title: Jacques Futrelle's "The Thinking Machine": The Enigmatic Problems of Prof. Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph. D., LL. D., F. R. S., M. D., M. D. S. (Modern Library Classics)
author:  Jacques Futrelle 
description: When I was a young man I read, thoroughly enjoyed, and long remembered The Problem of Cell 13. Now, like a brisk morning breeze, it returns. I say thats swell. Tony Hillerman
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  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # Mystery of the Scarlet Thread
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Jacques Futrelle
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  This page copyright © 2003 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  I
  
  
  II
  
  
  III
  
  
  IV
  
  
  V
  
  
  VI
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  Etext from Futrelle.com
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### I
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
    
  The Thinking Machine—Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph. D,
  
  
  LL. D., F. R. S., M. D., etc., scientist and logician—listened
  
  
  intently and without comment to a weird, seemingly inexplicable story.
  
  
  Hutchinson Hatch, reporter, was telling it. The bowed figure of the
  
  
  savant lay at ease in a large chair. The enormous head with its bushy
  
  
  yellow hair was thrown back, the thin, white fingers were pressed tip
  
  
  to tip and the blue eyes, narrowed to mere slits, squinted aggressively
  
  
  upward. The scientist was in a receptive mood.
  
  
    
  “From the beginning, every fact you know,” he had requested.
  
  
    
  “It's all out in the Back Bay,” the reporter explained. “There is a
  
  
  big apartment house there, a fashi