The San Francisco call., 1896-03-22

to me that possibly my typewriter, which
helped me TO think with ease might have
been repaired. hurried to the shop and
was told that the work had not yet been
completed.
However" said the agent, 81 can lend
you new machine
shook my head, feeling that without
my own instrument 1 could do nothing.
Il have just remem bered," said the
agent. "that have on hand an old ma
| chine OF this make which l repaired few
days ago for stranger. who has not vet
called for it. 1t is as Timber and easy as
| yours. Give it a trial"
| 1t is impossible for me to explain why I
decided to make the experiment, for it was
not the stiffness of the new machines. that
had kept me aloof from them. And yet
the lndescribable feeling which clamored
within me for my own machine broke
down before the suggestion that particu-
lar strange machine be given trial. The
temptation to discuss this part of the
whole mystery is very strong, but not
| stronger than my ability to resist it.
| sat down to the typewriter, adjusted q
piece OF paper to The carriage and tried the
mechanism. All the external features of
the machine indicated that it might havs
been my own, and yet the very first touch
OF key was shock. I persisted and ran
sentence through. l had tried many
strange machines before, but never one so
harsh and rebeIlious.
| AT first took it for stubborn and alto.
gether unnecessary refusal to help me
think. Instead of lending me that assist.
! aorfr ad
ing my wits to escape restraint and nv
spelling and misuse of words to be afro
cious. This impression was so much
stronger and more exasperating than any
that l had ever before received from
strange machine that 1 came near COM
mitting what then supposed was the
error of charging the typewriter with the
confusion of my own mind. No sooner,
however, had taken what deemed to be
the wiser course in accepting RESPONSE
bility which l could not imagine belonged
to the machine than most surprising
thing occurred.
| All at once, after I bad forced the
machine under approximate control and
had adjusted a fresh sheet of paper
upon which to write whatever I could
regarding the mysterious crime Though
with no idea whatever with which
to follow up an Introductory state
ment of the known circumstances) the
machine suddenly became extremely
friendly and feverishly hurried me into
an inexplicable account of two men who
had met on westbound train at Ogden.
The apparent irrelevancy of the narrative
did not cause me to stop. 1t was only
when l myself was brought by the ma
chine in contact with the men in the
dressing-room of sleeping-car, and the
name Thomas Quigley'' glibly spelled it
self out from the machine, that 1, with
profound amazement. found myself under
the control of an influence which was as
inexp.icabIe as it was irresistible. What
assistance l may have received from the
machine / do not find it at all necessary to
discuss. 1 felt simply that it had put me
in the way of solving the mystery.
! The first thing that appeared clear
4 (after the typewriter had made me re-
member the name Quigley as had seen it
on the valise and heard it from the re-
pairer of writing g-machines) was that this
machine was then or very recently bad
been the property of Thomas Quigley.
Had it not been that the typewriter was
rushing me forward with the narrative of
the two men and myself on the train I
should have gone instantly to the repairer
and asked him for description of the
man who had left it with him. But it
| happened that before the supposed solu-
tion of the mystery was reached the type
writer fell into dumb mood and would
yield nothing more. Then 1 went to the
repairer, and was not at all surprised to
learn from him that the person who had
brought the machine to be repaired was
small dark, saturnine man, with a forced
manner of speech.
III.
| Ny elation over the news may be inn
agined. Still, when 1 returned to the
machine to complete the narrative (Which
was very different thing from the analy-
sis of evidence which / had started out to
write) | discovered that, although the
cause and circumstances of the tragedy
were clear enough to my imagination from
inductive reasoning, could not force the
instrument to assist me in their coherent
presentation. 1 blundered, faltered and
found the typewriter alien and antago-
nistic.
Up to this point l had written nothing
of an analysis of the published accounts Of
the murder, but had squandered all the
time on narration of the sleeping-car in
cident The typewriter had failed to be
responsive at the moment when the narra-
| tive was ended and the deduction required.
It then became necessary to cease att
tempts at writing and do some hard think
ing. To weigh the men and publish a
guess of the guilty one might prove more
dangerous than difficult. Then reflected
that apart from the garrulity of the type
writer and the shadowy coincidence be-
tween its testimony and that of the re-
pairer and the landlady, 1 had no ground
upon which to stand. There was no evil
dence that the forid man of the lodging
house was Thomas Quigley or that the
story which / had been SO glibly drawing
1 from the machine had any connection
whatever with the murder. More than all
that, the sudden cessation of the type
writer's assistance was strange and mex
plicable. The longer l pondered on that
coincidence the more bewildered became
and the more astonished that I had been