The Man with the Canine Teeth
First published in The Strand Magazine, June 1921
“Murder, my dear Manfred is the most accidental of crimes,” saidLeon Gonsalez, removing his big shell-rimmed glasses and looking across the breakfast-table with that whimsical earnestness which was ever a delight to the handsome genius who directed the operations of the Four Just Men.
“Poiccart used to say that murder was a tangible expression of hysteria,” he smiled, “but why this grisly breakfast-table topic?”
Gonsalez put on his glasses again and returned, apparently, to his study of the morning newspaper. He did not wilfully ignore the question, but his mind, as George Manfred knew, was so completely occupied by his reflections that he neither heard the query nor, for the matter of that, was he reading the newspaper. Presently he spoke again.
“Eighty percent of the men who are charged with murder are making their appearance in a criminal court for the first time,” he said, “therefore, murderers as a class are not criminals—I speak, of course, for the Anglo-Saxon murderer. Latin and Teutonic criminal classes supply sixty percent of the murderers in France, Italy and the Germanic States. They are fascinating people, George, fascinating!”
His face lighted up with enthusiasm, and George Manfred surveyed him with amusement.
“I have never been able to take so detached a view of those gentlemen,” he said, “To me they are completely horrible—for is not murder the apotheosis of injustice?” he asked.
“I suppose so,” said Gonsalez vacantly.
“What started this line of thought?” asked Manfred, rolling his serviette.
“I met a true murderer type last night,” answered the other calmly. “He asked me for a match and smiled when I gave it to him. A perfect set of teeth, my dear George, perfect—except—”
“Except?”
“The canine teeth were unusually large and long, the eyes deep set and amazingly level, the face anamorphic—which latter fact is not necessarily criminal.”
“Sounds rather an ogre to me,” said Manfred.
“On the contrary,” Gonsalez hastened to correct the impression, “he was quite good-looking. None but a student would have noticed the irregularity of the face. Oh no, he was most presentable.”
He explained the circumstances of the meeting. He had been to a concert the night