8. _Death in the Office_
Gifford could not have been shot at the time he called Fordney, as he was found with a bullet through his heart. The Professor’s theory was that Gifford wanted his death to appear as murder in order to protect his heavy insurance.
The heart does not lie. Alfieri.
9. _They Usually Forget Something_
The note, although misspelled, poorly expressed, and written by a seemingly illiterate hand, was punctuated properly, in two places. A semicolon and a comma would not have been used had the writer been an uneducated man.
Force of habit had betrayed him!
You write with ease to show your breeding, But easy writing’s curst hard reading. Sheridan.
10. _The Professor Gives a Lesson_
Cardoni said he saw the kidnapers around a table as he peered through the keyhole. Yale locks do not have keyholes.
Kelley was justified in throwing him out, don’t you think? The class found this an easy one—did you?
Since your eyes are so sharpe that you cannot onely looke through a milstone, but cleane through the minde. Lyly.
11. _Upstairs and Down_
The policeman ran through the hall and unlocked the kitchen door.
The doors to the porch and cellar were locked on the inside. Had the old lady committed suicide, she could not have locked the door leading to the hall from the outside.
The murderer, in leaving, locked this door and forgot to remove the key. The inevitable slip!
A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, like a man of sense. Bruyère.
12. _Class Day_
The student readily recognized the absurdity of the Professor’s story which he had given to his class to test their quick detection of a glaring inconsistency. If it must be explained, an orchestra under personal leadership does not play during the showing of a ‘talkie.’ Right?
Wit marries ideas lying far apart, by a sudden jerk of the understanding. Whipple.
13. _A Hot Pursuit_
Smith said he _ran_ after the burglar. Had he done so he could not have known the cellar window had been chiseled open. Therefore, his story was obviously faked.
A lie never lives to be old. Sophocles.
14. _A Question of Identity_
As Diana Lane was walking down the corridor with her back to Nora, it was impossible for the servant to know Diana was wearing her famous emerald pendant.
There is an alchemy of quiet malice by which women can concoct a subtle poison from ordinary trifles. Hawthorne.
15. _A Yachtsman’s Alibi_
As Picus said there was no breeze, the distress flag would have hung limp against the mast, and the Captain could not have seen, at that distance, whether or not the flag was upside down.
That’s all the Professor needed to determine the falsity of his alibi. However, Picus was a poor sailor. While the International Distress Signal is a flag flown upside down, it is by custom and regulation always flown at half-mast.
... And the sea charm’d into a calm so still That not a wrinkle ruffles her smooth face. Dryden.
16. _Murder at Coney Island_
Jasper said he found the woman sitting _up_ in the _middle_ of the chariot. The motion of the merry-go-round would have made it impossible for a dead body to remain upright in the middle of the chariot.
Sir, you are giving a reason for it; but that will not make it right.... Johnson.
17. _Too Clever_
The murderer tried to give the impression that Dawson had died before finishing the incriminating note. Had he written it and died before completing it, he could not have put the pen back in the tray where it was found.
In his effort to incriminate Lynch, the murderer had been too cautious. A costly oversight.
Man’s caution often into danger turns, And his guard falling crushes him to death. Young.
18. _Bloody Murder_
The Professor knew it was not suicide, because Thompson’s coat, which was flung _across_ the room, was blood-stained. Quite impossible if he had taken his own life.
Blood, though it sleep a time, yet never dies. Chapman.
19. _Death Back-Stage_
There were _no_ finger-prints on the gun which killed Claudia Mason. She could not have shot herself in the temple and then wiped off the revolver.
The murderer neglected to get her fingerprints on the gun.
A fool cannot be an actor, though an actor may act a fool’s part. Sophocles.
20. _An Easy Combination_
It would have been impossible for Fellows to have hastily dialed a number in the _dark_. Try it!
Haste trips up its own heels, fetters and stops itself. Seneca.
21. _A Modern Knight_
The fact that the bullet was found in the body and the only trace of its firing was the hole in the curtain _below_ the window-sill proved conclusively the shot could not have been fired from within the room.
Rocca entered at the moment his sister shot Chase from outside. Grabbing the gun from her hand, he chivalrously protected her.
But, friend, the thing is clear—speaks for itself. Aristophanes.
22. _The Jewel Robbery_
The butler said that, as he called for help, Dudley, a stranger, rushed in.
Owings had locked up before leaving and, therefore, Dudley could not have rushed in through a locked door. The robbery was obviously framed by Stuben and Dudley.
Absurdities die of self-strangulation. Haliburton.
23. _Before the Coroner’s Inquest_
Curry could not possibly have ‘looked up’ while rowing _upstream_ and seen the action he described which took place fifty yards _behind_ him.
The eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. Franklin.
24. _The Fifth Avenue Hold-Up_
Baldwin said, ‘Mr. Cross tried to call my attention to it [safe] with a jerk of his thumb’ at a time when Cross was unconscious. Obviously impossible. Baldwin was lying, which there was no reason for doing had he been innocent.
When all sins are old in us, and go upon crutches. Covetousness does but then lie in her cradle. Decker.
25. _Behind Locked Doors_
Kingston thought his boldness in calling attention to his own footprints in the carpet would distract Fordney’s attention from their significance.
The room had been locked for three months. Of the three men, only Watkins rushed into the room; Fordney and Kingston halting over the threshold. Therefore, the fact that Kingston’s footprints were found near the chair in which his uncle sat dead pointed directly to him as the murderer.
Cunning differs from wisdom As twilight from open day. Dr. Johnson.
26. _Lost at Sea_
It would have been impossible for Mrs. Rollins to have seen a man pick up from the deck the bag of diamonds. On a dark, moonless night at sea one literally cannot see his hand before his face.
The repose of darkness is deeper on the water than on the land. Victor Hugo.
27. _A Suave Gunman_
Taylor said the bandit wore a silver belt-buckle. This he could not have seen, for he stated: ‘As the robber passed through the door, he unbuttoned his coat and slipped the revolver in his back pocket.’
It would have been impossible for Taylor to have seen the man’s belt-buckle when his coat was buttoned.
As this statement was false, the rest of his account was disregarded by the Professor.
He draweth out the thread of his verbosity Finer than the staple of his argument. Shakespeare.
28. _Accidental Death_
Had the man’s injuries been caused only by being thrown through the windshield, there would have been no blood on the front seat of the car. Therefore, the Professor knew the blood on the seat had been caused by injuries to the man, with probable murderous intent, before he was thrown through the windshield.