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Speaker 1: The Problem of the Hidden Million by Jacques Foutrell. The

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gray hand of death had already left its ashen mark

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upon the wrinkled, venomous face of the old man, who

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lay huddled up in bed. Save for the feverishly brilliant eyes, cunning, vindictive, hateful,

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there seemed to be no spark of life in the

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aged form. The withered lips were mute, and the thin,

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yellow claw like hands lay helplessly outstretched on the white sheets.

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All physical power was gone. Only the brain remained doggedly alive.

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Two men and two women stood beside the death bed

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upon each and turned the glittering eyes rested with the merciless,

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unreasoning hatred of age. Crouched on the floor was a

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huge Saint Bernard dog, and on a perch across the

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room was a parrot, which screeched abominably. The gloom of

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the wretched little room was suddenly relieved by a ruddy sunbeam,

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which shot athwart the bed and lighted the scene fantastically.

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The old man noted it, and his lips curled into

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a hideous smile. That's the last son I'll ever see,

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he piped feebly. I'm dying dying, do you hear, And

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you're all glad of it, every one of you. Yes,

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you are. You are glad of it because you want

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my money. You came here to make me believe you

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were paying a last tribute of respect to your old grandfather.

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But that isn't it. It's the money. You want the money.

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But I've got a surprise for you. You never get

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the money. It's hidden safely. You'll never get it. You

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all hate me, you have hated me for years, and

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after this sun dies, you'll all hate me worse, but

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not more than I hate you. You'll all hate me

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worse then, because I'll be gone, and you'll never know

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where the money is hidden. It will lie there safely

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where I put it, rotting and crumbling away. But you

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shall never warm your fingers with it. It's hidden, hidden, hidden.

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There was a rasping in the shrunken throat, a deeply

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drawn breath. Then the figure stiffened, and a distorted soul

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passed out upon the eternal way. Martha held a card

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within the blinding light of the reflector, and Professor Augustus

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s f X von Duson, with his hands immersed to

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the elbows in some chemical mess. Squinted at it a

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Doctor Walter Ballard, he read, show him in. After a moment,

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Doctor Ballard entered. The scientist was still absorbed in his labors,

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but paused long enough to jerk his head toward a chair.

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Doctor Ballard accepted this as an invitation, and sat down,

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staring curiously at the singular, childlike figure of the eminent

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man of science, at the mop of tangled straw, yellow hair,

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the enormous brow, and the peering blue eyes. Well demanded

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the scientist abruptly. I beg your pardon, began Doctor Ballard,

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with a little start. Your name was mentioned to me

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some time ago by a newspaper reporter, a Hutchinson Hatch,

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whom I chanced to meet in his professional capacity. He

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suggested then that I come and see you, but I

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thought it useless. Now the affair in which we were

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both interested at that time seems hopelessly beyond solution, so

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I came to you for aid. We want to find

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one million dollars in gold and United States bonds, which

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were hidden by my grandfather, John Walter Ballard some time

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before his death just a month ago. The circumstances are

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altogether out of the ordinary, the thinking machine abandoned his

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labors and dried his hands carefully, after which he took

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a seat facing doctor Ballard. Tell me about it, he commanded, well,

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began Doctor Ballard reminiscently, as he settled back in his chair.

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The old man, my grandfather, died, as I said a

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month ago. He was nearly eighty six. In the last

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five or six years of his life he spent as

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a recluse in a little hut twenty miles from the city,

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a place some distance from any other house. He had

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a spot of ground there half an acre or so,

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and lived like a pauper, despite the fact that he

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was worth at least a million dollars. Previous to the

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time he went there to live, there had been an

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estrangement with my family, his sole heirs. My family consists

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of myself, wife, son, and daughter. My grandfather lived in

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the house with me for ten years before he went

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out to this hut, and why he left us then

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is not clear to any member of my family, unless

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and he shrugged his shoulders. He was mentally unbalanced. Anyway

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he went, he would neither come to see us, nor

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would he permit us to go see him. As far

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as we know, he owned no real property of any

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sort except this miserable little place, worth altogether furnishing, in all,

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not more than a thousand or twelve hundred dollars. Well,

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about a month ago some one stopped at the hut

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for something and found he was ill. I was notified,

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and with my wife, son and daughter, went to see

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what we could do. He took occasion, on his death

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bed to heap the tuperation upon us, and incidentally to

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state that something like a million dollars was left behind,

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but hidden. For the sake of my son and daughter.

