I found a dull, barely discernible bruise mark, which I later
removed by a simple massage of the spot!"

Shirley closed his eyes, and passed his hand over his own chest--along
the armpits--behind his ears--he seemed to be mentally enumerating some
list of nerve centers. The physician observed him curiously.

"I have it, doctor! The sen-si-yao!"

"What do you mean?"

"The most powerful and secret of all the death-strokes of the Japanese
art of jiu-jitsu fighting. I paid two thousand dollars to learn the
course from a visiting instructor when I was in college. It was worth it
for this one occasion."

Shirley arose to his feet, and approached the other, touching his
shoulder.

"Stand up, if you please. Let me ask if this was the location of the
mark?"

The physician, interested in this new professional phase, readily
obeyed. One quick movement of Shirley's muscular hand, the thumb oddly
twisted and stiffened, and a sudden jab in the doctor's abdomen made
that gentleman gasp with pain. Shirley's expression was triumphant, but
the professor regarded him with an expression of terror.

"Oh! Ugh!--What-did-you-do-to me?" he murmured thickly, when he was at
last able to speak.

"Merely demonstrated the beginning of the death punch which I named.
That pressure if continued for half a minute would have been fatal."

"I wish you would teach me that," was the physician's natural request,
as he nodded with a wry face.

"Impossible, my dear sir, for I learned it, according to the Oriental
custom under the most sacred obligations of secrecy. One must advance
through the whole course, by initiatory degrees, before learning the
final mysteries of the samurais. Now, we have a working hypothesis. The
girls could never have accomplished this. One man and one alone must
have killed the three, although doubtless with confederates. Yamashino
assured me that there were only six men in this country who knew it
beside myself. We must find an Orientalist!"

Shirley paced the floor, but his meditations were interrupted by the
arrival of the Coroner and his physician. Van Cleft hurried into the
room with them, to present the doctor, who exchanged a formal greeting
with the men he had met twice before that week.

"A sad affair, Professor," observed the Coroner nervously, drinking in
with profound respect the magnificent surroundings which symbolized
the great wealth of which he secretly hoped to gain a tithing. "I trust
that, as usua