‘Good-night,’ responded Fordney. ‘I’ll give you the fourteen cents in the morning. Don’t let the fact that I’m aware of your deception keep you awake!’
‘What?’ cried the amazed Hawkins.
71
The Kidnapers’ Cleverness
‘There are times,’ mused Professor Fordney from the depths of the most comfortable chair in the lounge of the University Club, ‘when the criminal does show ingenuity of a high order. I recall a most interesting and baffling case on which I worked ten years ago.
‘A wealthy man whose daughter had been kidnaped had been warned that, if he appealed to the police, she would be killed. Consequently, it was difficult to get his coöperation in running down the criminals. However, upon receiving the following note delivered in an express package 12″ × 12″ × 12″ he sought my advice.
Send us, by the means herein given you, $5,000 in cash, at exactly midnight tonight. If you do so, your daughter will be returned unharmed.
‘My client did as directed and his child was returned safely next day.
‘Do you know, Jim,’ asked Fordney of his fireside companion, ‘what means the kidnapers employed that made trapping of them, or discovery of their whereabouts, absolutely impossible? There’s a nice little problem in deduction for a rising young attorney,’ he laughed.