Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/172

146 dollars to him, of course; but he was afraid to write dollars. He wanted to appear entirely unconnected with any 'ten thousand dollars'; so he wrote 'doors.' At 'five hundred' Shaffer, with twenty stolen five-hundred dollar bills in his possession, preferred to appear to be thinking of five hundred 'windows.' 'September 29th,' the day of the theft, was burned into Shaffer's brain, so, avoiding it, he wrote 'last year.' 'Promissory note' in the replies of most of your clerks brought out the natural connection of 'sixty days' suggested in my speech, but Shaffer—since it was just sixty days since he stole—avoided it, precisely as both he and Ford, fearing arrest as thieves, avoided—and were the only ones who avoided—the line of least resistance in my last word. And the evidence was complete against them!"

Howell was staring at the lists, amazed. "I see! I see!" he cried, in awe. "There is only one thing." He raised his head. "It is clear here, of course, now that you have explained it, how you knew Shaffer was the one who took the money; but, was it a guess that he found it in the waste-basket?"

"No; rather a chance that I was able to determine it," Trant replied. "All his associations for the early words, except one, are as natural and easy as anyone else's, for these were the words put in to detect Ford. But for some reason, 'waste-basket' troubled Shaffer, too. Supposing the money was lost by old Gordon in putting it into the bag, it seemed more than probable that Shaffer's disturbance over this word came from the fact that Gordon had tossed the missing bills into the waste-basket."