I wish I knew," replied Dr. Lambert, and he shook his head. Something
more than the weight of years seemed bowing him down. Dr. Baird seemed
duly impressed by the circumstances that had brought him--a young and as
yet unestablished physician--to a connection with such a startling case
in the well known and wealthy Carwell family.

As for Captain Gerry Poland, he was clearly startled by the news the
physicians had brought. He looked toward the closed door as though
seeking to see beyond it--into the room where Viola was waiting. To her,
sooner or later, the tragic verdict must be told.

"Can't you say anything?" he asked, a bit sharply, looking from one
physician to the other "Is this all you came to tell--that Mr. Carwell
was a suicide? Isn't there any mitigating circumstance?"

"I believe he poisoned himself before he began his championship game,"
said Dr. Baird, with startling frankness--almost brutal it seemed.

"But why should he do such a thing?" demanded the captain, rather
petulantly.

"He may have taken some dope, thinking would brace him up," went on the
young medical man, "and it had the opposite effect--a depressing action
on the heart. Or, he may have taken a overdose of his favorite drug.
That is what shall have to find out by making suitable inquiries of
members of the family."

"Oh, must we tell-them," exclaimed Captain Poland in startled tones.
And it was easy to determine by his voice that by "them" he meant Viola.
"Must we tell?" he repeated.

"I must do my duty as a physician both to the public and to the family,"
said Dr. Lambert, and he straightened up as though ready to assume the
burden he knew would fall heavily on his shoulders. "I must also think
of Viola. I feel like another father to her now. I have always, more or
less, regarded her as my little girl, though she is a young lady
now. But the facts must come out. Even if I were disposed to aid in
a concealment--which I am far from doing--Dr. Rowland, the county
physician, was present at the autopsy. He knows."

"Does he know the poison used?" asked Captain Poland quickly, and then,
almost as soon as the words had left his lips, he seemed sorry he had
uttered them.

"No, no more than we," said Dr. Baird. "It will require some nice
work in medical jurisprudence, and also a very delicate analysis, to
determine that. I am inclined to think--"

But what he thought no one heard or cared to hear at that moment, for,
even as he spoke, the