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I undertook to recover this money. I consulted attorneys, private detectives,

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and in fact exhausted every possible method. I ascertained beyond

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question that the money was not in a bank anywhere,

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and hardly think he would have left it there, because,

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of course, if he had, even with a will disinheriting us,

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the law would have turned it over to us. He

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had no safe deposit vault as far as one month's

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close search revealed, and the money was not hidden in

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the house or grounds. He stated on his death bed

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that it was in bonds and gold, and that we

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should never find it. He was just vindictive enough not

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to destroy it, but to leave it somewhere, believing we

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should never find it. Where did he hide it? The

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thinking machine sat silent for several minutes, with his enormous

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yellow head tilted back and slender fingers pressed together. The

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house and the grounds were searched, he asked. The house

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was searched from cellar to garrett. Was the reply. Workmen,

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under my directions, practically wrecked the building, floors, ceilings, walls,

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chimney stairs, everything, little cubby holes in the roof, the

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foundation of the chimney, the pillars, even the flagstones leading

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from the gate to the door. Everything was examined. The

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joists were sounded to see if they were solid, and

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a dozen of them were cut through. The posts on

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the verandah were cut to pieces, and every stick of

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furniture was dissected, mattresses, beds, chairs, tables, bureaus, all of it.

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Outside in the grounds the search was just as thorough,

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not one square inch, but what was overturned. We dug

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it all up to a depth of ten feet. Still nothing,

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of course, said the scientist. At last, the search of

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the house and grounds was useless. The old man was

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shrewd enough to know that they would be searched. Also,

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it would appear that the search of banks and safety

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deposit vaults was equally useless. He was shrewd enough to

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foresee that too. We shall, for the present assume that

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he did not destroy the money or give it away,

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So it is hidden. If the brain of man is

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clever enough to conceal a thing, the brain of man

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is clever enough to find it. It's a little problem

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in subtraction, doctor Ballard, He was silent for a moment.

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Who was your grandfather's attending physician?

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Speaker 2: I was.

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Speaker 1: I was present at his death. Nothing could be done.

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It was merely the collapse consequent upon old age. I

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issued the burial certificate, where any special directions lie left

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as to the place or manner of burial. No, have

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all his papers been examined for a clue as to

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the possible hiding place everything. There were no papers to

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amount to anything. Have you those papers now? Doctor Ballard

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silently produced a packet and handed it to the scientist.

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I shall examine these at my leisure, said the thinking machine.

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It may be a day or so before I communicate

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with you. Doctor Ballard went his way. For a dozen hours,

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the thinking machine sat with the papers spread out before him,

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and the keen, squinting blue eyes dissected them, every paragraph,

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every sentence, every word. At the end he arose and

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bundled up the papers impatiently. Dear me, dear me, he exclaimed, irritably,

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there's no cipher. That's certain. Then, what devastating hands had

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wrought the wreck of the little hut where the old

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man died. Standing in the midst of its litter, the

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thinking machine regarded it closely and dispassionately. For a long time,

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the work of destruction had been well done. Can you

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suggest anything, asked doctor Ballard, impatiently. One mind may read

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another mind, said the thinking machine. When there is some

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external thing upon which there can come concentration as a unit.

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In other words, when we have a given number, the

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logical brain can construct either backward or forward. There are

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so many thousands of ways in which your grandfather could

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have disposed of this money that the task becomes tremendous

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in view of the fact that we have no starting point.

