Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/55

Rh "But you, Mr. Branower," Trant went on, "not being a woman with a precious brother to save, could not think of making a wound. You thought of the gas. Of course! But it was inexcusable in me not to test for Mrs. Branower's presence. It was her odd mental association of a perpetrator with the news of the suspected suicide that first aroused my suspicions."

He turned as though the matter were finished; but met Dr. Joslyn's perplexed eyes. The end attained was plain; but to the president of the university the road by which they had come was dark as ever. Branower had taken his wife into another room. He returned.

"Dr. Joslyn," said Trant, "it is scientifically impossible—as any psychologist will tell you—for a person who associates the first suggested idea in two and one-half seconds, like Margaret, to substitute another without almost doubling the time interval.

"Observe Margaret's replies. 'Iron' followed 'steal' as quickly as 'cat' followed 'dog.' 'Silver,' the thing a woman first thinks of in connection with burglary, was the first association she had with 'thief.' No possible guilty thought there. No guilty secret connected with her father prevented her from associating, in her regular time, some girl's secret with Alice Seaton next door. I saw her innocence at once and continued questioning her merely to avoid a more formal examination of the others. I rasped my chair over the floor to disturb her nerves, therefore, and got you into the test.

"The first two tests of you, Dr. Joslyn, showed that you had no association with the notes. The date half