Luther Trant

“ The test I am going to make may seem so trivial to these gentlemen that I am glad to have a practical man like yourself here who has seen more in such a test as the one I am going to make now, than can appear on the surface."
"'More than appears on the surface' is the word, Mr. Trant," the captain cried impulsively. "Mr. Sheppard, it's myself has told you about Mr. Trant before; and I'll back anything he does to the limit, since I see him catch the Bronson murderer, as I just told you, by a one-cell battery that would not ring a door bell." ”

“ The officer stepped aside, and Welter, without another word, went into the hall. But when his face was no longer visible to Trant, the hanging pouches under his eyes grew leaden gray, his fat lips fell apart loosely, his step shuffled; his mask had fallen!
"Besides, we need all the men we have, I think," said Trant, turning back to the prisoners, "to get these to a safe place. Miss Rowan," he turned then and put out his hand to steady the terrified and weeping girl, "I warned you that you had probably better not come here to-night. ”

“ Ten minutes later a boy showed Trant into the young president's private room. If the psychologist had never seen Walter Eldredge's portrait in the papers he could have seen at a glance that he was a man trained to concentrate his attention on large matters; and he as quickly recognized that the pale, high-bred, but weak features of Eldredge's companion belonged to a dependent, subordinate to the other. ”

“ No psychologist, knowing how this record was taken, could look at it without feeling absolutely certain that the photograph and spring caused in you such excessive emotion that I am tempted to give it, without further words, the name of 'intense fright!' But if we have inadvertently surprised a secret, we have no desire to pry into it further. Is it not so, Mr. Trant?"
At the name President Welter whirled suddenly. "Trant! Is your name Trant?" he demanded. "Well, I've heard of you." His eyes hardened. "A man like you goes just so far, and then—somebody stops him!"
"As they stopped Landers?" ”

“ Trant and Rentland stared disappointedly at this strange implement, which the girl handed to the psychologist.
"You have shown this to your stepfather, Miss Rowan, for a possible explanation of why a company checker should be so solicitous about such a thing as this?" asked Trant.
"No," the girl hesitated. "Will had told me not to say anything; and I told you father did not like Will. He had made up his mind that I was to marry Ed Landers. In most ways father is kind and generous. He's kept the coupé we came here in for mother and me for two years ”

“ Miss Allison, more white than before, had risen, and laid her hand upon Trant's sleeve.
"Oh, try it, Mr. Trant!" she cried. "Try—try anything which can stop them from showing through this gambler, Kanlan, and Mrs. Hawtin that Mr. Bronson—" She broke off, and turned to the inspector. Walker was looking Trant over again. The
"Oh, try it, Mr. Trant!" she cried. "Try—try anything"
psychologist faced the police officer eagerly. ”

“ Trant questioned quietly, "if you thought it possible that this stone," he handed it back, "told her who was in the room and that it was a woman who could come between you and your ward?"
"Scarcely, Mr. Trant!" Pierce flushed. "You can dismiss that absolutely. I told you a moment ago, when trying to think who could have come to ruin my work, that I have no enemy—least of all a woman enemy. Nor have I a single woman intimate, even a friend, whom Iris could possibly think of in that way." ”

“ Trant will do—for some one unknown to him—the greatest possible service—to save perhaps a life—a life! I beg him to come to —— Ashland Avenue between seven and nine o'clock to-night! Eleven! For God's sake come—between seven and nine! Later will be too late. Eleven! I tell you it may be worse than useless to come after eleven! So for God's sake—if you are human—help me! You will be expected.
"W. Newberry."
The psychologist glanced at his watch swiftly. ”

“ Trant stooped to the keyhole and found it plugged with paper. He caught the transom bar, set his foot upon the knob and, drawing himself up, pushed against the transom. It resisted; but he pounded it in, and, as its glass panes fell tinkling, the fumes of illuminating gas burst out and choked him.
"A foot," he called down to his trembling companions, as he peered into the darkened room. "Some one on the lounge!"
Dropping down, he hurried to a recitation room across the corridor and dragged out a heavy table. ”

