第56章

"For a long time I have been studying hair, taking advantage of those excellent researches by M.Bertillon.Human hair is fairly uniform, tapering gradually.Under the microscope it is practically always possible to distinguish human hair from animal.I shall not go into the distinctions, but I may add that it is also possible to determine very quickly the difference between all hair, human or animal, and cotton with its corkscrew-like twists, linen with its jointed structure, and silk, which is long, smooth, and cylindrical."Again Kennedy paused as if to emphasise this preface."I have here," he continued, "a sample of hair." He had picked up a microscope slide that was lying on the table.It certainly did not look very thrilling - a mere piece of glass, that was all.But on the glass was what appeared to be merely a faint line."This slide," he said, holding it up, "has what must prove an unescapable clue to the identity of the man responsible for the disappearance of Miss Gilbert.I shall not tell you yet who he is, for the simple reason that, though I could make a shrewd guess, I do not yet know what the verdict of science is, and in science we do not guess where we can prove.

"You will undoubtedly remember that when Miss Gilbert's body was discovered, it bore no evidence of suicide, but on the contrary the marks of violence.Her fists were clenched, as if she had struggled with all her power against a force that had been too much for her.

I examined her hands, expecting to find some evidence of a weapon she had used to defend herself.Instead, I found what was more valuable.Here on this slide are several hairs that I found tightly grasped in her rigid hands."I could not help recalling Kennedy's remark earlier in the case - that=20it hung on slender threads.Yet how strong might not those threads prove!

"There was also in her pocketbook a newspaper clipping bearing the advertisements of several clairvoyants," he went on."Mr.Jameson and myself had already discovered what the police had failed to find, that on the morning of the day on which she disappeared Miss Gilbert had made three distinct efforts, probably, to secure books on clairvoyance.Accordingly, Mr.Jameson and myself have visited several of the fortune-tellers and practitioners of the occult sciences in which we had reason to believe Miss Gilbert was interested.They all, by the way, make a specialty of giving advice in money matters and solving the problems of lovers.I suspect that at times Mr.Jameson has thought that I was demented, but I had to resort to many and various expedients to collect the specimens of hair which I wanted.From the police, who used Mr.Lawton's valet, I received some hair from his head.Here is another specimen from each of the advertisers, Hata, the Swami, the Pandit, and the Guru.

There is just one of these specimens which corresponds in every particular of colour, thickness, and texture with the hair found so tightly grasped in Miss Gilbert's hand."As Craig said this I could feel a sort of gasp of astonishment from our little audience.Still he was not quite ready to make his disclosure.

"Lest I should be prejudiced," he pursued evenly, "by my own rather strong convictions, and in order that I might examine the samples without fear or favour, I had one of my students at the laboratory take the marked hairs, mount them, number them, and put in numbered envelopes the names of the persons who furnished them.But before I open the envelope numbered the same as the slide which contains the hair which corresponds precisely with that hair found in Miss Gilbert's hand - and it is slide No.2 - " said Kennedy, picking out the slide with his finger and moving it on the table with as much coolness as if he were moving a chessman on a board instead of playing in the terrible game of human life, "before I read the name I have still one more damning fact to disclose."Craig now had us on edge with excitement, a situation which Isometimes thought he enjoyed more keenly than any other in his relentless tracing down of a criminal.

"What was it that caused Miss Gilbert's death?" asked Kennedy."The coroner's physician did not seem to be thoroughly satisfied with the theory of physical violence alone.Nor did I.Some one, I believe, exerted a peculiar force in order to get her into his power.What was that force? At first I thought it might have been the hackneyed knock-out drops, but tests by the coroner's physician eliminated that.Then I thought it might be one of the alkaloids, such as morphine, cocaine, and others.But it was not any of the usual things that was used to entice her away from her family and friends.

>From tests that I have, made I have discovered the one fact necessary to complete my case, the drug used to lure her and against which she fought in deadly struggle."He placed a test tube in a rack before us."This tube," he continued, "contains one of the most singular and, among us, least known of the five common narcotics of the world - tobacco, opium, coca, betel nut, and hemp.It can be smoked, chewed, used as a drink, or taken as a confection.In the form of a powder it is used by the narghile smoker.As a liquid it can be taken as an oily fluid or in alcohol.Taken in any of these forms, it literally makes the nerves walk, dance, and run.It heightens the feelings and sensibilities to distraction, producing what is really hysteria.