That seemed to upset you completely."
"It did; and I will tell you why. My father, for many years, had been
a collector of finger-prints. All of his friends were compelled to
contribute; and whenever he made a new acquaintance, he got his
prints, too, if he could. He believed that one's character was
revealed in one's finger-prints, and he studied them very carefully.
It was a sort of hobby; but it was, for some reason, distasteful to
Senor Silva. He not only refused to allow prints to be made of his
fingers, but he pooh-poohed my father's theories, and they used to
have some terrific arguments about it. One night, after a particularly
hot argument, Senor Silva made the assertion that he could, by
hypnotic suggestion, cause his servant Mahbub to reproduce any
finger-prints he desired. Mahbub's finger-tips had been manipulated in
some way, when he was a child, so that they showed only a series of
straight lines."
"Yes," I said, "his prints were taken at the inquest."
"Father said that if Senor Silva could show him proof of that
assertion, he would never look at finger-prints again. Senor Silva
asked for a week in which to make a study of the prints, in order to
impress them upon his memory; at the end of that time, the test was
made.
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