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It is a case for patients rather than any other quality. Therefore,

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for greater speed we must proceed psychologically. The question then

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becomes not one of where the money is hidden, but

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one of where that sort of man would hide it. Now,

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what sort of man was your grandfather, the scientist continued,

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He was crabbed, eccentric, and possibly not mentally sound. The

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cunning of a diseased brain is greater than the cunning

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of a normal one. He boasted to you that the

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money was in existence, and his last words were intended

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to arouse your curiosity, to hang over you all the

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rest of your life and torment you. You can imagine the vindictive,

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petty brain like that putting a thing safely beyond your reach,

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but just beyond it, near enough to tantalize, and yet

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far enough to remain undiscovered. This seems to me to

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be the mental attitude in this case. Your grandfather knew

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that you would do just what you have done here,

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that is, search the house. And he knew too that

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you would search banks and safety deposit vaults, and with

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a million at stake, he knew it would be done thoroughly.

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Knowing this, naturally he would not put the money in

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any of those places. Then what he doesn't own any

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other property as far as we know, and we shall

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assume that he did not buy property in the name

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of some other persons. Therefore, what have we left? Obviously,

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if the money is still in existence, it is hidden

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on somebody else's property. And the minute we say that

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we had the whole wide world to search. But again,

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doesn't the devil tree and maliciousness of the old man

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narrow that down? Wouldn't he have liked to remember, as

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a dying thought that the money was always just within

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your reach and yet safely beyond it. Wouldn't it have

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been a keener revenge to have you you dig over

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the whole place while the money was hidden just six

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feet outside in a spot where you would never dig.

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It might be sixty or six hundred or six thousand.

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But then we have the law of probability to narrow

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those limits. So Professor von Duson turned suddenly and strolled

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across the uneven ground to the property line, Walking slowly

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and scrutinizing the ground as he went, he circled the lot,

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returning to the starting point. Doctor Ballard had followed along

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behind him. Are all your grandfather's belongings still in the house,

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asked the scientist. Yes, everything just as he left it,

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that is, except his dog and a parrot. They are

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temporarily in charge of a widow down the road. Here.

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The scientist looked at Doctor Ballard quickly. What sort of

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dog is it? He inquired, A Saint Bernard, I think,

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replied Doctor Ballard, wonderingly. Do you happen to have a

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glove or something that you know your grandfather war? I

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have a glove. Yes. From the debris which littered the

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floor of the house, a well worn glove was recovered.

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Now the dog, please, commanded the scientist. A short walk

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along the country road brought them to a house, and

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here they stopped. The Saint Bernard, a shaggy, handsome, boisterous

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old chap with wise eyes, was let out on leash.

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The thinking Machine thrust the glove forward, and the dog

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sniffed at it. After a moment, he sank down on

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his haunches, and, with his head thrust forward and upward,

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whined softly. It was the call of the brute soul

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to its master. The thinking Machine patted the heavy coated head, and,

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with the glove still in his hand, made as if

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to go away. Again came the wine, but the dog

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sank down on the floor with his head between his

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four paws, Regarding him intently for ten minutes, the scientists

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sought to coax the animal to follow him, but still

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he lay motionless. I don't mind keeping that dog here,

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but that parrot is powerful noisy, said the woman after

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a moment. She had been standing by watching the scientist curiously.

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There ain't no peace in this house. Noisy, how, asked

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doctor Ballard. He swears and sings and whistles and does

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rithmetic all day long, the woman explained. It nearly drives

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me distracted. Does arithmetic, inquired the thinking machine, Yes, replied

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the woman. And he swearses terrible. It's almost like having

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a man bout the house. There he goes. Now from

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another room came a sudden, squawking burst of profanity, followed

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instantly by a whistle, which caused the dog on the

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floor to prick up his ears. Does the parrot talk well,

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asked the scientist. Just like a human being, replied the woman.

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And jes bout as sensible as some I've seen. I

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don't mind his whistling, if only he wouldn't swear so

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and do all his figurein out loud. For a minute

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or more, the scientists stood staring down at the dog

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in deep thought. Gradually there came some subtle change in

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his expression. Doctor Ballard was watching him closely. I think

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perhaps it would be a good idea for me to

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keep the parrot for a few days, suggested the scientist. Finally,

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he turned to the woman. Just what sort of arithmetic

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does the bird do? All kinds? She answered promptly, he

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does all the multiplication table, but he ain't very good

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in subtraction. I shouldn't be surprised, commented the thinking machine.

