"The fat, thick-necked, thick-witted, old fool!" said he.
CHAPTER VIII
PERCY DARROW'S THEORY
Percy Darrow in the police station, where he had been assigned an unused office instead of a cell, amused himself reading the newspapers, of which he caused to be brought in a full supply. Theories had begun to claim their share of the space which, up to now, the fact stories had completely monopolized. Darrow, his feet up, a cigarette depending from one corner of his mouth, read them through to the end. Then he indulged the white walls of his little apartment with one of his slow smiles. The simplest of the theories had to do with comets. The most elaborate traced out an analogy between the "blind spot" in vision and a "point of rest" in physical manifestations—this "point of rest" had just now happened to drift to a crowded center, and so became manifest.
"Ingenious but fantastic youth," was Percy Darrow's tribute to the author,
Professor Eldridge of the university.
The "human-interest" stories of both the evening before and those in the extras describing the latest freak in the Atlas Building, Darrow passed over with barely a glance. But certain figures he copied carefully into his notebook. When he had found all of these, and had transcribed them, they appeared about as follows:
Atlas—Wednesday, 5:25. 3:00 (about): 9 hr. 35 min.
General—Thursday, 6:00. 7:56 (exact): 1 hr. 56 min.
Atlas—Friday, 10:10. 10:48 (exact): 38 min.
On the basis of these latter figures he made some calculations which, when finished, he looked on with doubtful satisfaction.