Evening star., 1922-02-10
Continued from Yesterdays Starr

Continued from Yesterdays Star.)
1t was nearly half-past eleven when
Craig had got his apparatus set up
in the library at Fletcherwood Then
he unscrewed all the bulbs from the
chandelier in the library and at
tached in their places connections
with the usual green. silk-coVered,
flexible wire rope. These were then
Joined up to Il little instrument,
which to me looked like drill. Next
he muffied the drill with Wad Oh
felt and applied it to the safe door.
| could hear the dull tat-tat of the
drill. Going into the bedroom ana
closing the door. l found that IT was
still audible to me, but an OLD man.
inclined to deafness and asleep,
would scarcely have been awakened
by it. In about ten minutes Crals
displayed a neat little hole IN the
safe door opposite the one maze ny
the cracksman in the combination.
I'm glad you're honest. SAID
or else we might be afraid of you-
perhaps even make you prove al
alibi for last nights job!
He ignored my banterlnS anu saiu;
in a tone such as he might have used
before a class of students IN the gen
tie art of scientific safe-crackins:
Now: if the power company cur'e
is iust the same tonight as last night
that will show how the thing was
done. / wanted to be sure OF II, so
| thought I'd try this apparatus.
which i smuggled in from Paris las'
wear. believe the old man nap
pened to be wakeful and heard It,.
Then he pried off the door of the IN
terror compartment, which had been
iimmied open Perhaps we may
learn something by looking at this
door and studying the marks left by
the Jimmy by means OF this new in
strument of mine," said he.
On the library table he fastened an
arrangement with two upright posts
supporting a dial, which he called
"dyna The uprighls WEI
braced in the back, and the Whole
+h;ne. reminded me of a miniature
guillotine. .;u
This is my mechanical detective.
said Craig proudly. 1T was deflseu
to measure pressure. Now let tahe
an ordinary jimmy and see l;n.te 2uSt nov
much pressure it takes to dupllcate
: those marks on this door.
Craig laid the piece of steel on the
dynamometer in the position II hau
occupied in the safe. ana praceu ~
tightly Then he took a jimmy anu
pre- essed on it with all his strens IN
The steel door was connected with
the indicator and the needle spun
around until it indicated a pressure
such as only strong man coiid
have exerted Comparing the marks
made in the steel in the experiment
and by the safe cracker, II was eFi-
dent that no such pressure had peen
necessary. Apparently the lock on
the door was only a trifing affair'
and the steel itself was not Yer!
tough. The safe makers had relied
. on the first line of defense to repei
attack.
s; Craig tried again and again. eaeh
/: time using less force. At last ne gov
/ a mark just about similar to the
/ original marks on the steel.
| ..WelI. well, what do you think OF
| thato, he exclaimed reflectively.
child could have done that part OF
| the job
| Just then the lights went off for
! the night. Craig lighted the oil
/, lamp. $and sat In silence un.li .ns
/ electric light plant foreman appeared
with the card-record. which showed
! a curve practically identical with that
, Of the night before.
. 4 few moments later Prof. Fletch-
! er's machine came up the driveway.
! and he Joined us with worried and
| preoccupied look on his face that he
broken up by the suddeness of it all"
j he murmured as he sank into an arm
chair. THE shock has been too much
| for her, In fact. 1 hadn't the heart
to tell her anything about the rob-
berry. poor girl" Then in moment
he asked, ANY more clues yet, Ken
[ nedy?"
"WelI, nothing of first Importance.
have only been trying to recon-
| struct the story of the robbery so
| that I can reason out motive and
a few details: then when the real
| clues come along we won't have SO
; much ground to cover. The cracks
man was certainly clever. ne USED
an electric drill to break the COM
! bination and ran it by the electric
light current"
"Whew" exclaimed the professor.
''is that so? He must have been
! above the average. That's interest
ing"
nedy. Il wish you would introduce
mo to your fiancee tomorrow. would
like to know her"
! "Gladly," Fletcher replied. "only
you must be careful what you talk
| about. Remember. the death of
uncle has been quite a shock to her
he was her only relative besides
myself
! II will promised Kennedy. land
| that I'm out here at a time like this.
! Perhaps you had better tell her I'm
a nerve specialist or something Of
me with the robbery, which you say
| you haven't told her about"
The next morning found Kennedy
out bright and early, for he had not
| had a very good chance to do any
thing during the night except re-
construct the details. He was now
down by the back gate with his
camera. where I found him turning
it end down and photographing
| the road. Together we made thor
ough search of the woods and the
| road about the gate. but could dis
cover absolutely nothing.
After breakfast 1 improvised dark
room and developed the films, while
Craig. went down the back lane along
I the shore looking for clues,"'- as he
turned and could see that he was
in a brown study. So said nothing.
but handed him the photographs Of
the road. He took them and laid
them down in a long line on the IL
brary floor. They seemed to con-
| side of a series OF regular round spots,
some of the spots very clear and dis
tinct in the sides, others quite OBJ
scure in the center. Now and then
where you would expect to see one
Of the spots. Just for the symmetry
looked at the line Of photographs on
the floor. saw that they were a
photograph Of the track made by
the tife Of an automobileI and sud-
denly recalled what the gardener
had said.
Next Craig produced the results Of
his mornings work. which consisted
Of several dozen sheets of white
paper, carefully separated into three
bundles. These he also laid down in