The Poisoned Pen (From the Craig Kennedy series)

wing things into it from his chiffonier, as I entered after a hurried tr

ut taking off the wrapping-paper, "I've got your suit-case out. Pack up whatev

wn was sufficient. For Danbridge was on everybody's lips at that time. It was the scene of the now famous D

ung Dr. Dixon is the victim of a conspiracy-or at least Alma Willard does, which comes to the same thing, and-well, the senator called me up on

for some reason or other we had to ourselves, Kennedy spoke again for t

al about this case in the papers. Let's try to get our knowled

in Danbridg

ied. "What sort

rs and factories, of wealth and poverty, and above all it is interesting for its colony

A very talented girl, too-you remember her in 'The Taming of the New Woma

ar of ammonia on her dressing-table. Mrs. Boncour sends the maid for the nearest doctor, who happens to be a Dr. Waterworth. Meanwhile she tries to restore Miss Lytton, bu

iss Lytton was dead when he arrived

and then he has two patients, one of them himself. We must see him, for his experience must have been appalling. How he ever did it I can't imagine, but he saved both himself and Mrs. Boncour from p

opinion of the newspapers, I hastily turned the conversatio

he became acquainted with Vera Lytton, after her divorce from that artist Thurston. Then comes his removal to Danbridge and his meeting and later his engagement with Miss Willard. On the whole, Walter, judging from the newspaper pictures, Alma Willard is

s. It is the main occupation of a certain set, and the per-capita output of gossip is a record that would stagger the census bureau. Still, you can't get away from

ound it crumpled up in the jar of ammonia. Oh, there are lots of problems the ne

the station on the main street. Craig had wired him, and he had kindly waited to see us, f

to see that note that was found in

t-case a crumpled note which had been pressed flat again. On it

cure you

DI

handwriting?"

aid with reluctance, as if down in his heart he hated to prosecute Dixon. "We have lots

g Kennedy get a hint as to their contents

examination, of course always at such times

illegal to accommodate the senator," he said. "But, on the other

very gate, terrible as an army, with cameras. It was with some difficulty that we got in, even though we were expected, for

door with a glittering brass knocker, which gleamed out severely at

de the very human pallor of her face after the sleepless nights and nervous days since this trouble had broken on her placid existence. Yet there was a mark of strength and determination on her face that was fascinating. The man who would trifle with this girl, I felt, was

of wealth and family and tradition, he laid bare everything to us, for the sake of Alma Will

ng man was announced, Mr. Halsey Post. He bowed politely to us, but it

e the large factory in town, which you perhaps noticed," explained the s

ort toward securing Halsey Post as a son-in-law, but

lmost a whisper, lest she should still be listening, he said, "There is a story about town

ting to hear Dixon immediately acquitted.

ays he has suffered from Dixon. I don't know anything more about it, and I tell yo

dropped in at the little bungalow to see Mrs. Boncour. She was much better, though she had s

ink of, people who were jealous of her p

aid Dr. Dixon was an enem

ly. "One is not usually visited in perfect fr

parated. By chance he happened to drop in the day Mr. Thurston was here, and later in the day I gave him a letter to forward to Mr. Thurston, which had come after the artist left. I'm su

we made our adieus. "Just now I want to get the facts in hand.

had little to correct in the facts of the story which had been published so far. But t

the jar of ammoni

her dressing-table with the note crump

no idea why

umes of ammonia are one of the ant

d hardly have known t

have experienced after taking the powder. Perhaps she thought of sal volatile, I don't know. But most people know

cyanide?" int

. I pried open her jaws and smelled the sweetish odour of the cyanogen gas. I knew then what she had taken, and at the moment she was dead. In the next room I heard some one moaning. The maid said that it was Mrs. Boncour, and that she was deathly sick. I ran into her room, and though she was b

