself? Unless

new facts soon must make loss public or issue statement Lewis Langley intestate.

Tom looked blankly at Kennedy, and then at his sister, who was sitting alone. I thought I could read what was

passing in his mind. With all his faults Lewis Langley had been a good fosterparent to his adopted children.

"But I have," quietly returned Kennedy, deliberately folding up the message and handing it back. "Tell them

all to be in the library in fifteen minutes. This message hurries me a bit, but I am prepared. You will have

something to wire Mr. Clark after that." Then he strode off toward the house, leaving us to gather the group

A quarter of an hour later we had all assembled in the library, across the hall from the room in which Lewis

Langley had been found. As usual Kennedy began by leaping straight into the middle of his subject.

"Early in the eighteenth century;" he commenced slowly, "a woman was found burned to death. There were

no clues, and the scientists of that time suggested spontaneous combustion. This explanation was accepted.

The theory always has been that the process of respiration by which the tissues of the body are used up and

got rid of gives the body a temperature, and it has seemed that it may be possible, by preventing the escape of

We were leaning forward expectantly, horrified by the thought that perhaps, after all, the Record was correct.

"Now," resumed Kennedy, his tone changing, "suppose we try a little experimentone that was tried very

convincingly by the immortal Liebig. Here is a sponge. I am going to soak it in gin from this bottle, the same

Kennedy took the saturated sponge and placed it in an agateiron pan from the kitchen. Then he lighted it.

The bluish flame shot upward, and in tense silence we watched it burn lower and lower, till all the alcohol

was consumed. Then he picked up the sponge and passed it around. It was dry, but the sponge itself had not

"We now know," he continued, "that from the nature of combustion it is impossible for the human body to

undergo spontaneous ignition or combustion in the way the scientific experts of the past century believed.

Swathe the body in the thickest of nonconductors of heat, and what happens? A profuse perspiration exudes,

and before such an ignition could possibly take place all the moisture of the body would have to be

evaporated. As seventyfive per cent or more of the body is water, it is evident that enormous heat would be

necessary moisture is the great safeguard. The experiment which I have shown you could be duplicated with

specimens of human organs preserved for years in alcohol in museums. They would burn just as this

spongethe specimen itself would be very nearly uninjured by the burning of the alcohol."

"Then, Professor Kennedy, you maintain that my brother did not meet his death by such an accident" asked

"Exactly that, sir," replied Craig. "One of the most important aspects of the historic faith in this phenomenon

is that of its skilful employment in explaining away what would otherwise appear to be convincing

"Then how do you explain Mr. Langley's death?" demanded Harrington. "My theory of a spark from a cigar

"I am coming to that in a moment," answered Kennedy quietly. "My first suspicion was aroused by what not

even Doctor Putnam seems to have noticed. The skull of Mr. Langley, charred and consumed as it was,

seemed to show marks of violence. It might have been from a fracture of the skull or it might have been an

accident to his remains as they were being removed to the anteroom. Again, his tongue seemed as though it

was protruding. That might have been natural suffocation, or it might have been from forcible strangulation.

So far I had nothing but conjecture to work on. But in looking over the livingroom I found near the table, on

the hardwood floor, a spotjust one little round spot. Now, deductions from spots, even if we know them to

be blood, must be made very carefully. I did not know this to be a bloodspot, and so was very careful at

"Let us assume it was a bloodspot, however. What did it show? It was just a little regular round spot, quite

thick. Now, drops of blood falling only a few inches usually make a round spot with a smooth border. Still

the surface on which the drop falls is quite as much a factor as the height from which it falls. If the surface is

rough the border may be irregular. But this was a smooth surface and not absorbent. The thickness of a dried

bloodspot on a nonabsorbent surface is less the greater the height from which it has fallen. This was a thick

spot. Now if it had fallen, say, six feet, the height of Mr. Langley, the spot would have been thin some

secondary spatters might have been seen, or at least an irregular edge around the spot. Therefore, if it was a

bloodspot, it had fallen only one or two feet. I ascertained next that the lower part of the body showed no

"Tracks of blood such as are left by dragging a bleeding body differ very greatly from tracks of arterial blood

which are left when the victim has strength to move himself. Continuing my speculations, supposing it to be a

bloodspot, what did it indicate? Clearly that Mr. Langley was struck by somebody on the head with a heavy

instrument, perhaps in another part of the room, that he was choked, that as the drops of blood oozed from the

wound on his head, he was dragged across the floor, in the direction of the fireplace"

"But, Professor Kennedy," interrupted Doctor Putnam, "have you proved that the spot was a bloodspot?

"Ordinarily, water has no effect on paint," he answered. "I found that the spot could be washed off with

water. That is not all. I have a test for blood that is so delicately sensitive that the blood of an Egyptian

mummy thousands of years old will respond to it. It was discovered by a German scientist, Doctor

Uhlenhuth, and was no longer ago than last winter applied in England in connection with the Clapham

murder. The suspected murderer declared that stains on his clothes were only spatters of paint, but the test

proved them to be spatters of blood. Walter, bring in the cage with the rabbits."

I opened the door and took the cage from the groom, who had brought it up from the stable and stood waiting

"This test is very simple, Doctor Putnam," continued Craig, as I placed the cage on the table and Kennedy

unwrapped the sterilised testtubes. "A rabbit is inoculated with human blood, and after a time the serum that

"I will insert this needle in one of these rabbits which has been so inoculated and will draw off some of the

serum, which I place in this testtube to the right. The other rabbit has not been inoculated. I draw off some

of its serum and place that tube here on the leftwe will call that our 'control tube.' It will check the results

"Wrapped up in this paper I have the scrapings of the spot which I found on the floorjust a few grains of

dark, dried powder. To show how sensitive the test is, I will take only one of the smallest of these minute

scrapings. I dissolve it in this third tube with distilled water. I will even divide it in half, and place the other

"Next I add some of the serum of the uninoculated rabbit to the half in this tube. You observe, nothing

happens. I add a little of the serum of the inoculated rabbit to the other half in this other tube. Observe how

Kennedy was leaning forward, almost oblivious of the rest of us in the room, talking almost as if to himself.

As he added the serum from the inoculated rabbit, a cloudy milky ring formed almost immediately in the

"That," concluded Craig, triumphantly holding the tube aloft, "that conclusively proves that the little round

spot on the hardwood floor was not paint, was not anything in this wide world but blood."

No one in the room said a word, but I knew there must have been someone there who thought volumes in the

"Having found one bloodspot, I began to look about for more, but was able to find only two or three traces

where spots seemed to have been. The fact is that the blood spots had been apparently carefully wiped up.

That is an easy matter. Hot water and salt, or hot water alone, or even cold water, will make quite short work

of fresh bloodspotsat least to all outward appearances. But nothing but a most thorough cleaning can

conceal them from the Uhlenhuth test, even when they are apparently wiped out. It is a case of Lady Macbeth

"I was able with sufficient definiteness to trace roughly a course of bloodspots from the fireplace to a point

"Still," interrupted Harrington, "to get back to the facts in the case. They are perfectly in accord either with

my theory of the cigar or the Record's of spontaneous combustion. How do you account for the facts?"

"I suppose you refer to the charred bead, the burned neck, the upper chest cavity, while the arms and legs

"Yes, and then the body was found in the midst of combustible furniture that was not touched. It seems to me

that even the spontaneouscombustion theory has considerable support in spite of this very interesting

circumstantial evidence about bloodspots. Next to my own theory, the combustion theory seems most in

"If you will go over in your mind all the points proved to have been discoverednot the added points in the

Record storyI think you will agree with me that mine is a more logical interpretation than spontaneous

combustion," reasoned Craig. "Hear me out and you will see that the facts are more in harmony with my less

fanciful explanation. No, someone struck Lewis Langley down either in passion or in cold blood, and then,

seeing what he had done, made a desperate effort to destroy the evidence of violence. Consider my next

Kennedy placed the five glasses which I had carefully sealed and labelled on the table before us.

"The next step," he said, "was to find out whether any articles of clothing in the house showed marks that

might be suspected of being bloodspots. And here I must beg the pardon of all in the room for intruding in

their private wardrobes. But in this crisis it was absolutely necessary, and under such circumstances I never

"In these five glasses on the table I have the washings of spots from the clothing worn by Tom, Mr. James

Langley, Junior, Harrington Brown, and Doctor Putnam. I am not going to tell you which is whichindeed I

merely have them marked, and I do not know them myself. But Mr. Jameson has the marks with the names

opposite on a piece of paper in his pocket. I am simply going to proceed with the tests to see if any of the

Just then Doctor Putnam interposed. "One question, Professor Kennedy. It is a comparatively easy thing to

recognise a bloodstain, but it is difficult, usually impossible, to tell whether the blood is that of a man or of

an animal. I recall that we were all in our huntingjackets that day, had been all day. Now, in the morning

there had been an operation on one of the horses at the stable, and I assisted the veterinary from town. I may

have got a spot or two of blood on my coat from that operation. Do I understand that this test would show

"No," replied Craig, "this test would not show that. Other tests would, but not this. But if the spot of human

blood were less than the size of a pinhead, it would showit would show if the spot contained even so little

as one twentythousandth of a gram of albumin. Blood from a horse, a deer, a sheep, a pig, a dog, could be

obtained, but when the test was applied the liquid in which they were diluted would remain clear. No white

precipitin, as it is called, would form. But let human blood, ever so diluted, be added to the serum of the

A deathlike silence seemed to pervade the loom. Kennedy slowly and deliberately began to test the contents

of the glasses. Dropping into each, as he broke the seal, some of the serum of the rabbit, he waited a moment

It was thrilling. I think no one could have gone through that fifteen minutes without having it indelibly

impressed on his memory. I recall thinking as Kennedy took each glass, "Which is it to be, guilt or innocence,

life or death?" Could it be possible that a man's life might hang on such a slender thread? I knew Kennedy

was too accurate and serious to deceive us. It was not only possible, it was actually a fact.

The second was neutral likewiseanother person in the room had been proved innocent.

Almost it seemed as if the record in my pocket burnedspontaneously so intense was my feeling. There

Hastily Kennedy dropped the serum into the fifth. It remained as clear as crystal.

"The person who wore the coat with that bloodstain on it," declared Kennedy solemnly, "was the person who

struck Lewis Langley down, who choked him and then dragged his scarcely dead body across the floor and

obliterated the marks of violence in the blazing log fire. Jameson, whose name is opposite the sign on this

I could scarcely tear the seal to look at the paper in the envelope. At last I unfolded it, and my eye fell on the

name opposite the fatal sign. But my mouth was dry, and my tongue refused to move. It was too much like

Tom leaned over my shoulder and read it to himself. "For Heaven's sake, Jameson," he cried, "let the ladies

"It's not necessary," said a thick voice. "We quarrelled over the estate. My share's mortgaged up to the limit,

and Lewis refused to lend me more even until I could get Isabelle happily married. Now Lewis's goes to an

Someone seized James Langley's arm as he pressed an automatic revolver to his temple. He reeled like a

"Beaten again," he muttered. "Forgot to move the ratchet from 'safety' to 'fire.'"

Like a madman he wrenched himself loose from us, sprang through the door, and darted upstairs. "I'll show

We literally tore the door off its hinges and burst into James Langley's room. He was bending eagerly over

the fireplace. Kennedy made a flying leap at him. Just enough of the will was left unburned to be admitted to

"There's something queer about these aeroplane accidents at Belmore Park," mused Kennedy, one evening, as

his eye caught a big headline in the last edition of the Star, which I had brought uptown with me.

"Queer?" I echoed. "Unfortunate, terrible, but hardly queer. Why, it is a common saying among the aeronauts

"Yes, I know that," rejoined Kennedy; "but, Walter, have you noticed that all these accidents have happened

"Well, what of that" I replied. "Isn't it just barely possible that Norton is on the wrong track in applying the

gyroscope to an aeroplane? I can't say I know much about either the gyroscope or the aeroplane, but from

what I hear the fellows at the office say it would seem to me that the gyroscope is a pretty good thing to keep

"Well, it seems to me, from what the experts say, that anything which tends to keep your machine in one

position is just what you don't want in an aeroplane. What surprises them, they say, is that the thing seems to

work so well up to a certain pointthat the accidents don't happen sooner. Why, our man on the aviation

field tells me that when that poor fellow Browne was killed he had all but succeeded in bringing his machine

to a dead stop in the air. In other words, he would have won the Brooks Prize for perfect motionlessness in

one place. And then Herrick, the day before, was going about seventy miles an hour when he collapsed. They

said it was heart failure. But tonight another expert says in the Star here, I'll read it: 'The real cause was

carbonicacidgas poisoning due to the pressure on the mouth from driving fast through the air, and the

consequent inability to expel the poisoned air which had been breathed. Air once breathed is practically

carbonicacidgas. When one is passing rapidly through the air this carbonicacidgas is pushed back into

the lungs, and only a little can get away because of the rush of air pressure into the mouth. So it is rebreathed,

and the result is gradual carbonicacidgas poisoning, which produces a kind of narcotic sleep.'"

"Then it wasn't the gyroscope in that case" said Kennedy with a rising inflection.

I could see that I had been rash in talking so long. Kennedy had only been sounding me to see what the

"Norton has asked me to look into the thing," he said quietly. "If his invention is a failure, he is a ruined man.

All his money is in it, he is suing a man for infringing on his patent, and he is liable for damages to the heirs,

according to his agreement with Browne and Herrick. I have known Norton some time; in fact, he worked out

his ideas at the university physical laboratory. I have flown in his machine, and it is the most marvellous

biplane I ever saw. Walter, I want you to get a Belmore Park assignment from the Star and go out to the

aviation meet with me tomorrow. I'll take you on the field, around the machinesyou can get enough local

colour to do a dozen Star specials later on. I may add that devising a flyingmachine capable of remaining

stationary in the air means a revolution that will relegate all other machines to the scrapheap. >From a

military point of view it is the one thing necessary to make the aeroplane the superior in every respect to the

The regular contests did not begin until the afternoon, but Kennedy and I decided to make a day of it, and

early the next morning we were speeding out to the park where the flights were being held.

We found Charles Norton, the inventor, anxiously at work with his mechanicians in the big temporary shed

"Of course," echoed Kennedy. "I'm too much interested in this invention of yours not to help you, Norton.

You know what I've always thought of itI've told you often that it is the most important advance since the

original discovery by the Wrights that the aeroplane could be balanced by warping the planes."

"I'm just fixing up my third machine," said Norton. "If anything happens to it, I shall lose the prize, at least as

far as this meet is concerned, for I don't believe I shall get my fourth and newest model from the makers in

time. Anyhow, if I did I couldn't pay for itI am ruined, if I don't win that twentyfivethousanddollar

Brooks Prize. And, besides, a couple of army men are coming to inspect my aeroplane and report to the War

Department on it. I'd have stood a good chance of selling it, I think, if my flights here had been like the trials

you saw. But, Kennedy," he added, and his face was drawn and tragic, "I'd drop the whole thing if I didn't

know I was right. Two men deadthink of it. Why, even the newspapers are beginning to call me a cold,

heartless, scientific crank, to keep on. But I'll show themthis afternoon I'm going to fly myself. I'm not

It was easy to see why Kennedy was fascinated by a man of Norton's type. Anyone would have been. It was

not foolhardiness. It was dogged determination, faith in himself and in his own ability to triumph over every

We now slowly entered the shed where two men were working over Norton's biplane. One of the men was a

Frenchman, Jaurette, who had worked with Farman, a silent, darkbrowed, weatherbeaten fellow with a sort

of sullen politeness. The other man was an American, Roy Sinclair, a tall, lithe, wiry chap with a seamed and

furrowed face and a loosejointed but very deft manner which marked him a born birdman. Norton's third

aviator, Humphreys, who was not to fly that day, much to his relief, was reading a paper in the back of the

We were introduced to him, and be seemed to be a very companionable sort of fellow, though not given to

"Mr. Norton," he said, after the introduction, "there's quite an account of your injunction against Delanne in

this paper. It doesn't seem to be very friendly," he added, indicating the article.

Norton read it and frowned. "Humph! I'll show them yet that my application of the gyroscope is patentable.

Delanne will put me into 'interference' in the patent office, as the lawyers call it, will he? Well, I filed a

'caveat' over a year and a half ago. If I'm wrong, he's wrong, and all gyroscope patents are wrong, and if I'm

right, by George, I'm first in the field. That's so, isn't it?" he appealed to Kennedy.

Kennedy shrugged his shoulders noncommittally, as if he had never heard of the patent office or the

gyroscope in his life. The men were listening, whether or not from loyalty I could not tell.

"Let us see your gyroplane, I mean aeroseopewhatever it is you call it," asked Kennedy.

Norton took the cue. "Now you newspaper men are the first that I've allowed in here," he said. "Can I trust

your word of honour not to publish a line except such as I O.K. after you write it?"

