Show the Z SYNOPSIS landia Lai idla young inventor in tho the little town of carthage has ban dove deve bope d an extraordinary af ordinary chancer nH 11 ancer acer 1 I which h ach is if a etolin texar ian from a mate a in his big laboratory landav tells tella wally XI grham his hd chum the th only ath per er ton son beside himself knowling the co combination m ol of the sar 1 otty betty 11 L awson daughter dau of a college assor with whom tits tb inventor In is 1 in love CHAPTER 11 II continued 2 naturally markhum agreed rather too readily adding iian As you say may betty probably forgot the figures as aa fast as you yon called them off to her bar so bo far as that goes there to la now and then an expert who can open a simple lock like this by putting an ear car against tho the door and listening for the sound of the tumblers no AS they come around into place the tha question Is who did it in this particular instance there to ial one tiling thing certain wally whoever opened the safe knew what was waa to in it im convinced of that which means that the thing thine I 1 feared eared most has come to pass tho the thief knows what the block box will do and it will he be used to swell awell the SUM bum total ot of crime in this crime ridden day I 1 markhum barrham straightened up and as an he did so BO he found himself facing the window directly over the laboratory bench dont you shut that window at night he naked 1 I it V la is left shut all the tha time excepting on an hot days and it ts Is always fastened tit nt night na as you see bee it now IT yes es I 1 see the fastening but look berel pointing aee this crack between the two sashes gashes that Is where your spy has boon been listening in suppose wo we go outside and see flee if he left it a clew of any sort gorf the clew or a clew was there ft a doop deep footprint in the soft soil boll under the window most it had bad boon been made by it a womans comans shoe 1 I say ny owen athla thickens things up a bit it said eald markham Markh nm 1 I saw a magnifying glass on your bench just now go get it will you yon landis was bade back in it a few seconds with the glass and marcham studied the footprint when he looked up dp it was to bay youve got pretty nearly r everything in this lunk junk thop shop of 0 yours owen does the list include a handful or vo BO of plaster of parts why yes I 1 use usa it sometimes for maling making ninnel casting molds mold 11 1111 night glit wet up UD a pound or so and bring it here I 1 landl lacals s obeyed ind and wh when n the plaster came markham poured it into the footprint and left ajo 1 fo set ct so much for a he ha said aa he got aion upon his hl feet when that pa plaster titer sets well havo have A cast of the adys fostor shoe 1 I cant see what you hope to do with that plaster cast landis demurred Inu after they had bad returned to the laboratory A womans comans slice shoe any shoe for that matter would have thousands of duplicates tho the footprint Is a clew it a slender blender one ill admit lint ant still it a view clew the plaster cast will preserve lt it for whatever it may inny be worth which may be just nothing at all lets dig out a few more details if we can W wag as the door locker when you yon came he hers re this morning it was I 1 but that proves nothing it hns bno only tin an ordinary lode which anybody could pick with a bit of bent wire sure letting getting into a building tiny any bullying bull dIng 13 the easiest part of a burglars job y you on think theroman the woman who mado made the footprint wits was the burglar as an well na as the As aa to that its all guesswork of conroe Alari marcham charn asserted but one of my guesses Is that the woman whose footprint we are embalming the spy what ever else she sha may have been fw the position ot the print for one thing it was ran made de by the left foot and tt it la Is parallel 1 with the he house wall and not at right mirles angles to tn it as an it t would have been it if the owner of the toot foot hod had been facing the tha war window low apart from this it was waa made by it a person wading not standing still or im guessing tt it was it la Is deeper per tit nt the heel beel than at tho the tall ball of the foot what have you been doing wally reading rending sherlock te not quite that markham Marte haro dented denied wl with th a grin just one of my little sideshows that footprint war made by somebody coming from the alley through the passage between this shack aback and the fence walking and not stopping under the window Is there a 8 gate ent in the alley fence there la Is yes TA lets Ls go and have ik ft look at it it together they went around to tit the alley gate it was properly hooked still as markham pointed out ibis meant nothing since the book cwill ve bt reached from the outside for its it replacement upon opening the gate ate and stepping I 1 into the alley they edme upon more footprints la which a mans were interwoven