"Can you decipher it?" Mr. Nichols smiled.
"I know the HGT stands for height and TR for trunk, but what are the other abbreviations?"
"OA means outer arm," the detective explained. "HL represents head length and HW indicates the head width. Of course all the measurements are reduced to meters, centimeters, and millimeters."
"It looks complicated."
"Not after you become accustomed to it. For instance, I can see at a glance that Rap Molberg is five feet and seven-eighths inches tall—or as it appears in Bertillon—one meter, sixty-seven centimeters and six millimeters."
"I don't believe I'll ever care to be a detective," Penny smiled. "It's too much like studying the multiplication table!"
"Crime detection is a scientific profession——" Mr. Nichols began, but Penny cut him short.
"Tell me, did Jerry Barrows come to interview you this morning?"
"No, and I very much fear we'll never see the young man. I made a point of looking up his juvenile court record and find he has none."
"Then he must have given me a false name."