[What flaw did the Professor find in Johnson’s story which proved the ‘kidnaping’ was a fake?]
6
A Valuable Formula
‘I had just stepped behind that screen near the door to wash my hands when a man, gun in hand, entered the room and stood motionless for a few seconds,’ said Hyde. ‘Apparently satisfied no one was here, he walked to the desk over there by the window. As he rummaged through the papers in the drawer, I hastily dialed headquarters, leaving the receiver off the hook, trusting you would trace the call. I was afraid to talk because I was unarmed and he looked like a desperate fellow.’
‘You say he took nothing but a valuable formula from your desk?’ inquired the Professor.
‘That’s all; he touched nothing else.’
‘Rather careless to leave such an important paper lying about like that, wasn’t it?’
‘Well, I suppose so, though it was only a copy. I sold the original to Schmitz yesterday for twenty thousand dollars and I intended to destroy the duplicate tonight.’
‘Would that formula be valuable to anyone else?’
‘Yes, it would be worth twice as much to Schmitz’s competitors.’
‘Why didn’t you sell it to them in the first place, then?’