sued relentlessly.
"The brandy-and-soda, which Lord Ashfrith was drinking at the moment
of his death, was naturally a pale amber color. So was the brandy
which your Uncle Alaric drank as he died. And prussic acid is
amber-colored, too, Mr. Rockamore! Lord Ashfrith was carving a
peach-stone when the end came, and the odor of peaches clung to his
body. Your Uncle Alaric partook of peach brandy, and the same odor
hovered about him in death. Prussic acid is redolent of the odor of
peaches!"

Rockamore started from his chair.

"I understand what you are attempting to establish by the flimsiest of
circumstantial evidence!" he sneered. "But you are away beyond your
depth, my man! May I ask where you obtained this interesting but
scarcely valuable information?"

"From Scotland Yard, by cable, to-day." Blaine rose also and faced the
other man. "An investigation was started into the second death, upon
the Earl's request, but it was dropped for lack of evidence. About
that time, Mr. Rockamore, you decided rather suddenly, and for no
apparent reason, to come to America, where you have remained ever
since."

"Mr. Blaine, if I were in the mood to be facetious, I might employ
your American vernacular and ask that you tell me something I don't
know! Come to the point, man; you try my patience."

"In view of recent developments, I am under the impression that
Scotland Yard would welcome your reappearance on British soil, but I
fear that will be forever impossible," Blaine said slowly. "Just as
you were beside your uncles when each met with his end, so you were
beside Pennington Lawton when death came to him! That has been proved.
Just as brandy and soda, and peach brandy, are amber-colored, so are
Scotch high-balls, which you and Pennington Lawton were drinking. No
odor of peaches lingered about the room, for Miss Lawton had lighted a
handful of joss-sticks in a vase upon the mantel earlier in the
evening, and their pungent perfume filled the air. But the odor of
peaches permeated the room when the tiny bottle which you hid in the
folds of the chair was uncorked--the odor of peaches rose above the
stench of mortifying flesh, when the body of your victim was exhumed
late last night for a belated autopsy! The heart would have revealed
the truth, had there been no corroborative evidence, for it was filled
with arterial blood--incontrovertible proof of death by prussic-acid
poisoning."

There was a tense pause, and then Rockamore s