"Horrible! horrible!"
The professor and Hans uttered these exclamations, but Frank was calm and apparently unmoved, with his eyes still fastened on the face of the old man.
"How you toldt dot vos der finger uf your son, mister?"
"That's it, that's it—how could you tell?" asked the professor.
"My son—my own boy—he added a line to the letter, stating that the finger had been taken from his left hand, and that Pacheco threatened to cut off his fingers one by one and send them to me if I did not hasten with the ransom money."
"Dot seddled you!"
"You recognized the handwriting as that of your son?"
"I did; but I recognized something besides that."
"What?"
"The finger."