hioned manner. He
hated this thought, for Dorothy would certainly be one to know of this
habit in her uncle.

On the other hand, however, the task of placing the poison was one
requiring nicety, for clumsy work would of course betray itself at the
cigar-end thus prepared. To tamper with a well-made cigar like this
required that one should deftly remove or unroll the wrapper, hollow
out a cavity, stuff in the poison, and then rewrap the whole with
almost the skill and art of a well-trained maker of cigars. To
Garrison's way of thinking, this rendered the task impossible for such
a girl as Dorothy.

He had felt from the first that any man of the inventive, mechanical
attributes doubtless possessed by Scott could be guilty of working out
this scheme.

Scott, too, possessed a motive. He wanted money. The victim was
insured in his favor for a snug little fortune. And Scott had returned
to Hardy's room, according to Mrs. Wilson, while Hardy was away, and
could readily have opened the box, extracted one or two cigars, and
prepared them for Hardy to smoke. He, too, would have known of Hardy's
habit of biting the end from his weed.

There was still the third possibility that even before Dorothy's visit
to her uncle the cigars could have been prepared. Anyone supplied with
the knowledge that she had purchased the present, with intention to
take it to her uncle, might readily have conceived and executed the
plan and be doubly hidden from detection, since suspicion would fall
upon Dorothy.

Aware of the great importance of once more examining the dead man's
effects at the coroner's office, Garrison hastened his pace. It still
lacked nearly an hour of noon when he re-entered Branchville. The
office he sought was a long block away from his hotel; nevertheless,
before he reached the door a hotel bell-boy discerned him, waved his
arm, then abruptly disappeared inside the hostelry.

The coroner was emerging from his place of business up the street.
Garrison accosted him.

"Oh, Mr. Pike," he said, "I've returned, you see. I've nearly
concluded my work on the Hardy case; but I'd like, as a matter of form,
to look again through the few trifling articles in your custody."

"Why, certainly," said Mr. Pike. "Come right in. I've got to be away
for fifteen minutes, but I guess I can trust you in the shop."

He grinned good-naturedly, opened the drawer, and hurriedly departed.

Garrison drew up a chair before the desk.