The Thinking Machine--Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph.D.,
LL.D., F.R.S., M.D., etc., scientist and logician--listened intently
and without comment to a weird, seemingly inexplicable story.
Hutchinson Hatch, reporter, was telling it. The bowed figure of the
savant lay at ease in a large chair. The enormous head with its bushy
yellow hair was thrown back, the thin, white fingers were pressed tip
to tip and the blue eyes, narrowed to mere slits, squinted
aggressively upward. The scientist was in a receptive mood.
"From the beginning, every fact you know," he had requested.
"It's all out in the Back Bay," the reporter explained. "There is a
big apartment house there, a fashionable establishment, in a side
street, just off Commonwealth Avenue. It is five stories in all, and
is cut up into small suites, of two and three rooms with bath. These
suites are handsomely, even luxuriously furnished, and are occupied by
people who can afford to pay big rents. Generally these are young
unmarried men, although in several cases they are husband and wife. It
is a house of every modern improvement, elevator service, hall boys,
liveried door men, spacious corridors and all that. It has both the
gas and electric systems of lighting. Tenants are at liberty to use
either or both.
"A young broker, Weldon Henley, occupies one of the handsomest of
these suites, being on the second floor, in front. He has met with
considerable success in the Street. He is a bachelor and lives there
alone. There is no personal servant. He dabbles in photography as a
hobby, and is said to be remarkably expert.
"Recently there was a report that he was to be married this Winter to
a beautiful Virginia girl who has been visiting Boston from time to
time, a Miss Lipscomb--Charlotte Lipscomb, of Richmond. Henley has
never denied or affirmed this rumor, although he has been asked about
it often. Miss Lipscomb is impossible of access even when she visits
Boston. Now she is in Virginia, I understand, but will return to
Boston later in the season."
The reporter paused, lighted a cigarette and leaned forward in his
chair, gazing steadily into the inscrutable eyes of the scientist.
"When Henley took the suite he requested that all the electric
lighting apparatus be removed from his apartments," he went on. "He
had taken a long lease of the place, and this was done. Therefore he
uses only gas for lighting purposes, and he usually keeps one of his
gas jets burning low all night."
"Bad, bad for his health," commented the scientist.
"Now comes the mystery of the affair," the reporter went on. "It was
five weeks or so ago Henley retired as usual--about midnight. He
locked his door on the inside--he is positive of that--and awoke about
four o'clock in the morning nearly asphyxiated by gas. He was barely
able to get up and open the window to let in the fresh air. The gas
jet he had left burning was out, and the suite was full of gas."
"Accident, possibly," said The Thinking Machine. "A draught through
the apartments; a slight diminution of gas pressure; a hundred
possibilities."
"So it was presumed," said the reporter. "Of course it would have been
impossible for----"
"Nothing is impossible," said the other, tartly. "Don't say that. It
annoys me exceedingly."
"Well, then, it seems highly improbable that the door had been opened
or that anyone came into the room and did this deliberately," the
newspaper man went on, with a slight smile. "So Henley said nothing
about this; attributed it to accident. The next night he lighted his
gas as usual, but he left it burning a little brighter. The same thing
happened again."
"Ah," and The Thinking Machine changed his position a little. "The
second time."
"And again he awoke just in time to save himself," said Hatch. "Still
he attributed the affair to accident, and determined to avoid a
recurrence of the affair by doing away with the gas at night. Then he
got a small night lamp and used this for a week or more."
"Why does he have a light at all?" asked the scientist, testily.
"I can hardly answer that," replied Hatch. "I may say, however, that
he is of a very nervous temperament, and gets up frequently during the
night. He reads occasionally when he can't sleep. In addition to that
he has slept with a light going all his life; it's a habit."
"Go on."
"One night he looked for the night lamp, but it had disappeared--at
least he couldn't find it--so he lighted the gas again. The fact of
the gas having twice before gone out had been dismissed as a serious
possibility. Next morning at five o'clock a bell boy, passing through
the hall, smelled gas and made a quick investigation. He decided it
came from Henley's place, and rapped on the door. There was no answer.
It ultimately developed that it was necessary to smash in the door.
There on the bed they found Henley unconscious with the gas pouring
into the room from the jet which he had left lighted. He was revived
in the air, but for several hours was deathly sick."
"Why was the door smashed in?" asked The Thinking Machine. "Why not
unlocked?"
"It was done because Henley had firmly barred it," Hatch explained.
"He had become suspicious, I suppose, and after the second time he
always barred his door and fastened every window before he went to
sleep. There may have been a fear that some one used a key to enter."
"Well?" asked the scientist. "After that?"
"Three weeks or so elapsed, bringing the affair down to this morning,"
Hatch went on. "Then the same thing happened a little differently. For
instance, after the third time the gas went out Henley decided to find
out for himself what caused it, and so expressed himself to a few
friends who knew of the mystery. Then, night after night, he lighted
the gas as usual and kept watch. It was never disturbed during all
that time, burning steadily all night. What sleep he got was in
daytime.
"Last night Henley lay awake for a time; then, exhausted and tired,
fell asleep. This morning early he awoke; the room was filled with gas
again. In some way my city editor heard of it and asked me to look
into the mystery."
That was all. The two men were silent for a long time, and finally The
Thinking Machine turned to the reporter.
"Does anyone else in the house keep gas going all night?" he asked.
"I don't know," was the reply. "Most of them, I know, use
electricity."
"Nobody else has been overcome as he has been?"
"No. Plumbers have minutely examined the lighting system all over the
house and found nothing wrong."
"Does the gas in the house all come through the same meter?"
"Yes, so the manager told me. This meter, a big one, is just off the
engine room. I supposed it possible that some one shut it off there on
these nights long enough to extinguish the lights all over the house,
then turned it on again. That is, presuming that it was done
purposely. Do you think it was an attempt to kill Henley?"
"It might be," was the reply. "Find out for me just who in the house
uses gas; also if anyone else leaves a light burning all night; also
what opportunity anyone would have to get at the meter, and then
something about Henley's love affair with Miss Lipscomb. Is there
anyone else? If so, who? Where does he live? When you find out these
things come back here."
* * * * *
That afternoon at one o'clock Hatch returned to the apartments of The
Thinking Machine, with excitement plainly apparent on his face.
"Well?" asked the scientist.
"A French girl, Louise Regnier, employed as a maid by Mrs. Standing in
the house, was found dead in her room on the third floor to-day at
noon," Hatch explained quickly. "It looks like suicide."
"How?" asked The Thinking Machine.
"The people who employed her--husband and wife--have been away for a
couple of days," Hatch rushed on. "She was in the suite alone. This
noon she had not appeared, there was an odor of gas and the door was
broken in. Then she was found dead."
"With the gas turned on?"
"With the gas turned on. She was asphyxiated."
"Dear me, dear me," exclaimed the scientist. He arose and took up his
hat. "Let's go see what this is all about."