Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/286

256 test I am going to make may seem so trivial to these gentlemen that I am glad to have a practical man like yourself here who has seen more in such a test as the one I am going to make now, than can appear on the surface."

More than appears on the surface' is the word, Mr. Trant," the captain cried impulsively. "Mr. Sheppard, it's myself has told you about Mr. Trant before; and I'll back anything he does to the limit, since I see him catch the Bronson murderer, as I just told you, by a one-cell battery that would not ring a door bell."

"I shall ask you to bear that in mind, if you will, Mr. Sheppard and Mr. Chapin," the psychologist smiled slightly as he looked about the room, and then crossed over to the mantel and took from it five of the six small stone steins with silver tops which stood there. "Particularly as I have not here even the regular apparatus for the test, but must rather improvise. If I had you in my offices or in the psychological laboratory fitted with that regular apparatus I could prove in an instant which of you, if any, was the one who shot these four cartridges to kill Neal Sheppard, and discarded this fifth," he touched again the shells on the table. "But, as I said, I hope we can manage here."

"Which of us?" Chapin echoed. "So you're going to try me, too?" He raised a plump fist and shook it angrily under Trant's nose. "You think I did it?"

"I didn't say so, Mr. Chapin," Trant replied pacificatingly. "I said there were excellent chances that Mr. Tyler was not the one who did the shooting; so if