re was foul play somewhere."

I crossed to the great carved table which stood on the opposite side
of the wide hall, tiled as it was with ancient blue and white Dutch
tiles, and from the table took up a pair of well-worn grey suede
gloves. They interested me, because after putting one on the Baron had
torn it off and rubbed his fingers.

"Is this the glove your master wore when he went to The Hague?" I
asked, selecting the left-hand one.

"Yes, sir."

I examined it closely and very gingerly. The exterior presented
nothing out of the ordinary, but on turning it inside out, I found in
the index finger a tiny piece of steel which tumbled out upon the
table.

It was apparently a piece clipped from the blade of a safety razor,
and keenly sharp. Anyone inserting a finger into the glove would
certainly be cut by the razor edge of that sharp scrap of steel. As it
lay upon the polished oak I bent to look at it, the valet also
standing near and bending down in curiosity.

Upon it something had apparently been smeared--some colourless jelly,
it seemed.

Had Baron van Veltrup fallen victim to orosin, wilfully administered?

That was my instant suspicion, one that was afterwards verified by the
great Dutch pathologist Doctor Obelt, who lived in the Amstel Straat,
and to whom I carried the mysterious but incriminating scrap of steel.

"Without a doubt this piece of razor-blade has been impregnated with a
new and most deadly poison, orosin," he declared to me on the
following evening as I sat in his consulting room. "The police have
seen no mysterious circumstances in the unfortunate death of the
Baron, who, by the way, was a very dear friend of mine. But now you
have brought me this piece of steel which you took from his glove, and
which no doubt must have caused a slight cut to his finger and, in
consequence, almost instant death, I feel it my duty to take up the
matter with the authorities."

"I shall be much gratified, doctor, if you will," I urged, speaking in
French. "The valet's suspicions of foul play are entirely proved."

"Yes, foul play, committed by somebody who possesses expert
toxicological knowledge. I confess that this is the first time I have
discovered orosin. The hint you gave me caused me to search for it,
and that I have found it is undoubted."

Later that day I accompanied the doctor to the Bureau of Police, where
we were met by a very stolid official who smoked a long thin cigar all
the time he t