Evening Star Newspaper, October 23, 1930, Page 35

The Scarab Case By S. S. Van Dine Copyright, 1930, by 8. 8. Van Dine. INSTALLMENT XI. (FRIDAY, JULY 13; 1:30 P.M.) ANI joined us a few moments later. “I am at your service, b4 tlemen,” he announced, I g8 from one to the other of us iliously. 'ance liad already drawn up & sec- | Egyp! ond chair beside the one on which he stood during his inspection of the . “Would you be so amiabl on this chair and point out to me exactly where you set the statue of Sakhmet yesterday?” I was watching Hani closely, and I his - eyebrows Awkwardly, because of his long flow- ing kaftan, Hanl mounted one of the chairs and Vance stepped upon the e Egypiian squinted for a moment n sq &t the top of the cabinet, and then ted & bony finger to & spot near the edge, exactly half-way across the 2)2- foot. ning 3 8. “Just here, effendi,” he said. “If you look closely you can see where the base ©of Sakhmet disturbed the dust . . .” “Oh, quite.” Vance, though in an at- titude of concentration, was neverthe- less studying Hani's face. “But if one Jooks even more closely one can see other disturbances in the dust.” ‘;-nu , perhaps, from yonder win- Vance chuckled. “Blason ist nicht floten, ihr musst-die Pinger bewegen—to quote Goethe figur- . . . . Your explanation, Hani, 18 a bit too poetic.” He indicated a point mear the mx at the edge of _the cabinet. “I doubt if even your sim- moon—or, &s you may prefer to call it, samum (I am not quite sure why Vance added this parenthetical phrase, unless it was because the word simoon comes from the Arabic samma, meaning to be poisoned, and he thought that Hani would better recognize the word in its al form)—could have made that scratch at the of the statue’s base, what? . . . , it may be, you set down the statue with undue violence.” “It 15 possible, of course—though not correct etymologic: . . . Looks to me like they'd been made by some guy who'd lifted up this statue. Belh?l‘lnd! show around the ankles. . .. Pass me the camera, Bellamy.” Bliss had paid. scant heed to the en- trance of the fingerprint men, but when Hani had begun to he had roused himself from his despondent lethargy and concentrated his attention on the '3..'«"":‘ ‘Then, 'hznotl)ubou hld“l:; noun e presence nnfipun had stared, with terrible intentness, at the statue. A startling change come over him. He was like a man in the ip of some consuming fear, and be- Dubois had finished he leaped to his feet and stood in a frozen attitude of stark terror. “God help mel!” he cried, and the cound of his voice sent a chill over me, “These are my fingerprints on that statue!” The effect of this admission was dumfounding. Even Vance seemed , | momentarily shaken out of his habit- ual claim, and going to & small stand- ard ashtray he abstractedly crushed out his cigarette, though he had smoked less than half of it. Heath was the first to break the elec- tric silence that followed Bliss’ of anguish. He took his dead l:lgl’ m his lips and thrust out his chin. “‘Sure, they're your rprints!” he snapped unpleasantly. “Who else’s would ey “Just a moment, sergeant!” Vance: bhad wholly recovered himself, and his Fingerprints can pe y know. And a few digital signatures on a lethal weapon don’t mean that their author is neces- sarily a murderer. It's most important, d’ ye see, to ascertain when and under wl.:;c circumstances the signatures were made.” He approached Bliss, who had re- mained staring at the statue of Sakhmet like & stricken man. “I say, doctor”—he had assumed an easy, offhand manner—“how do you know these fingerprints are yours?” “How do I know?” Bliss repeated the gu".lon in a resigned, colorless tone. e appeared to have aged before our very eyes, and his white, sunken cheeks made him resemble a death’s head. & use—oh, my God! Because I made them! . . . I made them last night— or, rather, early this morning, before I turned in. I took hold of the statue— around the ankles—exactly where that gentleman says there are the marks of two hands.” Hgo N o ‘And how did you that, doctor?” Vance quietly. “I did it without thought—I'd even forgotten do it_till the ts ‘were ment L Bl ly.! “No, not likely—considerin’ your su- | rish rstitious reverence for the leonine myf’ ‘Vance descended from his perch. “However, Sakhmet seems to have been standing on the very edge of the cabi- net, directly in the center, when Mr. the new 3 Bliss, tragedy and in HZ 1 mm:’m a of com| - lessness, mrommm»&m ear] Iezmdownhen!omemuuum. rd told Kyle about the new shipment and ‘wanted every- i - | tions, results of which were announced “There ain’t much of & job for here, captain,” Heath interrupted m Eflell’le'.elr “The only cl up on is that laying there.” Dubois at once become seriously pro- fessional. “That won't take long,” he muttered, over the diorite figure of “What might 1t be, sergeant? ~one of this works of art $hat don't mean anything?” “It don’t mean anything to me,” the sergeant “‘unless you can find some nice identifiable prints on it.” Dubols grunted and snapped his fin- toward his assistant. Bellamy, who I want you lack statute and the Eflm- carefully lifed the statue and glued 1t upright on the seat of a chair. he reached in the nandl d took out an insuffator, or tiny bellows, and 'gu!!ed a fine pale-saffron ler over the entire figure. Followis operation; he gently blew away the us powder, and fixing a jew- eler'’s on his eye, knelt down and made a close. inspection of every part of the statue. Hani had watched the performance with the keenest interest. He had slowly moved forward towardthe fingerprint men until now he stood within a few feet of them. His eyes were concen- trated on their labors, and his hands, ;"hlch hung at his sides, were tightly xed. “You'll find no fingerprints of mine power, no human hands are needed to assist her in her acts of jus- Heath threw the Egyptian a glance of scathing contempt. but Vance turned in his direction with a considerable show of 1 terest. “How do you know, Hani.” he asked, *“that your -manuals will not appear on the statue? 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