ese assertions, but
the look of worry had entirely disappeared from the face of Dr. Earl.

"It is true," she went on, "that I had taken the little girl to the
country for a week when this awful crime was committed, but Dr. Earl
knew nothing of this, and the evidence is already so clear as to need no
further illumination that the person who sent the poisoned candy was
aware of the fact that the child was not at home, and would not be for
several days at least. So clear is it that Dr. Earl did not know the
child was in the country that I will prove to you that he sent to her
city address a box of pecans which were forwarded by her mother to the
country, and I will offer in evidence the box in which they were sent.
The person who mailed this box had designs on one victim only, and had
the child been at home she would undoubtedly have been the one killed,
for she would have been certain to receive the first piece. With all due
deference to the learned district attorney, and while his theory is
possible that a kiss given and received might have caused the death of
the other, the probability is so remote that a person skilled in the
knowledge of poisons and their effects, as Dr. Earl is, would scarcely
have undertaken to poison two people in this clumsy and uncertain
fashion, when the placing of two pieces of candied fruit instead of one
on the top of the box was all that was necessary to insure the end
desired."

She paused again, and gave the large man another look, and then
exhibited a card to the jury, which she had been holding in her hand
from the beginning of her address.

"No, gentlemen, the poison was intended for but one person, and that
person partook of it," she said sadly and earnestly. She held a picture
postal so the jury could see it. "This postcard, as you see, was sent to
Mrs. Bell from Magnolia a few days before the crime occurred. It is
dated August 5th; her death took place August 9th. Look at the address
on this card, and at the message on the other side. Now let me show you
a strange thing, which cannot be merely a coincidence."

She took the outer layer of thin white paper that had wrapped the box,
on which were the stamps and the address, and laid it over the same
address on the card, and the length and formation of each letter were
identical, the punctuation marks and the lines of shading were the same,
on paper and card.

"You see how this has been done," she said. "The address on the paper is