“ Trant said, compassionately. "We must trust all to the twelve men who shall try these two." But to her eyes, searching his, Trant seemed to be awaiting something. Suddenly the telephone rang. Walker took up the receiver. "It's Crowley," he cried. "He says Mrs. Mitchell skipped—cleared. You could have taken her," he accused Trant, "but you let her go!"
Trant stood watching the face of Miss Allison, unmoved. The desk sergeant burst in upon them.
"Mrs. Mitchell's outside, inspector! She said she's come to give herself up!"
"You counted upon that, I suppose," Walker turned again upon Trant. ”

“ Just short of the end of the open dock houses, where a string of arc lamps threw their white and flickering light upon the huge, black side of a moored steamer, Rentland turned into a little shed, and the two came suddenly upon Customs Officer Dickey.
"This one next to us," the little man whispered, eagerly, to Trant, as he grasped his hand, "is the scale house where whatever is being done is done—No. 3." ”

“ Trant?" cried Caryl incredulously.
"From those alone, Mr. Caryl," the psychologist smiled slightly, "through a most elementary, primer fact of psychology. Perhaps you would like to know, Lawler," Trant turned, still smiling, to the prisoner, "just wherein you failed. And, as you will probably never have another chance such as the one just past for putting the information to practical use—even if you were not, as Mr. Burns tells me, likely to retire for a number of years from active life—I am willing to tell you." ”

“ In the rear, as well as Trant could see it in the indistinct glare of the street lamps, the building seemed to fall away into a single rambling story.
As the psychologist rang the bell and was admitted, he saw at once that he had not been mistaken in believing that the cab which had passed his motor only an instant before had come from the same house; for the mild-eyed, white-haired little man, who opened the door almost before the bell had stopped ringing, had not yet taken off his overcoat. ”

“ But what in the world has all this to do with the question whether some one is planning to rob us?"
"It has everything to do, Mr. Howell!" Trant leaped to his feet, his eyes flashing with sudden comprehension. "For what you have just told me makes it certain that, as Gordon warned you, one of your clerks is planning to enter your safe at the first opportunity! Gordon knows as little as you or I, at this moment, which of your men it is; but he is as sure of the fact itself as I am, and he has every reason to know that there is no time to lose in detecting the plotter." ”

“ For there can be no question now that you had no more to do with the shooting of Neal Sheppard than he had. I must make still another test to determine the man who fired these shots."
"You mean you want to try me?" Sheppard demanded, uneasy and astounded.
"I would rather test the other man first, Mr. Sheppard; the fourth man who was in the woods with you," Trant corrected calmly.
"Findlay?"
The psychologist, as he looked around, saw in the faces of Sheppard, Chapin, and young Tyler alike, indignant astonishment. ”

“ Neal Sheppard's matchbox—that empty, too—on floor. Around body burned matches."
"Burned matches around the body?" Trant echoed in still greater excitement.
"Yes; and on body."
"On it?"
"Yes; man, after he shot, go to him and burn matches—I think—to see him dead."
"Then they must have shot in the dark!" Trant's excited face flushed red with sudden and complete comprehension. "Of course, dolt that I was! With these shells in my hand, I should have guessed it! ”

“ Trant swung to face her. "Yes, Miss Waldron—criminal cause, a crime so skillfully carried on, so assisted by unexpected circumstance that you—that the very people against whom it is aimed have not so much as suspected its existence."
"Then you think Howard honestly believes the man still means nothing?"
"The man never meant 'nothing,' Miss Waldron; but it was only at first the plot was aimed against Howard Axton," Trant replied. "Now it is aimed solely at you!"
The girl grew paler.
"How can you say that so surely, Mr. Trant?" Caryl demanded, "without investigation?" ”

