eman.

There were two windows to the library, and one was close to the side
porch, the roof of which the detective had examined from above. A
person dropping from above could easily have entered the library by the
window, thus saving himself the trouble of walking through the halls
and down the stairs. Adam Adams looked outside, and saw on the ground
a number of footprints, some running to a gravel path but a few feet
away.

"Where are the bodies?" he asked, as he continued his examination of
the room.

"At Camboin's morgue. The doctors have been looking for poison, but
they can't find any."

The detective got down in front of the safe and examined it critically.
Had it been opened after the murder and then closed again? That was an
important question, but he was unable to answer it.

More by instinct than anything else, he got down and peered under the
safe. A crumpled-up bit of paper caught his eye, and he picked it up
and slipped it into his pocket without the policeman being the wiser.

"Has anybody else been here?" he asked. "I mean any outsiders."

"A good many folks from the village."

"Anybody else?"

"Yes, a detective from Brooklyn. He thought there might be a job for
him, but there wasn't, so he went away," and the policeman smiled
grimly.

"What was his name?"

"I think he said it was Peterson."

"Is that the Bardon house yonder?" And Adam Adams pointed through the
window and across the side lawn.

"Yes. Doctor Bardon was the first to come over--he and his mother."

"So I heard. I think I'll step over and speak to them a moment."

"So you are working for Miss Langmore?"

"Yes, in a way."

"You'll have an uphill job clearing her. The coroner thinks he has a
clear case against her."

"Do you know what evidence he possesses?"

"Not exactly. He isn't telling all he knows," returned the officer of
the law. "There is the doctor now."

A buggy was coming down the road. It turned in at the next house, and
a young man, carrying a small case, leaped out and disappeared into the
dwelling.

In a few minutes more, Adam Adams made his way next door. An elderly
servant admitted him and ushered him into the doctor's office, where
the young physician sat marking down some calls in his notebook.

"This is Doctor Bardon, I believe. I just came over from the Langmore
house. I am working on this mystery, and I understand you were the
physician who tried to bring Mr. and Mrs. Langmore