Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/288

258 his question, glanced at the time interval on his watch; "the first stein you picked up, Mr. Tyler; and then take up the remaining three in any order, and tell me, as quickly as you can, whether they seem the same weight, lighter or heavier to you. Thank you," he acknowledged noncommittally again, as Tyler acquiesced, his wonder at so extraordinary a test increasing.

The psychologist glanced over the list of answers he had noted on a slip of paper with the time taken for each. Then he gathered up the five steins without comment and redistributed them on the table.

"It looks bright for you, Mr. Tyler," he commented calmly; "but I will ask you to go over the steins again;" and a second, and then a third time, he made Tyler take up all five steins in turn and tell him whether each seemed the same weight, lighter or heavier than the first he handled.

"What's all this tomfoolery with steins got to do with who shot Neal Sheppard?" Chapin blurted out contemptuously. But when he turned for concurrence to Stephen Sheppard, he found the old sportsman's anxious gaze again fixed on the intent face of the police captain who once before, by his own admission, had seen Trant pick a murderer by incomprehensible work, and his own contempt as well gave place to apprehensive wonder at what might lurk behind this apparently childish experiment.

"You ask what this means, Mr. Chapin?" Trant looked up as he finished his notes. "It has made me certain that Mr. Tyler, at least, is guiltless of the crime of which he has been suspected. As to who shot Neal