with those thosa of the woman and the track back of an automobile how about these thesel markham askel asked who uses the alley for a driveway T nobody that I 1 know knew of all the houses bouses in both streets have driveway from the front both for their own autos end and for coal deliveries anil and the like allie all right then we may venture another guess your thief talef or rather thieves Ih levea for wo we know now dow there were at least two ot of them a man mail and a by francis lyndo lynda by bl 0 irwin alyerd copy sight by willis gerard ch woman came hero in a car got oat passed through the gato gate and went through tho the passage on their way to the shop door any objections none at all that I 1 can see hut but why were there two of them wally why would a crook double his risk by fetching a woman along that la Is the mystery or nt at least one of them or wait maybe the woman went lo in alone lets see about that A careful examination proved that the man and the woman had bad gone to in together and that the tha man had walked on the womans comans right and tn in the weeds which accounted for the fact that ills his tracks were indistinct by this time the plaster cast had hardened sufficiently to permit its removal and handling and they took it into the laboratory and dried it slowly in the glow of the electric stove when the cast was quite dry and hard mark ham made a close examination of the sole of the plaster copied shoe what are you looking for landis wanted to know see that faint line across the ball of the foot yes I 1 can see it without the ane gi glass ase flood now all we have to do la Is to find a woman whose left shoe Is Y youra a dear wally always alway a dearl wark marked edIn in tho the same way and wo we have at least one of your two housebreakers ers troubled as lie he was landis had to of course ho said just juat as easy its aa I 1 there are only some twenty or awen twenty y five thousand people in carthage rind and only a due proportion of that number of women do we swear out mcana warrants and make every woman in n town produce her shoes well returned good pe wo we shall seo see what we shall see am meanwhile well preserve this bit of circumstantial evidence putting the tha plaster cast into hla bla pocket you notified the police of your loss have you no the only thins thing ive done was to call you up 11 sensible senal ble let it continue to be the only thing for the present if you yon should pull the he police in yond have to tell them what was stolen describe the black box and rive give it a name if you yon should do that be set down as a lunatic or a liar th the a thing to do Is to sit tight in tie abe boat and wait something mcky may turn up if we dont roll the water too basally dont you agree with roo me 1 I guess so said paid landis with the air of one who to Is still finding it dim cult to bring calm cairn judgment to bear til ill do as you yon advise but the waiting Is going to be desperately hard keep beep in touch wont youl you surest thing you yon knowl know I 1 markham returned heartily and anil with that he blurted his motor and drove away CHAPTER III betty betta lawson upon leaving the landig place birb ham drove to a florists shop and got the box bor of congratulatory roses for which he hart bad telephoned tent morning with the box on the ho seat beside him he ha headed his car for the grounds of one of the oldest institutions for learning in the tha middle west tie been entirely franic with landis be in the and tho the renson reason tor for the dated back to a rame game of rolf golf tit ot the country club a round played wibb betty lawson on a drizzly day when abey had bad both finished with damp clothes and wet feet after the pame game he had urged hetty betty to let him drive her home quickly tor for a change but she had refused to be hurr hurried led there was a cheerful open fire tn in the club lounge and fifty had sat for a time before this toasting their feet st at the blaze lie he remembered that betty had bad rested her feet on tho the hot fender and he had told fold her she ehi would burn the soles of her shoes she had bad burned one of them tha left one he had seen the mark when ha ahe lifted her foot to feel if the shoe shod were getting too hot bot TWO this small circumstance was a gum enn clent reason for the drive out one to the college campus it if landis had not admitted that he be had shown betty how to work the combination of the laboratory safe the mere fact that the ma magnifying glass had shown a faint line running across the ball of the foot in the soft sol soil trap imprint r int under landis window win d 0 v have suggested the thought of connecting betty with tha th disappearance of the black box bul the telltale mark added to landie ad mission seemed to leave little roon room tor for doubt though even with the evidence thus all but conclusive the thing was blankly incredible As he let the blue roadster