Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/122

100 chair in front of the drop-window. He explained gently to the trembling woman that he wanted her to read to him the words he exposed; and, as in the case of Miss Hendricks, he tried to put her at ease by speaking of the test itself.

"These word tests, Mrs. Eldredge, will probably seem rather pointless. For that matter all proceedings with which one is not familiar must seem pointless; even the proceedings of the national legislature in Washington seem pointless to the spectators in the gallery." At this point the shutter lifted and exposed a word. "What was the word, please, Mrs. Eldredge?"

Sedate, the woman faltered.

"But though the tests seem pointless, Mrs. Eldredge, they are not really so. To the trained investigator each test word is as full of meaning as each mark upon the trail is to the backwoodsman on the edge of civilization. Now what word was that?" he questioned quickly, as the shutter raised and lowered again.

The woman turned her dilated eyes on Trant. "That—that," she hesitated—"I could make it out only as 'p-i-o-s-e-e-r, she spelled, uneasily. "I do not know any such word."

"I shall not try you on words any longer, Mrs. Eldredge," Trant decided. He took his stop-watch in his hand. "But I shall ask you to tell me how much time elapses between two taps with my lead pencil on the table. Now!"

"Two minutes," the woman stammered.

Eldredge, who, observing what Trant was doing,