implied introduction. "The relations between my office and your paper
have always been very satisfactory, I can assure you."

"Thank you, Doctor. Depend on me to keep them so," I replied, shaking
his proffered hand.

"Now, as to the case," continued the doctor slowly. "Here is a beautiful
woman in the prime of life, the wife of a very wealthy retired banker
considerably older than herself--perhaps nearly seventy--of very fine
family. Of course you have read it all, but let me sketch it so you will
look at it from my point of view. This woman, apparently in good health,
with every luxury money can buy, is certain within a very few years,
from her dower rights, to be numbered among the richest women in
America. Yet she is discovered in the middle of the night by her maid,
seated at the table in the library of her home, unconscious. She never
regains consciousness, but dies the following morning.

"The coroner is called in, and, as his physician, I must advise him.
The family physician has pronounced it due to natural causes, the uremic
coma of latent kidney trouble. Some of the newspapers, I think the Star
among them, have hinted at suicide. And then there are others, who have
flatly asserted it was murder."

The coroner's physician paused to see if we were following him. Needless
to say Kennedy was ahead of him.

"Have you any facts in your possession which have not been given to the
public yet?" asked Craig.

"I'm coming to that in a moment," replied Dr. Hanson. "Let me sketch
the case first. Henry Vandam had become--well, very eccentric in his old
age, we will say. Among his eccentricities none seems to have impressed
the newspapers more than his devotion to a medium and her manager, Mrs.
May Popper and Mr. Howard Farrington. Now, of course, the case does not
go into the truth or falsity of spiritualism, you understand. You have
your opinion, and I have mine. What this aspect of the case involves is
merely the character of the medium and her manager. You know, of course,
that Henry Vandam is completely under their control."

He paused again, to emphasise the point.

"You asked me if I was in possession of any facts which have not been
given to the press. Yes, I am. And just there lies the trouble. They are
so very conflicting as to be almost worse than useless, as far as I can
see. We found near the unfortunate woman a small pill-box with three
capsules still in it. It was labelled 'One before retiring' and bor