If an eighty-two-year-old man
engineered it, he hired some one. The man he hired, as I am
showing you, left a broad trail. Find him and you will find the
man behind him."

He rose. "I am rather tired. I am not as young as I was. I'd
better take a rest."

"An eighty-two-year-old man? Are you suggesting, Professor--" began
McCall.

"I? I am suggesting nothing. It was you, Mr. McCall, who made the
ugly suggestion, remember.

"There is the mysterious number '14,' who, if he exists, is
assuredly not less than eighty-two years old. Then, there is a
several million dollar fund of which you told me. It was you, Mr.
McCall, who made the ugly suggestion that such a sum was a
tremendous temptation, both for men who have always been
comparatively poor and for men who have had much and now have
nothing.

"I am merely giving you the results of my conclusions from facts
as I found them.

"Incidentally, this murderer, the man who killed Miller, is not
very original. I remember a case in Germany in which a robber
entered a house using just that means, a rope, a chimney and
climbing irons. Yes, yes. It has all been done before. I did not
need all the clues I found on the window and outside the house.
The powder marks were enough. The killer was too hasty or too
careless or too ignorant. He might not have known that there is an
enormous difference between powder marks inflicted when the muzzle
is two inches away and those inflicted when the muzzle of the
weapon is twelve inches away. The powder marks alone, without any
other factors, that slight difference of a few inches, might make
the difference between life and death for the murderer."

"And the two other men, Professor?" asked Jimmy.

"Of the two other men," snapped Professor Brierly, impatiently, "I
know no more than you, and little is known about their deaths
right now."

"But don't you think," continued the persistent reporter.

"You don't mean, don't I think, Mr. Hale," jeered Professor
Brierly. "You mean don't I guess. No, I never guess. I leave that
for highly imaginative newspaper men, or," he waved his hand
sarcastically at his grinning assistant, "to John, there. Bring me
some facts and I shall try to give you an opinion, an opinion that
I may base on those facts, but, what do you know of the other
men?" he challenged sharply.

"Well, there's not much question about one of them, the one who
was drowned at Bradley Beach. That seems like an honest drowning.