But more than that, the metallic taste and the horrible burning sensation told of the presence of some form of mercury, too. In that terrible moment my brain worked with the incredible swiftness of light. In a flash I k

made it right there in nature's own laboratory. But there was no time to stop. I had to act just as quickly to neutralise that cyanide, too. Remembering the ammonia, I rushed back with Mrs. Boncour, and we inhaled the fumes. Then I found a bottle

e, a wreck. Since then I have not left this bed. With my le

again to discover the nature of

ught of self. He is there to do things, and he does them, according to the best that is in him. In spite of

r to science. Could anything be more dramatic than

d of condemnation of Dixon, though the note was before his eyes? Sure

ession in his favour due to the faith of Alma Willard, was the nerve he displayed, whether guilty or innocent. Even an innocent man might well have been staggered by the circumstantial evidence against him and the high tide of public feeling, in spite of the support that

em. Meanwhile, in turning over the gossip of the town, one of the newspapermen ran across the fact that the Boncour bungalow was owned by the Posts, and that Halsey Post, as the executor of the estate, was a more frequent visitor th

field Hotel. Leland entered. His face was positively white. Without a word he took us by the arm

matter?" a

I feel that you should know about what I have just found. As I told you, we secured nearly all of Dr. Dixon's letters. I had not read them all

as written in a curious greyish-bl

HAR

your new love, so soon after the old. I suppose Alma Willard is far better suited to be your wife than is a poor little actress-ra

over from New York, tells me that there is some doubt about the validity of our divorce. You recall he was in the South at the time I sued him, and the papers were served o

ings stand. If we had married, I suppose I would be guilty of bigamy

t desert me, or the very earth will cry out against you. I am frantic and hardly know what I am writing. My head aches, but it is my heart that is breaking. Harris,

r little

E

and exclaimed, "That never

how it was folded. It was written on the wrong side of the sheet, or ra

part of the time this aftern

nnedy. "There was no way to slip this letter

nd there is no evidence of any one h

letters as if looking to see whether t

ne." Nervously he fumbled through them again. "On

t about?" a

about it. He explained it by saying that he did not have a copy of his reply, but as near as he could recall, he wrote that the compound would not cure a headache except at the expense of reducing heart action dangerously. He says he sent no pre

each other

ss Lytton, should he preserve this letter from

you suppose some one has broken in and substitu

ndertook to obtain some specimens of the writing of Vera Lytton. With these and the letter Kennedy was working far into the n

apartments. Thurston himself had not been there for several days and was reported to have gone to Maine to sketch. He had had a number of debts, but before he left they had all

wer, care of Mrs. Boncour, as requested. He insisted that the engagement between Miss Lytton and himself had been broken before the announcement of his engagement with Miss Willard. As for Thurston, he said the man was

d entered it quickly with her father, and the journey had been made in the car, while Halsey Post had quietly dropped off on the outskirts of the town, where another car was waiting to take him back. It was evident that the Willard family relied implicitly on Halsey, an

left Danbridge, he seemed to have dropped out of sight completely. Howeve

ion that Halsey was shielding the artist, perhaps through a sense of friendship when he found that Kennedy was interested in Thurston's movement. I must say I rather

was received that he was in Bar Harbour; the next it was a report from Nova Scotia. At last, however, cam

district attorney to be present with the note and the jar of ammonia properly safeguarded. Leland of course came, although his client could not. Halsey Post seemed only too glad to be with Miss Willard, though he seemed to have lost interest in the case as soon as the Willards re

egin this momentous exposition that was to establish the guilt or innocence of the calm young physician w

gan Kennedy. "Never before have I felt so keenly my sense of responsibility. Therefore, though

, two years ago, Mrs. Burgess Thurston. The Thurstons had temperament, and temperament is quite often the highway to the divorce court. It was so in this case. Mrs. Thurston discovered that her husb

e. Before a notary Thurston made an affidavit that he had never been served by the lawyer for Miss Lytton, as she was now known. Her lawyer is dead, but

ersation with one of his own clerks when the lawyer was due to appear. Kimmel appeared to act confused, as if he had been caught napping. The Southern lawyer, who had seen Thurston only once, fell squar

rs not that the engagement was later broken. The fact remains that if the divorce were set aside an action would lie against Dr. Dixon for alienating Mrs.

