"My God!" he exclaimed excitedly, "this fellow is a master
criminal! He has actually made stencils or something of the sort
on which by some mechanical process he has actually forged the
hitherto infallible finger prints!"
I, too, bent over and studied the marks on the bust and those
Kennedy had made on the blotter to show Elaine.
THE FINGER PRINTS ON THE BUST WERE KENNEDY'S OWN.
CHAPTER II
THE TWILIGHT SLEEP
Kennedy had thrown himself wholeheartedly into the solution of the
mysterious Dodge case.
Far into the night, after the challenge of the forged finger
print, he continued at work, endeavoring to extract a clue from
the meagre evidence--the bit of cloth and trace of poison already
obtained from other cases, and now added the strange succession of
events that surrounded the tragedy we had just witnessed.
We dropped around at the Dodge house the next morning. Early
though it was, we found Elaine, a trifle paler but more lovely
than ever, and Perry Bennett themselves vainly endeavoring to
solve the mystery of the Clutching Hand.
They were at Dodge's desk, she in the big desk chair, he standing
beside her, looking over some papers.
"There's nothing there," Bennett was saying as we entered.
I could not help feeling that he was gazing down at Elaine a bit
more tenderly than mere business warranted.
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