nux vomica," volunteered the coroner. "He said
it wasn't nux vomica, but that the blood test showed something very
much like it. Oh, we've looked for morphine chloroform, ether, all the
ordinary poisons, besides some of the little known alkaloids. Believe
me, Professor Kennedy, it was asphyxia."

I could tell by the look that crossed Kennedy's face that at last a ray
of light had pierced the darkness. "Have you any spirits of turpentine
in the office?" he asked.

The coroner shook his head and took a step toward the telephone as if to
call the drug-store in town.

"Or ether?" interrupted Craig. "Ether will do."

"Oh, yes, plenty of ether."

Craig poured a little of one of the blood samples from the jar into a
tube and added a few drops of ether. A cloudy dark precipitate formed.
He smiled quietly and said, half to himself, "I thought so."

"What is it?" asked the coroner eagerly. "Nux vomica?"

Craig shook his head as he stared at the black precipitate. "You were
perfectly right about the asphyxiation, Doctor," he remarked
slowly, "but wrong as to the cause. It wasn't carbon monoxide or
illuminating-gas. And you, Mr. Whitney, were right about the poison,
too. Only it is a poison neither of you ever heard of."

"What is it?" we asked simultaneously.

"Let me take these samples and make some further tests. I am sure of
it, but it is new to me. Wait till to-morrow night, when my chain of
evidence is completed. Then you are all cordially invited to attend
at my laboratory at the university. I'll ask you, Mr. Whitney, to
come armed with a warrant for John or Jane Doe. Please see that the
Wainwrights, particularly Marian, are present. You can tell Inspector
O'Connor that Mr. Vanderdyke and Mrs. Ralston are required as material
witnesses--anything so long as you are sure that these five persons are
present. Good night, gentlemen."

We rode back to the city in silence, but as we neared the station,
Kennedy remarked: "You see, Walter, these people are like the
newspapers. They are floundering around in a sea of unrelated facts.
There is more than they think back of this crime. I've been revolving
in my mind how it will be possible to get some inkling about this
concession of Vanderdyke's, the mining claim of Mrs. Ralston, and the
exact itinerary of the Wainwright trip in the Far East. Do you think
you can get that information for me? I think it will take me all day
to-morrow to isolate this poison and get things in c