As Norton directed, the mechanicians wheeled the aeroplane out on the field in front of the shed. No one was

"Now this is the gyroscope," began Norton, pointing out a thing encased in an aluminum sheath, which

weighed, all told, perhaps fourteen or fifteen pounds. "You see, the gyroscope is really a flywheel mounted

on gimbals and can turn on any of its angles so that it can assume any angle in space. When it's at rest like

this you can turn it easily. But when set revolving it tends to persist always in the plane in which it was

I took hold of it, and it did turn readily in any direction. I could feel the heavy little flywheel inside.

"There is a pretty high vacuum in that aluminum case," went on Norton. "There's very little friction on that

account. The power to rotate the flywheel is obtained from this little dynamo here, run by the gasengine

"It will go right on for several minutes. You know, the Brennan monorail car will stand up some time after

the power is shut off. And I carry a small storagebattery that will run it for some time, too. That's all been

Jaurette cranked the engine, a sevencylindered affair, with the cylinders sticking out like the spokes of a

wheel without a rim. The propellers turned so fast that I could not see the blades turned with that strong,

steady, fierce droning buzz that can be heard a long distance and which is a thrilling sound to hear. Norton

reached over and attached the little dynamo, at the same time setting the gyroscope at its proper angle and

"This is the mechanical brain of my new flier," he remarked, patting the aluminum case lovingly. "You can

look in through this little window in the case and see the flywheel inside revolving ten thousand revolutions

As I placed both hands on the case of the apparently frail little instrument, he added, "You remember how

I pressed down with all my might. Then I literally raised myself off my feet, and my whole weight was on the

gyroscope. That uncanny little instrument seemed to resentyes, that's the word, resent my touch. It was

almost human in the resentment, too. Far from yielding to me, it actually rose on the side I was pressing

I took my hands off, and the gyroscope leisurely and nonchalantly went back to its original position.

"That's the property we use, applied to the rudder and the ailerons those flat planes between the large main

planes. That gives automatic stability to the machine," continued Norton. "I'm not going to explain how it is

doneit is in the combination of the various parts that I have discovered the basic principle, and I'm not

going to talk about it till the thing is settled by the courts. But it is there, and the court will see it, and I'll

prove that Delanne is a frauda fraud when he says that my combination isn't patentable and isn't

practicable even at that. The truth is that his device as it stands isn't practicable, and, besides, if he makes it so

I looked at Kennedy, and a vision of the wreckage of the two previous accidents, as the Star photographer had

We took our seats by Norton, I, at least, with some misgiving. Gently the machine rose into the air. The

sensation was delightful. The fresh air of the morning came with a stinging rush to my face. Below I could

see the earth sweeping past as if it were a movingpicture film. Above the continuous roar of the engine and

propeller Norton indicated to Kennedy the automatic balancing of the gyroscope as it bent the ailerons.

"Could you fly in this machine without the gyroscope at all?" yelled Kennedy. The noise was deafening,

conversation almost impossible. Though sitting side by side he had to repeat his remark twice to Norton.

"Yes," called back Norton. Reaching back of him, he pointed out the way to detach the gyroscope and put a

sort of brake on it that stopped its revolutions almost instantly. "It's a ticklish job to change in the air," he

The flight was soon over, and we stood admiring the machine while Norton expatiated on the compactness of

"What have you done with the wrecks of the other machines?" inquired Kennedy at length.

They are stored in a shed down near the railroad station. They are just a mass of junk, though there are some

"Surely. I'll give you the key. Sorry I can't go myself, but I want to be sure everything is all right for my flight

It was a long walk over to the shed near the station, and, together with our examination of the wrecked

machines, it took us the rest of the morning. Craig carefully turned over the wreckage. It seemed a hopeless

quest to me, but I fancied that to him it merely presented new problems for his deductive and scientific mind.

"These gyroscopes are out of business for good," he remarked as he glanced at the dented and battered

aluminum cases. "But there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them except what would naturally

For my part I felt a sort of awe at the mass of wreckage in which Browne and Herrick had been killed. It was

to me more than a tangled mass of wires and splinters. Two human lives had been snuffed out in it.

"The engines are a mass of scrap; see how the cylinders are bent and twisted," remarked Kennedy with great

interest. "The gasolinetank is intact, but dented out of shape. No explosion there. And look at this dynamo.

Why, the wires in it are actually fused together. The insulation has been completely burned off. I wonder

Kennedy continued to regard the tangled mass thoughtfully for some time, then locked the door, and we

strolled back to the grand stand on our side of the field. Already the crowd had begun to collect. Across the

field we could see the various machines in front of their hangars with the men working on them. The buzz of

the engines was wafted across by the light summer breeze as if a thousand cicadas had broken loose to predict

Two machines were already in flight, a little yellow Demoiselle, scurrying around close to the earth like a

frightened hen, and a Bleriot, high overhead, making slow and graceful turns like a huge bird.

Kennedy and I stopped before the little wireless telegraph station of the signal corps in front of the grand

The man nodded a reply, shaking his head with the telephonelike receiver, viciously. He continued to adjust

"Confound it!" he exclaimed. "Yes, that fellow has been jamming me for the past two days off and on, every

time I get ready to send or receive a message. Williams is going up with a Wright machine equipped with

wireless apparatus in a minute, and this fellow won't get out of the way. By Jove, though, those are powerful

impulses of his. Hear that crackling? I've never been interfered with so in my experience. Touch that screen

"Yesterday and the day before it was so bad we had to give up attempting to communicate with Williams,"

continued the operator. "It was worse than trying to work in a thundershower. That's the time we get our

"Interesting?" flashed back the operator, angrily noting the condition in his "log book."

"Maybe it is, but I call it darned mean. It's almost like trying to work in a power station."

"Indeed" queried Kennedy. "I beg your pardonI was only looking at it from the purely scientific point of

Kennedy took a leaf out of his notebook and wrote a short message which he gave to a boy to deliver to

"Detach your gyroscope and dynamo," it read. "Leave them in the hangar. Fly without them this afternoon,

We sauntered out on the open part of the field, back of the fence and to the side of the stands, and watched

the fliers for a few moments. Three were in the air now, and I could see Norton and his men getting ready.

The boy with the message was going rapidly across the field. Kennedy was impatiently watching him. It was

too far off to see just what they were doing, but as Norton seemed to get down out of his seat in the aeroplane

when the boy arrived, and it was wheeled back into the shed, I gathered that he was detaching the gyroscope

"Come, Walter," exclaimed Kennedy, "let's go up there on the roof of the stand where we can see better.

His pass allowed him to go anywhere on the field, so in a few moments we were up on the roof.

It was a fascinating vantagepoint, and I was so deeply engrossed between watching the crowd below, the

birdmen in the air, and the machines waiting across the field that I totally neglected to notice what Kennedy

was doing. When I did, I saw that he had deliberately turned his back on the aviation field, and was

"What are you looking for?" I asked. "Turn around. I think Norton is just about to fly."

Just then Norton's aeroplane rose gently from the field. A wild shout of applause came from the people below

us, at the heroism of the man who dared to fly this new and apparently fated machine. It was succeeded by a

breathless, deathly calm, as if after the first burst of enthusiasm the crowd had suddenly realised the danger of

Suddenly Kennedy jerked my arm. "Walter, look over there across the road back of usat the old

"Nothing, except that on the peak of the roof there is a pole that looks like the short stub of a small wireless

mast. I should say there was a boy connected with that barn, a boy who has read a book on wireless for

"Maybe," said Kennedy. "But is that all you see? Look up in the little window of the gable, the one with the

I looked carefully. "It seems tome that I saw a gleam of something bright at the top of the shutter, Craig," I

"Oh, maybe it's the small boy with a lookingglass. I can remember when I used to get behind such a window

I had really said that half in raillery, for I was at a loss to account in any other way for the light, but I was

"Perhaps you are right, in a way," he assented. "I guess it isn't a spark, after all. Yes, it must be the reflection

Whatever his suspicions, Craig kept them to himself, and descended. At the same time Norton gently dropped

back to earth in front of his hangar, not ten feet from the spot where he started. The applause was deafening,

"Rotten," replied the operator sullenly. "It was worse than ever about five minutes ago. It's much better now,

Just then the messengerboy, who had been hunting through the crowd for us, handed Kennedy a note. It was

"Well, you run across that field as fast as your legs can carry you and tell him if he values his life not to do

"Don't stand there, youngster. Run! Tell him not to fly with that gyroscope. There's a fivespot in it if you get

Even as he spoke the Norton aeroplane was wheeled out again. In a minute Norton had climbed up into his

Would the boy reach him in time? He was half across the field, waving his arms like mad. But apparently

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Craig. "He's going to try it. Run, boy, run!" he cried, although the boy was now

Across the field we could hear now the quick staccato chugchug of the engine. Slowly Norton's aeroplane,

this time really equipped with the gyroscope, rose from the field and circled over toward us. Craig frantically

signalled to him to come down, but of course Norton could not have seen him in the crowd. As for the crowd,

Higher and higher Norton went in one spiral after another, those spirals which his gyroscope had already

The man with the megaphone in front of the judge's stand announced in hollow tones that Mr. Norton had

Slower and slower went the aeroplane. It seemed to hover just like the big mechanical bird that it was.

Kennedy was anxiously watching the judges with one eye and Norton with the other. A few in the crowd

could no longer restrain their applause. I remember that the wireless back of us was spluttering and crackling

All of a sudden a groan swept over the crowd. Something was wrong with Norton. His aeroplane was

swooping downward at a terrific rate. Would he be able to control it? I held my breath and gripped Kennedy

by the arm. Down, down came Norton, frantically fighting by main strength, it seemed to me, to warp the

The football helmet which Norton wore blew off and fell more rapidly than the plane. I shut my eyes. But

Somehow Norton had regained partial control of his machine, but it was still swooping down at a tremendous

With a leap Kennedy had cleared the fence and was running toward Norton. Two men from the judge's stand

were ahead of us, but except for them we were the first to reach him. The men were tearing frantically at the

tangled framework, trying to lift it off Norton, who lay pale and motionless, pinned under it. The machine

was not so badly damaged, after all, but that together we could lift it bodily off him.

A doctor ran out from the crowd and hastily put his ear to Norton's chest. No one spoke, but we all scanned

I looked. Like the other two which we had seen, it also was a wreck. The insulation was burned off the wires,

the wires were fused together, and the storagebattery looked as if it had been burned out.

A flicker of the eyelid and Norton seemed to regain some degree of consciousness. He was living over again

"Will they never stop? Oh, those sparks, those sparks! I can't disconnect it. Sparks, more sparkswill they

But Kennedy was now sure that Norton was safe and in good hands, and he hurried back in the direction of

the grand stand. I followed. Flying was over for that day, and the people were filing slowly out toward the

railroad station where the special trains were waiting. We stopped at the wireless station for a moment.

"Yes. He was only stunned, thank Heaven! Did you keep a record of the antics of your receiver since I saw

"Yes, sir. And I made a copy for you. By the way, it's working all right now when I don't want it. If Williams

was only in the air now I'd give you a good demonstration of communicating with an aeroplane," continued

Kennedy thanked him for the record and carefully folded it. Joining the crowd, we pushed our way out, but

instead of going down to the station with them, Kennedy turned toward the barn and the yellow house.

For some time we waited about casually, but nothing occurred. At length Kennedy walked up to the shed.

Just then a man appeared on the porch of the yellow house. Seeing us, he beckoned. As we approached he

"I don't know. He hired the barn from me for two weeks and paid in advance. He told me if I wanted to

"Ah, then I suppose I had better write to him," said Kennedy, apparently much gratified to learn the name. "I

"Can't say. There's enough of it. Cy Smithhe's in the electric light company up to the villagesays the

doctor has used a powerful lot of current. He's good pay, though he's awful closemouthed. Flying's over for

"No, he'll be all right tomorrow. I think he'll fly again. The machine's in pretty good condition. He's bound

"I don't," answered Kennedy, "but I think that either he or Humphreys will. I wanted to see that this Lamar

believes it anyhow. By the way, Walter, do you think you could grab a wire here and 'phone in a story to the

Star that Norton isn't much hurt and will probably be able to fly tomorrow? Try to get the City News

Association, too, so that all the papers will have it. I don't care about risking the general deliveryperhaps

Lamar won't call for any mail, but he certainly will read the papers. Put it in the form of an interview with

NortonI'll see that it is all right and that there is no comeback. Norton will stand for it when I tell him my

I caught the Star just in time for the last edition, and some of the other papers that had later editions also had

Norton spent the night in the Mineola Hospital. He didn't really need to stay, but the doctor said it would be

best in case some internal injury had been overlooked. Meanwhile Kennedy took charge of the hangar where

the injured machine was. The men had been in a sort of panic; Humphrey could not be found, and the only

reason, I think, why the two mechanicians stayed was because something was due them on their pay.

Kennedy wrote them out personal checks for their respective amounts, but dated them two days ahead to

insure their staying. He threw off all disguise now and with authority from Norton directed the repairing of

the machine. Fortunately it was in pretty good condition. The broken part was the skids, not the essential

parts of the machine. As for the gyroscope, there were plenty of them and another dynamo, and it was a very

Sinclair worked with a will, far past his regular hours. Jaurette also worked, though one could hardly say with

a will. In fact, most of the work was done by Sinclair and Kennedy, with Jaurette sullenly grumbling, mostly

in French under his breath. I did not like the fellow and was suspicious of him. I thought I noticed that

Kennedy did not allow him to do much of the work, either, though that may have been for the reason that

"There," exclaimed Craig about ten o'clock. "If we want to get back to the city in any kind of time tonight

we had better quit. Sinclair, I think you can finish repairing these skids in the morning."

We locked up the hangar and hurried across to the station. It was late when we arrived in New York, but

Kennedy insisted on posting off up to his laboratory, leaving me to run down to the Star office to make sure

I did not see him until morning, when a large touringcar drove up. Kennedy routed me out of bed. In the

"Something I worked on for a couple of hours last night," explained Craig, patting it. "If this doesn't solve the

I was burning with curiosity, but somehow, by a perverse association of ideas, I merely reproached Kennedy

"Oh," he smiled. "If I hadn't been working last night, Walter, I couldn't have rested at all for thinking about

When we arrived at the field Norton was already there with his head bandaged. I thought him a little pale, but

otherwise all right. Jaurette was sulking, but Sinclair had finished the repairs and was busily engaged in going

over every bolt and wire. Humphreys had sent word that he had another offer and had not shown up.

"We must find him," exclaimed Kennedy. "I want him to make a flight today. His contract calls for it."

He picked up two pieces of wire and held them at arm's length, bringing them together, tip to tip, in front of

"And I'll be better yet by this afternoon," he added. "I can do that stunt with the points of pins then."

Kennedy shook his head gravely, but Norton insisted, and finally Kennedy agreed to give up wasting time

trying to locate Humphreys. After that he and Norton had a long whispered conference in which Kennedy

"I understand," said Norton at length, "you want me to put this sheetlead cover over the dynamo and battery

first. Then you want me to take the cover off, and also to detach the gyroscope, and to fly without using it. Is

"Yes," assented Craig. "I will be on the roof of the grand stand. The signal will be three waves of my hat

After a quick luncheon we went up to our vantagepoint. On the way Kennedy had spoken to the head of the

Pinkertons engaged by the management for the meet, and had also dropped in to see the wireless operator to

ask him to send up a messenger if he saw the same phenomena as he had observed the day before.

On the roof Kennedy took from his pocket a little instrument with a needle which trembled back and forth

over a dial. It was nearing the time for the start of the day's flying, and the aeroplanes were getting ready.

Kennedy was calmly biting a cigar, casting occasional glances at the needle as it oscillated. Suddenly, as

Williams rose in the Wright machine, the needle swung quickly and pointed straight at the aviation field,

"The operator is getting his apparatus ready to signal to Williams," remarked Craig. "This is an apparatus

called an ondometer. It tells you the direction and something of the magnitude of the Hertzian waves used in

Five or ten minutes passed. Norton was getting ready to fly. I could see through my field glass that he was

putting something over his gyroscope and over the dynamo, but could not quite make out what it was. His

machine seemed to leap up in the air as if eager to redeem itself. Norton with his whitebandaged head was

the hero of the hour. No sooner had his aeroplane got up over the level of the trees than I heard a quick

"Look at the needle, Walter!" he cried. "As soon as Norton got into the air it shot around directly opposite to

We raised our eyes in the direction which it indicated. It was precisely in line with the weatherbeaten barn.

I gasped. What did it mean? Did it mean in some way another accident to Nortonperhaps fatal this time?

Why had Kennedy allowed him to try it today when there was even a suspicion that some nameless terror

was abroad in the air? Quickly I turned to see if Norton was all right. Yes, there he was, circling above us in a

series of wide spirals, climbing up, up. Now he seemed almost to stop, to hover motionless. He was

motionless. His engine had been cut out, and I could see his propeller stopped. He was riding as a ship rides

A boy ran up the ladder to the roof. Kennedy unfolded the note and shoved it into my hands. It was from the

"Wireless out of business again. Curse that fellow who is butting in. Am keeping record," was all it said.

I shot a glance of inquiry at Kennedy, but he was paying no attention now to anything but Norton. He held

"Walter," he ejaculated as he snapped it shut, "it has now been seven minutes and a half since he stopped his

propeller. The Brooks Prize calls for five minutes only. Norton has exceeded it fifty per cent. Here goes."

With his hat in his hand he waved three times and stopped. Then he repeated the process.

At the third time the aeroplane seemed to give a start. The propeller began to revolve, Norton starting it on

the compression successfully. Slowly he circled down again. Toward the end of the descent he stopped the

engine and volplaned, or coasted, to the ground, landing gently in front of his hangar.

A wild cheer rose into the air from the crowd below us. All eyes were riveted on the activity about Norton's

biplane. They were doing something to it. Whatever it was, it was finished in a minute and the men were

standing again at a respectful distance from the propellers. Again Norton was in the air. As he rose above the

field Kennedy gave a last glance at his ondometer and sprang down the ladder. I followed closely. Back of

the crowd he hurried, down the walk to the entrance near the railroad station. The man in charge of the

We four followed him as fast as we could. He turned in at the lane running up to the yellow house, so as to

We were now at the door of the barn. A curious crackling, snapping noise issued. Craig gently tried the door.

It was bolted on the inside. As many of us as could threw ourselves like a human catapult against it. It

Inside I saw a sheet of flame fifteen or twenty feet longit was a veritable artificial bolt of lightning. A man

with a telescope had been peering out of the window, but now was facing us in surprise.

"Lamar," shouted Kennedy, drawing a pistol, "one motion of your hand and you are a dead man. Stand still

The rest of us shrank back in momentary fear of the gigantic forces of nature which seemed let loose in the

room. The thought, in my mind at least, was: Suppose this archfiend should turn his deadly power on us?

Kennedy saw us from the corner of his eye. "Don't be afraid," he said with just a curl to his lip. "I've seen all

this before. It won't hurt you. It's a high frequency current. The man has simply appropriated the invention of

Two burly Pinkertons leaped forward gingerly into the midst of the electrical apparatus, and in less time than

it takes to write it Lamar was hustled out to the doorway, each arm pinioned back of him.

As we stood, half dazed by the suddenness of the turn of events, Kennedy hastily explained:

"Tesla's theory is that under certain conditions the atmosphere, which is normally a high insulator; assumes

conducting properties and so becomes capable of conveying any amount of electrical energy. I myself have

seen electrical oscillations such as these in this room of such intensity that while they could be circulated with

impunity through one's arms and chest they would melt wires farther along in the circuit. Yet the person

through whom such a current is passing feels no inconvenience. I have seen a loop of heavy copper wire

energised by such oscillations and a mass of metal within the loop heated to the fusing point, and yet into the

space in which this destructive aerial turmoil was going on I have repeatedly thrust my hand and even my

head, without feeling anything or experiencing any injurious aftereffect. In this form all the energy of all the

dynamos of Niagara could pass through one's body and yet produce no injury. But, diabolically directed, this

vast energy has been used by this man to melt the wires in the little dynamo that runs Norton's gyroscope.

We hurried as fast as we could up the street and straight out on the field, across toward the Norton hangar, the

crowd gaping in wonderment. Kennedy waved frantically for Norton to come down, and Norton, who was

As we stood waiting before the hangar Kennedy could no longer restrain his impatience.

"I suspected some wirelesspower trick when I found that the field wireless telegraph failed to work every

time Norton's aeroplane was in the air," he said, approaching close to Lamar. "I just happened to catch sight

of that peculiar wireless, mast of yours. A little flash of light first attracted my attention to it. I thought it was

an electric spark, but you are too clever for that, Lamar. Still, you forgot a much simpler thing. It was the

glint of the sun on the lens of your telescope as you were watching Norton that betrayed you."

"I'm glad to say you had no confederate in the hangar here," continued Craig. "At first I suspected it.

Anyhow, you succeeded pretty well single handed, two lives lost and two machines wrecked. Norton flew all

right yesterday when he left his gyroscope and dynamo behind, but when he took them along you were able

to fuse the wires in the dynamoyou pretty nearly succeeded in adding his name to those of Browne and

The whir of Norton's machine told us he was approaching. We scattered to give him space enough to choose

the spot where he would alight. As the men caught his machine to steady it, he jumped lightly to the ground.

"Where's Kennedy" he asked, and then, without waiting for a reply, he exclaimed: "Queerest thing I ever saw

up there. The dynamo wasn't protected by the sheetlead shield in this flight as in the first today. I hadn't

risen a hundred feet before I happened to hear the darndest sputtering in the dynamo. Look, boys, the

insulation is completely burned off the wires, and the wires are nearly all fused together."

"So it was in the other two wrecked machines," added Kennedy, coming coolly forward. "If you hadn't had

everything protected by those shields I gave you in your first flight today you would have simply repeated

your fall of yesterdayperhaps fatally. This fellow has been directing the full strength of his wireless

The two Pinkertons shoved Lamar forward. Norton gave a contemptuous look at him. "Delaune," he said, "I

knew you were a crook when you tried to infringe on my patent, but I didn't think you were coward enough to

Lamar, or rather Delanne, shrank back as if even the protection of his captors was safety compared to the

"Pouff!" exclaimed Norton, turning suddenly on his heel. "What a fool I am! The law will take care of such

scoundrels as you. What's the grand stand cheering for now?" he asked, looking across the field in an effort to

A boy from one of the hangars down the line spoke up from the back of the crowd in a shrill, piping voice.

Kennedy and I had been dining rather late one evening at Luigi's, a little Italian restaurant on the lower West

Side. We had known the place well in our student days, and had made a point of visiting it once a month

since, in order to keep in practice in the fine art of gracefully handling long shreds of spaghetti. Therefore we

did not think it strange when the proprietor himself stopped a moment at our table to greet us. Glancing

furtively around at the other diners, mostly Italians, he suddenly leaned over and whispered to Kennedy:

"I have heard of your wonderful detective work, Professor. Could you give a little advice in the case of a

Luigi glanced around again apprehensively and lowered his voice. "Not so loud, sir. When you pay your

check, go out, walk around Washington Square, and come in at the private entrance. I'll be waiting in the hall.

True to his word, Luigi was waiting for us in the dark hall. With a motion that indicated silence, he led us up

the stairs to the second floor, and quickly opened a door into what seemed to be a fairsized private

diningroom. A man was pacing the floor nervously. On a table was some food, untouched. As the door

opened I thought he started as if in fear, and I am sure his dark face blanched, if only for an instant. Imagine

our surprise at seeing Gennaro, the great tenor, with whom merely to have a speaking acquaintance was to

"Oh, it is you, Luigi," he exclaimed in perfect English, rich and mellow. "And who are these gentlemen?"

Luigi merely replied, "Friends," in English also, and then dropped off into a voluble, lowtoned explanation

I could see, as we waited, that the same idea had flashed over Kennedy's mind as over my own. It was now

three or four days since the papers had reported the strange kidnapping of Gennaro's fiveyearold daughter

Adelina, his only child, and the sending of a demand for ten thousand dollars ransom, signed, as usual, with

As Signor Gennaro advanced toward us, after his short talk with Luigi, almost before the introductions were

over, Kennedy anticipated him by saying: "I understand, Signor, before you ask me. I have read all about it in

the papers. You want someone to help you catch the criminals who are holding your little girl."

"No, no!" exclaimed Gennaro excitedly. "Not that. I want to get my daughter first. After that, catch them if

you canyes, I should like to have someone do it. But read this first and tell me what you think of it. How

should I act to get my little Adelina back without harming a hair of her head?" The famous singer drew from

Honourable sir: Your daughter is in safe hands. But, by the saints, if you give this letter to the police as you

did the other, not only she but your family also, someone near to you, will suffer. We will not fail as we did

Wednesday. If you want your daughter back, go yourself, alone and without telling a soul, to Enrico Albano's

Saturday night at the twelfth hour. You must provide yourself with $10,000 in bills hidden in Saturday's Il

Progresso Italiano. In the back room you will see a man sitting alone at a table. He will have a red flower on

his coat. You are to say, "A fine opera is 'I Pagliacci.'" If he answers, "Not without Gennaro, lay the

newspaper down on the table. He will pick it up, leaving his own, the Bolletino. On the third page you will

find written the place where your daughter has been left waiting for you. Go immediately and get her. But, by

the God, if you have so much as the shadow of the police near Enrico'a your daughter will be sent to you in a

box that night. Do not fear to come. We pledge our word to deal fairly if you deal fairly. This is a last

warning. Lest you shall forget we will show one other sign of our power tomorrow. La MANO NERA.

The end of this ominous letter was gruesomely decorated with a skull and crossbones, a rough drawing of a

dagger thrust through a bleeding heart, a coffin, and, under all, a huge black band. There was no doubt about

the type of letter that it was. It was such as have of late years become increasingly common in all our large

"I am afraid to go and afraid to stay away," was the reply, and the voice of the

fiftythousanddollarsaseason tenor was as human as that of a fivedollaraweek father, for at bottom

Gennaro fumbled in his pocketbook again, and at last drew forth a typewritten letter bearing the letterhead

"After I received the first threat," explained Gennaro, "my wife and I went from our apartments at the hotel to

her father's, the banker Cesare, you know, who lives on Fifth Avenue. I gave the letter to the Italian Squad of

the police. The next morning my fatherinlaw's butler noticed something peculiar about the milk. He barely

touched some of it to his tongue, and he has been violently ill ever since. I at once sent the milk to the

laboratory of my friend Doctor Leslie to have it analysed. This letter shows what the household escaped."

"My dear Gennaro," read Kennedy. "The milk submitted to us for examination on the 10th inst. has been

Water .............................................84.60 per cent Casein .............................................3.49 " " Albumin

..............................................56 " " Globulin .............................................32 " " Lactose

............................................5.08 " " Ash ................................................ .72 " " Fat

............................................... 3.42 " " Ricin ............................................. 1.19 " "

"Ricin is a new and littleknown poison derived from the shell of the castoroil bean. Professor Ehrlich

states that one gram of the pure poison will kill 1,500,000 guinea pigs. Ricin was lately isolated by Professor

Robert, of Rostock, but is seldom found except in an impure state, though still very deadly. It surpasses

strychnine, prussic acid, and other commonly known drugs. I congratulate you and yours on escaping and

shall of course respect your wishes absolutely regarding keeping secret this attempt on your life. Believe me,

As Kennedy handed the letter back, he remarked significantly: "I can see very readily why you don't care to

have the police figure in your case. It has got quite beyond ordinary police methods."

"And tomorrow, too, they are going to give another sign of their power," groaned Gennaro, sinking into the

"Yes. My wife insisted that we would be more safely guarded at the residence of her father, the banker. But

we are afraid even there since the poison attempt. So I have come here secretly to Luigi, my old friend Luigi,

who is preparing food for us, and in a few minutes one of Cesare's automobiles will be here, and I will take

the food up to hersparing no expense or trouble. She is heartbroken. It will kill her, Professor Kennedy, if

"Ah, sir, I am not poor myself. A month's salary at the operahouse, that is what they ask of me. Gladly

would I give it, ten thousand dollarsall, if they asked it, of my contract with Herr Schleppencour, the

director. But the policebah!they are all for catching the villains. What good will it do me if they catch

them and my little Adelina is returned to me dead? It is all very well for the AngloSaxon to talk of justice

and the law, but I amwhat you call it?an emotional Latin. I want my little daughterand at any cost.

Catch the villains afterwardyes. I will pay double then to catch them so that they cannot blackmail me

"My fatherinlaw, he has been among you long enough to be one of you. He has fought them. He has put up

a sign in his bankinghouse, 'No money paid on threats.' But I say it is foolish. I do not know America as

well as he, but I know this: the police never succeed the ransom is paid without their knowledge, and they

very often take the credit. I say, pay first, then I will swear a righteous vendetta I will bring the dogs to

"First of all," replied 'Kennedy, "I want you to answer one question, truthfully, without reservation, as to a

friend. I am your friend, believe me. Is there any person, a relative or acquaintance of yourself or your wife or

your fatherinlaw, whom you even have reason to suspect of being capable of extorting money from you in

this way? I needn't say that that is the experience of the district attorney's office in the large majority of cases

"No," replied the tenor without hesitation: "I know that, and I have thought about it. No, I can think of no

one. I know you Americans often speak of the Black Hand as a myth coined originally by a newspaper writer.

Perhaps it has no organisation. But, Professor Kennedy, to me it is no myth. What if the real Black Hand is

any gang of criminals who choose to use that convenient name to extort money? Is it the less real? My

"Exactly," agreed Kennedy. "It is not a theory that confronts you. It is a hard, cold fact. I understand that

"It is a gambling saloon," explained Luigi. Albano is a Neapolitan, a Camorrista, one of my countrymen of

Just then a big limousine was beard outside. Luigi picked up a huge hamper that was placed in a corner of the

room and, followed closely by Signor Gennaro, hurried down to it. As the tenor left us he grasped our hands

"I have an idea in my mind," said Craig simply. "I will try to think it out in detail tonight. Where can I find

"Come to me at the operahouse in the afternoon, or if you want me sooner at Mr. Cesare's residence. Good

night, and a thousand thanks to you, Professor Kennedy, and to you, also, Mr. Jameson. I trust you absolutely

We sat in the little diningroom until we heard the door of the limousine bang shut and the car shoot off with

"One more question, Luigi," said Craig as the door opened again. "I have never been on that block in

Mulberry Street where this Albano's is. Do you happen to know any of the shopkeepers on it or near it?"

"I have a cousin who has a drugstore on the corner below Albano's, on the same side of the street."

"Good! Do you think he would let me use his store for a few minutes Saturday nightof course without any

"Very well. Then tomorrow, say at nine in the morning, I will stop here, and we will all go over to see him.

Good night, Luigi, and many, thanks for thinking of me in connection with this case. I've enjoyed Signor

Gennaro's singing often enough at the opera to want to render him this service, and I'm only too glad to be

able to be of service to all honest Italians; that is, if I succeed in carrying out a plan I have in mind."

A little before nine the following day Kennedy and I dropped into Luigi's again. Kennedy was carrying a

suitcase which he had taken over from his laboratory to our rooms the night before. Luigi was waiting for

By means of the tortuous twists of streets in old Greenwich village we came out at last on Bleecker Street and

began walking east amid the hurlyburly of races of lower New York. We had not quite reached Mulberry

Street when our attention was attracted by a large crowd on one of the busy corners, held back by a cordon of

police who were endeavouring to keep the people moving with that burly good nature which the sixfoot

Irish policeman displays toward the fivefoot burdenbearers of southern and eastern Europe who throng

Apparently, we saw, as we edged up into the front of the crowd, here was a building whose whole front had

literally been torn off and wrecked. The thick plateglass of the windows was smashed to a mass of greenish

splinters on the sidewalk, while the windows of the upper floors and for several houses down the block in

either street were likewise broken. Some thick iron bars which had formerly protected the windows were now

bent and twisted. A huge hole yawned in the floor inside the doorway, and peering in we could see the desks

"What's the matter" I inquired of an officer near me, displaying my reporter's fireline badge, more for its

moral effect than in the hope of getting any real information in these days of enforced silence toward the

"They don't usually kill anyone, do they?" asked the officer by way of reply to test my acquaintance with

"No," I admitted. "They destroy more property than lives. But did they get anyone this time? This must have

"Came pretty close to it. The bank hadn't any more than opened when, bang! went this

gaspipeanddynamite thing. Crowd collected before the smoke had fairly cleared. Man who owns the bank

was hurt, but not badly. Now come, beat it down to headquarters if you want to find out any more.You'll

find it printed on the pink slipsthe 'squeal book'by this time. 'Gainst the rules for me to talk," he added

with a goodnatured grin, then to the crowd: "G'wan, now. You're blockin' traffic. Keep movin'."

I turned to Craig and Luigi. Their eyes were riveted on the big gilt sign, half broken, and all askew overhead.

"This is the reminder so that Gennaro and his fatherinlaw will not forget," I gasped.

