"I
always noticed a peculiarly shaped wart on the finger of Mr.
Elliston's shapely right hand, and once he remarked upon it to me,
saying that it was a disfigurement, and that he meant to have it
removed sometime. I think it was the first time I met Mr. Elliston
after the terrible news of the mid night express tragedy that I
noticed the absence of the wart, and a bit of surgeon's plaster
covering the spot. I laughed over his having undergone such a severe
surgical operation, and he seemed to take it in good part, assuring me
that HE was the surgeon who amputated the excrescence with a razor. Of
course I thought nothing strange of it at the time."
"You said the wart had a peculiar shape? How is that?" questioned
Harry Bernard.
"It was large, and was composed of two crowns. I think, perhaps two
warts had grown together at the roots."
"Exactly. Would you know the wart if you should see it again?"
"I think I should."
"So would I," cried the detective.
Then Harry Bernard drew a small vial from his pocket and held it up to
view. A small object, submerged in alcohol, was visible. When placed
in the hand of Nell, the girl at once exclaimed:
"That is certainly the wart that once disfigured the hand of Harper
Elliston!"
"Where did you get it?" questioned Dyke Darrel, now deeply interested
at the links that were being rapidly forged in the chain of evidence.
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