The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-02-18
Written by ArthurB. Reeve
CHAPTER l.
The Clutching Hand.
Copyright, 1914, by tho Star Company.
All Foreign Rights Reserved

<<p5HERE must be something new In
order to catch criminals nowadays.
i The old methods are all right-as
far as they 60. But while we have been
using them criminals have kept pace with
modern science"
and nlled his pipe with my tobacco. In
college We had roomed together, had shared
everything, even poverty, mad now that
Craig was professor of chemistry in charge
of the laboratory at the university and had
q sort of rowing commission on the staf of
the Star we had continued our arrangement.
Prosperity found us in a rather neat bache-
Ior apartment on the Heights not for from
the university.
TT has always seemed strange to me-" he
went on slowly, that no one has ever en-
dowed a professorship In criminal science
in any of the large colleges
tossed aside my own paper and retrieved
the tobacco.
why should there be a chair in criminal
sciencer replied argumentatively, settling
back in my chair. i've done my turn at
police headquarters reporting, and I can tell
you, Craig, it's place for college profess
sor. Crime is-just crime And as for deal
ing with 1t the great detective is born and
bred to It, College professors for the soci-
oIogy of the thing-yet; for the detection Of
II, give me q Byrnes"
clean-out features betraying earnestness
which I krew indicated that he was leading
up to something of Importance, there Is a
distinct place for science in the detection of
crime. On the Continent they are far In ad-
vance OF us In that respect We mere
children beside a dozen crime specialists over
there whom I could name"
"Yes?' 1 queried, rather doubtfully. But
where does the college professor come in?"
You must remember, Walter" he pursued.
warming up to his subject, which had evil
IDENTIFY been on his mind for some time. that
it's only within the last ten years or so that
we have had the really practical college pro-
fessor who could do it. The silk -stockinged
variety is out Of date now. To-day we have
professors of everything-why not professors
of crime science7"
Still, as 1 shook my head dubously. he
hastened to clinch his point. colleges have
got down to solving the hard facts of life
nowadays-pretty nearly all, except one.
They still treat crime in the old way. study
its statistics and pore over it's causes and
the theories of how 1t can be prevented and
punished But as for running down the
criminal himself. scientifically, relentlessly-
bah! haven't made enough progress to
mention since the hammer and tongs method
OF your sainted Byrnes."
Doubtless you will write a brochure
this most interesting subject" I suggested.
"and let 1t go at that"
mo, 1 am serious" he replied, determined
for some reason or other to make a convert
of me- II mean exactly what 1 say. I am
going to apply science to the detection of
crime the same sort of methods by which
trace out the presence of a mysterious chem
ical or track down deadly germ. And be-
fore have gone far l am going to enlist
Walter Jameson aide. I think I shall
need you in my business"
How do 1 come in7" asked
WELL for one thing, you will get a scoop
4 beat-whatever you call IL in that news
paper Jargon Of yours"
+ Kennedy during the previous year. had
travelled much. especially in London, Paris
Berlin and Vienna, where he had studied the
amazing growth abroad of the new criminal
science. Already knew something by hear
say, Of the men he had seen-Gross, Lacas-
sagne, Reiss and the immortal Bertilon.
Fortunately, Walter" he pursued, "the
crime hunters have gone ahead in science
more than The criminals. It's to be my job
to catch criminals Yours, 1t seems to me, is
to show people now they can never hope to
beat the modern scientific detective"
GO as far you like" exclaimed con-
vinced at last
And so 1t was that we formed this strange
new partnership in crime science that has ex-
listed ever since.