Death Points a Finger

by Will Levinrew

  Chapter XVII

  Stark fear stalked the camp of Justice Isaac Higginbotham. By thetime Professor Brierly had returned from his momentous trip to NewYork this fear was naked, unashamed. The men now made no attemptto dissemble.

  All these men had fought; they had faced death in various forms.They could each be counted on to act like soldiers in the face ofordinary danger. It was the fear of the unknown; the dread that atany moment of the day or night they might become the victims of adeadly attack from an unknown and unexpected source that wasvisibly having its effect on these octogenarians.

  It finally took form in a strange manner. As if by unanimousconsent, they each avoided being left alone with one of theircomrades. They would gather at meals or on the porch or in thelarge living-room, but they avoided being left in pairs.

  They all took solitary walks. Some of them went out on the lake.Some of them went to Lentone or elsewhere; always alone. Whetherthis was sheer bravado, or some strange reaction to thepsychological elements involved, no observer could determine. Theyapparently reached an unspoken and unannounced resolution, all ofthem, to stay at the camp until the murders were cleared up. Someof them went about armed, although that was merely a gesture.

  To the four men who had been taken into their confidence fell thetask of keeping the strange unhappy group from going mad. Eventhis solace was denied them during the past two days. Thekidnapping of the child now took, in the minds of at least two ofthe men, a place equal in importance to the murders of their threecomrades.

  Professor Brierly now spent all of his waking moments betweenreceiving and sending telegrams at the camp of the Tontine group.The men were gathered on the porch. There was talk, jerkysentences. Only a man finely and delicately balanced and organizedas was the old scientist could have resisted the pall of gloom anddread that permeated the group.

  "Any news of the little boy, Professor?" asked McGuire.

  "No, none. The mother is frantic, of course. I myself am not easyin mind about it. I do not believe, however, that harm is intendedthe boy."

  "Why don't you take the police into it, Professor," asked JudgeFletcher. "It can't be worse than it is. The Canadian police are avery efficient organization, almost as efficient as fiction makesthem out to be."

  "I have given it to the police this morning. We have decided thereis nothing to be gained by further silence. The police now have itin hand."

  "You had a note asking you to go to New York and meet thekidnappers and their representatives didn't you?"

  "Why didn't you go, Professor?"

  The old man, who was glad of this opportunity of taking theirminds off their own tragedy even for the moment, answered slowly,his keen eyes darting from one member of the group to the other.

  "It seemed to Mr. McCall and Hale, Matthews agreed with this, thatthe communication addressed to me was designed to take me awayfrom here. It seems very probable that the entire kidnapping planis closely tied up with your own deplorable affair, gentlemen."

  They were looking at him with concern. He went on.

  "I have had some little part in exposing the role that someperson, at present unknown, had in the murders of at least threeof your comrades." His keen eyes shaded by their thick lashes andeyebrows were watching intently. "It may be that the man or men weare seeking intend some more mischief, right here. They may wishme out of the way.

  "They sent a deciduous tooth, a baby tooth as evidence of thelengths to which they are prepared to go to enforce their demandson me. Sending that tooth was almost ludicrous in its futility.Mrs. Van Orden was distracted, of course, until I informed herthat the tooth did not come out of her son's mouth.

  "Why should they have selected that boy for kidnapping, if ransomwas the object? Mrs. Van Orden is a poor woman. I am comparativelyso. John has no money, he is just starting life. Why did they makethat futile gesture with the tooth?"

  Goldberg, who was sitting near the edge of the porch, said withbitter sarcasm, pointing to the overhanging rock:

  "Now there is a fine chance for a man to destroy this group. Ifthat overhanging rock came down here while we're sitting here itwould wipe out the survivors of the Tontine agreement like that!"He snapped his fingers.

  "There is no danger of that, Sam," reassured Justice Higginbotham."That has been that way since I came up here; that is aboutthirty-five years. I and others have expressed uneasiness over theposition of that rock, but there is no danger. When--er soon, Ishall have it cleared away."

  Vasiliewski burst out:

  "Professor, we're sitting here talking of everything except thatwhich is uppermost in our minds. We are trying to mask ourfeelings. You know what we are all thinking of. Is there any hope,Professor."

  Professor Brierly answered slowly, gravely.

  "I have reason to believe that we will solve this--problem shortly.Habits of a lifetime prevent me from being more specific. I havelearned, and paid dearly for learning, that jumping at conclusionsmay often prove disastrous. That is why I am not given to makingguesses, surmises. I wish I could say something more definite."

  "My God, Professor, do you mean to say that you suspect--"

  Professor Brierly shook his head regretfully and was about tospeak when Vasiliewski impulsively interrupted.

  "But can't you see, Professor, that this is not a cold scientificproblem, that our lives are at stake. This is a human problem,Professor."

