Ashton-Kirk smiled and nodded.
“I repeat,” said he, “that some of the things we heard and saw held a great deal of interest. But how are we to associate them? What possible connection has a delicate gilt harp with a mysterious noise in the night? What has a green stone in common with a sword that was carried in the siege of Milan? And what can there be between a beautiful woman, radiant with life, and a creature three-quarters dead, who is wheeled about in a chair?”
The big, candid face of Scanlon grew stiff with amazement.
“Why, look here!” said he. “Just where does that fellow——”
But at a gesture from the crime specialist he stopped. And once more Ashton-Kirk paused at the table; and again he began turning the leaves of the book.
“The studies of that ingenious old empiric of Antwerp, Gall, are most amusing,” said he, as his eyes began to run from one pictured skull to another. “The system he worked out and which he called ‘Zoonomy’ is rich in suggestion, and,” nodding his head, “may contain more truths than is generally supposed.”
“He had something to do with skulls, I take it,” said Mr. Scanlon.
“He had all to do with them in this particular regard, though his system was afterward much amplified by Spurzheim, and the Englishmen, George and Andrew Combe. His idea was that the skull’s development followed that of the brain; that certain parts of the brain stood for certain faculties; if the brain were large in this faculty the skull would show it. And in that way we were to have a very convenient method of judging the character of any particular person.”
“I’ve heard of it,” said Mr. Scanlon. “A fellow I roomed with once used to turn that trick at a bob a time. It was a fairly easy way of getting money, but I couldn’t see very much more to it.”
“You saw it practised by a fakir,” said the special detective, his eyes still upon the turning pages. “And such things offer many opportunities for crooked practitioners. But, after all, I don’t think it would be at all difficult to prove that it has its basis in truth. It is a well-known fact that nations, for example, have one general type of head; and it is equally well known that the individuals of a nation have the same general tendencies.”