All sorts of questions were pounding in Dr. Prescott's mind. Why did a young and beautiful woman desire-why was she anxious even-to sacrifice a perfectly healthy finger? What possible purpose would it serve to mar a hand which was as nearly perfect as any he had ever seen? Was it some insane caprice? Staring deeply into her steady, quiet eyes he could only be convinced of her sanity. Then what?
"No, madam," he said at last, vehemently, "I would not perform the operation for any sum you might mention, unless I was first convinced that the removal of that finger was absolutely necessary. That, I think, is all."
He arose as if to end the consultation. The woman remained seated and continued thoughtful for a minute.
"As I understand it," she said, "you would perform the operation if I could convince you that it was absolutely necessary?"
"Certainly," he replied promptly, almost eagerly. His curiosity was aroused. "Then it would come well within the range of my professional duties."
"Won't you take my word that it is necessary, and that it is impossible for me to explain why?"
"No. I must know why."
The woman arose and stood facing him. The disappointment had gone from her face now.
"Very well," she remarked steadily. "You will perform the operation if it is necessary, therefore if I should shoot the finger off, perhaps--?"
"Shoot it off?" exclaimed Dr. Prescott in amazement. "Shoot it off?"
"That is what I said," she replied calmly. "If I should shoot the finger off you would consent to dress the wound? You would make any necessary amputation?"
She held up the finger under discussion and looked at it curiously. Dr. Prescott himself stared at it with a sudden new interest.
"Shoot it off?" he repeated. "Why you must be mad to contemplate such a thing," he exploded, and his face flushed in sheer anger. "I-I will have nothing whatever to do with the affair, madam. Good day."
"I should have to be very careful of course," she mused, "but I think perhaps one shot would be sufficient, then I should come to you and demand that you dress it?"
There was a question in the tone. Dr. Prescott stared at her for a full minute then walked over and opened the door.
"In my profession, madam," he said coldly, "there is too much possibility of doing good and relieving actual suffering for me to consider this matter or discuss it further with you. There are three persons now waiting in the ante-room who need my services. I shall be compelled to ask you to excuse me."
"But you will dress the wound?" the woman insisted, undaunted by his forbidding tone and manner.
"I shall have nothing whatever to do with it," declared the surgeon, positively, finally. "If you need the services of any medical man permit me to suggest that it is an alienist and not a surgeon."
The woman didn't appear to take offence.
"Someone would have to dress it," she continued insistently. "I should much prefer that it be a man of undisputed skill-you I mean, therefore I shall call again. Good day."
There was a rustle of silken skirts and she was gone. Dr. Prescott stood for an instant gazing after her with frank wonder and annoyance in his eyes, his attitude, then he went back and sat down at the desk. The crinkled suede glove still lay where she had left it. He examined it gingerly then with a final shake of his head dismissed the affair and turned to other things.
Early next afternoon Dr. Prescott was sitting in his office writing when the door from the ante-room where patients awaited his leisure was thrown open and the young man in attendance rushed in.
"A lady has fainted, sir," he said hurriedly. "She seems to be hurt."
Dr. Prescott arose quickly and strode out. There, lying helplessly back in her chair with white face and closed eyes, was his visitor of the day before. He stepped toward her quickly then hesitated as he recalled their conversation. Finally, however, professional instinct, the desire to relieve suffering, and perhaps curiosity too, caused him to go to her. The left hand was wrapped in an improvised bandage through which there was a trickle of blood. He glared at it with incredulous eyes.
"Hanged if she didn't do it," he blurted angrily.
The fainting spell, Dr. Prescott saw, was due only to loss of blood and physical pain, and he busied himself trying to restore her to consciousness. Meanwhile he gave some hurried instructions to the young man who was in attendance in the ante-room.
"Call up Professor Van Dusen on the 'phone," he directed his assistant, "and ask him if he can assist me in a minor operation. Tell him it's rather a curious case and I am sure it will interest him."
