Minute Mysteries [Detectograms]
‘Were you home all evening, Mr. Tracy?’
‘No. I had just put up the car when I heard the shots and saw a figure
dash around the house.’
‘I’ll take a look at your car later, Tracy.
‘Withers, show me exactly how you found Lane before you lifted him to
the divan.’
As Withers righted an overturned chair, fitted its legs carefully to
four impressions in the rug at the right of a smoking-stand, sat down,
and slumped over to the left, Fordney said, ‘That’s enough. Which one of
you killed him?’
Why did Fordney make this startling accusation?
57
_Babe Comes Through_
‘Strike two!’ shouted Umpire Starlen.
‘Kill the Umpire! You big bum! Thief!’
Professor Fordney turned in his place directly behind the plate to look
at the excited man in the next box, waving an empty pop-bottle. He
smiled. Couldn’t blame a chap for getting excited. Starlen did seem to
be calling them wrong today. That last one _was_ wide!
What a ball game! Six to three in favor of Philadelphia, last half of
the ninth, three on, two out, and three and two on the mighty Babe. The
crowd was on its feet, yelling and stamping.
The excited pitcher delivered the next throw quickly. Just as Babe
connected with it for a home run a bottle hurtled through the air with
terrific force and caught Starlen on the back of the head. He went down
like a shot.
Pandemonium broke loose. Women screamed, and a panic was threatened.
‘That’s him! That’s him!’ shouted several people, as a policeman ran
down the ramp and grabbed the man who had attracted Fordney’s attention.
‘Tryin’ to get away, are you?’ bellowed the cop.
‘I didn’t do it! Let go of me!’ he cried, as the officer dragged him to
the office.
Fordney followed. ‘May I ask a few questions?’ he inquired.
‘Let’s see your score card, young man. H’m, why didn’t you record that
last hit? Everything else is here.’
‘Why, I was running at the time. I had an engagement.’
‘I see,’ said Fordney. ‘Officer, you have the wrong man. He didn’t do
it.’
How did Fordney know?
58
_A Soldier of Fortune_
‘You’ll find Walter Briggs interesting, Fordney. He’s been all over the
world,’ said Attorney Hamilton over the telephone. ‘He’s turned up after
two years, claiming his uncle’s fortune. Better dine with us tonight.’
‘Thanks, I’ll be glad to. See you at eight.’
As the three men sat around the dinner-table, Fordney remarked: ‘You’re
a fortunate chap, Briggs. What have you been doing in the thirty-two
years you have been away from America?’
‘Well, lots of things. Mr. Hamilton, no doubt, told you I went to the
Congo with Father when I was three. When he died, I attended school in
England. Then I traveled for a while; did a bit of tiger-shooting in
Africa, killed elephants in India, and became an ivory-trader, roaming
over the Orient four or five years. I finally drifted into Russia, where
I was a technical advisor to the Soviet.’
‘What a jolly life you’ve had, Briggs!’
‘Not altogether, Professor. I was in Manchuria, where life was anything
but jolly. And then, being in sympathy with the Chinese, I took an
active part in the Sino-Japanese War. It was in China I learned of my
uncle’s death, so I came to New York immediately.’
‘Are you remaining here?’ asked Hamilton.
‘No. Me for Paris as soon as things are settled.’
After a pleasant evening, the three men parted. Reaching home, Fordney
hesitated about telephoning Hamilton. After all, it _was_ his duty to
advise him to check Briggs’s story carefully before turning over the
inheritance. As for him, he was frankly skeptical!
Are you? Why?
59
_Number Twenty-Six_
‘You fellows _must_ remember that more often than otherwise the little,
seemingly inconsequential trifles, placed together, lead to the solution
of crime. Never take anything for granted; examine thoroughly what
appear to be the most unimportant details. You didn’t do so well with
your last lesson,’ said Professor Fordney, addressing his class. ‘Now
try your wits at this one.
‘“I know it sounds fishy, Inspector,”’ continued he, reading from a
paper, ‘“but I was walkin’ along Sixteenth Street mindin’ my business.
When I gets in front of number 26 I hears a dame scream ‘Help! Murder!’
so I dashed up the steps to the house, pushed open the door, and rushed
in. As I was halfway through the hall, a big guy steps out of a room and
says, ‘Ah, there, Mr. Farrell, just in time!’ I asks him what’s goin’
on, and just then three coppers came in and takes me, this guy, and a
woman, in. Neither one of them would talk to me on the way, so I don’t
know what it’s all about.”
‘“I’m going around myself,” replied the Inspector. “I’ll talk with you
when I get back.”
‘As Kelley turned the knob at number 26, the door was violently pushed
open in his face.
‘“Sorry,” said Detective Bradford. “Just going back to Headquarters.
Found plenty of dope all right. Here’s something you’ll be interested
in,” showing Kelley a man’s hat initialed “D.F.” “There are three
packets of cocaine under the sweatband.”
‘This story, of course, is fictitious,’ said Fordney, putting down the
paper, ‘but it illustrates my point. There’s just one, small,
unimportant detail that’s wrong. To repeat, you _must learn_ to detect
inconsistencies quickly, however insignificant. Quickly, now!’
