The Golf Course Mystery

dear Captain," said Dr. Lambert wearily. "And we are no neare

looked at one another behind the closed door of the little room off the imposing reception hall at The Haven. They were in the house of death, an

akly, "that there can be no chance of error

ination of the deceased's organs. They plainly show traces of a violent poison, tho

t was as though he had corrected a too zealous student reciting

. "Though I know of no neurotic that

e effects of which I have never seen before. But we have not yet finished our an

r not it was suicide?" as

ert. "That fact remains. But if we establish the kind of poiso

he kind of poison!"

dical man sh

for which there is no known test," he said

ell, assuming that he did take poison,

" murmured

the mucous coat of the alimentary canal, I hardly see how Mr. Car

the game of golf," remarked Captain Poland. "He was feeling 'pretty good' as

t. "Though I confess this is a very remote possibility. Some poisons are neutralized by an alcoholic condition. And some p

arwell was a drug user?

saying so," answered Dr. Lambert,

oes it all mean?" asked Captain Poland

wing him down. Dr. Baird seemed duly impressed by the circumstances that had brought him-a young and as yet un

rought. He looked toward the closed door as though seeking to see beyond it-into the

one physician to the other "Is this all you came to tell-that Mr

n his championship game," said Dr. Baird, wit

h a thing?" demanded the

ad the opposite effect-a depressing action on the heart. Or, he may have taken a overdose of his favori

rtled tones. And it was easy to determine by his voice t

on his shoulders. "I must also think of Viola. I feel like another father to her now. I have always, more or less, regarded her as my little girl, though she is a young lady no

d quickly, and then, almost as soon as the words ha

me nice work in medical jurisprudence, and also a very del

the little room was thrown hastily and somewhat violently open, and Viola Carwell confronted the thre

a Carwell was at the height of her beauty. In a sense she had the gentle grace of her mother and with that the verve and sprightliness of her

s it? Tell me the truth!" she begged as she placed a hand on his arm, a hand that

iola?" he que

in here talking-consulting as to what is best to do. Tell me. My father is dead. But that,

f feared the words she was about t

just come from the-from having made an investigation-Dr. Baird and my

o face, resting longest on the countenance of Captain Poland. It was as though, in this great emerg

se," went on the family physician. "Your father was pois

eem that any one would hate him so, not even his worst

eem that any one did, or your father would have known it. Certainly if any one had tried to make him take

nation," she murmured, and her voice w

out Dr. Baird, in spite of the warni

" cried Viola, and she burst into a storm of

Uncle Add! Tell me it

ver the bowed head of Viola-said nothing for a few moments. Then as

n the most suspicious circumstances may be explained away. While it does look as though your father had deliberately taken the po

for a long time-often days-after they are taken, that there

looked through them now, as through a veil that must be torn aside. "I can not believe that my father was a-a

ed through the hall, flitting past the half-opened door

ad spoken rather loudly, and she did not want

to see if I could do anything. I rang and rang, but no one

t when I let you in," said C

ainst that of her friend. "Is there anything I can do

istress. Tell me-" and Viola seemed to nerve herself for some effort.

g that your father was a suicid

es

heard

e true, and we want that made plain. Father never killed himself. He was not that kind of man. He did not fear death, bu

f Minnie Webb. There was a great pi

a, but-but I am afr

y father comm

innie. "I-I'm afra