Professor Augustus Van Dusen: 49 Detective Mysteries in One Edition. Jacques Futrelle

did you know husband and wife had quarrelled?” asked Hatch.

      “Surmise to account for her not knowing where he was,” replied The Thinking Machine. “If they had had a violent disagreement it was possible that he would have gone away without telling her, and she would not have been particularly worried, at least up to the time we saw her. As it was she presumed he was in Boston; perhaps Osaka here gave her that impression?”

      The Thinking Machine turned and stared at the Japanese curiously.

      “Is that correct?” he asked.

      Osaka did not answer.

      “And the motive?” asked Detective Mallory, at last.

      “Will you tell us just why you killed Mr. Dudley?” asked The Thinking Machine of the Japanese.

      “I will not,” exclaimed Osaka, suddenly. It was the first time he had spoken.

      “It probably had to do with a girl in Japan,” explained The Thinking Machine, easily. “The murder had been a long cherished project, such a one as revenge through love would have inspired.”

      It was a day or so later that Hutchinson Hatch called to inform The Thinking Machine that Osaka had confessed and had given the motive for the murder. It was not a nice story.

      “One of the most astonishing things to me,” Hatch added, “is the complete case of circumstantial evidence against Mrs. Dudley, beginning with the quarrel and leading to the application of the poison with her own hands. I believe she would have been convicted on the actual circumstantial evidence had you not shown conclusively that Osaka did it.”

      “Circumstantial fiddlesticks!” snapped The Thinking Machine. “I wouldn’t convict a yellow dog of stealing jam on circumstantial evidence alone, even if he had jam all over his nose.” He squinted truculently at Hatch for a moment. “In the first place well behaved dogs don’t eat jam,” he added more mildly.