on dish yeah case, Colonel?"

"No, Shag. I haven't even begun yet."

"But--"

"Yes, I know. I've just heard that there's pretty good fishing at one
end of the golf course that's so intimately mixed up in this mystery,
and I don't see why I shouldn't keep my hand in. Come here, you black
rascal, and see if you can make this joint fit any better. Seems to me
the ferrule is loose."

"Yes, sah, Colonel, I'll 'tend to it immejite. I--er I done brung
in--you ain't no 'jections to lookin' at papers now, has you?" he asked
hesitatingly. For when he went fishing the mere sight of a newspaper
sometimes set Shag's master wild.

"No," was the answer. "In fact I was going to send you out for the
latest editions, Shag."

"I'se done got 'em," was the chuckling answer, and Shag pulled out from
under his coat a bundle of papers that he had been hiding until he saw
that it was safe to display them.

And while Shag was occupied with the rod, the colonel read the papers,
which contained little he did not already know.

The next day he went fishing.

It was on his return from a successful day of sport, which was added
to by some quiet and intensive thinking, that Viola spoke to him in the
library. The colonel laid aside a paper he had been reading, and looked
up.

In lieu of other news one of the reporters had written an interview
with Dr. Baird, in which that physician discoursed learnedly on various
poisons and the tests for them, such as might be made to determine what
caused the death of Mr. Carwell. The young doctor went very much into
details, even so far as giving the various chemical symbols of poison,
dwelling long on arsenious acid, whose symbol, he told the reporter, was
As2O5, while if one desired to test the organs for traces of strychnine,
it would be necessary to use "sodium and potassium hydroxide, ammonia
and alkaline carbonate, to precipitate the free base strychnine from
aqueous solutions of its salts as a white, crystalline solid," while
this imposing formula was given:

"C21H22 + NaOH C21H22 + H20 + NaNO3."

And so on for a column and a half.

"Oh, Colonel! Have you found out anything yet?" the girl besought.

"Nothing of importance, I am sorry to say."

"But you are working on it?"

"Oh, yes. Have you anything to tell me?"

"No; except that I am perfectly miserable. It is all so terrible. And we
can't even put poor father's body in the grave, where he might rest."

"No, the coroner is wait