"Yes," added Craig, pulling us away, "and Cesare himself is wounded, too. Perhaps that was for putting up

the notice refusing to pay. Perhaps not. It's a queer casethey usually set the bombs off at night when no one

is around. There must be more back of this than merely to scare Gennaro. It looks to me as if they were after

We shouldered our way out through the crowd and went on until we came to Mulberry Street, pulsing with

life. Down we went past the little shops, dodging the children, and making way for women with huge bundles

of sweatshop clothing accurately balanced on their heads or hugged up under their capacious capes. Here was

just one little colony of the hundreds of thousands of Italiansa population larger than the Italian population

At last we came to Albano's little wineshop, a dark, evil, malodorous place on the street level of a

fivestory, alleged "newlaw" tenement. Without hesitation Kennedy entered, and we followed, acting the

part of a slumming party. There were a few customers at this early hour, men out of employment and an

inoffensivelooking lot, though of course they eyed us sharply. Albano himself proved to be a greasy,

lowbrowed fellow who had a sort of cunning look. I could well imagine such a fellow spreading terror in the

hearts of simple folk by merely pressing both temples with his thumbs and drawing his long bony forefinger

under his throatthe socalled Black Hand sign that has shut up many a witness in the middle of his

We pushed through to the lowceilinged back room, which was empty, and sat down at a table. Over a bottle

of Albano's famous California "red ink" we sat silently. Kennedy was making a mental note of the place. In

the middle of the ceiling was a single gasburner with a big reflector over, it. In the back wall of the room

was a horizontal oblong window, barred, and with a sash that opened like a transom. The tables were dirty

and the chairs rickety. The walls were bare and unfinished, with beams innocent of decoration. Altogether it

Apparently satisfied with his scrutiny, Kennedy got up to go, complimenting the proprietor on his wine. I

"How sordid crime really is," he remarked as we walked on down the street. "Look at that place of Albano's. I

Our next stop was at the corner at the little store kept by the cousin of Luigi, who conducted us back of the

A hurried explanation from Luigi brought a cloud to the open face of the druggist, as if he hesitated to lay

himself and his little fortune open to the blackmailers. Kennedy saw it and interrupted.

"All that I wish to do," he said, "is to put in a little instrument here and use it tonight for a few minutes.

Indeed, there will be no risk to you, Vincenzo. Secrecy is what I desire, and no one will ever know about it."

Vincenzo was at length convinced, and Craig opened his suitcase. There was little in it except several coils

of insulated wire; some tools, a couple of packages wrapped up, and a couple of pairs of overalls. In a

moment Kennedy had donned overalls and was smearing dirt and grease over his face and hands. Under his

Taking the bag of tools, the wire, and one of the small packages, we went out on the street and then up

through the dark and illventilated hall of the tenement. Halfway up a woman stopped us suspiciously.

"Telephone company," said Craig curtly. "Here's permission from the owner of the house to string wires

He pulled an old letter out of his pocket, but as it was too dark to read even if the woman had cared to do so,

we went on up as he had expected, unmolested. At last we came to the roof, where there were some children

Kennedy began by dropping two strands of wire down to the ground in the back yard behind Vincenzo's

We had worked only a little while when the children began to collect. However, Kennedy kept right on until

"Look here, you kids," I yelled, "some of you will fall off if you get so close to the edge of the roof. Keep

It had no effect. Apparently they looked not a bit frightened at the dizzy mass of clotheslines below us.

A chorus of voices and glittering eyes was the answer. They all would. I took a halfdollar from my pocket

With the scamper of many feet they were gone, and we were alone. Kennedy had now reached Albano's, and

as soon as the last head had disappeared below the scuttle of the roof he dropped two long strands down into

"Oh, that will never do," he said. "The kids will see that the wires end here. I must carry them on several

houses farther as a blind and trust to luck that they don't see the wires leading down below."

We were several houses down, still putting up wires when the crowd came shouting back, sticky with cheap

trustmade candy and black with East Side chocolate. We opened the ginger ale and forced ourselves to drink

it so as to excite no suspicion, then a few minutes later descended the stairs of the tenement, coming out just

I was wondering how Kennedy was going to get into Albano's again without exciting suspicion. He solved it

"Now, Walter, do you think you could stand another dip into that red ink of Albano's !"

"Well, your face is sufficiently dirty," he commented, "so that with the overalls you don't look very much as

you did the first time you went in. I don't think they will recognise you. Do I look pretty good?"

"You look like a coalheaver out of a job," I said. "I can scarcely restrain my admiration."

"All right. Then take this little glass bottle. Go into the back room and order something cheap, in keeping

with your looks. Then when you are all alone break the bottle. It is full of gas drippings. Your nose will

dictate what to do neat. Just tell the proprietor you saw the gas company's wagon on the next block and come

I entered. There was a sinisterlooking man, with a sort of unscrupulous intelligence, writing at a table. As he

wrote and puffed at his cigar, I noticed a scar on his face, a deep furrow running from the lobe of his ear to

his mouth. That, I knew, was a brand set upon him by the Camorra. I sat and smoked and sipped slowly for

several minutes, cursing him inwardly more for his presence than for his evident look of the "mala vita." At

Quickly I tiptoed over to another corner of the room and ground the little bottle under my heel. Then I

The sinisterlooking man with the scar came in again and sniffed. I sniffed. Then the proprietor came in and

"Say," I said in the toughest voice I could assume, "you got a leak. Wait. I seen the gas company wagon on

I dashed out and hurried up the street to the place where Kennedy was waiting impatiently. Rattling his tools,

As he entered the wineshop he snorted, after the manner of gasmen, "Where's de leak?"

"You finda da leak," grunted Albano. "Whata you geta you pay for? You wanta me do your work?"

"Well, half a dozen o' you wops get out o' here, that's all. D'youse all wanter be blown ter pieces wid dem

"Quick, Walter, shut the door and hold it," exclaimed Craig, working rapidly. He unwrapped a little package

and took out a round, flat disclike thing of black vulcanised rubber. Jumping up on a table, he fixed it to the

Then he attached a couple of wires to it and led them across the ceiling toward the window, concealing them

carefully by sticking them in the shadow of a beam. At the window he quickly attached the wires to the two

"We'll have to trust that no one sees them," he said. "That's the best I can do at such short notice. I never saw

a room so bare as this, anyway. There isn't another place I could put that thing without its being seen."

We gathered up the broken glass of the gas drippings bottle, and I opened the door.

"It's all right, now," said Craig, sauntering out before the bar. "Only de next time you has anyt'ing de matter

A moment later I followed, glad to get out of the oppressive atmosphere, and joined him in the back of

Vincenzo's drugstore, where he was again at work. As there was no back window there, it was quite a job to

lead the wires around the outside from the back yard and in at a side window. It was at last done, however,

without exciting suspicion, and Kennedy attached them to an oblong box of weathered oak and a pair of

"Now," said Craig, as we washed off the stains of work and stowed the overalls back in the suitcase, "that is

done to my satisfaction. I can tell Gennaro to go ahead safely now and meet the BlackHanders."

>From Vincenzo's we walked over toward Centre Street, where Kennedy and I left Luigi to return to his

restaurant, with instructions to be at Vincenzo's at halfpast eleven that night.

We turned into the new police headquarters and went down the long corridor to the Italian Bureau. Kennedy

sent in his card to Lieutenant Giuseppe in charge, and we were quickly admitted. The lieutenant was a short,

fullfaced, fleshy Italian, with lightish hair and eyes that were apparently dull, until you suddenly discovered

that that was merely a cover to their really restless way of taking in everything and fixing the impressions on

"I want to talk about the Gennaro case," began Craig. "I may add that I have been rather closely associated

with Inspector O'Connor of the Central Office on a number of cases, so that I think we can trust each other.

Would you mind telling me what you know about it if I promise you that I, too, have something to reveal?"

The lieutenant leaned back and watched Kennedy closely without seeming to do so. "When I was in Italy last

year," he replied at length, "I did a good deal of work in tracing up some Camorra suspects. I had a tip about

some of them to look up their records I needn't say where it came from, but it was a good one. Much of the

evidence against some of those fellows who are being tried at Viterbo was gathered by the Carabinieri as a

result of hints that I was able to give themclues that were furnished to me here in America from the source

I speak of. I suppose there is really no need to conceal it, though. The original tip came from a certain banker

"Then, as you know, this banker is a fighter. He is the man who organised the White Handan organisation

which is trying to rid the Italian population of the Black Hand. His society had a lot of evidence regarding

former members of both the Camorra in Naples and the Mafia in Sicily, as well as the Black Hand gangs in

New York, Chicago, and other cities. Well, Cesare, as you know, is Gennaro's fatherinlaw.

"While I was in Naples looking up the record of a certain criminal I heard of a peculiar murder committed

some years ago. There was an honest old music master who apparently lived the quietest and most harmless

of lives. But it became known that he was supported by Cesare and had received handsome presents of

money from him. The old man was, as you may have guessed, the first music teacher of Gennaro, the man

who discovered him. One might have been at a loss to see how he could have an enemy, but there was one

who coveted his small fortune. One day he was stabbed and robbed. His murderer ran out into the street,

crying out that the poor man had been killed. Naturally a crowd rushed up in a moment, for it was in the

middle of the day. Before the injured man could make it understood who had struck him the assassin was

down the street and lost in the maze of old Naples where he well knew the houses of his friends who would

hide him. The man who is known to have committed that crimeFrancesco Paoliescaped to New York.

We are looking for him today. He is a clever man, far above the averageson of a doctor in a town a few

miles from Naples, went to the university, was expelled for some mad prankin short, he was the black

sheep of the family. Of course over here he is too highborn to work with his hands on a railroad or in a

trench, and not educated enough to work at anything else. So he has been preying on his more industrious

countrymena typical case of a man living by his wits with no visible means of support.

"Now I don't mind telling you in strict confidence," continued the lieutenant, "that it's my theory that old

Cesare has seen Paoli here, knew he was wanted for that murder of the old music master, and gave me the tip

to look up his record. At any rate Paoli disappeared right after I returned from Italy, and we haven't been able

to locate him since. He must have found out in some way that the tip to look him up had been given by the

White Hand. He had been a Camorrista, in Italy, and had many ways of getting information here in America."

"It is my theory of this case that if we could locate this Paoli we could solve the kidnapping of little Adelina

Kennedy and I bent over to look at it, and I started in surprise. It was my evillooking friend with the scar on

"Well," said Craig, quietly handing back the card, "whether or not he is the man, I know where we can catch

"With your assistance I'll get this man and the whole gang tonight," explained Craig, rapidly sketching over

his plan and concealing just enough to make sure that no matter how anxious the lieutenant was to get the

The final arrangement was that four of the best men of the squad were to hide in a vacant store across from

Vincenzo's early in the evening, long before anyone was watching. The signal for them to appear was to be

the extinguishing of the lights behind the coloured bottles in the druggist's window. A taxicab was to be kept

waiting at headquarters at the same time with three other good men ready to start for a given address the

We found Gennaro awaiting us with the greatest anxiety at the operahouse. The bomb at Cesare's had been

the last straw. Gennaro had already drawn from his bank ten crisp onethousanddollar bills, and already had

"Mr. Kennedy," he said, "I am going to meet them tonight. They may kill me. See, I have provided myself

with a pistolI shall fight, too, if necessary for my little Adelina. But if it is only money they want, they

"I don't wish to stop you," Craig reassured him. "But one thing do exactly as I tell you, and I swear not a

hair of the child's head will be injured and we will get the blackmailers, too."

"All I want you to do is to go to Albano's at the appointed time. Sit down in the back room. Get into

conversation with them, and, above all, Signor, as soon as you get the copy of the Bolletino turn to the third

page, pretend not to be able to read the address. Ask the man to read it. Then repeat it after him. Pretend to be

overjoyed. Offer to set up wine for the whole crowd. Just a few minutes, that is all I ask, and I will guarantee

Gennaro's eyes filled with tears as he grasped Kennedy's hand. "That is better than having the whole police

As we went out Kennedy remarked: "You can't blame them for keeping their troubles to themselves. Here we

send a police officer over to Italy to look up the records of some of the worst suspects. He loses his life.

Another takes his place. Then after he gets back he is set to work on the mere clerical routine of translating

them. One of his associates is reduced in rank. And so what does it come to? Hundreds of records have

become useless because the three years within which the criminals could be deported have elapsed with

nothing done. Intelligent, isn't it? I believe it has been established that all but about fifty of seven hundred

known Italian suspects are still at large, mostly in this city. And the rest of the Italian population is guarded

from them by a squad of police in number scarcely onethirtieth of the number of known criminals. No, it's

"Now, Walter, don't forget. Meet me at the Bleecker Street station of the subway at eleventhirty. I'm off to

the university. I have some very important experiments with phosphorescent salts that I want to finish

"Nothing," replied Craig. "I didn't say it had. At eleventhirty, don't forget. By George, though, that Paoli

must be a clever onethink of his knowing about ricin. I only heard of it myself recently. Well, here's my

Craig swung aboard an Amsterdam Avenue car, leaving me to kill eight nervous hours of my weekly day of

They passed at length, and at precisely the appointed time Kennedy and I met. With suppressed excitement,

at least on my part, we walked over to Vincenzo's. At night this section of the city was indeed a black

enigma. The lights in the shops where olive oil, fruit, and other things were sold, were winking out one by

one; here and there strains of music floated out of wineshops, and little groups lingered on corners

conversing in animated sentences. We passed Albano's on the other side of the street, being careful not to

look at it too closely, for several men were hanging idly about pickets, apparently, with some secret code

At the corner we crossed and looked in Vincenzo's window a moment, casting a furtive glance across the

street at the dark empty store where the police must be hiding. Then we went in and casually sauntered back

of the partition. Luigi was there already. There were several customers still in the store, however, and

therefore we had to sit in silence while Vincenzo quickly finished a prescription and waited on the last one.

At last the doors were locked and the lights lowered, all except those in the windows which were to serve as

"Ten minutes to twelve," said Kennedy, placing the oblong box on the table. "Gennaro will be going in soon.

Let us try this machine now and see if it works. If the wires have been cut since we put them up this morning

Kennedy reached over and with a light movement of his forefinger touched a switch.

Instantly a babel of voices filled the store, all talking at once, rapidly and loudly. Here and there we could

distinguish a snatch of conversation, a word, a phrase, now and then even a whole sentence above the rest.

There was the clink of glasses. I could hear the rattle of dice on a bare table, and an oath. A cork popped.

"Imagine that you are sitting at a table in Albano's back room," was all he said. "This is what you would be

hearing. This is my 'electric ear'in other words the dictograph, used, I am told, by the Secret Service of the

United States. Wait, in a moment you will hear Gennaro come in. Luigi and Vincenzo, translate what you

Craig laughed. "No, not yet. But I have only to touch this other switch, and I could produce an effect in that

room that would rival the famous writing on Belshazzar's wallonly it would be a voice from the wall

"They seem to be waiting for someone," said Vincenzo. "I heard somebody say: 'He will be here in a few

The babel of voices seemed to calm down as men withdrew from the room. Only one or two were left.

"One of them says the child is all right. She has been left in the back yard," translated Luigi.

"Jameson, go outside in the store to the telephone booth and call up headquarters. Ask them if the automobile

I rang up, and after a moment the police central answered that everything was right.

"Then tell central to hold the line clearwe mustn't lose a moment. Jameson, you stay in the booth.

Vincenzo, you pretend to be working around your window, but not in such a way as to attract attention, for

Even from the booth I could hear the dictograph repeating the conversation in the dingy, little back room of

"He's ordering a bottle of red wine," murmured Luigi, dancing up and down with excitement.

Vincenzo was so nervous that he knocked a bottle down in the window, and I believe that my heartbeats were

almost audible over the telephone which I was holding, for the police operator called me down for asking so

"There it isthe signal," cried Craig. "'A fine opera is "I Pagliacci."' Now listen for the answer."

A moment elapsed, then, "Not without Gennaro," came a gruff voice in Italian from the dictograph.

"Wait, wait," said a voice which I recognised instantly as Gennaro's. "I cannot read this. What is this, 23

"Jameson," called Craig, "tell them to drive straight to 33 Prince Street. They will find the girl in the back

I fairly shouted my orders to the police headquarters. "They're off," came back the answer, and I hung up the

"What was that?" Craig was asking of Luigii. "I didn't catch it. What did they say?"

"If it is a penny less than ten thousand or I find a mark on the bills I'll call to Enrico, and your daughter will

"Now, Gennaro is talking," said Craig. "Goodhe is gaining time. He is a trump. I can distinguish that all

right. He's asking the gruff voiced fellow if he will have another bottle of wine. He says he will. Good. They

must be at Prince Street now we'll give them a few minutes more, not too much, for word will be back to

Albano's like wildfire, and they will get Gennaro after all. Ah, they are drinking again. What was that, Luigi?

A door banged open across the street, and four huge dark figures darted out in the direction of Albano's.

With his finger Kennedy pulled down the other switch and shouted: "Gennaro, this is Kennedy! To the street!

A scuffle and a cry of surprise followed. A second voice, apparently from the bar, shouted, "Out with the

The dictograph, which had been all sound a moment before, was as mute as a cigarbox.

