minutes, was in the library asking for the first volume of the
last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His limp proclaimed his
identity, and the young woman at the desk, recognizing him, got the book
for him with surprising promptness.

His habits of thought were such that he had not wasted energy during
the morning in idle speculation as to what he would find. In fact, he
attached but little importance to Braceway's message. He had dismissed it
the night before as a queer dodge on the other's part to bolster up his
view of the case.

He went to a desk in a remote part of the reading room. Under any
circumstances, he would not have cared for the intense and interested
scrutiny with which the girl at the desk favoured him. The attitude he
took gave her ample opportunity for a study of the back of his head.

Opening the volume, he turned to the first reference, page 506, column 2,
line 15 to line 17. At the first word he drew a quick breath; it was
sharp enough to sound like a low whistle. He read:

"ALBINO, a biological term (Lat. _albus_, white), in the usual
acceptation, for a pigmentless individual of a normally pigmented race."

Putting his finger on the top of the second column, page 507, he counted
down to line 17, and read:

"Albinism occurs in all races of mankind, among mountainous as well as
lowland dwellers. And, with man, as with other animals, it may be
complete or partial. Instances of the latter condition are very common
among the negroes of the United States and of South America, and in them
assumes a piebald character, irregular white patches being scattered over
the general black surface of the body."

Before he began to think, he read the passages carefully a second time.
Then he continued to hold the book open, staring at it as if he still
read.

The importance of the words struck him immediately. He grasped their
meaning as quickly and as fully as he would have done if Braceway had
stood beside him and explained. The skin of a white person and that of an
albino show up the same under a microscope: white. If a man had under his
finger nails particles of white skin, he could have collected them there
by scratching an albino as well as by scratching a Caucasian, a white
woman.

And Lucy Thomas was an albino. He was certain of that; did not question
it for a moment. Braceway had assured himself of that before sending
the telegram.

Perry Carpenter had had a fight or a tussle with her i