justing the needle or removing the record. He was certainly an ingenious craftsman, for he fitted a strong hinge to one end of the iron plate, and a spring lock to the other end, with a powerful spring underneath the plate. These he connected with a small electric battery which he concealed in his own room. Briefly, the effect of these arrangements was that Vayne could turn a switch in his room and electrify the wires in the vase, which released, when they made a contact through the vibration of the vase, the lock holding the iron floor plate in position.
"When the music ceased the vibration subsided, and the spring then replaced the iron plate, which was held in position by the spring lock. Meanwhile, the person standing on the plate at the time was thrown down to this stone floor. If death was not immediate—as in Vayne's case, for he has broken his neck—it was almost certain that severe injuries would result, and the victim would, unable to move, die of hunger and thirst.
"So far I have shown you Vayne as a clever and cold-blooded scoundrel; let me now show you a redeeming feature in his character.
"When he knew that Martin was about to go out for some considerable time, he told him of the record he had got. Knowing Martin's fondness for music, he forsaw that when his colleague returned to his room he would probably try the record at once. If not, he would certainly do so after dinner, when he came back. He slipped into Martin's room and placed the record on the gramophone, and returned to his own room, where he turned the switch controlling the current.
"All was now prepared. The record was an excellent one, as you heard, and had the peculiarity Vayne needed: it concluded with a fortissimo B flat. That note was the note which produced the greatest vibration in the vase.
"Vayne probably intended to leave his room and go to a distant part of the works in order to have a convincing alibi in the unlikely event of his being suspected of complicity in Martin's disappearance, but before he could do so he was amazed to hear the sound of the gramophone in Martin's room. After hesitating for some moments, as I calculate, he stole along the corridor and peeped in. To his horror, he saw Miss Carfax standing in front of the instrument, ready to lift the needle as soon as the piece of music concluded. In a flash he saw what had happened, and at the same time he realized that there was no time for explanations. I think he must have known that he could not himself escape a terrible death if he were to save the girl, and perhaps in that moment the awfulness of the crime he had contemplated came home to him.
"Without hesitation, he sprang across the room and hurled Miss Carfax away from the fatal spot; when she recovered, he had met the fate he had designed for her lover."
He paused, and for some moments there was a dead silence.
Then John Martin took the torch from Paul's hand and threw its beam on the white face of the dead man.
"God forgive him!" he said huskily.
The four men silently climbed the ladder and went out into the sunshine of a living world.
World-Famed "Blue Man" Dies
FRED WALTERS, whose bright blue skin made him a sumptuous living for many years as a "freak," died in Bellevue hospital, New York, the other day from heart disease.
Physicians at the institution made a careful examination of Walters' body and discovered to their amazement that not only his skin, but all his organs and tissues, including brain, heart and muscles, were of the same brilliant color.
The coloring, according to doctors, was due to argyria and chronic silver poisoning. Some forty years ago Walter is said to have worked in a silver mine in Australia. If the report is correct it is probable that while at the mine Walters breathed into his body nitrate of silver, which turned him blue.
Walters is survived by his widow and a six-year-old daughter. He was an officer in the Seventeenth regiment, Duke of Cambridge's own Lancers, and saw extensive service in India. In maneuvers he was thrown and his horse fell on him. A theory expressed by European scientists was that this fall was responsible for his coloring. Prof. Verscher, of Berlin, after a thorough examination, said he believed the coloring was caused by the opening of a small valve in the heart, caused by the shock when the horse fell on Walters' chest. The valve known as the foramen overale was said to be damaged so that the circulation of blood was impeded and the venous blood mixed with the arterial.
