Melville Davisson Post

“ When the human intelligence, set on murder, undertakes to falsify the order of events, the absurdity of its error increases with its cunning.”
He shook the two handkerchiefs out and stretched them in his fingers.
“They are here for everybody to see,” he echoed, “and if everybody will look, he will see that these two handkerchiefs were never tied around the faces of assassins; he will see—everybody—that, while these handkerchiefs have eye holes cut in them, the corners of them are as smooth and uncreased as though they had been ironed ”

“ His companion was a little, thin, fox-faced man who moved nervously in his chair.
The most striking figure in the court room was the attorney for the prisoners.
He sat between them, a chair’s width in advance, before his table. There was nothing whatever on this table except an ink pot, two pens and a big blotting sheet. There was also a thick pad of foolscap paper provided for the convenience of the attorney in taking any note of the testimony, but there was no word written on it.
The lawyer was a huge bulk of a man. He sat relaxed in his chair. His thick, black hair was brushed smoothly. ”

“ VII. The Expert Detective Walker kept two dog-eared magazines in a pigeonhole of his desk, with a story marked in each. He kept them, he said, to reduce enthusiasm, as a doctor keeps a drug to reduce a fever. They were handed, with the regularity of a habit, to two types of visitors who annoyed him: those persons who volubly admired the professional detective; and that other class who assured him that the inspired amateur, as, for example, some local prosecutor in a criminal case, could outwit the acutest counselors of darkness. ”

“ Halloway with the fire poker, then they hid the two handkerchiefs they had over their faces when they came in, and then they got out of town.”
The witness sat back in his chair as though he had finished with his testimony.
The big attorney stood up. The whole aspect of the man, as by the snap of a switch, had undergone a transformation. The huge bulk of him was vital. His heavy slack face was firm.
“Mr. Barkman,” he said, “why did the men who killed Hiram Halloway wear no masks on their faces?” ”

“ The attorney took one step toward the witness. “Now, Mr. Barkman,” he said, “can you tell me why assassins who had so carefully staged this tragedy to appear accidental should leave behind them two handkerchiefs, with eye-holes cut in them, thrust carelessly into a vase on a table? They might be found, and that discovery would, at once, negative the theory of accidental death.”
“They wanted to get rid of the masks.” ”

“ He swung suddenly around to the prisoners. “Louie,” he said, “you never told me that.”
The creature grinned, his face broken into a queer extended smile.
But the big prisoner to the right showed evidence of no such conciliatory mood.
He got up.
“Judge,” he said, “we’re bein’ double crossed. I paid the Colonel, here, a hundred dollars in honest money to defend us, and just look what he’s doin’ to us.”
Everybody laughed.
The lawyer turned about and spoke to the man as he might have spoken to an impertinent child.
“Sit down, Bill,” he said. ”