"They have shot out the lights. My receiving instrument is destroyed. Come on, Jameson; Vincenzo, stay

A short figure rushed by me, faster even than I could go. It was the faithful, Luigi.

In front of Albano's an exciting fight was going on. Shots were being fired wildly in the darkness, and heads

were popping out of tenement windows on all sides. As Kennedy and I flung ourselves into the crowd we

caught a glimpse of Gennaro, with blood streaming from a cut on his shoulder, struggling with a policeman

while Luigi vainly was trying to interpose himself between them. A man, held by another policeman, was

urging the first officer on. "That's the man," he was crying. "That's the kidnapper. I caught him."

In a moment Kennedy was behind him. "Paoli, you lie. You are the kidnapper. Seize himhe has the money

The policeman released the tenor, and both of them seized Paoli. The others were beating at the door, which

Just then a taxicab came swinging up they street. Three men jumped out and added their strength to those

Gennaro, with a cry, leaped into the taxicab. Over his shoulder I could see a tangled mass of dark brown

curls, and a childish voice lisped "Why didn't you come for me, papa? The bad man told me if I waited in the

yard you would come for me. But if I cried he said he would shoot me. And I waited, and waited"

A crash followed as the door yielded, and the famous Paoli gang was in the hands of the law.

It was, I recall, at that period of the late unpleasantness in the little Central American republic of Vespuccia,

when things looked darkest for American investors, that I hurried home one evening to Kennedy, bursting

By way of explanation, I may add that during the rubber boom Kennedy had invested in stock of a rubber

company in Vespuccia, and that its value bad been shrinking for some time with that elasticity which a rubber

band shows when one party suddenly lets go his end. Kennedy had been in danger of being snapped rather

hard by the recoil, and I knew he had put in an order with his broker to sell and take his loss when a certain

figure was reached. My news was a first ray of light in an otherwise dark situation, and I wanted to advise

Accordingly I hurried unceremoniously into our apartment with the words on my lips before I had fairly

closed the door. "What do you think, Craig" I shouted. "It is rumoured that the revolutionists have captured

half a million dollars from the government and are sending it to" I stopped short. I had no idea that

With a hastily mumbled apology I checked myself and backed out toward my own room. I may as well

confess that I did not retreat very fast, however. Kennedy's client was not only a girl, but a very pretty one, I

found, as she turned her head quickly at my sudden entrance and betray a lively interest at the mention of the

revolution. She was a LatinAmerican, and the LatinAmerican type of feminine beauty is fascinating at

As I hoped, Kennedy rose to the occasion. "Miss Guerrero," he said, "let me introduce Mr. Jameson, who has

helped me very much in solving some of my most difficult cases. Miss Guerrero's father, Walter, is the owner

She bowed graciously, but there was a moment of embarrassment until Kennedy came to the rescue.

"I shall need Mr. Jameson in handling your case, Miss Guerrero," he explained. "Would it be presuming to

ask you to repeat to him briefly what you have already told me about the mysterious disappearance of your

father? Perhaps some additional details will occur to you, things that you may consider trivial, but which, I

She assented, and in a low, tremulous, musical voice bravely went through her story.

"We come," she began, "my father and Ifor my mother died when I was a little girlwe come from the

northern part of Vespuccia, where foreign capitalists are much interested in the introduction of a new rubber

plant. I am an only child and have been the constant companion of my father for years, ever since I could ride

a pony, going with him about our hacienda and on business trips to Europe and the States.

"I may as well say at the start, Mr. Jameson, that although my father is a large landowner, he has very

liberal political views and is deeply in sympathy with the revolution that is now going on in Vespuccia. In

fact, we were forced to flee very early in the trouble, and as there seemed to be more need of his services here

in New York than in any of the neighbouring countries, we came here. So you see that if the revolution is not

successful his estate will probably be confiscated and we shall be penniless. He is the agent the head of the

"Engaged in purchasing arms and ammunition," put in Kennedy, as she paused, "and seeing that they are

shipped safely to New Orleans as agricultural machinery, where another agent receives them and attends to

"There is quite a little colony of Vespuccians here in New York, both revolutionists and government

supporters. I suppose that neither of you has any idea of the intriguing that is going on under the peaceful

surface right here in your own city. But there is much of it, more than even I know or can tell you. Well, my

father lately has been acting very queerly. There is a group who meet frequently at the home of a Senora

Mendezan insurrecto group, of course. I do not go, for they are all much older people than I. I know the

senora well, but I prefer a different kind of person. My friends are younger and perhaps more radical, more in

"For some weeks it has seemed to me that this Senora Mendez has had too much influence over my father.

He does not seem like the same man he used to be. Indeed, some of the junta who do not frequent the house

of the senora have remarked it. He seems moody, works by starts, then will neglect his work entirely. Often I

see him with his eyes closed, apparently sitting quietly, oblivious to the progress of the causethe only

"The other day we lost an entire shipment of armsthe Secret Service captured them on the way from the

warehouse on South Street to the steamer which was to take them to New Orleans. Only once before had it

happened, when my father did not understand all the things to conceal. Then he was frantic for a week. But

this time he seems not to care. Ah, senores," she said, dropping her voice, "I fear there was some treachery

"Treachery?" I asked. "And have you any suspicions who might have played informer?"

She hesitated. "I may as well tell you just what I suspect. I fear that the hold of Senora Mendez is somehow

or other concerned with it all. I even have suspected that somehow she may be working in the pay of the

government that she is a vampire, living on the secrets of the group who so trust her. I suspect anything,

everybodythat she is poisoning his mind, perhaps even whispering into his ear some siren proposal of

amnesty and his estate again, if he will but do what she asks. My poor fatherI must save him from himself

if it is necessary. Argument has no effect with him. He merely answers that the senora is a talented and

accomplished woman, and laughs a vacant laugh when I hint to him to beware. I hate her."

The fiery animosity of her dark eyes boded ill, I felt, for the senora. But it flashed over me that perhaps, after

all, the senora was not a traitress, but had simply been scheming to win the heart and hence the hacienda of

the great landowner, when he came into possession of his estate if the revolution proved successful.

"And finally," she concluded, keeping back the tears by an heroic effort, "last night he left our apartment,

promising to return early in the evening. It is now twentyfour hours, and I have heard not a word from him.

"Only what I have learned from Senor Torreon, another member of the junta. Senor Torreon said this

morning that he left the home of Senora Mendez last night about ten o'clock in company with my father. He

says they parted at the subway, as they lived on different branches of the road. Professor Kennedy," she

added, springing up and clasping her hands tightly in an appeal that was irrestible, "you know what steps to

take to find him. I trust all to youeven the calling on the police, though I think it would be best if we could

get along without them. Find my father, senores, and when we come into our own again you shall not regret

that you befriended a lonely girl in a strange city, surrounded by intrigue and danger." There were tears in her

The tenseness of the appeal was broken by the sharp ringing of the telephone bell. Kennedy quickly took

Her face brightened with that nervous hope that springs in the human breast even in the blackest moments. "I

told her if any message came for me she might find me here," explained Miss Guerrero. "Yes, Juanita, what is

My Spanish was not quite good enough to catch more than a word here and there in the low conversation, but

I could guess from the haggard look which overspread her delicate face that the news was not encouraging.

"Oh!" she cried, "this is terribleterrible! What shall I do? Why did I come here? I don't believe it. I don't

"That he stole the moneyoh, what am I saying? You must not look for himyou must forget that I have

"What money?" asked Kennedy, disregarding her appeal to drop the case. "Remember, it may be better that

"The junta had been notified a few days ago, they say, that a large sumfive hundred thousand silver

dollarshad been captured from the government and was on its way to New York to be melted up as bullion

at the subtreasury," she answered, repeating what she had heard over the telephone as if in a dream. "Mr.

Jameson referred to the rumour when he came in. I was interested, for I did not know the public had heard of

it yet. The junta has just announced that the money is missing. As soon as the ship docked in Brooklyn this

morning an agent appeared with the proper credentials from my father and a guard, and they took the money

Her face was blanched as she realised what the situation was. Here she was, setting people to run down her

own father, if the suspicions of the other members of the junta were to be credited.

"Youyou do not think my fatherstole the money?" she faltered pitifully. "Say you do not think so."

"I think nothing yet," replied Kennedy in an even voice. "The first thing to do is to find himbefore the

I felt a tingeI must confess itof jealousy as Kennedy stood beside her, clasping her hand in both of his

and gazing earnestly down into the rich flush that now spread over her olive cheeks.

"Miss Guerrero," he said, "you may trust me implicitly. If your father is alive I will do all that a man can do

to find him. Let me actfor the best. And," he added, wheeling quickly toward me, "I know Mr. Jameson

I was pulled two ways at once. I believed in Miss Guerrero, and yet the flight of her father and the removal of

the bullion swallowed up, as it were, instantly, without so much as a trace in New Yorklooked very black

for him. And yet, as she placed her small hand tremblingly in mine to say goodbye, she won another knight

to go forth and fight her battle for her, nor do I think that I am more than ordinarily susceptible, either.

When she had gone, I looked hopelessly at Kennedy. How could we find a missing man in a city of four

million people, find him without the aid of the policeperhaps before the police could themselves find him?

Kennedy seemed to appreciate my perplexity as though he read my thoughts. "The first thing to do is to

locate this Senor Torreon from whom the first information came," he remarked as we left the apartment.

"Miss Guerrero told me that he might possibly be found in an obscure boardinghouse in the Bronx where

Fortune favoured us to the extent that we did find Torreon at the address given. He made no effort to evade

us, though I noted that he was an unprepossessing looking manundersized and a trifle overstout, with an

eye that never met yours as you talked with him. Whether it was that he was concealing something, or

whether he was merely fearful that we might after all be United States Secret Service men, or whether it was

simply a lack of command of English, he was uncommonly uncommunicative at first. He repeated sullenly

the details of the disappearance of Guerrero, just as we had already heard them.

"And you simply bade him goodbye as you got on a subway train and that is the last you ever saw of him?"

"Did he seem to be worried, to have anything on his mind, to act queerly in any way?" asked Kennedy

"No," came the monosyllabic reply, and there was just that shade of hesitation about it that made me wish we

had the apparatus we used in the Bond case for registering association time. Kennedy noticed it, and

purposely dropped the line of inquiry in order not to excite Torreon's suspicion.

"I understand no word has been received from him at the headquarters on South Street today,"

"You do not think that he could be concealed by Senora Mendez, then?" asked Kennedy quietly.

The little man jumped forward with his eyes flashing. "No," he hissed, checking this show of feeling as

"Well, then," observed Kennedy, rising slowly, "I see nothing to do but to notify the police and have a

The fire died in the eyes of Torreon. "Do not do that, Senor," he exclaimed. "Wait at least one day more.

Perhaps he will appear. Perhaps he has only gone up to Bridgeport to see about some arms and

cartridgeswho can tell? No, sir, do not call in the police, I beg younot yet. I myself will search for him.

It may be I can get some word, some clue. If I can I will notify Miss Guerrero immediately."

Kennedy turned suddenly. "Torreon," he flashed quickly, "what do you suspect about that shipment of half a

Torreon kept his composure admirably. An enigma of a smile flitted over his mobile features as he shrugged

his shoulders. "Ah," he said simply, "then you have heard that the money is missing? Perhaps Guerrero has

"On condition that I do not notify the police yetwill you take us to visit Senora Mendez, and let us learn

Torreon was plainly cornered. He sat for a moment biting his nails nervously and fidgeting in his chair. "It

"We are to go," continued Kennedy, "merely as friends of yours, you understand? I want to ask questions in

"Yes, yes," he agreed. "Wait. I will tell her we are coming," and he reached for the telephone.

"No," interrupted Kennedy. "I prefer to go with you unexpected. Put down the telephone. Otherwise, I may as

well notify my friend Inspector O'Connor of the Central Office and go up with him."

Torreon let the receiver fall back in its socket, and I caught just a glimpse of the look of hate and suspicion

which crossed his face as he turned toward Kennedy. When he spoke it was as suavely as if he himself were

"It shall be as you wish," he said, leading the way out to the crosstown surface cars.

Senora Mendez received us politely, and we were ushered into a large musicroom in her apartment. There

were several people there already. They were seated in easy chairs about the room.

One of the ladies was playing on the piano as we entered. It was a curious compositionvery rhythmic, with

The playing ceased, and all eyes were fixed on us. Kennedy kept very close to Torreon, apparently for the

The guests rose and with courtly politeness bowed as Senora Mendez presented two friends of Senor Torreon,

Senor Kennedy and Senor Jameson. We were introduced in turn to Senor and Senora Alvardo, Senor

It was a peculiar situation, and for want of something better to say I commented on the curious character of

The senora smiled, and was about to speak when a servant entered, bearing a tray full of little cups with a

steaming liquid, and in a silver dish some curious, round, brown, disclike buttons, about an inch in diameter

and perhaps a quarter of an inch thick. Torreon motioned frantically to the servant to withdraw, but Kennedy

was too quick for him. Interposing himself between Torreon and the servant, he made way for her to enter.

"You were speaking of the music," replied Senora Mendez to me in rich, full tones. "Yes, it is very curious. It

is a song of the Kiowa Indians of New Mexico which Senora Barrios has endeavoured to set to music so that

it can be rendered on the piano. Senora Barrios and myself fled from Vespuccia to Mexico at the start of our

revolution, and when the Mexican government ordered us to leave on account of our political activity we

merely crossed the line to the United States, in New Mexico. It was there that we ran across this very curious

discovery. The monotonous beat of that melody you heard is supposed to represent the beating of the

tomtoms of the Indians during their mescal rites. We are having a mescal evening here, whiling away the

"Mescal?" I repeated blankly at first, then feeling a nudge from Kennedy, I added hastily: "Oh, yes, to be

sure. I think I have heard of it. It's a Mexican drink, is it not? I have never had the pleasure of tasting it or of

I felt another, sharper nudge from Kennedy, and knew that I had only made matters worse.

"Mr. Jameson," he hastened to remark, "confounds this mescal of the Indians with the drink of the same name

"Oh," she laughed, to my great relief, "but this mescal is something quite different. The Mexican drink

mescal is made from the magueyplant and is a frightfully horrid thing that sends the peon out of his senses

and makes him violent. Mescal as I mean it is a little shrub, a god, a cult, a religion."

"Perhaps," she admitted, raising her beautiful shoulders in polite deprecation. "The mescal religion, we

found, has spread very largely in New Mexico and Arizona among the Indians, and with the removal of the

Kiowas to the Indian reservation it has been adopted by other tribes even, I have heard, as far north as the

"Is that so?" asked Kennedy. "I understood that the United States government had forbidden the importation

"It has, sir," interposed Alvardo, who had joined us, "but still the mescal cult grows secretly. For my part, I

think it might be more wise for your authorities to look to the whiskey and beer that unscrupulous persons are

selling. Senor Jameson," he added, turning to me, "will you join us in a little cup of this artificial paradise, as

I glanced dubiously at Kennedy as Senora Mendez took one of the little buttons out of the silver tray.

Carefully paring the fuzzy tuft of hairs off the top of itit looked to me very much like the tip of a cactus

plant, which, indeed, it wasshe rolled it into a little pellet and placed it in her mouth, chewing it slowly like

"Watch me; do just as I do," whispered Kennedy to me at a moment when no one was looking.

"The mescal plant," explained Alvardo, pointing at the little discs, "grows precisely like these little buttons

which you see here. It is a species of cactus which rises only half an inch or so from the ground. The stem is

surrounded by a clump of blunt leaves which give it its button shape, and on the top you will see still the tuft

of filaments, like a cactus. It grows in the rocky soil in many places in the state of Jalisco, though only

recently has it become known to science. The Indians, when they go out to gather it, simply lop off these little

ends as they peep above the earth, dry them, keep what they wish for their own use, and sell the rest for what

is to them a fabulous sum. Some people chew the buttons, while a few have lately tried making an infusion or

I had scarcely swallowed the bitter, almost nauseous decoction than I began to feel my heart action slowing

up and my pulse beating fuller and stronger. The pupils of my eyes expanded as with a dose of belladonna; at

I seemed to feel an elated sense of superiorityreally I almost began to feel that it was I, not Kennedy, who

counted most in this investigation. I have since learned that this is the common experience of mescalusers,

this sense of elation; but the feeling of physical energy and intellectual power soon wore off, and I found

Still, the display that followed for an enchanted hour or so was such as I find it hopeless to describe in

I picked up a book lying on the table before me. A pale blueviolet shadow floated across the page before

me, leaving an afterimage of pure colour that was indescribable. I laid down the book and closed my eyes.