“ And scarcely had the last deep stroke of the hour ceased to resound in the hall, when suddenly, sharply, and without other warning, a revolver shot rang out, followed so swiftly by three others that the four reports rang almost as one through the silent house. The little woman screamed and seized her husband's arm. His hand, in turn, hung upon Trant. The psychologist, turning his head to be surer of the direction of the sound, for an instant more stared indecisively; for though the shots were plainly inside the house, the echoes made it impossible to locate them exactly. ”

“ But—" he hesitated, as the inspector turned coldly away. "Inspector Walker, you said this morning you knew Kanlan from his birth. How much negro blood is there in him?"
"How did you know that?" cried Walker, staring at Trant in amazement. "He's always passed for white. He's one eighth nigger. But not three people know it. Who told you?"
"The galvanometer," Trant replied, quietly, "the same way it told me that he was innocent and Crowley's test useless. Now, will you rearrest Caylis at once and hold him till I can get the galvanometer on him?" ”

“ Caryl here too?—the village busybody!" the newcomer sneered, with a slight accent which showed his English education. "You are insufferably mixing yourself in my affairs," he continued, as Caryl, with an effort, controlled himself and made no answer. "Keep out of them! That is my advice—take it! Does a woman have to order you off the premises before you can understand that you are not wanted? As for you," he swung toward Trant, "you are Trant, I suppose!"
"Yes, that is my name, Mr. Axton," replied the psychologist, leaning against his desk. ”

“ The psychologist threw open the door of the inner room, showing the four Celestials in a stolid group, and summoned first Wong Bo, who spoke English.
Trant, pushing a chair to the table, ordered the Oriental to sit down and place his hands upon the plates at the table's edge before him. The Chinaman obeyed passively, as if expecting some sort of torture. Immediately the light moved to the center of the screen, where it had moved when Trant was touching the plates, then kept on toward the next line beyond. ”

“ Young Trant stared into the steady eyes of the president of the trustees. "Then Harrison could not have been the man in the room last night. Do you realize what that implies?" he asked, whitening. "I preferred, I said, to fix him as Harrison. That would keep both Dr. Lawrie from being the thief and any close, personal intimate of his from being the man who struck him dead here last night. ”

“ He had never met the man he had come to see—had heard of him only through startling successes in the psychological detection of crime with which this comparative youth, fresh from the laboratory of a university and using methods new to the criminals and their pursuers alike, had startled the public and the wiser heads of the police. But finding the door to Trant's office on the twelfth floor standing open, and the psychologist himself taking off his things, Sheppard first stared over the stocky, red-haired youth, and then clicked his tongue with satisfaction. ”

“ I lied; the old Spaniard was not poor—he was rich! But she can have all! I abandon all claim! Only let me go from here—let me leave her!"
"First we will see exactly what damage you have done," Trant answered. "Dr. Pierce," he turned collectedly to his client, "you have just heard the true account of last Wednesday afternoon."
"You want me to believe that she let him in—she
"Oh, speak not—speak not again!" ”

“ Siler's eyes met Trant's with a flash of opposition. "That was because she recognized me and knew that, having been here last time there was trouble, I knew that he had been threatening her. It's a cinch! Regular minister's son, he was; the old man's a missionary, you know; spent his life till two years ago trying to turn Chinese heathens into Christians. ”

“ Caryl?"
The young man reddened.
"I must tell you—though you already may have guessed—that before Miss Waldron inherited the estate and came to believe it her duty to do as she has done, there had been an—understanding between us, Mr. Trant. She still has no friend to look to as she looks to me. So, if you mean that you have discovered through those letters—though God knows how you can have done it—anything in Axton which shows him unfit to marry her, you must tell me!" ”

“ She saw the whole affair much nearer than any of the others. She is a person of irreproachable character, a rich old maid, living with her married sister on the street corner where the kidnaping occurred. Moreover, her testimony, though more elaborate, is substantiated in every important particular by both Morris and Lucy Carew."
Eldredge handed over the first pages.
"Against these, Mr. Trant, is this statement of—my wife's. My home faces the park, and is the second house from the street corner. There is, however, no driveway entrance into the park at this intersecting street. ”