"My hand, Professor, which--" Professor Brierly's ire was rising. "John--" "Oh, you mean my hand, Professor. I guess I broke a metacarpal bone. That bird had a hard jaw. Too bad I didn't use my foot," he said, regretfully. "You're a savage young man," blared the old man. "Such instincts are--" "Shall we say--er--primitive," suggested Jimmy. Chapter XIV Hite rose from his seat and laid down his pipe when Jimmy led the little man into the busy city room, a mark of respect Hite rarely showed any one. After greetings were exchanged, Hite led the way into the office of the managing editor, who had not yet arrived. Seeing the little scientist seated, Hite growled: "Well?" "Thank you for the opportunity to investigate this, Mr. Hite. This is one of the most interesting criminal inquiries I have ever conducted." "Were you up to Pleasantville, Professor?" "Yes, we are coming from there now." "Did you find anything?" "Yes, I found this." He took from a folded slip of paper the bit of frayed thread he had found in the telephone box. Hite looked from the bit of thread to the fine features of the man; he looked at the two young men who grinned at him. He said: "All right, Professor, I'll bite. What is this?" "Would you say, Mr. Hite, that this bit of thread belongs inside a properly constructed telephone box?" When Hite still looked at him in puzzled silence, Professor Brierly, with delicate precision, using a hook on a pen knife, picked the lock of the telephone box fastened to the managing editor's desk. "See, Mr. Hite. This box, wires, binding posts, terminals, and so forth, is identical with the box that was blown from a wall in the Flynn home in Pleasantville. On the bottom of this box you will find a number of holes; if you put your finger there you will feel them. Now, Mr. Hite, if you will examine this box carefully, you will find that there is no thread like this to be found. Indeed, you will not find any legitimate use for such a piece of thread in the box. And remember that this box locks and opens with a key owned by the man who installs the telephone. You noticed that I had to pick this lock. It looks like a screw head that opens with a screw driver, but it is not. "Now, Mr. Hite, suppose I wanted to blow you to kingdom come with a bomb and you lived in an isolated house situated like the late Mr. Flynn's. Here is the way I might do it. There are hundreds of other safe ways but this is one of them. "I should enter the house in your absence. I should place my bomb and run a fuse from the bomb to one of the holes in this telephone box. I should tie the clapper of the bell down in the box with a bit of weak thread, a bit of thread like this, Mr. Hite." He held up the bit of gray thread and continued: