‘Schmitz financed me while I was perfecting the formula, so I thought it only right to sell it to him, even though I could have got more for it from the other firm.’
‘As this is such a small, bright room and you observed so much through that crack in the screen,’ said Fordney sarcastically, ‘you should be able to give us a very good description of the intruder.’
‘Oh, I can do that,’ Hyde replied, with assurance. ‘He was a big fellow about six feet tall and weighed around two hundred pounds. He had jet-black hair, swarthy complexion, an unusually large nose, and a vicious-looking mouth. As he left obviously unaware of my presence, I noticed he had a big rip in the back of his blue coat.’
‘Well, Hyde, as part of your story is incredible, you can’t expect me to believe any of it.’
[Why did the Professor say this?]
7
Strangled
‘Twenty-two days of this hot, dry spell,’ groaned Professor Fordney. ‘I can’t remember a stretch like it.’
‘Tell us about the Greer case, Professor,’ urged the rocking-chair brigade. ‘It’ll take your mind off the heat.’
‘Well, you know the salient facts. The body of Irene Greer, lying on the railroad right-of-way, was found half a mile from here by a fishing party at 6 A.M. day before yesterday. It could be seen that she was a beautiful girl despite the tousled hair matted with mud and a nasty bruise on her cheek. Her flaming red dress was torn and dirty. She had on shoes, but no stockings. Incidentally, her clothes were of the finest quality. Her body indicated that she had received a terrific beating, poor girl.
‘From appearances she had been placed on the track with the expectation that she would be struck by a train and identification made impossible. No doubt she was unconscious when this was done, but she must have revived temporarily and crawled to the gravel right-of-way before a train came along. There she died.