The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-01-25
Unseen Hands
4 Bewildering DetechUe Story
 By Robert Orr Chipperfield

1, ence, and he kept me informed of l every detail of the case.
 '.You mean then that Mrs Lorne
 could have been constantly reinfect- l ed by any sharp instrument that would pierce the skin anywhere on
 the body and convey the bacteria l to the blood, just as she had been l first infected?'
 1 Exactly. Neither Doctor Adams | nor the specialists could have suspect | ed the possibility of such a thing; 1 ticeab1e trace. That was the idea
 which kept recurring to my mind. | told myself that I must be crazy to
 think of itl but then Julian died; and
 I could see my own fears reflected in | the faces of the whole family. After l that there came the two accidents l to Gene and dad.and that settled ft.''
 'Why did you not tell me of all this | before % Oden looked straight into | the boys eyes. When we had our
 first talk you said nothing about hav- ing the bacteria in your possession" 'I didn't want to get hauled off to jail on suspicion before had an ,op- | portunity to do little Investigating i on my own account; l wanted to dis l cover if I could whether any one had | really been at my books or tempered 1 with the bacteria in the incubator.
 You see, I hadn't much faith in your l perspicacity, sergeant; and I was un | der the impression that you would be
 in such a hurry to make out a case l against the first person circumstan- | wouldn't hesitate-a fat lot of good it did for me to keep silent!" he add I ed with a shrug. i've thought the
 whole matter over in my mind, and | tried to imagine each member of the | family in turn as guilty; put. 1t didn't work. I know their faults and shams | to the last tiresome, petty weakness; 1 but it is simply impossible for me to convince myself that any of them could be capable of such a monstrous
 unnatural crime.''
 a"How did you expect to discover anything in these two days which would lead you to suspect the guilt
 of some member of the household ?''-
 Simply by studying them and ask
 ing unexpected questions; but, as, | told you. it didn't get me anywhere.
 As an amateur detective I am a fail ure; and now I've put it squarely up
 to you, sergeant. The means of | bringing about my mothers death was here, ready to any ones hand; and the knowledge of how to make use II of it was equally accessible. I have
 no proof that any one did avail them
 selves of it. merely suspicion; and if | the circumstantial evidence were !, twice as strong-''
 'Strong!" A raucous but strange ! ly exultant voice behind them caught up the word and repeated it with impish glee. "Strong! Nobody knows 7 how strong I am!'
 It was Socrates, dancing excitedly < upon his perch and cycling them ob- r liquely with a knowing 1eer. 3 Who taught the parrot to say l that?" demanded the detective ab-
 ruptly. It was the phrase which had first arrested Taylor's attention out r side the closed door when that con
 scientious operative was searching, the t house for possible clues.
 Nobody. He's been harping on 7, that for a. month or more; but never ! can tell how he manages to pick up Q half that he knows.' Rannie laugh ed | with tinge of the old bitterness. ''He
 tnrto oIraly I,N 1< ;,r- of Q my physical prowess."
 'ls he ever taken out of this room ?'' |, NO; but occasionally when I let t him out of his cage and the window r l is open he gets out upon the ledge + and walks along the cornice to dads g room,( looking for him. Dad is the y, only one in the family he has any il a use for except me; probably because . the old man hates him cordially o Parrots usually repeat a phrase "a which they have just acquired >unti
 the novelty wears off, do they not?'
 TT suppose so; or until a new sen :, tence impresses itself upon wha ,u ~. minds they have,'' Rannie responded Il indifferently
 '"rhen any new phrase which So a crates repeats he must have learned o4 in this room? Odell persisted. d "Of course I say, what are vol lS gone from the boys tone. "Yol t don't think? But that sentence doe ie not mean anything; it couldn't pos "a sibly have any connection with tn 1 ,o case. No matter who- Socrates is i'm y itating, strength was no factor in m. o n mothers death'
 70 '.But it was in both the attemptet u murders" the defective Eemarked e. e. Do you think, too, that yoar brothe "a "a wrested from him without a struggle la wish our friend Socrates could be in iy duced to talk some more"
 ld The interview with Rannie ha, h nI1lI JT t1n dnta tiN-ne . i immediate plans. and he resolved no o- to hold any further conversation wit : Richard Lorne until he had secure III additional data upon which to worl S = The theory ffsst advanced by Miss Ris 15 by was now seemingly corroborate ~, by several inadvertent statements c al sll the crippled boy. trivial in themselve ne but of importance when considere ny with the rest of the evidence. ny Everything depended, of course he upon the establishment of a motiv ne But granted that there were no 1T 'e- surmountable Instructions to tn theory, the possible means used : ch bring about the death of Mrs. Lorn was clear; and the Idea which Ode 'o had formed as to the murder of Ju m III. ian would be as consistent whethe , m Lorne or any other member of u lot household were guilty.
 'u- Then, too, Lorne well as any or ne else might have filed the heavy vii sy cables which held up the portrai L. hoping to encompass Genes death an
 thus Qe1er pernapS indefinitely the at .n- counting of his inheritance wfic he would have been dennanded in a, ast other month. Tftheredge was Lorne 1t lifelong friend, and he as well as u ng latter's wife had doubtless been sa ad isfied with the statements made fro got time to time of the administratio.l ed, the various properties without dream so ing of the necessity of verifyir all. them; statements which n,ig11t ye the easily have been doctored bv a de | perate man constantly hoped to r put coup on the market and thus cover |
 his specuIations
 Ien To Be Continued hat ,ra
 ave -hIeo T F-A1Nh1 ALBANIAN or My ing eie 1Eehue enter talheo feW 1ntlna