Minute Mysteries [Detectograms] Chapter 13: Part 13

recognized the absurdity of the Professor’s story which he had given to his class to test their quick detection of a glaring inconsistency. If it must be explained, an orchestra under personal leadership does not play during the showing of a ‘talkie.’ Right? Wit marries ideas lying far apart, by a sudden jerk of the understanding. Whipple. 13. _A Hot Pursuit_ Smith said he _ran_ after the burglar. Had he done so he could not have known the cellar window had been chiseled open. Therefore, his story was obviously faked. A lie never lives to be old. Sophocles. 14. _A Question of Identity_ As Diana Lane was walking down the corridor with her back to Nora, it was impossible for the servant to know Diana was wearing her famous emerald pendant. There is an alchemy of quiet malice by which women can concoct a subtle poison from ordinary trifles. Hawthorne. 15. _A Yachtsman’s Alibi_ As Picus said there was no breeze, the distress flag would have hung limp against the mast, and the Captain could not have seen, at that distance, whether or not the flag was upside down. That’s all the Professor needed to determine the falsity of his alibi. However, Picus was a poor sailor. While the International Distress Signal is a flag flown upside down, it is by custom and regulation always flown at half-mast. ... And the sea charm’d into a calm so still That not a wrinkle ruffles her smooth face. Dryden. 16. _Murder at Coney Island_ Jasper said he found the woman sitting _up_ in the _middle_ of the chariot. The motion of the merry-go-round would have made it impossible for a dead body to remain upright in the middle of the chariot. Sir, you are giving a reason for it; but that will not make it right.... Johnson. 17. _Too Clever_ The murderer tried to give the impression that Dawson had died before finishing the incriminating note. Had he written it and died before completing it, he could not have put the pen back in the tray where it was found. In his effort to incriminate Lynch, the murderer had been too cautious. A costly oversight. Man’s caution often into danger turns, And his guard falling crushes him to death. Young. 18. _Bloody Murder_ The Professor knew it was not suicide, because Thompson’s coat, which was flung _across_ the room, was blood-stained. Quite impossible if he had taken his own life. Blood, though it sleep a time, yet never dies. Chapman. 19. _Death Back-Stage_ There were _no_ finger-prints on the gun which killed Claudia Mason. She could not have shot herself in the temple and then wiped off the revolver. The murderer neglected to get her fingerprints on the gun. A fool cannot be an actor, though an actor may act a fool’s part. Sophocles. 20. _An Easy Combination_ It would have been impossible for Fellows to have hastily dialed a number in the _dark_. Try it! Haste trips up its own heels, fetters and stops itself. Seneca. 21. _A Modern Knight_ The fact that the bullet was found in the body and the only trace of its firing was the hole in the curtain _below_ the window-sill proved conclusively the shot could not have been fired from within the room. Rocca entered at the moment his sister shot Chase from outside. Grabbing the gun from her hand, he chivalrously protected her. But, friend, the thing is clear—speaks for itself. Aristophanes. 22. _The Jewel Robbery_ The butler said that, as he called for help, Dudley, a stranger, rushed in. Owings had locked up before leaving and, therefore, Dudley could not have rushed in through a locked door. The robbery was obviously framed by Stuben and Dudley. Absurdities die of self-strangulation. Haliburton. 23. _Before the Coroner’s Inquest_ Curry could not possibly have ‘looked up’ while rowing _upstream_ and seen the action he described which took place fifty yards _behind_ him. The eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. Franklin. 24. _The Fifth Avenue Hold-Up_ Baldwin said, ‘Mr. Cross tried to call my attention to it [safe] with a jerk of his thumb’ at a time when Cross was unconscious. Obviously impossible. Baldwin was lying, which there was no reason for doing had he been innocent. When all sins are old in us, and go upon crutches. Covetousness does but then lie in her cradle. Decker. 25. _Behind Locked Doors_ Kingston thought his boldness in calling attention to his own footprints in the carpet would distract Fordney’s attention from their significance. The room had been locked for three months. Of the three men, only Watkins rushed into the room; Fordney and Kingston halting over the threshold. Therefore, the fact that Kingston’s footprints were found near the chair in which his uncle sat dead pointed directly to him as the murderer. Cunning differs from wisdom As twilight from open day. Dr. Johnson. 26. _Lost at Sea_ It would have been impossible for Mrs. Rollins to have seen a man pick up from the deck the bag of diamonds. On a dark, moonless night at sea one literally cannot see his hand before his face. The repose of darkness is deeper on the water than on the land. Victor Hugo. 27. _A Suave Gunman_ Taylor said the bandit wore a silver belt-buckle. This he could not have seen, for he stated: ‘As the robber passed through the door, he unbuttoned his coat and slipped the revolver in his back pocket.’ It would have been impossible for Taylor to have seen the man’s belt-buckle when his coat was buttoned. As this statement was false, the rest of his account was disregarded by the Professor. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity Finer than the staple of his argument. Shakespeare. 28. _Accidental Death_ Had the man’s injuries been caused only by being thrown through the windshield, there would have been no blood on the front seat of the car. Therefore, the Professor knew the blood on the seat had been caused by injuries to the man, with probable murderous intent, before he was thrown through the windshield. His assailant had killed him, started the car, and had then hopped off the running-board, hoping the wreckage would cover the murder. Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight. Napoleon. 29. _Easy Money_ Wilkins said he saw the burglar pick up a stack of ten- and twenty-dollar bills from the table in the center of the large library. Had he not been guilty, he could not have known what the denominations of the bills were. It would have been impossible to have determined this from the doorway. An unconscious slip on his part. If you are doubtful, just try to determine the denomination of a stack of bills on a table in the center of a large room, from the doorway. For any man with half an eye, What stands before him may espy; But optics sharp it needs I ween, To see what is not to be seen. John Trumbull. 30. _Robbery at High Noon_ He was suspicious of John, the nephew, of course. Upon being asked where he was at the time of the robbery, he stated he was ‘hauling in a muskie.’ Unless he had guilty knowledge, he could not possibly have known at what time the robbery was committed. He fell neatly into the Professor’s trap, don’t you think? Let guilty men remember, their black deeds Do lean on crutches made of slender reeds. John Webster. 31. _The Wrong Foot Forward_ Paslovsky, the witness, who could not understand or speak enough English to make a simple statement to the court, yet knew _exactly_ what the conductor yelled to the motorman. This was so patently impossible that the Judge was entirely justified in dismissing the suit. Liars are verbal forgers. Chatfield. 32. _Death Attends the Party_ Had Dawes fallen on the table after being shot, the jar would have knocked over the ‘crazily balanced glasses.’ As the Professor found the glasses on the table, _balanced_, it was obvious Dawes had been shot, then carefully placed at the table to give the appearance of suicide. A bad slip! There is nothing insignificant, nothing! Coleridge. 33. _No Way Out_ The note was written with _pencil_, yet there was no pencil found in the room. Apparently the murderer wrote the note to resemble the dead man’s handwriting and through force of habit put it in his pocket. Men are men; the best sometimes forget. Shakespeare. 34. _Midnight Murder_ Day said he got the blood on his muffler when he bent over Quale’s body. As blood coagulates and dries in a short time, it would have been impossible for him to have stained his muffler unless it had touched the blood of Quale shortly after his death. Therefore, Fordney knew he must have been with Quale soon after he was stabbed. Murder, though it have no tongue, Will speak with most miraculous organ. Shakespeare. 35. _Speakeasy Stick-Up_ Sullivan, the bartender, said that, as he worked the combination to open the wall safe, he _heard_ the hold-up man _behind him_. As he was not permitted to move, he could not have known the gunman was a _big, tough-looking mug_, as he described him. As there would be no other motive in telling this impossible story, the hold-up was faked. Inspiring, bold John Barleycorn, What dangers thou canst make us scorn. Burns. 36. _Behind Time_ The engineer said he had not seen Nelson until he was practically on top of him. That, of course, is impossible. An engineer of a train running on a straight-away can see nothing as close as ten yards in front of him. You cram these words into mine ears, Against the stomach of my sense. Shakespeare. 37. _A Broken Engagement_ Molly said she had retired at ten, after locking her door, and had not awakened until Fordney had aroused her. Yet a few minutes after Dot had been murdered, the Professor idly ‘shaped the wax’ of the candle on her desk. This would have been impossible had not the candle been burning within a few minutes before he entered. Her insistence that she had been asleep, together with the strong motive, convinced Fordney she was involved, as was later proved. Love can make us fiends as well as angels. Charles Kingsley. 38. _The Holden Road Murder_ Had the butler dashed in the front door as he said he did, there would have been foot-tracks in the vestibule. Remember, the Professor ‘splashed his way through the mud and rain, to the _door_ of 27 Holden Road,’ and found the vestibule spotless. Therefore, Wilkins was lying, and as Cannon corroborated his story, he was also necessarily involved. Nay, her foot speaks. Shakespeare. 39. _Fishermen’s Luck_ Holmes could