a
wedding, when the death occurred, and they made a rather superficial
examination of the deceased."

"Still, I see less than ever how you got a chance to form such an
extraordinary and horrible opinion if you were not there, and had only
this printed evidence," said Maitland, waving a sheet of the _Times_,
"to go by; and _this_ is dead against you. You're too clever."

"But I made a proper and most careful examination myself, on my return
to town, the day after the inquest," said Barton, "and I found evidence
enough _for me_--never mind where--to put the matter beyond the reach
of doubt. The man was _murdered_, and murdered, as I said, very
deliberately, by some one who was not an ordinary ignorant scoundrel."

"Still, I don't see how you got a chance to make your examination," said
Maitland; "the man would be buried as usual--"

"Excuse me. The unclaimed bodies of paupers--and there was no one to
claim _his_--are reserved, if needed--"

"I see--don't go on," said Maitland, turning rather pale, and falling
back on his sofa, where he lay for a little with his eyes shut "It is
all the fault of this most unlucky illness of mine," he said, presently.
"In my absence, and as nobody knew where I was, there was naturally no
one to claim the body. The kind of people who knew about him will take
no trouble or risk in a case like that." He was silent again for a few
moments; then, "What do _you_ make out to have been tbe cause of death?"
he asked.

"Well," said Barton slowly, "I don't much care to go into details which
you may say I can hardly prove, and I don't want to distress you in your
present state of health."

"Why don't you speak out! Was he poisoned? Did you detect arsenic or
anything? He had been drinking with some one!"

"No; if, in a sense, he had been poisoned, there was literally nothing
that could be detected by the most skilled analysis. But, my dear
fellow, there are venoms that leave _no_ internal trace. If I am
right--and I think I am--he was destroyed by one of these. He had been a
great traveller, had he not?"

"Yes," answered Maitland.

"Well, it is strange; the murderer must have been a great traveller
also. He must have been among the Macoushi Indians of Guiana, and well
acquainted with their arts. I know them too. I went there botanizing."

"You won't be more explicit?"

"No," he said; "you must take it on my word, after all."

Maitland, if not convinced, was silent He had knowledge enoug