"I should predetermine precisely the strength of the thread with relation to the resistance offered by the tied down bell clapper. I should know exactly how many times the operator would have to ring your telephone before the thread broke, say fourteen times. I should watch you from a convenient patch of woods. When you came home I would go to the nearest telephone and call your number. At the fourteenth ring, the clapper would break loose and strike a nail that discharges a blank cartridge that I had fastened with a small wooden block. The flare from the cartridge ignites the fuse I told you about and--" His open hands, palms upward, made an expressive gesture. Hite was staring at him in wide-eyed astonishment, his rugged jaws clenching his corn cob pipe until his muscles on the sides of his jaw stood out in ridges. He took the pipe slowly from his mouth. "Say, Professor, ain't you coverin' a little too much territory. Isn't that rather a bit--" Professor Brierly exploded into wrath. "You newspaper men!" he almost spat the words out. "You print the wildest, most improbable tales, stories that have no basis in fact or in logic. You print statements by charlatans, without taking the trouble to verify them. And here, when I give you the result of a simple scientific bit of reasoning, almost syllogistic in its scientific simplicity you--" Hite ducked, from the storm. He sent a ferocious scowl in the direction of the two young men who were grinning behind Professor Brierly's back. He held out a large gnarled hand placatingly: "Pardon me, Professor, but it does seem far--I mean--your logic is absolutely amazing. We who know you believe it, of course, but--" "Oh," said the old man mollified. "You shall have proof of course. We found evidence that a person stood in sight of the house in a patch of woods. A short distance from that is a filling station, where there is a public telephone. I took the name," he handed the city editor a slip of paper with the name of the filling station. "You have the means of finding such things out and verifying them. You have the exact time of the explosion. See if someone did not call Flynn's home at the time of the explosion without having the call completed." Hite punched a button on the desk. To the copy boy who popped his head into the office, he roared: "Send in Mac, George and Barney!" Three young men came into the office, greeted Jimmy and waited. His words coming like the staccato roar of a machine gun, Hite addressed the three: