esisted.

"Could you do it with both hands?" he asked.

"Probably, if I could get a hold. But there isn't surface enough for a
good hold."

"No, there isn't. But now." Jones coiled a rope around the post and
handed the end to Kirby. He pulled sharply. The knob snapped and rolled
on the floor.

"Q. E. D.," said Kirby. "But it doesn't mean anything to me."

"Doesn't it? Let me recall some other evidence. The guest who saw Mr.
Greene in the hallway thought he was carrying something in both hands.
The milk driver who hailed him on the balcony noticed that he gestured
awkwardly with both hands. In what circumstances would a man use both
hands for action normally performed with one?"

"Too much drink," hazarded Kirby, looking dubiously at Greene, who had
been following Jones' discourse with absorbed attention.

"Possibly. But it wouldn't fit this case."

"Physical weakness," suggested Mrs. Hale.

"Rather a shrewd suggestion. But no weakling broke off that bedpost in
Henry M. Gillespie's room. I assumed the theory that the phenomena of
that night were symptomatic rather than accidental. Therefore, I set out
to find in what other places the mysterious H. M. G. had performed."

"How did you know my initials really were H. M. G.?" asked Mr. Greene.

"The porter at the Denton had seen them 'Henry M. Gillespie's' suitcase.
So I sent out loudly printed call to all hotel clerks for information
about a troublesome H. M. G."

He handed the "OH, YOU HOTEL MEN" advertisement to the little group.

"Plenty of replies came. You have, if I may say it without offense, Mr.
Greene, an unfortunate reputation among hotel proprietors. Small wonder
that you use an alias. From the Hotel Carpathia in Boston I got a
response more valuable than I had dared to hope. An H. M. G. guest--H.
Morton Garson, of Pillston, Pennsylvania (Mr. Greene nodded)--had
wrecked his room and left behind him this souvenir."

Leaning over, Jones pulled, clinking from the scrap-basket, a fine steel
chain. It was endless and some twelve feet in total length, and had two
small loops, about a foot apart. Mrs. Hale and Kirby stared at it in
speechless surprise.

"Yes, that is mine," said Mr. Greene with composure. "I left it because
it had ceased to be serviceable to me."

"Ah! That's very interesting," said Average Jones with a keen glance.
"Of course when I examined it and found no locks, I guessed that it
was a trick chain, and that there were invisible spr