amble along toward the college suburb mark bam tried to convince himself or of the absurdity of the circumstantial evidence conclusion first it involved t trie 11 a assumption that instead of going dt dl erectly home after the play betty had delayed her return for at least an aa hour since it was nearly midnight bei fore the black box had been lockel up in the laboratory safe again the that automobile track and the double set of footprints in the alley proved that two persons were concerned and if betty were the woman canby must have been the man since h he e w waa a is 11 her er escort for the evening reaching this point markhan markham told blin himself self that the thing was waa blankly unbelievable betty might play a trick on owen but that she would make a man her accomplice was waa ridiculously incredible also there was tho the matter of the fire marked shoe would betty have worn a pair of golf shoes to the theater markham weighted the probabilities for and against and the had it by an overwhelming majority no ile parked tits hla car in front of the lawson house and ran up the steps with the box under hla his arm when the maid came to answer hla his ring he wits was told that miss betty had gone across the campus on an errand for her father and would be back in a few minutes would he ha come tn in and wait lie ile would and did and after the maid had shown him into the parlor and had gone back to her work a masterful temptation assailed him with botty betty who was her fathers thera ta housekeeper out of the way and the tha professor busy with his classes in th the nearby near by college buildings he knew b ha was alone tn in tho the house save fo for r the tha maid lie ile knew which one of th tha upper rooms was bettys betty s at th tha prompting of an impulse quite as aa lawless Us as ole one bettys or an othera that had led to tho the burglarizing of landis safe afe he be ran rapidly up the stairs to the floor above lie ile hoped lie he might find the door of bettys chamber standing open and it was waa feeling more like a sneak thief than anything else elie he went in ill thera was a pair of shoes standing beside the dressing chair were they the shops shoes she had worn to and from the theater changing of course when sho she costumed tor for her part on the stage lie 1710 was afraid they were and he wished sho she had put thorn them away hidden them so that he find them since sho she he picked up the left shoe and examined the sole it not only bore the telltale crease across the ball of the foot to the concaved con caved front of the low heel adhered it a visible trace of the black soil boll of the landis back yard not to fo leave the smallest chance of he be took tho the plaster cast from his bis pocket and compared it with the shoe sole sola the marks were identical while he was wishing heartily that he could discredit the evidence ot or ills his own eyes he be happened to glance out 0 of f the window and saw the owner of the accusing shoe tripping across the campus toward the house in frantic haste ho he replaced the tha shoe be ida its mate pocketed tho the cast and dashed down the stairs and into tho the parlor a breathless moment before he heard betty fitting her key bey into the tha latch of the hall door if I 1 need in an excuse for this early morning brash here it Is lie wild fia ing her ber the tha congratulatory box 1 I 1 wonted wanted to be first in the field 11 oh how perfectly gorgeous 01 she cried when the box was opened youre a dear wally always a dear I 1 why some nice girl find it out and mates make away with you exactly what ive asked myself dozens of times he laughed nut cut while theres therea life theres hope now are you feeling otter after last nights glo ele oh wap it a struggle kle did it look that way to youl you 7 what made you yon and owen take a stage singe box did yom yoa think you might be able to rattle mo and make me forget my lines sheer dev devotion otton he explained in al mock ock tenderness we wanted to be ba as near you as aa possible your tour work vas splendid not feeling any aftereffects at all hlll she dropped into a chair and passed her IIA liana n d over her forehead sit down for a few minutes wont you aftereffects after effects you yon say bayt ril rii admit it was wag a bit of a struggle last night I 1 had bad stage fright horribly at first and ana she went on telling him just how the th right fright complex had attacked her sitting opposite markham listened and as she talked the testimony of the circumstantial evidence became gull belll more unbelievable surely if she had taken the leading part in a burglary an hour alter after the tha play she coulta t sit there them chatting with him apparently without a single trace of belf mu con yet there was wa the accusing footprint under andas l workshop window and the confirmatory shoe hoe la in the room overhead you tou pretty tired the tb thing was waa he asked TO ax |