"
"What stunt?"
"Why, you know how keen the new detectives are on the
finger-print system? Well, the first thing some of the up-to-date
criminals in Europe did was to wear rubber gloves so that they
would leave no prints. But you can't work very well with rubber
gloves. Last fall in Paris I heard of a fellow who had given the
police a lot of trouble. He never left a mark, or at least it was
no good if he did. He painted his hands lightly with a liquid
rubber which he had invented himself. It did all that rubber
gloves would do and yet left him the free use of his fingers with
practically the same keenness of touch. Fletcher, whatever is at
the bottom of this affair, I feel sure right now that you have to
deal with no ordinary criminal."
"Do you suppose there are any relatives besides those we know
of?" I asked Kennedy when Fletcher had left to summon the
servants.
"No," he replied, "I think not. Fletcher and Helen Bond, his
second cousin, to whom he is engaged, are the only two."
Kennedy continued to study the library. He walked in and out of
the doors and examined the windows and viewed the safe from all
angles.
"The old gentleman's bedroom is here," he said, indicating a door.
"Now a good smart noise or perhaps even a light shining through
the transom from the library might arouse him.
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