Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/38

20 enough to know of the treasurer's tinkering habits, so that, even in great haste, he could think at once of the gas nippers in Lawrie's private tool drawer. Gentlemen," the young assistant tensely added, "I must ask you which of you three was the one in this room with Dr. Lawrie last night?"

"What!" The word in three different cadences burst from their lips—amazement, anger, threat.

He lifted a shaking hand to stop them.

"I realize," he went on more quickly, "that, after having suggested one charge and having it shown false, I am now making a far more serious one, which, if I cannot prove it, must cost me my position here. But I make it now again, directly. One of you three was in this room with Dr. Lawrie last night. Which one? I could tell within the hour if I could take you successively to the psychological laboratory and submit you to a test. But, perhaps I need not. Even without that, I hope soon to be able to tell the other two, for which of you Dr. Lawrie concerned himself with this crime, and who it was that in return struck him dead Sunday night and left him to bear a double disgrace as a suicide."

The young psychologist stood an instant gazing into their startled faces, half frightened at his own temerity in charging thus the three most respected men in the university; then, as President Joslyn eyed him sternly, he caught again the enthusiasm of his reasoning, and flushed and paled.

"One of you, at least, knows that I speak the truth," he said, determinedly; and without a back-