DECIDEDLY ODD

CHAPTER I. ADVERTISED IN CIPHER.

One rainy morning in April, Luther Trant sat alone in his office. Onhis wrist as he bent closely over a heap of typewritten pages spreadbefore him on his desk, a small instrument in continual motion tickedlike a watch. It was for him an hour of idleness; he was readingfiction. And, with his passion for making visible and recording theworkings of the mind, he was taking a permanent record of his feelingsas he read.

The instrument strapped on Trant’s arm was called a sphygmograph. Itcarried a small steel rod which pressed tightly on his wrist artery.This rod, rising and falling with each rush of the blood wave throughthe artery, transmitted its motion to a system of small levers. Theselevers operated a pencil point, which touched the surface of arevolving drum. Trant had adjusted around this drum a strip of smokedpaper, the pencil point traced on its sooty surface, and a continuouswavy line which rose and fell with each beat of the psychologist’s pulse.

As the interest of the story gripped Trant, this wavy line grewflatter, with elevations farther apart. When the interest flagged, hispulse returned to its normal heat and the line became regular in itsundulations. At an exciting incident, the elevations swelled to greaterheight. And the psychologist was noting with satisfaction how thecontinual variations of the line gave definite record of the story’ssustained power, when he was interrupted by the sharp ring of histelephone.

An excited, choleric voice came over the wire:

“Mr. Trant? ... This is Cuthbert Edwards, of Cuthbert Edwards & Co.,Michigan Avenue. You have received a communication frommy son Winton this morning? Is he there now? ... No? Then he willreach your office in a very few minutes. I want nothing done in thematter! You understand! I will reach your office myself as soon aspossible—probably within fifteen minutes—and explain.”

The sentence ended with a bump, as Cuthbert Edwards slammed hisreceiver back upon its hook. The psychologist, who would haverecognized the name—even if not forewarned by the communication he hadreceived that morning—as the conservative head of one of the oldest andmost “exclusive” families of New England Puritan extraction, detachedthe sphygmograph from his wrist and drew toward him and reread thefantastic advertisement that had come to him inclosed in WintonEdwards’ letter. Apparently it had been cut from the classified columnsof one of the big dailies:

Eva: The seventeenth of the tenth! Sinceyou and your own are safe, do you become insensible that others nowagain wait in your place? And those that swing in the wind!Have you forgot? If you remember and are true, communicate. And you can helpsave them all! N. M. 15, 45, 11, 31; 7, 13, 32, 45; 13, 36.

The letter, to the first page of which the advertisement had beenpinned, was dated the same day he had received it, postmarked threeo’clock that morning, and written in the scrawling hand of a young manunder strong emotion:

Dear Sir: Before coming to consult you, Isend for your consideration the advertisement you will find inclosed.This advertisement is the one tangible piece of evidence of the amazingand inexplicable influence possessed by the “hammering man” over myfiancee, Miss Eva Silber. This influence has forced he

...

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!