At last the district attorney, in a preoccupied way told him to tell his story, and to make it as brief as he could.
But when the boy began by simply stating that he had discovered what was the meaning of the mysterious telephone message and also what relation the milk bottle bore to the trip to the woods, all eyes and ears gave him attention.
Knowing the importance of the occasion and anxious to make a good impression, Fibsy strove to make his language conform, as far as he could, to the English spoken by his present audience.
“So I asked Perfesser Meredith,” he related, “and he told me there is a beetle named Scaphinotus, and it’s of the Carabidæ fambly.”
He had obtained these names in writing from the Professor, and had learned them, unforgettably, by heart.
“What!” exclaimed Whiting, more amazed at this speech from the boy, than its bearing on the matter in hand.
“Yessir; an’ I says to myself, ‘that’s the meanin’ of Wilky’s puffumery dope and Caribbean Sea.” In his excitement, Fibsy forgot his intended elegance of diction.
“But the girl said she overheard Sea,” said Judge Hoyt, looking in amazement at the boy.
“Yessir, I know. I read that in my Pus-shol-ogy book. It says that what you expect to hear, you hear. That is, Wilky heard Caribbean, as she thought, an’ she natchelly spected to hear Sea next, so she honest thought she did!”
“That is psychological reasoning,” said Whiting. “It’s Münsterberg’s theories applied to detection. I’ve read it. And it’s true, doubtless, that the girl thought she heard Caribbean, expected to hear Sea next, and assumed she did hear it.”