A confused riot of images and colours like a kaleidoscope crowded before me, at first indistinct, but, as I

gazed with closed yes, more and more definite. Golden and red and green jewels seemed to riot before me. I

bathed my hands in inconceivable riches of beauty such as no artglass worker has ever produced. All

discomfort ceased. I had no desire to sleepin fact, was hypersensitive. But it was a real effort to open my

At last I did open my eyes to gaze at the gasjets of the chandelier as they flickered. They seemed to send out

waves, expanding and contracting, waves of colour. The shadows of the room were highly coloured and

Senora Barrios began lightly to play on the piano the transposed Kiowa song, emphasising the notes that

represented the drumbeats. Strange as it may seem, the music translated itself into pure colourand the

rhythmic beating of the time seemed to aid the process. I thought of the untutored Indians as they sat in

groups about the flickering campfire while others beat the tomtoms and droned the curious melody. What

were the visions of the red man, I wondered, as he chewed his mescal button and the medicine man prayed to

Under the gaslights of the chandelier hung a cluster of electric light bulbs which added to the flood of

golden effulgence that bathed the room and all things in it. I gazed next intently at the electric lights. They

became the sun itself in their steadiness, until I had to turn away my head and close my eyes. Even then the

image persistedI saw the golden sands of Newport, only they were blazing with glory as if they were

veritable diamond dust: I saw the waves, of incomparable blue, rolling up on the shore. A vague perfume was

wafted on the air. I was in an orgy of vision. Yet there was no stage of maudlin emotion. It was at least

Kennedy's experiences as he related them to me afterwards were similar, though sufficiently varied to be

interesting. His visions took the forms of animalsa Cheshire cat, like that in "Alice in Wonderland," with

merely a grin that faded away, changing into a lynx which in turn disappeared, followed by an unknown

creature with short nose and pointed ears, then tortoises and guineapigs, a perfectly unrelated succession of

beasts. When the playing began a beautiful panorama unfolded before himthe regular notes in the music

enhancing the beauty, and changes in the scenes, which he described as a most wonderful kinetoscopic

In fact, only De Quincey or Bayard Taylor or Poe could have done justice to the thrilling effects of the drug,

and not even they unless an amanuensis had been seated by them to take down what they dictated, for I defy

anyone to remember anything but a fraction of the rapid march of changes under its influence. Indeed, in

observing its action I almost forgot for the time being the purpose of our visit, so fascinated was I. The music

Senora Mendez advanced toward us. The spangles on her net dress seemed to give her a fairylike

appearance; she seemed to float over the carpet like a glowing, fleecy, white cloud over a rainbowtinted sky.

Kennedy, however, had not for an instant forgotten what we were there for, and his attention recalled mine. I

was surprised to see that when I made the effort I could talk and think quite as rationally as ever, though the

wildest pranks were going on in my mind and vision. Kennedy did not beat about in putting his question,

The question came so suddenly that she had no time to think of a reply that would conceal anything she might

"About ten o'clock," she answered, then instantly was on her guard, for Torreon had caught her eye.

I did not at the time notice the significance of her prompt response to Torreon's warning. I did not notice, as

did Kennedy, the smile that spread over Torreon's features. The music had started again, and I was oblivious

Again the servant entered. She seemed clothed in a halo of light and colour, every fold of her dress radiating

the most delicate tones. Yet there was nothing voluptuous or sensual about it. I was raised above earthly

things. Men and women were no longer men and womenthey were brilliant creatures of whom I was one.

It was sensuous, but not sensual. I looked at my own clothes. My everyday suit was idealised. My hands were

surrounded by a glow of red fire that made me feel that they must be the hands of a divinity. I noticed them as

There swam into my line of vision another such hand. It laid itself on my arm. A voice sang in my ear softly:

"No, Walter, we have had enough. Come, let us go. This is not like any other known drugnot even the

famous Cannabis indica, hasheesh. Let us go as soon as we politely can. I have found out what I wanted to

We rose shortly and excused ourselves and, with general regrets in which all but Torreon joined, were bowed

As we left the house, the return to the world was quick. It was like coming out from the matinee and seeing

the crowds on the street. They, not the matinee, were unreal for the moment. But, strange to say, I found one

"The alkaloids," replied Kennedy as we walked slowly along. "Mescal was first brought to the attention of

scientists by explorers employed by our bureau of ethnology. Dr. Weir Mitchell and Dr. Harvey Wiley and

several German scientists have investigated it since then. It is well known that it contains half a dozen

alkaloids and resins of curious and littleinvestigated nature. I can't recall even the names of them offhand,

As the effect of the mescal began to wear off in the fresh air, I found myself in a peculiar questioning state.

What had we gained by our visit? Looking calmly at it, I could not help but ask myself why both Torreon and

Senora Mendez had acted as if they were concealing something about the whereabouts of Guerrero. Was she

Of one thing I was certain. Torreon was an ardent admirer of the beautiful senora, equally ardent with

Guerrero. Was he simply a jealous suitor, angry at his rival, and now glad that he was out of the way? Where

Absorbed in these reveries, I did not notice particularly where Kennedy was hurrying me. In fact, finding no

plausible answer to my speculations and knowing that it was useless to question Kennedy at this stage of his

inquiry, I did not for the moment care where we went but allowed him to take the lead.

We entered one of the fine apartments on the drive and rode up in the elevator. A door opened and, with a

start, I found myself in the presence of Miss Guerrero again. The questioning look on her face recalled the

object of our search, and its ill success so far. Why had Kennedy come back with so little to report?

"Not directly," replied Kennedy. "But I have a clue, at least. I believe that Torreon knows where your father

is and will let you know any moment now. It is to his interest to clear himself before this scandal about the

money becomes generally known. Would you allow me to search through your father's desk?"

For some moments Kennedy rummaged through the drawers and pigeonholes, silently.

"Where does the junta keep its arms storednot in the meeting place on South Street does it?" asked

"Not exactly; that would be a little too risky," she replied. "I believe they have a loft above the office, hired in

someone else's name and not connected with the place downstairs at all. My father and Senor Torreon are

"I ask," replied Craig, "because. I was wondering whether there might not be something that would take him

down to South Street last night. It is the only place I can think of his going to at such a late hour, unless he

has gone out of town. If we do not hear from Torreon soon I think I will try what. I can find down there. Ah,

Kennedy drew forth a little silver box and opened it. Inside reposed a dozen mescal buttons.

We both looked quickly at Miss Guerrero, but it was quite evident that she was unacquainted with them.

She was about to ask what Kennedy had found when the telephone rang and the maid announced that Miss

A smile of gratification flitted over Kennedy's face as he leaned over to me and whispered: "It is evident that

Torreon is anxious to clear himself. I'll wager he has done some rapid hustling since we left him."

"Perhaps this is some word about my father at last," murmured Miss Guerrero as she nervously hurried to the

telephone, and answered, "Yes, this is Senorita Guerrero, Senor Torreon. You are at the office of the junta?

Yes, yes, you have word from my father you went down there tonight expecting some guns to be

delivered?and you found him thereupstairs in the loftill, did you say? unconscious?"

In an instant her face was drawn and pale, and the receiver fell clattering to the hardwood floor from her

"He is dead!" she gasped as she swayed backward and I caught her. With Kennedy's help I carried her, limp

and unconscious, across the room, and placed her in a deep armchair. I stood at her side, but for the moment

"Some water, Juanita, quick!" I cried as soon as I had recovered from the shock. "Have you any

smellingsalts or anything of that sort? Perhaps you can find a little brandy. Hurry."

"This is Kennedy," I heard Craig say, as Juanita came hurrying in with water, smellingsalts, and brandy.

"You fool. She fainted. Why couldn't you break it to her gently? What's that address on South Street? You

found him over the junta meetingplace in a loft? Yes, I understand. What were you doing down there? You

went down expecting a shipment of arms and saw a light overhead I seeand suspecting something you

entered with a policeman. You heard him move across the floor above and fall heavily? All right. Someone

will be down directly. Ambulance surgeon has tried everything, you say? No heart action, no breathing? Sure.

Very well. Let the body remain just where it is until I get down. Oh, wait. How long ago did it happen?

Such restoratives as we had found we applied faithfully. At last we were rewarded by the first flutter of an

"He is dead," she moaned. "They have killed him. I know it. My father is dead." Over and over she repeated:

Vainly I tried to soothe her. What was there to say? There could be no doubt about it. Torreon must have

gone down directly after we left Senora Mendez. He had seen a light in the loft, had entered with a

policemanas a witness, he had told Craig over the telephone had heard Guerrero fall, and had sent for

the ambulance. How long Guerrero had been there he did not know, for while members of the junta had been

coming and going all day in the office below none had gone up into the locked loft.

Kennedy with rare skill calmed Miss Guerrero's dryeyed hysteria into a gentle rain of tears, which relieved

her overwrought feelings. We silently withdrew, leaving the two women, mistress and servant, weeping.

"Craig," I asked when we had gained the street, "what do you make of it? We must lose no time. Arrest this

"Not so fast, Walter," he cautioned as we spun along in a taxicab. "Our case isn't very complete against

"But it looks black for Guerrero," I admitted. "Dead men tell no tales even to clear themselves."

We had reached the university, which was only a few blocks away, and Craig dashed into his laboratory

while I settled with the driver. He reappeared almost instantly with some bulky apparatus under his arm, and

we more than ran from the building to the nearby subway station. Fortunately there was an express just

To one who knows South Street as merely a riverfront street whose glory of other days has long since

departed, where an antiquated horsecar now ambles slowly uptown, and trucks and carts all day long are in a

perpetual jam, it is peculiarly uninteresting by day, and peculiarly deserted and vicious by night. But there is

another fascination about South Street. Perhaps there has never been a revolution in Latin America which has

not in some way or other been connected with this street, whence hundreds of filibustering expeditions have

started. Whenever a dictator is to be overthrown, or half a dozen chocolateskinned generals in the Caribbean

become dissatisfied with their portions of gold lace, the armsand ammunitiondealers of South Street can

give, if they choose, an advance scenario of the whole tragedy or comic opera, as the case may be. Real war

or operabouffe, it is all grist for the mills of these closemouthed individuals.

Our quest took us to a ramshackle building reminiscent of the days when the street bristled with bowsprits of

ships from all over the world, an age when the American merchantman flew our flag on the uttermost of the

sevenseas. On the ground floor was an apparently innocent junk dealer's shop, in reality the meetingplace

of the junta. By an outside stairway the lofts above were reached, hiding their secrets behind windows opaque

At the door we were met by Torreon and the policeman. Both appeared to be shocked beyond measure.

Torreon was profuse in explanations which did not explain. Out of the tangled mass of verbiage I did manage

to extract, however, the impression that, come what might to the other members of the junta, Torreon was

determined to clear his own name at any cost. He and the policeman had discovered Senor Guerrero only a

short time before, upstairs. For all he knew, Guerrero had been there some time, perhaps all day, while the

others were meeting downstairs. Except for the light he might have been there undiscovered still. Torreon

Kennedy listened impatiently, then sprang up the stairs, only to call back to the policeman: "Go call me a

We found the victim lying on a sort of bed of sailcloth in a loft apparently devoted to the peaceful purposes of

the junk trade, but really a perfect arsenal and magazine. It was dusty and cobwebbed, crammed with stands

of arms, tents, uniforms in bales, batteries of Maxims and mountainguns, and all the paraphernalia for

The young ambulance surgeon was still there, so quickly had we been able to get downtown. He had his

stomachpump, hypodermic syringe, emetics, and various tubes spread out on a piece of linen on a

"Thought at first it was only a bad case of syncope," he replied, "but I guess he was dead some minutes

before I got here. Tried rhythmic traction of the tongue, artificial respiration, stimulants, chest and heart

"Have you any idea what caused his death?" asked Craig as he hastily adjusted his apparatus to an electric

light socketa rheostat, an inductioncoil of peculiar shape, and an "interrupter."

"Poison of some kindan alkaloid. They say they heard him fall as they came upstairs, and when they got

to him he was blue. His face was as blue as it is now when I arrived. Asphyxia, failure of both heart and

The gong of the electric cab sounded outside. As Craig heard it he rushed with two wires to the window,

threw them out, and hurried downstairs, attaching them to the batteries of the cab.

"Now, Doctor," he said, "I'm going to perform a very delicate test on this man. Here I have the alternating

city current and here a direct, continuous current from the storagebatteries of the cab below. Doctor, hold

his mouth open. So. Now, have you a pair of forceps handy? Good. Can you catch hold of the tip of his

tongue? There. Do just as I tell you. I apply this cathode to his skin in the dorsal region; under the back of the

neck, and this anode in the lumbar region at the base of the spinejust pieces of cotton soaked in salt

solution and covering the metal electrodes, to give me a good contact with the body."

I was fascinated. It was gruesome, and yet I could not take my eyes off it. Torreon stood blankly, in a daze.

He applied the current, moving the anode and the cathode slowly. I had often seen the experiments on the

nerves of a frog that had been freshly killed, how the electric current will make the muscles twitch, as

discovered long ago by Galvani. But I was not prepared to see it on a human being. Torreon muttered

The arms seemed half to risethen suddenly to fall, flabby again. There was a light hiss like an inspiration

"Lungs react," muttered Kennedy, "but the heart doesn't. I must increase the voltage."

"Good God, Kennedy," I exclaimed, "do you suppose the effect of that mescal on me hasn't worn off yet?

Blue, blue everything blue is playing pranks before my eyes. Tell me, is the blue of that face his faceis

"But, Kennedy," I persisted; "his face was dark blue, black a minute ago. The most astonishing change has

Kennedy was so absorbed in his work that he made no reply at all. He heard nothing, nothing save the slow,

forced inspiration and expiration of air as he deftly and quickly manipulated the electrodes.

The young surgeon bent his head and placed his ear on the cold breast. As he raised his eyes and they

chanced to rest on Kennedy's hands, holding the electrodes dangling idly in the air, I think I never saw a

"With great care and a milk diet for a few days Guerrero will live," said Kennedy quietly. "It is natural."

"My God, man, but he was dead!" exclaimed the surgeon. "I know it. His heart was stopped and his lungs

"To all intents and purposes he was dead, dead as ever a man was," replied Craig, "and would be now, if I

hadn't happened to think of this special inductioncoil loaned to me by a doctor who had studied deeply the

process of electric resuscitation developed by Professor Leduc of the Nantes Ecole de Medicin. There is only

one case I know of on record which compares with thisa case of a girl resuscitated in Paris. The girl was a

I stood like one frozen, the thing was so incomprehensible, after the many surprises of the evening that had

As Kennedy and I bent over, Guerrero's eyes opened, but he apparently saw nothing. His hand moved a little,

and his lips parted. Kennedy quickly reached into the pockets of the man gasping for breath, one after

another. From a vest pocket he drew a little silver case, identical with that he had found in the desk uptown.

He opened it, and one mescal button rolled out into the palm of his hand. Kennedy regarded it thoughtfully.

"I suspect there is at least one devotee of the visionbreeding drug who will no longer cultivate its use, as a

"Guerrero," shouted Kennedy, placing his mouth close to the man's ear, but muting his voice so that only I

Kennedy rose and quietly went over to detach his apparatus from the electric light socket behind Torreon.

Craig had Torreon firmly pinioned from behind by both arms. The policeman quickly interposed.

"It's all right,officer," exclaimed Craig. "Walter, reach into his inside pocket."

"What's that" asked Kennedy as I came to something neatly enclosed in an envelope.

"Perhaps it is no crime to give a man mescal if he wants itI doubt if the penal code covers that," ejaculated

Kennedy. "But it is conspiracy to give it to him and extract a power of attorney by which you can get control

of trust funds consigned to him. Manuel Torreon, the game is up. You and Senora Mendez have played your

parts well. But you have lost. You waited until you thought Guerrero was dead, then you took a policeman

along as a witness to clear yourself. But the secret is not dead, after all. Is there nothing else in those papers,

Walter? Yes? Ah, a bill of lading dated today? Ten cases of 'scrap iron' from New York to Bostona long

chance for such valuable 'scrap,' senor, but I suppose you had to get the money away from New York, at any

"And Senora Mendez?" I asked as my mind involuntarily reverted to the brilliantly lighted room uptown.

Torreon stood sullenly silent. Kennedy reached in another of Torreon's pockets and drew out a third little

silver box of mescal buttons. Holding all three of the boxes, identically the same, before us he remarked:

"Evidently Torreon was not averse to having his victim under the influence of mescal as much as possible.

He must have forced it on himall's fair in love and revolution, I suppose. I believe he brought him down

here under the influence of mescal last night, obtained the power of attorney, and left him here to die of the

mescal intoxication. It was just a case of too strong a hold of the mescalthe artificial paradise was too

alluring to Guerrero, and Torreon knew it and tried to profit by it to the extent of half a million dollars."

