“But can’t the blue marks wash off?” asked Larry. “What good is the clew then?”
“No! The blue marks will not come off!” exclaimed Mr. Newton. “Will they, Mr. Hosfer?”
“Not for some time,” replied the chemist. “I see now what Mr. Newton is driving at. He is going to solve a horrible, a dastardly, soul-curdling, bloody mystery. The blue marks will not come off. It is a peculiar feature of certain forms of nitric acid, and also of nitro-glycerine, which is made from the acid, that they will stain the skin a bluish color. This color will not come off until the skin wears off, and, as that takes some time, you may be sure that your blue-handed man will have to go around for a number of weeks with the marks on his fingers and thumb. I see what Mr. Newton is up to now. Oh, but you’re a sly dog!”
“It’s mostly a matter of luck,” replied the reporter. “You have been of great service to us, Mr. Hosfer.”
“To think I should be mixed up in a terrible, fearful, awful, shocking, sensational affair like this,” spoke the chemist, with a smile, as though it was the best fun in the world. “That comes of having a reporter for a friend.”
“Well,” said Mr. Newton, “you ought to be glad of a chance to aid the ends of justice by discovering the safe-robber.”
“All I ask is to be let alone with my experiments,” said Mr. Hosfer. “At the same time, if Justice thinks I’m entitled to anything, I might say I have my living to earn, and it’s none too easy a task.”
“I’ll speak to Justice about it,” said Mr. Newton, with a laugh.
Mr. Newton and Larry now took their leave. They had found out what they wanted to know, or at least Mr. Newton had, for Larry had no suspicion of the object of the visit to the chemist’s.
“What are you going to do next?” asked the lad of Mr. Newton.