McClure’s Magazine/Volume 35/Number 3/The Aluminum Dagger

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THE ALUMINUM DAGGER
BY
R. AUSTIN FREEMAN
AUTHOR OF "THE ANTHROPOLOGIST AT LARGE" AND "THE BLUE SEQUIN"
T HE "urgent call"—the instant, peremptory summons to professional duty—is an experience that appertains to the medical rather than to the legal practitioner; and I had supposed, when I abandoned the clinical side of my profession in favor of the forensic, that henceforth I should know it no more—that the interrupted meal, the broken leisure, and the jangle of the night-bell were things of the past: but in practice it was otherwise.
I had just finished my bath and was dressing, one morning, when a hurried step was heard upon the stair, and the voice of our laboratory assistant, Polton, arose at my colleague's door:
"There's a gentleman downstairs, sir, who says he must see you instantly on most urgent business."
Polton was proceeding to descriptive particulars, when a second and more hurried step became audible, and a strange voice addressed Thorndyke:
"I have come to beg your immediate assistance, sir. A most dreadful thing has happened—a horrible murder has been committed! Can you come with me now?"
"I will be with you almost immediately," said Thorndyke. "Is th

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