Part 62 (1/2)
Kennedy took the little chubby fingers playfully in his own. He seemed at once to win the child's confidence, though he may have violated scientific rules. One by one he pressed the little fingers on the paper, until little Morton crowed with delight as one little piggy after another ”went to market.” He had deserted thousands of dollars'
worth of toys just to play with the simple piece of paper Kennedy had brought with him. As I looked at him, I thought of what Kennedy had said at the start. Perhaps this innocent child was not to be envied after all. I could hardly restrain my excitement over the astounding situation which had suddenly developed.
”That will do,” announced Kennedy finally, carelessly folding up the paper and slipping it into his pocket. ”You must excuse me now.”
”You see,” he explained on the way to the laboratory, ”that powder adheres to fresh finger prints, taking all the gradations. Then the paper with its paraffine and glycerine coating takes off the powder.”
In the laboratory he buried himself in work, with microscope compa.s.ses, calipers, while I fumed impotently at the window.
”Walter,” he called suddenly, ”get Dr. Maudsley on the telephone. Tell him to come immediately to the laboratory.”
Meanwhile Kennedy was busy arranging what he had discovered in logical order and putting on it the finis.h.i.+ng touches.
As Dr. Maudsley entered Kennedy greeted him and began by plunging directly into the case in answer to his rather discourteous inquiry as to why he had been so hastily summoned.
”Dr. Maudsley,” said Craig, ”I have asked you to call alone because, while I am on the verge of discovering the truth in an important case affecting Morton Hazleton and his wife, I am frankly perplexed as to how to go ahead.”
The doctor seemed to shake with excitement as Kennedy proceeded.
”Dr. Maudsley,” Craig added, dropping his voice, ”is Morton III the son of Millicent Hazleton or not? You were the physician in attendance on her at the birth. Is he?”
Maudsley had been watching Kennedy furtively at first, but as he rapped out the words I thought the doctor's eyes would pop out of his head.
Perspiration in great beads collected on his face.
”P--professor K--Kennedy,” he muttered, frantically rubbing his face and lower jaw as if to compose the agitation he could so ill conceal, ”let me explain.”
”Yes, yes--go on,” urged Kennedy.
”Mrs. Hazleton's baby was born--dead. I knew how much she and the rest of the family had longed for an heir, how much it meant. And I--subst.i.tuted for the dead child a newborn baby from the maternity hospital. It--it belonged to Veronica Haversham--then a poor chorus girl. I did not intend that she should ever know it. I intended that she should think her baby was dead. But in some way she found out.
Since then she has become a famous beauty, has numbered among her friends even Hazleton himself. For nearly two years I have tried to keep her from divulging the secret. From time to time hints of it have leaked out. I knew that if Hazleton with his infatuation of her were to learn---”
”And Mrs. Hazleton, has she been told?” interrupted Kennedy.
”I have been trying to keep it from her as long as I can, but it has been difficult to keep Veronica from telling it. Hazleton himself was so wild over her. And she wanted her son as she---”
”Maudsley,” snapped out Kennedy, slapping down on the table the ma.s.s of prints and charts which he had hurriedly collected and was studying, ”you lie! Morton is Millicent Hazleton's son. The whole story is blackmail. I knew it when she told me of her dreams and I suspected first some such devilish scheme as yours. Now I know it scientifically.”
He turned over the prints.
”I suppose that study of these prints, Maudsley, will convey nothing to you. I know that it is usually stated that there are no two sets of finger prints in the world that are identical or that can be confused.
Still, there are certain similarities of finger prints and other characteristics, and these similarities have recently been exhaustively studied by Bertilion, who has found that there are clear relations.h.i.+ps sometimes between mother and child in these respects. If Solomon were alive, doctor, he would not now have to resort to the expedient to which he did when the two women disputed over the right to the living child. Modern science is now deciding by exact laboratory methods the same problem as he solved by his unique knowledge of feminine psychology.
”I saw how this case was tending. Not a moment too soon, I said to myself, 'The hand of the child will tell.' By the very variations in unlike things, such as finger and palm prints, as tabulated and arranged by Bertillon after study in thousands of cases, by the very loops, whorls, arches and composites, I have proved my case.
”The dominancy, not the ident.i.ty, of heredity through the infinite varieties of finger markings is sometimes very striking. Unique patterns in a parent have been repeated with marvelous accuracy in the child. I knew that negative results might prove nothing in regard to parentage, a caution which it is important to observe. But I was prepared to meet even that.
”I would have gone on into other studies, such as Tammasia's, of heredity in the veining of the back of the hands; I would have measured the hands, compared the relative proportion of the parts; I would have studied them under the X-ray as they are being studied to-day; I would have tried the Reichert blood crystal test which is being perfected now so that it will tell heredity itself. There is no scientific stone I would have left unturned until I had delved at the truth of this riddle. Fortunately it was not necessary. Simple finger prints have told me enough. And best of all, it has been in time to frustrate that devilish scheme you and Veronica Haversham have been slowly unfolding.”
Maudsley crumpled up, as it were, at Kennedy's denunciation. He seemed to shrink toward the door.