tter test. Now the gorilla was, of course, out of the
question--this was no Rue Morgue murder. Therefore it was the negro
waiter."

"But," I interrupted, "the negro offered a perfect alibi at the start,
and--"

"No buts, Walter. Here's a telegram I received at dinner:
'Congratulations. Confronted Jackson your evidence as wired.
Confessed.'"

"Well, Craig, I take off my hat to you," I exclaimed. "Next you'll be
solving this Kerr Parker case for sure."

"I would take a hand in it if they'd let me," said he simply.

That night, without saying anything, I sauntered down to the imposing
new police building amid the squalor of Center Street. They were very
busy at headquarters, but, having once had that assignment for the Star,
I had no trouble in getting in. Inspector Barney O'Connor of the Central
Office carefully shifted a cigar from corner to corner of his mouth as I
poured forth my suggestion to him.

"Well, Jameson," he said at length, "do you think this professor fellow
is the goods?"

I didn't mince matters in my opinion of Kennedy. I told him of the Price
case and showed him a copy of the telegram. That settled it.

"Can you bring him down here to-night?" he asked quickly.

I reached for the telephone, found Craig in his laboratory finally, and
in less than an hour he was in the office.

"This is a most bating case, Professor Kennedy, this case of Kerr
Parker," said the inspector, launching at once into his subject. "Here
is a broker heavily interested in Mexican rubber. It looks like a good
thing--plantations right in the same territory as those of the Rubber
Trust. Now in addition to that he is branching out into coastwise
steamship lines; another man associated with him is heavily engaged in
a railway scheme from the United States down into Mexico. Altogether the
steamships and railroads are tapping rubber, oil, copper, and I don't
know what other regions. Here in New York they have been pyramiding
stocks, borrowing money from two trust companies which they control.
It's a lovely scheme--you've read about it, I suppose. Also you've read
that it comes into competition with a certain group of capitalists whom
we will call 'the System.'

"Well, this depression in the market comes along. At once rumours are
spread about the weakness of the trust companies; runs start on both of
them. The System,--you know them--make a great show of supporting the
market. Yet the runs continue. God knows whether they will