Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/324

 be, isn't it? All we have to do now is to search the hospitals."

Valeska thought it over. Then she spoke slowly. "I suppose that rag was wrapped round the hand, wasn't it?"

Astro nodded.

"The man came home drunk—he sat down by the open window and dropped the hand?"

Astro nodded again.

"The baby crawled through the hole in the fence with the opal, I see that. She found the hand in the yard under the window, where it had been dropped. Then, somehow, she passed through the kitchen and came out on West Fourth Street, here, and walked to the corner, where she met the policeman. That's all plain enough. But where did this man get the hand, and where did the Italian get the opal?"

"Take the last question first. You recall the up-and-down marks on the fence?"

Valeska assented. "Oh! The Italian climbed over there?"

"He must have. He must have seen the box drop. He climbed the fence and grabbed the box and didn't notice the hand. Then the baby came along, before this man, who was evidently a pickpocket, awoke from his stupor. You see, he came home with the bag he had snatched—"

"Oh! That was that leather bag with the handle cut?"

"Of course. He went to the window and sat down, unwrapped the dead hand, and dropped it, or placed it in his lap. Then he looked at the opal, and, beginning