It was more than I could grasp at the instant. The impossible had happened. I had seen the

deadliterallybrought back to life and the secret which the criminal believed buried wrung from the

Kennedy must have noted the puzzled look on my face. "Walter," he said, casually, as he wrapped up his

instruments, "don't stand there gaping like Billikin. Our part in this case is finishedat least mine is. But I

suspect from some of the glances I have seen you steal at various times thatwell, perhaps you would like a

few moments in a real paradise. I saw a telephone downstairs. Go call up Miss Guerrero and tell her her

It was what, in college, we used to call "good football weather" a crisp, autumn afternoon that sent the

blood tingling through brain and muscle. Kennedy and I were enjoying a stroll on the drive, dividing our

attention between the glowing red sunset across the Hudson and the string of homewardbound automobiles

on the broad parkway. Suddenly a huge black touring car marked with big letters, "P.D.N.Y.," shot past.

"Joyriding again in one of the city's cars," I remarked. "I thought the last Police Department shakeup had

"It was InspectorI mean, First Deputy O'Connor. I thought he recognised us as he whizzed along, and I

guess he did, too. Ah, congratulations, O'Connor! I haven't had a chance to tell you before how pleased I was

to learn you had been appointed first deputy. It ought to have been commissioner, though," added Kennedy.

"Congratulations nothing," rejoined O'Connor. "Just another new dealelection coming on, mayor must make

a show of getting some reform done, and all that sort of thing. So he began with the Police Department, and

here I am, first deputy. But, say, Kennedy," he added, dropping his voice, "I've a little job on my mind that I'd

like to pull off in about as spectacular a fashion as Ias you know how. I want to make good, conspicuously

good, at the startunderstand? Maybe I'll be 'broke' for it and sent to pounding the pavements of

Dismissalville, but I don't care, I'll take a chance. On the level, Kennedy, it's a big thing, and it ought to be

"What is it?" asked Kennedy with a twinkle in his eye at O'Connor's estimate of the security of his tenure of

O'Connor drew us away from the automobile toward the stone parapet overlooking the railroad and river far

below, and out of earshot of the department chauffeur. "I want to pull off a successful raid on the Vesper

"Good heavens, man," I ejaculated, "don't you know that Senator Danfield is interested in"

"Jameson," interrupted O'Connor reproachfully, "I said 'on the level' a few moments ago, and I meant it.

Senator Danfield hewell, anyhow, if I don't do it the district attorney will, with the aid of the Dowling law,

and I am going to beat him to it, that's all. There's too much money being lost at the Vesper Club, anyhow. It

won't hurt Danfield to be taught a lesson not to run such a phony game. I may like to put up a quiet bet

myself on the ponies now and thenI won't say I don't, but this thing of Danfield's has got beyond all

reason. It's the crookedest gambling joint in the city, at least judging by the stories they tell of losses there.

O'Connor shoved a letter into Kennedy's hand, a dainty perfumed and monogrammed little missive addressed

in a feminine hand. It was such a letter as comes by the thousand to the police in the course of a year; though

"Dear Sir: I notice in the newspapers this morning that you have just been appointed first deputy

commissioner of police and that you have been ordered to suppress gambling in New York. For the love that

you must still bear toward your own mother, listen to the story of a mother worn with anxiety for her only

son, and if there is any justice or righteousness in this great city close up a gambling hell that is sending to

ruin scores of our finest young men. No doubt you know or have heard of my familythe DeLongs are not

unknown in New York. Perhaps you have also heard of the losses of my son Percival at the Vesper Club.

They are fast becoming the common talk of our set. I am not rich, Mr. Commissioner, in spite of our social

position, but I am human, as human as a mother in any station of life, and oh, if there is any way, close up

that gilded society resort that is dissipating our small fortune, ruining an only son, and slowly bringing to the

grave a grayhaired widow, as worthy of protection as any mother of the poor whose plea has closed up a

"Well," said Kennedy, as he handed back the letter, "O'Connor, if you do it, I'll take back all the hard things

I've ever said about the police system. Young DeLong was in one of my classes at the university, until he was

expelled for that last mad prank of his. There's more to that boy than most people think, but he's the wildest

scion of wealth I have ever come in contact with. How are you going to pull off your raidis it to be down

"Kennedy," replied O'Connor in the same reproachful tone with which he had addressed me, "talk sense. I'm

in earnest. You know the Vesper Club is barred and barricaded like the National City Bank. It isn't one of

those common gambling joints which depend for protection on what we call 'icebox doors.' It's proof against

"Your predecessor had some success at opening doors with a hydraulic jack, I believe, in some very difficult

"A hydraulic jack wouldn't do for the Vesper Club, I'm afraid," remarked O'Connor wearily. "Why, sir, that

place has been proved bombproofbombproof, sir. You remember recently the socalled 'gamblers' war'

in which some rivals exploded a bomb on the steps? It did more damage to the house next door than to the

club. However, I can get past the outer door, I think, even if it is strong. But insideyou must have heard of

itis the famous steel door, three inches thick, made of armourplate. It's no use to try it at all unless we can

pass that door with reasonable quickness. All the evidence we shall get will be of an innocent social

clubroom downstairs. The gambling is all on the second floor, beyond this door, in a room without a

window in it. Surely you've heard of that famous gamblingroom, with its perfect system of artificial

ventilation and electric lighting that makes it rival noonday at midnight. And don't tell me I've got to get on

the other side of the door by strategy, either. It is strategyproof. The system of lookouts is perfect. No, force

is necessary, but it must not be destructive of life or propertyor, by heaven, I'd drive up there and riddle the

"H'm!" mused Kennedy as he flicked the ashes off his cigar and meditatively watched a passing freighttrain

on the railroad below us. "There goes a car loaded with tons and tons of scrap iron. You want me to scrap that

"Kennedy, I'll buy that particular scrap from you at almost its weight in gold. The fact is, I have a secret fund

at my disposal such as former commissioners have asked for in vain. I can afford to pay you well, as well as

any private client, and I hear you have had some good fees lately. Only deliver the goods."

"No," answered Kennedy, rather piqued, "it isn't money that I am after. I merely wanted to be sure that you

are in earnest. I can get you past that door as if it were made of green baize."

It was O'Connor's turn to look incredulous, but as Kennedy apparently meant exactly what he said, he simply

"All right, then," continued Kennedy. "Send a furniturevan, one of those closed vans that the storage

warehouses use, up to my laboratory any time before seven o'clock. How many men will you need in the

raid? Twelve? Will a van hold that many comfortably? I'll want to put some apparatus in it, but that won't

"Why, yes, I think so," answered O'Connor. "I'll get a wellpadded van so that they won't be badly jolted by

the ride downtown. By George! Kennedy, I see you know more of that side of police strategy than I gave

"Then have the men drop into my laboratory singly about the same time. You can arrange that so that it will

not look suspicious, so far uptown. It will be dark, anyhow. Perhaps, O'Connor, you can make up as the

driver yourselfanyhow, get one you can trust absolutely. Then have the van down near the corner of

Broadway below the club, driving slowly along about the time the theatre crowd is out. Leave the rest to me.

As O'Connor thanked Craig, he remarked without a shade of insincerity, "Kennedy, talk about being

"Wait till I deliver the goods," answered Craig simply. "I may fall down and bring you nothing but a lawsuit

for damages for unlawful entry or unjust persecution, or whatever they call it."

"I'll take a chance at that," called back O'Connor as he jumped into his car and directed, "Headquarters,

As the car disappeared, Kennedy filled his lungs with air as if reluctant to leave the drive. "Our

"What a place in which to plot a raid on Danfield's Vesper Club! Why, the nursemaids have hardly got the

children all in for supper and bed. It's incongruous. Well, I must go over to the laboratory and get some things

ready to put in that van with the men. Meet me about halfpast seven, Walter, up in the room, all togged up.

We'll dine at the Cafe Riviera tonight in style. And, by the way, you're quite a man about townyou must

"But, Craig," I demurred, "if there is any rough work as a result, it might queer me with them. They might

"Oh, that will be all right. I just want to look the place over and lose a few chips in a good cause. No, it won't

queer any of your Star connections. We'll be on the outside when the time comes for anything to happen. In

fact I shouldn't wonder if your story would make you all the more solid with the sports. I take all the

responsibility; you can have the glory. You know they like to hear the inside gossip of such things, after the

event. Try it. Remember, at seventhirty. We'll be a little late at dinner, but never mind; it will be early

Left to my own devices I determined to do a little detective work on my own account, and not only did I

succeed in finding an acquaintance who agreed to introduce us at the Vesper Club that night about nine

o'clock, but I also learned that Percival DeLong was certain to be there that night, too. I was necessarily

vague about Kennedy, for fear my friend might have heard of some of his exploits, but fortunately he did not

I hurried back to our apartment and was in the process of transforming myself into a fullfledged

boulevardier, when Kennedy arrived in an extremely cheerful frame of mind. So far, his preparations had

progressed very favourably, I guessed, and I was quite elated when he complimented me on what I had

"Pretty tough for the fellows who are condemned to ride around in that van for four mortal hours, though," he

said as he hurried into his evening clothes, "but they won't be riding all the time. The driver will make

I was so busy that I paid little attention to him until he had nearly completed his toilet. I gave a gasp.

There stood Kennedy arrayed in all the glory of a sharppointed moustache and a goatee. He had put on

evening clothes of decidedly Parisian cut, clothes which he had used abroad and had brought back with him,

but which I had never known him to wear since he came back. On a chair reposed a chimneypot hat that

would have been pronounced faultless on the "continong," but was unknown, except among impresarios, on

"Figure to yourself, monsieur," he said. "Ze great Kennedy, ze detectif Americainto put it tersely in our

own vernacular, wouldn't it be a fool thing for me to appear at the Vesper Club where I should surely be

recognised by someone if I went in my ordinary clothes and features? Un faux pas, at the start? Jamais!"

There was nothing to do but agree, and I was glad that I had been discreetly reticent about my companion in

talking with the friend who was to gain us entrance to the Avernus beyond the steel door.

We met my friend at the Riviera and dined sumptuously. Fortunately he seemed decidedly impressed with

my friend Monsieur KayI could do no better on the spur of the moment than take Kennedy's initial, which

seemed to serve. We progressed amicably from oysters and soup down to coffee, cigars, and liqueurs, and I

succeeded in swallowing Kennedy's tales of Monte Carlo and Ostend and Ascot without even a smile. He

must have heard them somewhere, and treasured them up for just such an occasion, but he told them in a

manner that was verisimilitude itself, using perfect English with just the trace of an accent at the right places.

At last it was time to saunter around to the Vesper Club without seeming to be too indecently early. The

theatres were not yet out, but my friend said play was just beginning at the club and would soon be in full

I had a keen sense of wickedness as we mounted the steps in the yellow flare of the flaming arclight on the

Broadway corner not far below us. A heavy, grated door swung open at the practised signal of my friend, and

an obsequious negro servant stood bowing and pronouncing his name in the sombre mahogany portal beyond,

with its green marble pillars and handsome decorations. A short parley followed, after which we entered, my

We did not stop to examine the first floor, which doubtless was innocent enough, but turned quickly up a

flight of steps. At the foot of the broad staircase Kennedy paused to examine some rich carvings, and I felt

him nudge me. I turned. It was an enclosed staircase, with walls that looked to be of reenforced concrete.

Swung back on hinges concealed like those of a modern burglarproof safe was the famous steel door.

We did not wish to appear to be too interested, yet a certain amount of curiosity was only proper.

"You're perfectly safe," he smiled, tapping the door with his cane with a sort of affectionate respect. "It would

take the police ages to get past that barrier, which would be swung shut and bolted the moment the lookout

gave the alarm. But there has never been any trouble. The police know that it is so far, no farther. Besides,"

he added with a wink to me, "you know, Senator Danfield wouldn't like this pretty little door even scratched.

Come up, I think I hear DeLong's voice upstairs. You've heard of him, monsieur? It's said his luck has

Quickly he led the way up the handsome staircase and into a large, lofty, richly furnished room. Everywhere

there were thick, heavy carpets on the floors, into which your feet sank with an air of satisfying luxury.

The room into which we entered was indeed absolutely windowless. It was a room built within the original

room of the old house. Thus the windows overlooking the street from the second floor in reality bore no

relation to it. For light it depended on a complete oval of lights overhead so arranged as to be themselves

invisible, but shining through richly stained glass and conveying the illusion of a slightly clouded noonday.

The absence of windows was made up for, as I learned later, by a ventilating device so perfect that, although

everyone was smoking, a most fastidious person could scarcely have been offended by the odour of tobacco.

Of course I did not notice all this at first. What I did notice, however, was a farolayout and a hazardboard,

but as no one was playing at either, my eye quickly travelled to a roulettetable which stretched along the

middle of the room. Some ten or a dozen men in evening clothes were gathered watching with intent faces the

spinning wheel. There was no money on the table, nothing but piles of chips of various denominations.

Another thing that surprised me as I looked was that the tense look on the faces of the players was anything

but the feverish, haggard gaze I had expected. In fact, they were sleek, wellfed, typical prosperous

NewYorkers rather inclined to the noticeable in dress and carrying their avoirdupois as if life was an easy

game with them. Most of them evidently belonged to the financial and society classes. There were no

tragedies; the tragedies were elsewherein their offices, homes, in the courts, anywhere, but not here at the

For the benefit of those not acquainted with the roulettewheel and I may as well confess that most of my

own knowledge was gained in that one crowded eveningI may say that it consists, briefly, of a wooden

disc very nicely balanced and turning in the centre of a cavity set into a table like a circular washbasin, with

an outer rim turned slightly inward. The "croupier" revolves the wheel to the right. With a quick motion of

his middle finger he flicks a marble, usually of ivory, to the left. At the Vesper Club, always uptodate, the

ball was of platinum, not of ivory. The disc with its sloping sides is provided with a number of brass rods,

some perpendicular, some horizontal. As the ball and the wheel lose momentum the ball strikes against the

rods and finally is deflected into one of the many little pockets or stalls facing the rim of the wheel.

There are thirtyeight of these pockets; two are marked "0" and "00," the others numbered from one to

thirtysix in an irregular and confusing order and painted alternately red and black. At each end of the table

are thirtysix large squares correspondingly numbered and coloured. The "0" and "00" are of a neutral colour.

Whenever the ball falls in the "0" or "00" the bank takes the stakes, or sweeps the the board. The Monte Carlo

wheel has only one "0," while the typical American has two, and the Chinese has four.

To one like myself who had read of the Continental gamblinghouses with the clink of gold pieces on the

table, and the croupier with his wooden rake noisily raking in the winnings of the bank, the comparative

As we advanced, we heard only the rattle of the ball, the click of the chips, and the monotonous tone of the

spinner: "Twentythree, black. Eight, red. Seventeen, black." It was almost like the boys in a broker's office

Leaning forward, almost oblivious to the rest, was Percival DeLong, a tall, lithe, handsome young man,

whose boyish face ill comported with the marks of dissipation clearly outlined on it. Such a boy, it flashed

across my mind, ought to be studying the possible plays of football of an evening in the fieldhouse after his

dinner at the trainingtable, rather than the possible gyrations of the little platinum ball on the wheel.

A Hebrew banker staked a pile of chips on the "17" to come up a third time. A murmur of applause at his

nerve ran through the circle. DeLong hesitated, as one who thought, "Seventeen has come out twice the

odds against its coming again are too great, even though the winnings would be fabulous, for a good stake."

The wheel spun, the ball rolled, and the croupier called again, "Seventeen, black." A tremor of excitement ran

"And '17' has precisely the same chance of turning up in the next spin as if it had not already had a run of

It was Kennedy. The roulettetable needs no introduction when curious sequences are afoot. All are friends.

"That's the theory of Sir Hiram Maxim;" commented my friend, as he excused himself reluctantly for another

appointment. "But no true gambler will believe it, monsieur, or at least act on it."

All eyes were turned on Kennedy, who made a gesture of polite deprecation, as if the remark of my friend

"The odds against '17' appearing four consecutive times are some millions," he went on, "and yet, having

appeared three times, it is just as likely to appear again as before. It is the usual practice to avoid a number

that has had a run, on the theory that some other number is more likely to come up than it is. That would be

the case if it were drawing balls from a bag full of red and black ballsthe more red ones drawn the smaller

the chance of drawing another red one. But if the balls are put back in the bag after being drawn the chances

of drawing a red one after three have been drawn are exactly the same as ever. If we toss a cent and heads

appear twelve times, that does not have the slightest effect on the thirteenth toss there is still an even

chance that it, too, will be heads. So if '17' had come up five times tonight, it would be just as likely to come

the sixth as if the previous five had not occurred, and that despite the fact that before it has appeared at all

odds against a run of the same number six times in succession are about two billion, four hundred and

ninetysix million, and some thousands. Most systems are based on the old persistent belief that occurrences

of chance are affected in some way by occurrences immediately preceding, but disconnected physically. If

we've had a run of black for twenty times, system says play the red for the twentyfirst. But black is just as

likely to turn up the twentyfirst as if it were the first play of all. The confusion arises because a run of

twenty on the black should happen once in one million, fortyeight thousand, five hundred and seventysix

coups. It would take ten years to make that many coups, and the run of twenty might occur once or any

number of times in it. It is only when one deals with infinitely large numbers of coups that one can count on

infinitely small variations in the mathematical results. This game does not go on for infinity therefore

anything, everything, may happen. Systems are based on the infinite; we play in the finite."

