The happy accident of an acquaintance with the existence of these wireless
messages and this personal enmity gave you a manifest but artificial
advantage in the construction of your hypothesis."
"Did I not see you in the corridor of the Atlas Building the day of the
first electrical failure?" asked Darrow.
"Certainly."
"Then you had just as much to go on as I did," drawled Darrow, half
closing his eyes. The long dark lashes fell across his cheek, investing him
in his most harmless and effeminate look.
"I fail to--"
"Yes, you fail, all right," interrupted Darrow. "You had all the strings in
your hands, but you were a mile behind me in the solution of this mystery.
I'll tell you why: it was for the same reason that you're going to fail a
second time, now that once again I've put all the strings in your hands."
"I must confess I fail to gather your meaning," said Professor Eldridge
coldly.
"It was for the same reason that always until his death you were inferior
to dear old Doctor Schermerhorn as a scientist. You are an almost perfect
thinking machine."
Darrow quite deliberately lighted a cigarette, flipped the match into the
grate, and leaned back luxuriously. Professor Eldridge sat bolt upright,
waiting. Helen Warford watched them both.
"You have no humanity; you have no imagination," stated Darrow at last.
"You follow the dictates of rigid science, and of logic.
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