The Problem of Dressing Room A

Hatch was frankly startled. "How----" he began.

"Don't stop to talk--hurry!" commanded The Thinking Machine. "I will have a cab waiting when you come back. We must get to Springfield."

The newspaper man rushed away to obey orders. He didn't understand them at all. Studying men's eyes was not in his line; but he obeyed nevertheless. An hour and a half later he returned, to be thrust unceremoniously into a waiting cab by The Thinking Machine. The cab rattled away toward South Station, where the two men caught a train, just about to move out for Springfield. Once settled in their seats, the scientist turned to Hatch, who was nearly suffocating with suppressed information.

"Well?" he asked.

"I found out several things," the reporter burst out. "First, Miss Wallack's leading man, Langdon Mason, who has been in love with her for three years, bought the candy at Schuyler's in Springfield early Saturday evening before he went to the theater. He told me so himself