  "Assuming, Mr. Vasiliewski, that I took your view of it. Personsare prone to regard me as a thinking machine. I am not. Let usassume, I say, that I took your view of it. Just see what mighthappen. I might accuse the wrong man. We might even convict thewrong man. The guilty man might then go on, doing incalculableevil. Guessing is dangerous and is--fallible. Scientific inductionand deductions, conclusions based on irrefutable fact, fact thatcan be weighed and measured, is infallible."

  There was real concern in his eyes as he rose to depart.

  "All I can say, gentlemen, is that I shall be able to free youfrom the terrible thing you fear in a very short time now."

  To the scores of press representatives who hounded him for astatement he resolutely turned a deaf ear. He was besieged by aconstant horde of visitors. The news hunters realized that whereProfessor Brierly was, was the real source of news. It had beennecessary to divulge the part he had taken in the three murders.He would have denied himself to callers, either personal or tothose calling on the telephone, but this was now impossible. Hemight miss now an important communication bearing on the murdersor, what for the time was to him more important, the kidnapping.

  The search went on relentlessly, the police of all the near--bycities and states taking part in the search. It soon began to befelt that the kidnapping was closely tied up with the murders ofthe octogenarians. It was at the request of the survivors of theTontine group that Justice Higginbotham's camp was not molested.It was readily seen that constant surveillance by the press andpolice would be a highly undesirable and perhaps a very dangerousthing for the ten aged survivors.

  Arrangements were, therefore, set up for periodic statements by amember of the group. The press of the country nevertheless feltfree to make its own search and indulge in its own surmises andguesses.

  One week after the first murder was announced it became apparentthat they were no nearer a solution than they were at thebeginning. Moral publications were beginning to clamor forresults. The people of New York City were clamoring for results.Editors were profanely wiring their expensive representatives forresults. The patience of the police and the reporters was wearingthin. During all this clamor the only thing that came from thecamps over the Canadian border, from the hundreds of starreporters was--nothing. Even Jimmy was unmercifully berated forfalling down on the job, Jimmy, who one short week before waspraised to the skies for springing one of the greater newspaperstories in history.

  It was apparent to those who were close to him that ProfessorBrierly was forging in silence a chain, link by link, that wouldbridge the gap between doubt and cert
ainty. He was sending andreceiving telegrams, without for one moment relaxing his vigilanceof the Higginbotham camp and its ten old men. The evening of theday after the receipt of the last telegram, McCall in the hope ofdrawing the old man out said:

  "My vacation ends next week, Professor. When I get back to NewYork I may be able to speed up things in the matter of theSchurman murder. You're staying here the rest of the summer aren'tyou?" he concluded innocently.

  "Yes."

  "Really, Professor, I know you don't like to make guesses, butthis is getting on all our nerves. How near to a solution areyou?"

  "If I were a lawyer or a newspaper man," the old man said tartly,"I should make a guess and arrest the murderer tomorrow. Butlawyers and newspaper men use a weird type of logic. That is whylawyers and newspaper men are as often right as wrong. Legallogic, particularly, is something awful to contemplate."

  "Legal logic," began McCall stiffly.

  "Is precisely what I said," snapped the old man. "How can youdefend the logic of a judge who hands down a decision basing it onthe statement that a dining car is not a railroad car. There isalso the logic of a judge who handed down a decision basing it onthe hypothesis that an overcoat is real estate. That is legallogic, Mr. McCall."

  He paused and leaned forward earnestly.

  "Truth, Mr. McCall, sometimes hangs on a very thin thread. Snapthe thread and--you have something other than truth.

  "It is not a mere coincidence that Boyle was arrested, chargedwith the killing of Miller and 'Fingy' Smith arrested, chargedwith the killing of Schurman. It was a vital part of the entiredevilish pattern. Miller's death was a splendid imitation ofsuicide. The revolver was placed in his hand before rigor mortisset in leaving his fingerprints on the weapon.

  "But the powder marks spoiled the picture of suicide for me. Therest was merely a matter of routine. The same was true of theSchurman affair. It was made to look to the casual observer likesuicide. If you did not accept the suicide theory, you were givenan alternative theory, the mode of entrance, the big meal, theeggs, the nail file with positive fingerprints. The one thing thatspoiled that was the apple. Remember the apple?

  "To satisfy me the murderer would have to be identified with theapple. You see arresting 'Fingy' left the apple unaccounted for.In the Miller case the murderer would have to be identified with arope that came from a farmyard that contained a boxwood hedge, asorrel horse, leghorn chickens, a collie dog and some other items.He would also have to be identified with a hat factory."

  "What do you mean by saying that these two men were arrestedcharged with those murders?"

  "I mean that it was a foregone conclusion that if the suicidetheory was exploded, these men would be charged with the crime?"

  "A foregone conclusion in whose mind, Professor?"

  "In the mind of the--murderer, Mr. McCall. You see, don't you, thethin line of demarcation that lies between truth and falsehood?When the difference between the two may mean the differencebetween life and death it behooves me to be extremely careful. Iam not holding a brief for the defendant or the state, Mr.District Attorney, I am seeking the truth."