The Whenabouts of Burr Read Online Free PDF

Nate. You’ll end up costing me money. A collector, hah?”
    â€œWhat else?”
    â€œThat’s debatable logic.”
    â€œNonsense, it’s the best logic in the world. ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be true.’ Sherlock Holmes said that. Something like it, anyway.”
    â€œBut you haven’t eliminated anything. All you’ve done is come up with a label for the thief, and a possible motive. Still nothing about how this impossible crime was accomplished.”
    â€œWell,” Swift insisted, “it gives us a direction in which to look, anyway, and that’s progress.”
    â€œWhat did you mean before, it’s not a forgery?” Romero asked. “How can the substitute be not a forgery—not be a—you know—I think I’ve been around Mrs. Montefugoni too long. Just because the paper and ink are roughly as old as the original Constitution should be, doesn’t mean that it’s not a forgery. We could have a careful, clever forger. Or, contrariwise, it could be an ancient forgery. That thing might have been sitting somewhere for two hundred years waiting for someone to pull this practical joke.”
    â€œThe signatures are real, Ves. At least as far as our experts can tell.” Nate Swift spoke slowly and calmly, as though he were relaying quite ordinary information.
    â€œIdentical with the ones on the original?”
    â€œNo. As you know, no two real signatures are identical. There’s always a variance in the way anyone signs his name. Well, these are not identical with the original, but are in every case consistent with the way the man signed his name at that period of his life to a degree which, the experts assure us, no human could have duplicated so consistently.”
    â€œEven the Burr signature?”
    â€œEven. Isn’t it a hell of a thing? You know, if word of this gets out to the public, there’ll be rioting in the streets. Particularly in the universities. They haven’t had a good excuse to riot in the universities for the past ten years, and they’re getting restless for lack of exercise.”
    â€œComputers,” Romero said firmly.
    â€œDon’t be silly, Ves. Every time anything happens that you don’t like or disapprove of, you blame it on computers.”
    â€œSure, look here: you say they say that no human could have duplicated the signatures. Nonetheless they were duplicated. By your logic, I have eliminated the impossible and computers are left.”
    â€œYou haven’t eliminated anything,” Nate told him. “You’ve only added one to the list.”
    â€œList?”
    â€œLast night, before I was authorized to come over here and get your help, we kicked the problem around and made up a list of possible solutions.”
    â€œWe?”
    â€œYes. You know: me, and the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures.”
    â€œQuite a kaffeeklatch,” Romero said. “What did you decide?”
    â€œI don’t think ‘decide’ is quite the right word,” Swift told him. “The Secretary of State thinks it’s Chinese submarines.”
    â€œChinese…”
    â€œâ€¦Submarines. Yes.”
    â€œHow—”
    â€œHe never said. The Secretary of the Interior has decided that it’s the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. They’re the ones who possess the Secret Power.”
    â€œWhat secret power?”
    â€œThey’ve never said. I suppose if they did, it wouldn’t be secret.”
    â€œWho does the President think did it?”
    â€œThe Republicans.”
    â€œOf course. Any other theories?”
    â€œPeople from the far future, who came back to this time period to rescue the Constitution from an imminent disaster.”
    â€œHm. You know, that one has merit. At least we