Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-04-12

beaming. There's no need for me to
ask how my patient is doing!"
I'm afraid you haven't got a pa
uent any more, doctor" ! laughed.
I'm afraid not" agreed Human,
III have to SO back to my office and
wait for another one. But before | go
Miss Vaughan, / van to hear the
story. Mr.. Lester promised MT j
Should"
Miss Vaughan looked at me.
all wan to hear it, | said;
how YOU came to suspect-how you
got the Understanding"
Her face grew sober, and a shadow
fitted across it.
Suppose we sit down. she said, and
just then the sentry at the door saluted
and Sim,nonds stepped into the room.
l saw him shake his head in answer
to Godfrey's questioning look and knew
That Silva had not been found. Then
| brought him forward to Miss Waugh
AN and introduced him.
NH. Simmonds," I explained, has
been in charge of this case; it
was he who arranged to watch the
fall you ="
Il know broke in Miss Vaughan,
clasping Simmonds' hand warmly. An
ME told me all about it this morning.
l don't know how to thank you, Mr..
Simmonds."
VII, ~ WetSI I Hlc, eSPcClilly, pro-
tested Simmonds, red to the ears. lit
was really Godfrey there, and Mr.. Les
ter. They were worried to DEATH"
W. We're rather worried" Godfrey
admitted; Especially after we saw you
at that midnight fireworks party"
You saw that?' She asked quick
"oh, we had seen the show every
night for a week. 1t was its failure to
come off last night which first told us
something was wrong"
WELL" said Miss Vaughan, with a
deep breath, sitting down again and
m%otioning us to follow her example;
to tell, too! But I'll tell mine first.
Where shall / begin?"
Begin" 1 suggested, "at the
when you first suspected the plot"
That was when you were telling
me OF Fred's arrest. When you told
finger prints, l knew that someone was
plotting against him. And then, quite
suddenly. l thought of something"
You jumped up" l said, "as though
you were shot, and ran to hi book
case over there and got down that all
bum of finger prints, n found that
SWANS We're missing. That seemed to
upset you completely"
1T did; and l will tell you why.
Ny father for many years had been a
collector of finger prints. All of his
friends We're compelled to contribute;
and whenever he made a new acquain-
lance. he got his prints, too, if he could.
He believed that ones character was
revealed in ones finger prints. 1t was
a sort of hobby: but it was, for some
reason, distasteful to Senior Silva. He
rot only refused to allow prints to be
made Of his fingers. but he pooh-poohed
my fathers theories, and they used to
have some terrific arguments about it.
One night after a particularly hot ar
gument, Senior Silva mad the asser-
ton that he could, by bynotic sugges-
ton, cause his servant Mahbub to re-
produce any finger prints he desire.
Mahbub's finger tips had been manip-
ulated in some way, when he was a
child, so that they showed only a Sc
ries of straight lines"
Yes 1 said, his prints were taken
at the inquest"
Father said that if Senior Silva could
show him proof of that assertion, he
would never look at finger printes
again. Senior Silva asked for a week
in which to make a study Of the prints,
in order to impress them upon his
memory; at the end of hat time the
| test was made. 1t was a most extraor-
binary one. Senior Silva, father and
l sat at liz table yonder, under the
light, with the book of prints before
us. Mahbub was placed at a little
table in the far corner. with his back
hypnotise him. 1t took only a moment,
for he could %hypnotise Mahbub by
pointing q finger at him. He said NAH
bub was a splendid subject, because
he had h%ypnotised him hundreds of
times, and had him under perfect con-
troll. Then he placed an ink pad on
the table in front of him-nothing else.
My father wrote his name n the date
| upon the top sheet of a pad Of paper,
and Senior Silva placed it before NAH
bub. Then he sat down with us, Sc
lected a page of prints, and asked us
the end of a few moments, he asked
me to bring the pad from before NAH
bub. ! did so, and we found the prints
upon it to be identical with those on
he page we had been looking at. My
father touched them with his finger
ink smeared readily. His name was
on h corner of h page. where he
had written it. There could be no
doubt that in some way Mahbub had
been able to duplicate the prints.
Senior Silva repeated the experiment
with another. l think there were six
altogether, n every n of them was
successful"
WAS SWANS one Of them?" asked
Godfrey.
No; but when Mr.. Lester told me
those finger prints. the thought flashed
into my mind that IL Senior Silva and
Mahbub could initiate those Of other
people, they could initiate Fred's. too;
and when I looked at the album and
found h a sheet torn out. I was sure
that was what had happened"
And so you decided to stay in the
house. to win Senior 6ilva's confidence
by pretending to become q convert, and
to search for evidence against him." !