The Argosy — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

196 THE ARGOSY. how to put her letter in. I was going to take it from her, but she drew back so suspiciously that I tried my best to get a peep at the address.”’ ‘“ Well?’ I interrogated, as she made a slight pause. “J was just trying to recall what I saw. Her thumb was over a portion of the address and I failed to get it, but if I remember aright, the first name was Henry and the last one began with a capital T.”’ ‘Was it a city letter?’’ ‘I can’t tell you, sir. You see she was too quick for me.’ That was the very best that I could do. Little enough to begin an inquiry upon, Iam sure. I did not sleep at all that night. After exhausting every possible source of inquiry, I sat down to think it over, and the gray dawn of the morning found me as far away from a key to the mystery as ever. There was one chance open to me. I could obtain no information at the Samaritan Hospital that night, on account of the absence of the chief phy- sician. I based all my hopes upon the possibility that she might have applied there for employment, and might have given references to some hospital in which she had been previously employed. CHAPTER II.—AN UNLOOKED-FOR DISCOVERY. My first visit next morning was to the locker in which I had deposited the piece of carpet. I carefully lifted it out and placed it on my desk near the window. There was no mistake about it. «It was surely the imprint of aman’s hand. The broad sunlight brought out many of the outlines, indis- cernible in the artificial light of the evening before. While I was at work upon it the chief came in. ‘What have you there, Bright ?’’ he asked. I explained the circumstances, “Well,” he remarked, after hearing me through, ‘‘it may or may not become a clue. Might not some of the men taking out the body have caused it ?”’ | . ‘“No, I am certain it did not occur in that way. You can see; by the incrustations about the outline of the fingers, that the hand must have been pressed there when the blood was fresh, and before it began to congeal.’’ Chief Donlan turned a small magnifying glass upon the piece of carpet. ‘You are right,’’ he replied, ‘‘and there is another point about it which enhances its value as aclue. The hand that made that impress was minus either the whole or the first joint of the middle finger.”’ I took the glass and examined the impression. "The middle finger was missing, sure enough. ‘This was at least one tangible clue upon which to work. The murderer then had either a stub or no middle finger at all on his left hand. The next thing to be done was to find out who the woman’s acquaintances were in the city, anys with an eye to locating the man with the crippled hand. I went direct to the Samaritan Hospital and inquired for the physician in chief, Dr. Throck. He was alone in his office, and I promptly stated the object of my visit. Eomichook com