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I'll take the bird for a few days, doctor, if

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you don't mind. And so it came to pass that

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when the Thinking Machine returned to his apartments, he was

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accompanied by as noisy and vociferous a companion as one

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would care to have. Martha, the aged servant, viewed him

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with horror as he entered the professor. Do be gettin' old,

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she muttered, I suppose there will be a cat next.

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Two days later, doctor Ballard was called to the telephone.

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The Thinking Machine was at the other end of the wire.

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Take two men whom you can trust, and go down

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to your grandfather's place, instructed the scientist. Curtly. Take picks shovels,

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a compass, and a long tape line. Stand on the

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front steps facing east. To your right will be an

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apple tree some distance off that lot on the adjoining property.

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Go to that apple tree. A boulder is at its

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foot measure from the edge of that stone twenty six

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feet due north by the compass, and from that point

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fourteen feet due west, you will find your money there. Then,

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please have someone come and take this bird away. If

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you don't, I'll wring its neck. It's the most blasphemous

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creature I ever heard. Goodbye, Doctor Ballard slipped the catch

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on the suitcase and turned it upside down on the

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laboratory table. It was packed, literally packed with United States bonds.

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The thinking Machine fingered them idly. And there is this too,

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said doctor Ballard. He lifted a stout sack from the floor,

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cut the string, and spilled out its contents. Beside the bonds,

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it was gold, thousands and thousands of dollars. Doctor Ballard

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was frankly excited about it. The thinking Machine accepted it

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as he accepted all material things. How much is there

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of it, he asked quietly. I don't know, replied doctor Ballard.

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And how did you find it as you directed, twenty

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six feet north from the boulder, and fourteen feet west

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from that point. I knew that, of course, snapped the

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thinking machine. But how was it hidden? It's rather peculiar,

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explained doctor Ballard. Fourteen feet brought the man who had

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measured it to the edge of an old, dried up

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well twelve or fifteen feet deep. Not expecting any such thing,

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he tumbled into it. In his efforts to get out,

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he stepped upon a stone which protruded from one side,

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that fell out and revealed the wooden box which contained

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all this. In other words, said the scientist, the money

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was hidden in such a manner that it would in

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time have come to be buried twelve or fifteen feet

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below the surface, because the well, being dry, would ultimately,

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of course have been filled in. Doctor Ballard had been

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listening only hazily. His hands had been plowing in and

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out of the heap of gold. The Thinking Machine regarded

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him with something like contempt about his thin lipped mouth.

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How how did you ever do it? Asked doctor Ballard.

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At last, I am surprised that you want to know,

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remarked the thinking machine, cuttingly. You know how I reached

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the conclusion that the money was not hidden, either in

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the house or lot. The plain logic of the thing

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told me that even before the search you made had

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demonstrated it. You saw how logic narrowed down the search,

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and you saw my experiment with the dog. That was

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purely an experiment. I wanted to see the instinct of

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the animal. Would it lead him anywhere, perhaps to the

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spot where the money had been hidden? It did not.

305
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But the parrot, that was another matter. It just happens

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that once before I had an interesting experience with a bird,

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a cockatoo, which figured in a sleep walking case, and

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naturally was interested in this bird. Now, what were the

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circumstances in this case? Here was a bird that talked

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exceptionally well. Yet that bird had been living for five

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years alone with an old man. It is a fact

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that no matter how well a parrot may talk, it

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will forget in the course of time unless there is

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someone around it who talks. This old man was the

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only person near this bird. Therefore, from the fact that

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the bird talks, we know that the old man talked.