"You talk like a professor I had at the university," ejaculated DeLong contemptuously as Craig finished his

disquisition on the practical fallibility of theoretically infallible systems. Again DeLong carefully avoided the

The wheel spun again; the ball rolled. The knot of spectators around the table watched with bated breath.

As Kennedy piled up his winnings superciliously, without even the appearance of triumph, a man behind me

"Non, monsieur," said Kennedy quickly, having overheard the remark, "no system, sir. There is only one

Kennedy staked a large sum on the red to win. The black came up, and he lost. He doubled the stake and

played again, and again lost. With amazing calmness Craig kept right on doubling.

"The martingale," I heard the man whisper behind me. "In other words, double or quit."

Kennedy was now in for some hundreds, a sum that was sufficiently large for him, but he doubled again, still

cheerfully playing the red, and the red won. As he gathered up his chips he rose.

"No," said Kennedy quietly, "that is part of the system, tooto quit when you have won back your stakes

"Huh!" exclaimed DeLong in disgust. "Suppose you were in for some thousandsyou wouldn't quit. If you

Kennedy calmly passed over the open insult, letting it be understood that he ignored this beardless youth.

"There is no way you can beat the game in the long run if you keep at it," he answered simply. "It is

mathematically impossible. Consider. We are Croesuseswe hire players to stake money for us on every

possible number at every coup. How do we come out? If there are no '0' or '00,' we come out after each coup

precisely where we startedwe are paying our own money back and forth among ourselves; we have neither

more nor less. But with the '0' and '00' the bank sweeps the board every so often. It is only a question of time

when, after paying our money back and forth among ourselves, it has all filtered through the '0' and '00' into

the bank. It is not a game of chance for the bankah, it is exact, mathematical c'est une question d'

"Perhaps," admitted DeLong, "but it doesn't explain why I am losing tonight while everyone else is

"We are not winning;" persisted Craig. "After I have had a bite to eat I will demonstrate how to loseby

DeLong was too intent on the game to leave, even for refreshments. Now and then I saw him beckon to an

attendant, who brought him a stiff drink of whiskey. For a moment his play seemed a little better, then he

would drop back into his hopeless losing. For some reason or other his "system" failed absolutely.

"You see, he is hopeless," mused Kennedy over our light repast. "And yet of all gambling games roulette

offers the player the best odds, far better than horseracing, for instance. Our method has usually been to

outlaw roulette and permit horse racing; in other words, suppress the more favourable and permit the less

favourable. However, we're doing better now; we're suppressing both. Of course what I say applies only to

I started at Kennedy's tone and whispered hastily: "What do you mean? Do you think the wheel is crooked?"

"I haven't a doubt of it," he replied in an undertone. "That run of '17' might happenyes. But it is

improbable. They let me win because I was a new playernew players always win at first. It is proverbial,

but the man who is running this game has made it look like a platitude. To satisfy myself on that point I am

going to play againuntil I have lost my winnings and am just square with the game. When I reach the point

that I am convinced that some crooked work is going on I am going to try a little experiment, Walter. I want

you to stand close to me so that no one can see what I am doing. Do just as I will indicate to you."

The gamblingroom was now fast filling up with the first of the theatre crowd. DeLong's table was the centre

of attraction, owing to the high play. A group of young men of his set were commiserating with him on his

luck and discussing it with the finished air of roues of double their ages. He was doggedly following his

"Ah, here is the philosophical stranger again;" DeLong exclaimed, catching sight of Kennedy. "Perhaps he

"Au contrarie, monsieur, let me demonstrate how to lose," answered Craig with a smile that showed a row of

Kennedy played and lost, and lost again; then he won, but in the main he lost. After one particularly large loss

I felt his arm on mine, drawing me closely to him. DeLong had taken a sort of grim pleasure in the fact that

Kennedy, too, was losing. I found that Craig had paused in his play at a moment when DeLong had staked a

large sum that a number below "18" would turn upfor five plays the numbers had been between "18" and

"36." Curious to see what Craig was doing, I looked cautiously down between us. All eyes were fixed on the

wheel. Kennedy was holding an ordinary compass in the crookedup palm of his hand. The needle pointed at

The wheel spun. Suddenly the needle swung around to a point between the north and south poles, quivered a

It was some seconds before I realised the significance of it. It had pointed at the tableand DeLong had lost

Kennedy and I exchanged glances, and he shoved the compass into my hand quickly. "You watch it, Walter,

Carefully concealing it, as he had done, yet holding it as close to the table as I dared I tried to follow two

things at once without betraying myself. As near as I could make out, something happened at every play. I

would not go so far as to assert that whenever the larger stakes were on a certain number the needle pointed

to the opposite side of the wheel, for it was impossible to be at all accurate about it. Once I noticed the needle

did not move at all, and he won. But an the next play he staked what I knew must be the remainder of his

winnings on what seemed a very good chance. Even before the wheel was revolved and the ball set rolling,

the needle swung about, and when the platinum ball came to rest Kennedy rose from the table, a loser.

"By George though," exclaimed DeLong, grasping his hand. "I take it all back. You are a good loser, sir. I

wish I could take it as well as you do. But then, I'm in too deeply. There are too many 'markers' with the

Senator Danfield had just come in to see how things were going. He was a sleek, fat man, and it was amazing

to see with what deference his victims treated him. He affected not to have heard what DeLong said, but I

could imagine what he was thinking, for I had heard that he had scant sympathy with anyone after he "went

broke"another evidence of the camaraderie and goodfellowship that surrounded the game.

Kennedy's neat remark surprised me. "Oh, your luck will change, D. L.,"everyone referred to him as "D.

L.," for gamblinghouses have an aversion for real names and greatly prefer initials"your luck will change

presently. Keep right on with your system. It's the best you can do tonight, short of quitting."

Meanwhile Kennedy and I paused on the way, out to compare notes. My report of the behaviour of the

As we turned to the stairs we took in a full view of the room. A farolayout was purchasing Senator Danfield

a new touringcar every hour at the expense of the players. Another group was gathered about the hazard

board, deriving evident excitement, though I am sure none could have given an intelligent account of the

chances they were taking. Two roulettetables were now going full blast, the larger crowd still about

DeLong's. Snatches of conversation came to us now and then, and I caught one sentence, "De Long's in for

over a hundred thousand now on the week's play, I understand; poor boythat about cleans him up."

With his hat tilted at a rakish angle and his operacoat over his arm he sauntered over for a last look.

"Do you know what my advice to you is, the advice of a man who has seen high play everywhere from Monte

"I intend to," and the haggard young face turned again to the table and forgot us.

"For Heaven's sake, Kennedy," I gasped as we went down the stairway, "what do you mean by giving him

"Not so loud, Walter. He'd have done it anyhow, I suppose, but I want him to keep at it. This night means life

or death to Percival DeLong and his mother, too. Come on, let's get out of this."

We passed the formidable steel door and gained the street, jostled by the latecomers who had left the

aftertheatre restaurants for a few moments of play at the famous club that so long had defied the police.

Almost gaily Kennedy swung along toward Broadway. At the corner he hesitated, glanced up and down,

caught sight of the furniturevan in the middle of the next block. The driver was tugging at the harness of the

"Drive around in front of the Vesper Club slowly," said Kennedy as the driver at last looked up.

The van lumbered ahead, and we followed it casually. Around the corner it turned. We turned also. My heart

was going like a sledgehammer as the critical moment approached. My head was in a whirl. What would that

gay throng back of those darkened windows down the street think if they knew what was being prepared for

On, like the Trojan horse, the van lumbered. A man went into the Vesper Club, and I saw the negro at the

The next thing I knew, Kennedy had ripped off his disguise, had flung himself up behind the van, and had

swung the doors open. A dozen men with ages and sledgehammers swarmed out and up the steps of the

"Call the reserves, O'Connor," cried Kennedy. "Watch the roof and the back yard."

The sharp raps of the hammers and the axes sounded on the thick brassbound oak of the outside door in

quick succession. There was a scurry of feet inside, and we could hear a grating noise and a terrific jar as the

"A raid! A raid on the Vesper Club!" shouted a belated passerby. The crowd swarmed around from

Banging and ripping and tearing, the outer door was slowly forced. As it crashed in, the quick gongs of

several police patrols sounded. The reserves had been called out at the proper moment, too late for them to

Disregarding the melee behind me, I leaped through the wreckage with the other raiders. The steel door

barred all further progress with its cold blue impassibility. How were we to surmount this last and most

I turned in time to see Kennedy and O'Connor hurrying up the steps with a huge tank studded with bolts like

"There," ordered Craig, "set the oxygen there," as he placed his own tank on the opposite side:

Out of the tanks stout tubes led, with stopcocks and gages at the top. From a case under his arm Kennedy

produced a curious arrangement like a huge hook, with a curved neck and a sharp beak. Really it consisted of

two metal tubes which ran into a sort of cylinder, or mixing chamber, above the nozzle, while parallel to them

ran a third separate tube with a second nozzle of its own. Quickly he joined the ends of the tubes from the

tanks to the metal hook, the oxygentank being joined to two of the tubes of the hook, and the second tank

being joined to the other. With a match he touched the nozzle gingerly. Instantly a hissing, spitting noise

"Now for the oxyacetylene blowpipe," cried Kennedy as he advanced toward the steel door. "We'll make

Just to test it, he cut off the head of a threequarterinch steel rivettaking about a quarter of a minute to do

it. It was evident, though, that that would not weaken the door appreciably, even if the rivets were all driven

through. Still they gave a startingpoint for the flame of the highpressure acetylene torch.

It was a brilliant sight. The terrific heat from the first nozzle caused the metal to glow under the torch as if in

an openhearth furnace. From the second nozzle issued a stream of oxygen under which the hot metal of the

door was completely consumed. The force of the blast as the compressed oxygen and acetylene were expelled

carried a fine spray of the disintegrated metal visibly before it. And yet it was not a big hole that it

madescarcely an eighth of an inch wide, but clear and sharp as if a buzzsaw were eating its way through a

With tense muscles Kennedy held this terrific engine of destruction and moved it as easily as if it had been a

mere pencil of light. He was easily the calmest of us all as we crowded about him at a respectful distance.

"Acetylene, as you may know," he hastily explained, never pausing for a moment in his work, "is composed

of carbon and hydrogen. As it burns at the end of the nozzle it is broken into carbon and hydrogenthe

carbon gives the high temperature, and the hydrogen forms a cone that protects the end of the blowpipe from

"But isn't it dangerous?" I asked, amazed at the skill with which he handled the blowpipe.

"Not particularlywhen you know how to do it. In that tank is a porous asbestos packing saturated with

acetone, under pressure. Thus I can carry acetylene safely, for it is dissolved, and the possibility of explosion

is minimised. This mixing chamber by which I am holding the torch, where the oxygen and acetylene mix, is

also designed in such a way as to prevent a flashback. The best thing about this style of blowpipe is the ease

with which it can be transported and the curious useslike the presentto which it can be put."

He paused a moment to test the door. All was silence on the other side. The door itself was as firm as ever.

"Huh!" exclaimed one of the detectives behind me, "these newfangled things ain't all they're cracked up to

"And wreck the house and kill a few people," I returned, hotly resenting the criticism of Kennedy. Kennedy

"When I shut off the oxygen in this second jet," he resumed as if nothing had been said, "you see the torch

merely heats the steel. I can get a heat of approximately sixtythree hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and the

"Wonderful!" exclaimed O'Connor, who had not heard the remark of his subordinate and was watching with

"Why, it's used for welding, you know," answered Craig as he continued to work calmly in the growing

excitement: "I first saw it in actual use in mending a cracked cylinder in an automobile. The cylinder was

repaired without being taken out at all. I've seen it weld new teeth and build up old worn teeth on gearing, as

"You remember when we were talking on the drive about the raid, O'Connor? A carload of scrapiron went

by on the railroad below us. They use this blowpipe to cut it up, frequently. That's what gave me the idea.

See. I turn on the oxygen now in this second nozzle. The blowpipe is no longer an instrument for joining

metals together, but for cutting them asunder. The steel burns just as you, perhaps, have seen a watchspring

burn in a jar of oxygen. Steel, hard or soft, tempered, annealed, chrome, or Harveyised, it all burns just as fast

and just as easily. And it's cheap too. This raid may cost a couple of dollars, as far as the blowpipe is

concernedquite a difference from the thousands of dollars' loss that would follow an attempt to blow the

The last remark was directed quietly at the doubting detective. He had nothing to say. We stood in

awestruck amazement as the torch slowly, inexorably, traced a thin line along the edge of the door.

Minute after minute sped by, as the line burned by the blowpipe cut straight from top to bottom. It seemed

hours to me. Was Kennedy going to slit the whole door and let it fall in with a crash?

No, I could see that even in his cursory examination of the door he had gained a pretty good knowledge of the

location of the bolts imbedded in the steel. One after another he was cutting clear through and severing them,

What was going on on the other side of the door, I wondered. I could scarcely imagine the consternation of

With a quick motion Kennedy turned off the acetylene and oxygen. The last bolt had been severed. A gentle

push of the hand, and he swung the once impregnable door on its delicately poised hinges as easily as if he

We made a rush up the stairs. Kennedy was first, O'Connor next, and myself scarcely a step behind, with the

I think we were all prepared for some sort of gunplay, for the crooks were desperate characters, and I myself

was surprised to encounter nothing but physical force, which was quickly, overcome.

In the now disordered richness of the rooms, waving his "John Doe" warrants in one hand and his pistol in the

other, O'Connor shouted "you're all under arrest, gentlemen. If you resist further it will go hard with you."

Crowded now in one end of the room in speechless amazement was the late gay party of gamblers, including

Senator Danfield himself. They had reckoned on toying with any chance but this. The pale white face of

DeLong among them was like a spectre, as he stood staring blankly about and still insanely twisting the

Kennedy advanced toward the table with an ax which he had seized from one of our men. A welldirected

"DeLong," he said, "I'm not going to talk to you like your old professor at the university, nor like your recent

friend, the Frenchman with a system. This is what you have been up against, my boy. Look."

His forefinger indicated an ingenious, but now tangled and twisted, series of minute wires and

electromagnets in the broken wheel before us. Delicate brushes led the current into the wheel. With another

blow of his axe, Craig disclosed wires running down through the leg of the table to the floor and under the

"It means that you had little enough chance to win at a straight game of roulette. But the wheel is very rarely

straight, even with all the odds in favour of the bank, as they are. This game was electrically controlled."

Others are mechanically controlled by what is sometimes called the 'mule's ear,' and other devices. You can't

win. These wires and magnets can be made to attract the little ball into any pocket the operator desires. Each

one of those pockets contains a little electromagnet. One set of magnets in the red pockets is connected with

one button under the carpet and a battery. The other set in the black pockets is connected with another button

and the battery. This ball is not really of platinum. Platinum is nonmagnetic. It is simply a soft iron hollow

ball, plated with platinum. Whichever set of electromagnets is energised attracts the ball and by this simple

method it is in the power of the operator to let the ball go to red or black as he may wish. Other similar

arrangements control the odd or even, and other combinations from other push buttons. A special

arrangement took care of that '17' freak. There isn't an honest gamblingmachine in the whole place I

might almost say the whole city. The whole thing is crooked from start to finishthe men, the machines,

"That machine could be made to beat me by turning up a run of '17' any number of times, or red or black, or

"And I never had a chance," he repeated, meditatively fingering the wires. "They broke me tonight.

Danfield"DeLong turned, looking dazedly about in the crowd for his former friend, then his hand shot into

his pocket, and a little ivoryhandled pistol flashed out"Danfield, your blood is on your own head. You

Kennedy must have been expecting something of the sort, for he seized the arm of the young man, weakened

by dissipation, and turned the pistol upward as if it had been in the grasp of a mere child.

A blinding flash followed in the farthest corner of the room and a huge puff of smoke. Before I could collect

my wits another followed in the opposite corner. The room was filled with a dense smoke.

Two men were scuffing at my feet. One was Kennedy. As I dropped down quickly to help him I saw that the

"Don't be alarmed, gentlemen," I heard O'Connor shout, "the explosions were only the flashlights of the

official police photographers. We now have the evidence complete. Gentlemen, you will now go down

quietly to the patrolwagons below, two by two. If you have anything to say, say it to the magistrate of the

I did. With a dexterity that would bane done credit to a pickpocket, Kennedy reached into Danfield's pocket

Before the smoke had cleared and order had been restored, Craig exclaimed: "Let him up, Walter. Here,

DeLong, here are the I.O.U.'s against you. Tear them upthey are not even a debt of honour."