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"He was fully eight feet from the casement, so that the assassin could not have reached in and struck him There were no footprints by the , as the assassin had strapped small boards upon his feet It is most likely, therefore, that he has soht best to conceal He is about five feet five inches tall, weighs about one hundred and thirty-five pounds, and steps three or four inches longer when the right foot is thrown forward than he does when the left foot leads We have a cast of the assassin's hand showing un the nails, with the exception of that of the little finger, which nail, by the way, is abnor, and could only have been spared for soner His handwriting would indicate this even if we did not know, from the books he read, how conversant he is with at least one foreign tongue Again, he has some decided interest in the subject of cancers and, perhaps, soe from his perusal of Robert Houdin's book
"There are one or two other things I have learned, but this, so far as any present effect is concerned, is about all we know, and it doesn't seem to make the conduct of our search a very easy matter We have clearly to deal with a , but, I have reason to believe, with one who has education and culture, and, if anything can be judged froth of character as well If we could only find some motive! No one but a maniac would do such a deed without a motive, yet we can't find one A ht of that What do you think of the idea? 'Though this be madness, yet there is method in't,' eh?"
I told hily "Madness, to be sure, is often exceedingly cunning," I said, "but it is hardly capable of such sustained masterfulness as our criminal has evinced"
"Look here, Doc," Maitland said, breaking out suddenly, "I've an idea Might not this fellow's interest in cancers be due to his having one himself? Suppose you make a canvass of the specialists on cancer in Boston and vicinity, and see if any of the the description hich I will provide you In addition to this I will insert an ad in the papers calling attention to a newall interested to call at your office for further particulars The plan does not pro him What do you say?"