FORDNEY HELPS SERGEANT REYNOLDS

Sergeant Reynolds was baffled. He was sure that the detained Nellie Franklin knew more about the murder of her sweetheart than she had admitted.

She told him that, being entirely deaf in the left ear, she had not heard the sound of the falling body of Barney Eyster, though they were in the same room. Miss Franklin said she had been writing a letter while Barney was standing about fifteen feet to her left, looking out the window. When she turned to ask him a question she saw him on the floor, blood streaming from his head. She attributed the fact that she heard no sound to the probability that a gun with a silencer on it had been fired through the window. “Yes,” she said, “I can hear with my right ear as well as anyone.”

So strong was Reynolds’ hunch he went to seek advice of Professor Fordney who greeted him cordially.

“What brings you here at such an hour?” the latter asked.

“Just a hunch, Prof.” Reynolds explained the case.

Fordney listened attentively, then said: “Well, a hunch is just as likely to be right as wrong. However, it is quite a simple matter to tell whether or not Nellie is telling the truth about her deafness.” After a pause he continued:

“I’ll come with you and we’ll whisper simultaneously into her ears two different sentences of the same length. If she cannot repeat either of our sentences we’ll know she’s not deaf in the left ear.”

Reynolds looked bewildered.

What did the Professor mean? Turn page for solution.