A tawny form hurtled through the air. There was the sound of a falling
body, a scream of terror. Captain Tucker came running in from the
kitchen.
"What----"
"It's all right, Tucker." Dr. Stone's voice was once more a calm stream.
"Lady will merely hold him. He's your man."
Ten minutes later Lawton, King and Waring were gone, glad to be free and
away. Ran Freeman, white and sullen, sat handcuffed in one of the big
chairs. Captain Tucker, having telephoned for a policeman to relieve him
until the Coroner arrived, came back to the living-room.
"I still don't get it, Doctor," he said ruefully. "After Lady trailed to
King's room----"
"That was a laid trail," Dr. Stone told him. "Anthony had warned them
there was a dog that could track. Would a man deliberately invite
detection by leaving a trail right to his door? However, some one of the
four had been in the room. Which one? Probably the one with most at
stake. Lawton stood to suffer in a small business. Waring and King would
have lost their jobs. But Freeman stood to lose the Panner fortune.
"King told us he had not been in the room, or unpacked his bag, or been
to bed. So far as the bed and the bag were concerned it had to be the
truth, for it was a story too easily disproved if he had lied. By the
same reasoning, knowing that there was a dog in the neighborhood that
could follow scent, he would not have made a trail to his own room if he
had committed murder. Therefore, when the trail led to a room in which
there was a rumpled bed and a bag partly unpacked, one fact was obvious.
King was not the man.
"He said he had gone out twice. But Cagge said somebody had come in three
times. Did you notice the open window in King's room? The ceilings down
here are low--a blind man can feel these things. The second floor
wouldn't be far from the ground. Whoever killed Anthony knew King was out
of the house. Therefore, after the crime, he purposely left the silk
handkerchief to give the dog a scent. Then, going to King's room, he
mussed the bed, dragged clothing out of the bag, and dropped out the
window. No doubt you'll find deep footprints where he dropped. Going into
the room and out the window, he probably reasoned, brought the trail to
King's room and ended it there.
"He was the third man Cagge heard come in. He must have brought Anthony's
manuscript back into the house with him intending to dispose of it later.
But King must have come back almost on his heels. Not wanting to be found
with the manuscript he dropped it and fled. Perhaps he reasoned that
King, finding it, would destroy it, anyway. If I had any doubts at all
they were gone when we came downstairs. The four men were eating. Lady,
circling the table, stopped at Freeman's chair. She had found the scent
again. I don't think Freeman meant to kill. His idea was to steal the
book. But Anthony awoke. Am I right?"
Freeman had recovered some of his nerve. "Do you expect any jury to
convict on the testimony of a dog?" he demanded.
"Tucker," said Dr. Stone, "will you look at his right hand?"
Joe shrank away from the prisoner's violent struggle to free himself of
the handcuffs. Captain Tucker, holding Freeman in the chair, turned a
startled face toward the blind man.
"Why, Doctor?----"
"Exactly, Tucker. I had the testimony of Lady, but I needed greater
proof. Freeman gave it to me when he played the piano. All through the
music something kept recurring. Perhaps, were I not blind, did I not have
to depend so much on hearing, I would not have noticed it. A hesitation
on certain notes, an almost imperceptible break in the rhythm, a faint
click upon the ivory of the keys that could only be made by something
foreign, something that was not living flesh. Freeman has an artificial
finger."
Freeman had slumped in the chair. Captain Tucker straightened up.
"Doctor," he said curiously, "your brain travels too fast for me.... Much
too fast. Just what does that prove?"
"Everything," Dr. Stone said quietly. "Modern surgery does miracles these
days. Freeman has an artificial finger that can be taken off. Do you
remember Cagge's story? Old Anthony kept muttering 'Four, four.' That's
what he had seen. Four! Four fingers on the hand of his murderer."