Johnston McCulley

“ Oakes Radell felt another spasm of fear, but McGuire was not even looking at him.
“So we have the finger-prints of the murderer, despite the fact that he took such great precautions,” McGuire continued. “There’s always some little thing that points the way to the guilty man. You have said, Mr. Radell, that you never saw these gloves before, never owned them, never touched them. Yet your finger-prints are on those gloves, Radell! The prints of your left finger tips are on the fingers of the right-hand glove. There are other prints on the back of the right-hand glove. ”

“ So far, there had been no slip—and Radell determined that there should be none!
“A man who uses his brains can do anything and get away with it,” he muttered to himself. “Not a chance for a mistake—not a chance! In a short time it will be over!”
The clock chimed the hour of eleven. Oakes Radell tossed away the end of his cigar and went into his bedchamber. He dressed swiftly and carefully. He put on a cheap black suit that he had not worn in years, a dark cap, black shoes with rubber heels.
Then he opened the small safe in one corner of his bedchamber and took from it an automatic pistol. ”

“ Radell knew that a fall might attract the attention of somebody on the floor below.
Radell glanced quickly around the room, then looked down at the man on the floor. He made sure that Hadler was dead. Then he tossed the pistol on the bed. He did not have to worry about that pistol. Some months before, on one of his automobile trips, he had found that pistol, with the silencer attached, beside the road where he had stopped to rest. Some fleeing crook had dropped it there, Radell supposed. Let them trace the pistol, the fools of detectives! ”

“ The pistol could not be traced back to him. And he had tossed the gloves into the trash can. If the detectives found them, they would be a clew that might lead anywhere except in the direction of Oakes Radell.
Everything had gone off smoothly. In the morning, he would act in a natural manner, go to his office and prepare for the financial battle, and pretend surprise and shock when he heard the news of Hadler’s death.
He would speculate as to the murderer, as other men would do. He expected to be questioned by officers, because it was well known that he and Hadler were enemies. ”

“ Perhaps it is Providence. Perhaps it is because no human being is perfect and hence no human being can make perfect plans. There generally is some little thing overlooked—some little thing that wrecks the whole.”
“I suppose so,” said Radell. He was almost at the point of laughter. The minor detail! The little thing! He had attended particularly to the minor details.
“I believe that it was so in this case,” Saul McGuire continued. “The murderer left the gun with which he committed the crime. And we also found a pair of gloves.”
“A pair of gloves?” Radell said, still smiling. ”

“ Of course, I know nothing of the circumstances except what I have read in the newspaper extras, and the rumors, but I’d say offhand that some burglar shot him.”
“Might be,” one of the brokers said.
“The police will get the fellow, probably. Hate to hear of any man being shuffled off like that, of course—but his death certainly saved us!”
The brokers nodded. Oakes Radell lighted his cigar afresh and started to continue the discussion. ”

“ And you made another sad mistake when you discarded the gloves so near the scene of the crime.”
“I?” Oakes Radell gasped. “I, you say?”
“You!” Saul McGuire thundered, getting upon his feet. “You shot down Harrison Hadler! You wore gloves to keep from leaving prints, yet left prints on the gloves. A bit of irony! A pair of common kid gloves has nailed you. Put out your wrists, Radell! Here’s where you start for the electric chair!” ”

“ The work done, Oakes Radell sprang back into the car, stowed away the wrench, then quickly let in the clutch. He drove ahead for a short distance to where the ravine widened, then turned and roared back to the main highway. Into it he swung the roadster, and rushed along the smooth road toward the city thirty miles more to the north.
Oakes Radell, well-known as a man of big business, whose time was counted in terms of dollars and cents, was going to a great deal of trouble to purchase a pair of common kid gloves. ”

“ No sound reached his ears to tell that anybody in the building had been aroused. He crossed swiftly to the window, rolled up the shade, opened the window slowly and carefully, and got out on the landing of the fire-escape. ”