“T — A - G — A.” The letters were repeated. “T — A - G — A. T — A - G — A…”
The pencil poised. It wrote as the voice spoke:
“T — A - G — A…”
Once more the voice pronounced the letters that the dying man had uttered. But this time, the hand made a most important change.
“T — A - G — A…” came the whisper!
“T — H - E — A…” wrote the hand!
Phonetically, both spellings were the same! Spoken aloud, the letters “T — H - E — A” sounded identically with those which the newspaper account contained!
“Tag A” was a myth. Stephen Laird had not talked of it. He had uttered a word which the conductor could not catch. To make it plain, the dying man had tried to spell. What he had said was: “T — H - E — A”; what the conductor had heard was: “T — A - G — A.”
Perhaps it was the pause, the gasping pause that Laird had made before the final letter that had caused the deception. The result had been an error by the listening conductor. His ears had caught the syllables exactly; but his mind had misinterpreted them.
The Shadow had divined the meaning. The completion of the unfinished task required the addition of only a few letters. The pencil made its marks.