It was in this manner that the problem of the superfluous finger first came to the attention of The Thinking Machine. He arrived just as the mysterious woman was opening her eyes to consciousness from the fainting spell. She stared at him glassily, unrecognizingly; then her glance wandered to Dr. Prescott. She smiled.
"I knew you'd have to do it," she murmured weakly.
After the ether had been administered for the operation, a simple and an easy one, Dr. Prescott stated the circumstances of the case to The Thinking Machine. The scientist stood with his long, slender fingers resting lightly on the young woman's pulse, listening in silence.
"What do you make of it?" demanded the surgeon.
The Thinking Machine didn't say. At the moment he was leaning over the unconscious woman squinting at her forehead. With his disengaged hand he stroked the delicately pencilled eye-brows several times the wrong way, and again at close range squinted at them. Dr. Prescott saw and seeing, understood.
"No, it isn't that," he said and he shuddered a little. "I thought of it myself. Her bodily condition is excellent, splendid."
It was some time later when the young woman was sleeping lightly, placidly under the influence of a soothing potion, that The Thinking Machine spoke of the peculiar events which had preceded the operation. Then he was sitting in Dr. Prescott's private office. He had picked up a woman's glove from the desk.
"This is the glove she left when she first called, isn't it?" he inquired.
"Yes."
"Did you happen to see her remove it?"
"Yes."
The Thinking Machine curiously examined the dainty, perfumed trifle, then, arising suddenly, went into the adjoining room where the woman lay asleep. He stood for an instant gazing down admiringly at the exquisite, slender figure; then, bending over, he looked closely at her left hand. When at last he straightened up it seemed that some unspoken question in his mind had been answered. He rejoined Dr. Prescott.
"It's difficult to say what motive is back of her desire to have the finger amputated," he said musingly. "I could perhaps venture a conjecture but if the matter is of no importance to you beyond mere curiosity I should not like to do so. Within a few months from now, I daresay, important developments will result and I should like to find out something more about her. That I can do when she returns to wherever she is stopping in the city. I'll 'phone to Mr. Hatch and have him ascertain for me where she goes, her name and other things which may throw a light on the matter."
"He will follow her?"
"Yes, precisely. Now we only seem to know two facts in connection with her. First, she is English."
"Yes," Dr. Prescott agreed. "Her accent, her appearance, everything about her suggests that."
"And the second fact is of no consequence at the moment," resumed The Thinking Machine. "Let me use your 'phone please."
Hutchinson Hatch, reporter, was talking.
"When the young woman left Dr. Prescott's she took the cab which had been ordered for her and told the driver to go ahead until she stopped him. I got a good look at her, by the way. I managed to pass just as she entered the cab and walking on down got into another cab which was waiting for me. Her cab drove for three or four blocks aimlessly, and finally stopped. The driver stooped down as if to listen to someone inside, and my cab passed. Then the other cab turned across a side street and after going eight or ten blocks pulled up in front of an apartment house. The young woman got out and went inside. Her cab went away. Inside I found out that she was Mrs. Frederick Chevedon Morey. She came there last Tuesday-this is Friday-with her husband, and they engaged--"
"Yes, I knew she had a husband," interrupted The Thinking Machine.
"-engaged apartments for three months. When I had learned this much I remembered your instructions as to steamers from Europe landing on the day they took apartments or possibly a day or so before. I was just going out when Mrs. Morey stepped out of the elevator and preceded me to the door. She had changed her clothing and wore a different hat.
"It didn't seem to be necessary then to find out where she was going for I knew I could find her when I wanted to, so I went down and made inquiries at the steamship offices. I found, after a great deal of work, that no one of the three steamers which arrived the day they took apartments brought a Mr. and Mrs. Morey, but one steamer on the day before brought a Mr. and Mrs. David Girardeau from Liverpool. Mrs. Girardeau answered Mrs. Morey's description to the minutest detail even to the gown she wore when she left the steamer-that is the same she wore when she left Dr. Prescott's after the operation."