Tales of the Thinking Machine

ing room in a Springfield theater in the course of a performance, while the echo of tumultuous appreciation still rang in her ears, was perhaps the first proble

The Thinking Machine had protested

e has been committed,” th

red, evaporated into thin air in the hearing, almost in sight, of her friends. T

mself sank back into a great cushioned chair in which his di

y,” he said petul

ngers were pressed tip to tip. The Thinking Machine was in a receptive mood. Hatch was triumphant; he had had

an actress she has won high recognition not only in this country but in

ers,” the other inter

n face of the scientist. “I presume she had admirers — most beautiful women of the stage have — but she is one whose life has been perfectly clea

nd in ‘As You Like It.’ The house was crowded. She played the first two acts amid great enthusiasm, and this despite the fact that she was suffering intensely from headache to which she was subject at times. After the second

d to her door and again called her. There was no answer. Then, fearing that she might have fainted, he went in. She was not there. A hurried search was made without

out. He and a policeman had been standing at the stage door talking for at least twenty minutes. It is therefore conclusive that Miss Wallack did not leave by that ex

asked The Thi

that goes straight up for ten feet, and that is covered with an iron grating fixed in the granite. The other windows on the stage are not only inaccessible

ge?” suggested

of course a chance that Miss Wallack might have become temporarily unbalanced and wandered down there. There was even a

continued to stare upward. He had not looked at the reporter. He broke the sile

per man responded. “She wears that costume from the

treet clothing

t was all as if she had left the room to answer her cue — all in

truggle, nor an

N

ace of

thi

? Did she

rtrude Manning, had gone home immediately after the

d his squint eyes on the r

ated. “What wa

say,” replie

is sh

got all about her in the ex

d of cand

I don’t know

was it

shoulders; that was some

staring meanwhile steadily at Hatch, who squirmed uncomf

shrugged h

id Miss Wal

o guess at this. He had se

thirty and a hundred

be a hypnotist conne

now,” Hatc

rfectly absurd, Mr. Hatch,” he expostulated, “to come to me with only a few facts a

mingly trivial questions, which the other asked. “I don’t see,” he began, “that the candy even if it had been poisoned as I imagine you think possible

king Machine. “If you did, you wouldn’t ha

ttle more humbly. “It closed the engagement in Springfield.

sappear — by the

nine-fortyone — he spoke to her, say, one minute before, or at nine-forty. The ac

dressed for the street, disappeared completely from her dressing room. It is now f

eagerly. “Do you imagine

forth across the reception room half a dozen times, his hands behind his back and

and particularly study their eyes. Don’t overlook anyone, however humble. Also find out what became of the box of chocolate candy, a

ly startled. “H

hinking Machine. “I will have a cab waiting w

alf later he returned, to be thrust unceremoniously into a waiting cab by The Thinking Machine. The cab rattled away toward South Station, where the two men caught

?” he

ho has been in love with her for three years, bought the candy at Schuyler’s in Springfield early Saturday

was a most unequivocal ejaculation. “How

gs were packed into the open trunk in her dressing

inking Machine impatiently. “What s

ion, nothing unusual at

the o

dying their eyes, so I got a set of photog

through his fingers, stopping now and then to study one, and to read the name pri

es

in pulled into Springfield at nine-twenty. Hatch

” quickly commanded The

before a brilliantly lighted candy store. The Thinking Machine led

member this man’s face?” he asked

him,” the girl repl

colates of you Saturday evenin

in a hurry; in fact, I believe he said he

he scientist. He produced another photograph and handed it to the girl

he ever did,” the g

a public telephone booth. He remained there for five minutes,

ital!” he

efinite line of inquiry, yet the reporter didn’t know what. The case was getting kaleidoscopic. This impression was strengthen

Manning here?” was the s

“She was brought here Satu

Picked up in the street, probably. I am a physician. If she i

nto the ward where Miss Wallack’s maid lay, pallid and weak. The Thinking Machine picked up he

an you understan

l nodde

es of the cand

stared into the face a

ny of it up to the time

N

ind, down the stairs, and into the cab, whence Professor Van Dusen shouted a word of thanks to Dr. Carlto

the maid had eaten only two. She had been poisoned. Therefore, it seemed reasonable to suppose that if Miss Wallack had eaten the t

e stage doorkeeper

g Machine, “if Mr. Mason left a box of candy w

Wallack hadn’t arrived. Mason brought a box of candy for her nearly every ni

theatre before or after the

n. “He was unusually ea

op here, I imagine, to get their mail?” and the sc

, alw

to this time there had been little perplexed

r box of any kind taken from the stage on Sat

thing at all until the company’s

two trunks in he

hacking big

o you

helped take ’em out,” replied M

rned and ran out to the cab, wit

rest long-distance telephone!” the scientist ins

for fifteen minutes. When he came out Hatch had asked several questions, to which the scientist vouchsafed no answer. They were perhaps thirty minutes

her on the stage. The fact that no violence was used against her was conclusively proved by half a dozen instances. No one heard her scream; there was no struggle, no trace o

e headaches. Was there a hypnotist to whom Miss Wallack would have submitted herself? Assume there was. Then would that hypnotist ta

e moment that this hypothesis, the only one which fits all the circumstances, is correct. Obviously, a hypnotist

she was hypnotized and placed in that second trun

ed,” said The Thinking Machine emphatically

e woman in a trunk for forty-eight hours? Eve

crutable face of his companion. He saw no pity, no horror, the

candy before she was hypnotized she is probably dead. If it was placed in her mouth after she was in a cataleptic c

roken by the rough handling of the trunk — there ar

to injury,” replied the scientist. “There is of course a chan

candy?” H

Mr. Mason a hypnotist? No. He hasn’t the eyes. His picture tells me that. We know that Mr. Mason did buy candy for Miss Wallack on several occasions. We know that sometimes he left it with the sta

n with the poisoned candy, and that failing, went to a point immediately following the moment when the stage manager last spoke to the actress. The hypnotist was probably in her room then.

in the trunk?” asked

e. “She is out now, dead or alive

the

the police in half an hou

driven immediately to Police Headquarters. Detec

one from Springf

” interrupted

ook her out of the trunk, but no bones are broken. Sh

of candy taken

late cream. It

nd awake her,” said The Thinking Machin

g hotel a dozen blocks away. Before they entered the lobby The Thinking Mac

entist. “Pick him out and get behind him when we enter the ro

her support. This was done at the ‘phoned request of The Thinking Machine. There were no preliminaries whe

ur play before Miss Wallack was to appear — I

plied, “for at le

eld, is th

plied the

t corner of the room. A faint flush crept into Mason’s face as he realized that the questions were almost

take your pris

the melancholy Jaques of “As You Like It.” The actor’s face was distorted, madness blazed in the eyes, and he snarled like a beast at bay. By a s

emarked in self-satisfied conclusion. “I

identical with that of The Thinking Machine. Stanley Wightman, whose brooding over a hopeless love for her m