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From the fact that the bird repeated the multiplication table,

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we know that the old man repeated it. From the

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fact that the bird whistles, we know that the old

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man whistled, perhaps to the dog, and in the course

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of five years, under these circumstances a bird would have

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come to that point where it would repeat only the

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words or sounds that the old man used. All this

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shows two that the old man talked to himself. Most

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people who live alone a great deal do. That then

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came a question as to whether at any time the

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old man had ever repeated the secret of the hiding

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place within the hearing of the bird, not once, but

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many times, because it takes a parrot a long time

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to learn phrases. When we know the vindictiveness which lay

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behind the old man's actions in hiding the money, when

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we know how the thing preyed on his mind, coupled

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with the fact that he talked to himself and was

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not wholly sound mentally, we can imagine him doddering about

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the place alone, repeating the very thing of which he

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made so great a secret. Thus the bird learned it,

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but learned it disjointedly, not connectedly. So when I brought

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the parrot here, my idea was to know by personal

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observation what the bird said that didn't connect, That is,

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that had no obvious meaning. I hoped to get a

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clue which would result, just as the clue I did

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get did result. The bird's trick of repeating the multiplication

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table means nothing except it shows the strange workings of

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an unbalanced mind. And yet there is one exception to this.

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In a disjointed sort of way, the bird knows all

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the multiplication tables to ten except one. For an instance, listen,

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the thinking machine crept stealthily to a door and opened

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it softly. A few inches from somewhere out there came

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the screeching of the parrot. For several minutes, they listened

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in silence. There was a flood of profanity, a shrill

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whistle or two. Then the squawking voice ran off into

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a monotone.

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Speaker 2: Six times one or six six time two, or twelve

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six times three or eighteen six times four or twenty

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four and ad two.

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Speaker 1: That's it, explained the scientist as he closed the door.

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Six times four are twenty four and add two. That's

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the one table the bird doesn't know. The thing is incoherent,

359
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:54,920
except as applied to a peculiar method of remembering a number.

360
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That number is twenty six. On one occasion I heard

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the bird repeat a dozen times twenty six feet to

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00:25:04,759 --> 00:25:09,279
the polar star. That could mean nothing except the direction

363
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of the twenty six feet due north. One of the

364
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first things I noticed the bird saying was something about

365
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fourteen feet to the setting sun or due west. When

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set down with the twenty six I could readily see

367
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:28,200
that I had something to go on. But where was

368
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:33,599
the starting point? Again, logic, There was no tree or

369
00:25:33,799 --> 00:25:37,000
stone inside the lot except the apple tree, which your

370
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:40,279
workmen cut down, and that was more than twenty six

371
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:43,759
feet from the boundary of the lot. In all directions.

372
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There was one tree in the adjoining lot, an apple

373
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tree with a boulder at its foot. I knew that

374
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by observation, and there was no other tree I knew

375
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:59,880
also within several hundred feet. Therefore that tree or boulder

376
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:03,480
rather as a starting point, not the tree so much

377
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,400
as the boulder. Because the tree might be cut down

378
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,480
or would in time decay, the chances are the stone

379
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:16,480
would have been allowed to remain there indefinitely. Naturally, your

380
00:26:16,519 --> 00:26:21,559
grandfather would measure from a prominent point the boulder. That

381
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is all I gave you the figures. You know, the

382
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:29,160
rest for a minute or more. Doctor Ballard stared at

383
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:33,680
him blankly. How was it you knew, he asked, that

384
00:26:33,759 --> 00:26:37,359
the direction should have been first twenty six feet north,

385
00:26:37,839 --> 00:26:42,720
then fourteen feet west, instead of first fourteen west and

386
00:26:42,759 --> 00:26:47,319
then twenty six feet north. I didn't know, replied the

387
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,759
thinking machine. If you had failed to find the money

388
00:26:50,759 --> 00:26:54,799
by those directions, I should merely have reversed the order.

389
00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:59,240
Half an hour later, doctor Ballard went away, carrying the

390
00:26:59,279 --> 00:27:03,400
money to parrot in its cage. The bird cursed the

391
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:08,200
thinking machine roundly as doctor Ballard went down the steps.

392
00:27:08,799 --> 00:27:12,279
End of the Problem of the Hidden Million by Jacques

393
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:12,920
Foutrelle