The Thinking Machine Collected Stories Part 127

"And the motive?" asked Detective Mallory, at last.

"Will you tell us just why you killed Mr. Dudley?" asked The Thinking Machine of the j.a.panese.

"I will not," exclaimed Osaka, suddenly. It was the first time he had spoken.

"It probably had to do with a girl in j.a.pan," explained The Thinking Machine, easily. "The murder had been a long cherished project, such a one as revenge through love would have inspired."

It was a day or so later that Hutchinson Hatch called to inform The Thinking Machine that Osaka had confessed and had given the motive for the murder. It was not a nice story.

"One of the most astonis.h.i.+ng things to me," Hatch added, "is the complete case of circ.u.mstantial evidence against Mrs. Dudley, beginning with the quarrel and leading to the application of the poison with her own hands. I believe she would have been convicted on the actual circ.u.mstantial evidence had you not shown conclusively that Osaka did it."

"Circ.u.mstantial fiddlesticks!" snapped The Thinking Machine. "I wouldn't convict a yellow dog of stealing jam on circ.u.mstantial evidence alone, even if he had jam all over his nose." He squinted truculently at Hatch for a moment. "In the first place well behaved dogs don't eat jam," he added more mildly.

PROBLEM OF THE OPERA BOX.

Gradually the lights dimmed and the great audience became an impalpable, shadowy ma.s.s broken here and there by the vagrant glint of a jewel or the gleam of white shoulders. There was a preliminary blare of horns, then the cras.h.i.+ng anvil chorus of "Il Trovatore" began. Sparks spattered and flashed as the sledges rose and fell in exquisite rhythm while the clangorous music roared through the big theatre.

Eleanor Oliver arose, and moving from the front of the box into the gloom at the rear, leaned her head wearily against the latticed part.i.tion. Her mother, beside whom she had been sitting, glanced up inquiringly as did her father and their guest Sylvester Knight.

"What's the matter, my dear?" asked Mrs. Oliver.

"Those sparks and that noise give me a headache," she explained. "Father, sit in front there if you wish. I'll stay here in the dark until I feel better."

Mr. Oliver took the seat near his wife and Knight immediately lost interest in the stage, turning his chair to face Eleanor. She seemed a little pale and mingled eagerness and anxiety in his face showed his concern. They chatted together for a minute or so and under cover of darkness his hand caught hers and held it a fluttering prisoner.

As they talked the drone of their voices interfered with Mrs. Oliver's enjoyment of the music and she glanced back warningly. Neither noticed it for Knight was gazing deeply into the girl's eyes with adoration in his own. She made some remark to him and he protested quickly.

"Please don't," Mrs. Oliver heard him say pleadingly as his voice was raised. "It won't be long."

"I'm afraid I'll have to," the girl replied.

"You mustn't," Knight commanded earnestly. "If you insist on it I shall have to do something desperate."

Mrs. Oliver turned and looked back at them reprovingly.

"You children chatter too much," she said good naturedly. "You make more noise than the anvils."

She turned again to the stage and Knight was silent for a moment. Finally the girl said something else that the mother didn't catch.

"Certainly," he replied.

He arose quietly and left the box. The swish and fall of the curtain behind him were smothered in the heavy volume of music. The girl sat white and inert. Knight found her in just that position when he returned with a gla.s.s of water. He had been out only a minute or so, and the encore to the chorus was just ending.

He offered the gla.s.s to Eleanor but she made no move to take it and he touched her lightly on the arm. Still she did not move and he leaned over and looked at her closely. Then he turned quickly to Mrs. Oliver.

"Eleanor has fainted, I think," he whispered uneasily.

"Fainted?" exclaimed Mrs. Oliver as she arose. "Fainted?"

She pushed her chair back and in a moment was beside her daughter chafing her hands. Mr. Oliver turned and glanced at them with languid interest.

"What's the matter now?" he inquired.

"We'll have to go," replied Mrs. Oliver. "Eleanor has fainted."

"Again?" he asked impatiently.

Knight hovered about anxiously, helplessly as the father and mother worked with the girl. Finally in some way he never understood Eleanor was lifted out, still unconscious and white as death, and removed in a waiting carriage to her home. Two physicians were summoned and disappeared into her boudoir while Knight paced back and forth restlessly between the smoking room and the hall. Mrs. Oliver was with her daughter; Mr. Oliver sat quietly smoking.

"I wouldn't worry," he advised the young man after a few minutes. "She has a trick of fainting like that. You will know more about her after awhile-when she is Mrs. Knight."

From somewhere upstairs came a scream and Knight started nervously. It was a shrill, penetrating cry that tore straight through him. Mr. Oliver took it phlegmatically, even smiled at his nervousness.

"That's my wife fainting," he explained. "She always does it that way. You know," he added confidentially, "my wife and two daughters are so exhausted with this everlasting social game that they go off like that at any minute. I've talked to them about it but they won't listen."

Heedless of the idle, even heartless, comments of the father Knight stopped in the hall and stood at the foot of the stairs looking up. After a minute a man came down; it was Dr. Brander, one of the two physicians who had been called. On his face was an expression of troubled perplexity.

"How is she?" demanded Knight abruptly.

"Where is Mr. Oliver?" asked Dr. Brander.

"In the smoking room," replied the young man. "What's the matter?"

Without answering the physician went on to the father. Mr. Oliver looked up.

"Bring her around all right?" he asked.

"She's dead," replied the physician.

"Dead?" gasped Knight.

Mr. Oliver rose suddenly and gripped the physician fiercely by a shoulder. For an instant he gazed and then his face grew deathly pale. With a distinct effort he recovered himself.

"Her heart?' he asked at last.

"No. She was stabbed."

Dr. Brander looked from one to the other of the two white faces with troubled lines about his eyes.

"Why it can't be," burst out Knight suddenly. "Where is she? I'll go to her."

Dr. Brander laid a detaining hand on his shoulder.

"You can do no good," he said quietly.

For a time Mr. Oliver was dumb and the physician curiously watched the struggle in his face. The hand that clung to his shoulder was trembling horribly. At last the father found voice.