Do _you_ get it?
In the next few anecdotes you will see the Professor at work and at
play, on cases both serious and amusing, involving pure deduction.
As in the preceding cases, however, every fact, with the clue necessary
to the solution, is given. There is only one right and logical answer to
each—to be deduced from the evidence presented.
Time yourself; see how long it takes _you_ to deduce the answer. And
then, after you have solved or missed them, try them on your friends.
They make a fascinating game—and there are lots of people who don’t play
bridge.
60
_The Pullman Car Murder_
‘Tell your story to Professor Fordney,’ said the superintendent,
introducing the conductor.
‘Well,’ said Jackson, ‘last night just after we left Albany, lower eight
let out a terrifying shriek. I was standing at one end of the car, the
maid, porter, and brakeman at the other end. We met at the berth as
Briggs was gasping his last from a knife wound in the heart. I
immediately had both doors of the car guarded as well as the doors to
the washrooms. Every berth was occupied, and by this time the passengers
were milling around in the aisle.
‘I began to look for the missing knife with which Briggs had been
killed. Every passenger, even the maid, brakeman, and porter, every inch
of the car and all baggage, were searched, but still we failed to find
it.
‘The window-sills were covered with freshly fallen snow and an
examination proved that none of them had been opened. No one had left
the car and no one had entered either washroom. I knew the knife must be
in the car—but where?
‘Washington, our old Negro porter, really discovered the murderer’s
identity by “scrutinizin’ ’em all.”
‘I know your reputation, Professor, so you will probably have little
difficulty in determining how Washington located the assassin, but I’ll
bet you can’t tell me where I found the knife.’
Jackson’s face fell as Fordney quickly replied, ‘As there was only one
possible place it could have been, you found it....’
How long did it take _you_ to discover the knife?
61
_Forgery_
‘Can it be possible that this has happened to me!’ thought Everett
Taber, as he stood in the National Bank of New York ready to deposit his
fortune. Having completed his arrangements late the day before with the
bank’s executives, he was the first patron of the morning. Standing
alone in the bank’s commodious quarters, he regretted he had no one with
whom to share his happiness.
Suddenly, as he was making out his deposit slip, he decided to use his
own name, Everett Mead, instead of his stepfather’s name, by which he
had been known most of his life. It would be a simple matter to arrange
this with the officials later. As he blotted the deposit slip, Everett
Mead felt a new sense of poise and self-assurance take possession of
him. He gazed fondly at the name which proclaimed him a wealthy man. By
changing it he could completely sever former associations and start life
anew. What a wonderful day it was!
The cashier, impressed with the amount of the deposit, was very obliging
and wondered, as he thought of his own meager salary, how it would feel
to have so much money.
‘I see you are left-handed, Mr. Mead,’ he said, in an effort to appear
interested in such an important personage.
‘Yes,’ smilingly.
He left the bank without further conversation. Less than an hour later
his name had been forged to a check for five thousand dollars, despite
the fact that no one knew he had changed his name and no one had seen
him make out his deposit slip.
Professor Fordney, acquainted with the facts, knew immediately how the
forgery had been accomplished. Do you?
62
_The Christmas Eve Tragedy_
‘Professor Fordney,’ said Sheriff Brown, of Lake Dalton, ‘I came to New
York to ask your help in clearing up the murder of Horace Perkins at
Luckley Lodge.’
‘Sit down and tell me about it,’ invited Fordney.
‘The family chauffeur, returning from the station at ten o’clock on
Christmas Eve, found Perkins lying in a field, five yards off the Lodge
drive, with his skull bashed in.’
‘He telephoned me immediately and I instructed him to see that nothing
was disturbed. Arriving fifteen minutes later, I personally examined the
ground so no clues would be destroyed.
‘The _only_ footprints to be found were six of Perkins’s leading from
the drive to the spot where he lay. Around the body were a number of
deep impressions about two inches square. It had been snowing all day
until half an hour before the discovery of Perkins.
‘Leading away from the body and ending at the main road, two hundred
yards distant, were four lines of these same impressions, about three
and a half feet apart in length and about fourteen inches in width. In
some places, however, they were badly run together.
‘A stranger in our parts is quickly noted and investigation failed to
reveal a recent one. There were absolutely no other clues and I could
find no motive for the crime. It has me stumped, Professor,’ concluded
Brown.
‘Give me a little time,’ said Fordney. ‘Perhaps I can help. I’ll call
you at your hotel.’
An hour later, he said over the telephone, ‘Sheriff, look for a man
who.... Such a person only could possibly have committed the murder.’
What did Fordney say to Brown?
63
_A Knight of the Bath_
‘You’ve heard me speak of my eccentric friend, Joe Leimert, haven’t you,
Professor?’ inquired Jud. ‘Great character! His costly new Los Angeles
penthouse is the despair of architects, but it reflects Joe, who cares
little for the opinions of others. Particularly in the matter of baths
is his independence reflected. While he has six of them, he is fondest
of the one leading off his own room.
‘It is a large all-tile bath twenty-four feet long, fifteen wide, and
seven high, without a single window. He went in to bathe a few days ago,
locked the door on the inside, as was his habit, and turned the cold