Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 4, 1925 — page 168: what you’re looking at

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

958 this I made a solution of the saliva-impreg- nated end of the cigar butt, examined it through the microscope and had it qualita- tively and quantitatively analyzed. The presence of certain elements in the salivary solution bears out the possibility of these rashes.” | “And does it also tell you that this man had or has or is supposed to have a round head, broad cheek bones, a low forehead, coarse black hair, and moles?” she asked marveling. ‘ Partly,” he said mildly. ‘‘ You see the canine tooth, being as prominent as in this case, is very characteristic of the adrenal- centered type of individual. And our qual- itative analyses of the saliva solution bear this out.” He nibbled his toast as though he had said enough. “And what is an ‘adrenal-centered type ’?” his wife asked, somewhat meekly. ‘‘'The adrenals are of the important fam- ily of glands,” Professor Goldie dropped unconsciously into his lecture monotone. ‘They determined the vigor of certain growths in the body, the size of bones and the like. In individuals in whom the adre- nals are most vigorous the canines are espe- cially long, the head is round, the chest 1s broad, as are the cheeks—in short, every one of the features indicated in the sketches Professor Enghart was good enough to draw for me is based on the most firmly estab- lished findings in this field.” His wife studied the sketches, still in- credulous. ‘Assuming that the portrait is a good one,” she asked, “‘ what is your next step with it?” Her husband put down his napkin. There was a furtive relief in his tone as he said: “IT am afraid, my dear, that I have come to the end of my investigation on the basis of what data I have. I haven’t the slightest notion what to do next. I told you, Grace, I wasn’t fitted for this work.” Mrs. Goldie dished out an extra large portion of chocolate pudding—a weakness for which her husband had never outgrown —and passed it to him. “ Vou’re fitted for any kind of work that takes brains, Harry,” she said, passing the ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, plate to him. ‘“ You will have a chance to use them on those silly little redheaded ants for the next few days. Because I shall be too busy myself to bother you, dear, with police work—for a while at least.” Chief Quinn looked up hopefully when Mrs. Goldie came to see him the following afternoon. ‘“‘Any news for me, Mrs. Goldie?” he asked respectfully. ‘“‘ Nothing but questions to ask you,” she said briskly. May I see the victim’s clothing and the con- tents of his pockets?” “Certainly. But aside from the little money we found in his pockets and a hand- kerchief—unmarked—we got nothing to £0 on.” He brought out the clothes of the dead man. Mrs. Goldie looked only at the buttons. “Just as I thought,” she said. “A bachelor. Look at the fool man’s way in which he sewed this button and that—did it himself. No woman would make such a poor job of it.” She looked at the handkerchief. ‘‘ New. Hasn’t been washed yet. And good linen. What’s a laborer—if he was one—want Jinen handkerchiefs for? And it’s one of those that come in sealed packages for fas- tidious persons. I know the kind. I buy them for my husband. “Chief Quinn, he wasn’t an unskilled laborer, but an engraver. My husband de- termined that. But when I went to Eureka Engraving Company this morning—they’re the only firm of their kind in Meig’s City— to see if any of their workers turned up missing, they said no. But I found out also that if any engraver wanted work in this town he could have it. This man could have had it. He didn’t have to work at anything coarser than engraving. “1 don’t like the looks of it. Chief Quinn, if a man is a skilled engraver, why should he work at anything coarser? Why would he want to hide the fact that he’s an engraver?” Chief Quinn dizzily tried to follow the leaps of Mrs. Goldie’s intuition over ground where masculine logic would have crawled cautiously, CO DOO ‘““And a request to make. - S CO