s he laid it down, Leland, who was sittin

he prosecutor know about tha

read Vera's letter. It was damning to Dixon, a

d was pale and staring wildly at Kennedy. Halsey Post, ever solicitous for her, handed her a glass of water from the table. Dr. Waterworth had f

o that presently. My next point is that Dr. Dixon says he received a letter from Thurston on the day the artist visited the Boncour bungalow. It asked about a certain headache

ate beside her. You are all familiar with the circumstances and with the note discovered in the jar of ammonia. Now, if the prosecutor will be so kind as to let me see that note-thank you, sir. This is the identical not

ennedy, who had been engaged by her father

gravely, "there are one or two points I wish to elabora

rston, but changed almost beyond recognition. His clothes were wor

nedy had said and intended he should hear, for as he entered he al

ly, "I am as innocent as you are

ed Kennedy, his eyes blazing, "that you were never

. As he met Craig's fixed glare he knew there was no hope. Slowly, as if the w

self. I was served

before Kimmel that yo

nn

e murmur

now to make another af

e replie

edy sarcastically. "What did you make

science in such a wretch, and the word itself seemed to stick in his throat as he went on and saw how feeble an impression he was making on us-"my conscience began to trouble me. I determined to see Vera, tell her all, and find out whether it was she who wanted this statement. I saw her.

dly down in a chair and cov

y," muttered L

h he had placed on the table. The colour had now appeared in Alma's cheeks, as if hope had again spru

Kennedy. "Take the letter which I read from Miss Lytton, which was f

little bottle, and wr

ure? Would you recommend it for a nervous hea

n wrote in the note that had disappeared. Then he dipped another pen into a second bottle, and for

e. Here in the open sunshine by this window I am going to place these two sheets of paper side by side. It w

beckoned us over to the window. As we approached he said, "On sheet number one I have wr

perceptible, but on paper number two, in black letters, appeared what Kennedy had wr

ed letter, and the other is like the m

ry, you took them out of the safe and left them in the sunlight all day. The process that had been started earlier in ordinary light, slowly, was now quickly com

nvisible when used for writing. But the original colour reappears as the oxygen of the air acts upon the pigment. I haven't a doubt but that my analyses of the inks are correct and on one side quinoline was used and on the other nitrate of silver. This explains the inexplicable disappearance of evidence incriminating one person, Thurston, and the sudden appearance of evidence incriminating

opening and shutting his lips and moistening them as if

ed so queerly crumpled up in the jar of ammonia on Vera Lytton's dressing-table. I have here a cylindrical glass jar in wh

the jar-and in a few seconds withdraw it. Here is a very quick way of producing something like the slow result of sunlight with silver nitrate. The fumes of ammonia have forme

had written. It was the same

cure you

DI

ely stopping in his exposure, Kennedy tore it open, re

t of paper-so. It leaves no mark. But it has the remarkable property of becoming red in vapour of sulpho-cyanide. Here is a long-necked flask of the gas, made by sulphuric acid acting on p

ashed it into the jar of ammonia. When he withdrew it, it was just a plain sheet of white paper again. The red marks whi

n it must have had the doctor's reply to the Thurston letter containing the words, 'This will not cure your headache.' He carefully traced the words, holding t

literating the writing, while at the same time the invisible writing in the mercurous nitrate involving Dr. Dixon's name would be brought out by the ammonia indelibly on the other side of t

e found in the ammonia-jar beside the dying girl and had jammed the

s prosecutor, "it will do nothing to the Dixon writing

g on both sides, the black of the original

raig read it with as muc

sure to place the contents of this pa

tten on the outside wrapper of a paper folded ab

faintness from the medicine the ammonia will quickly restore you.

but they were plainly written, and "

one corresponds to the writing on this red death-warrant by an almost inhuman fiend. I shall, however, leave that part of it to the handwri

-control, but with trembling forefinge

secret lover of Vera Lytton till threatened by scandal in Danbridge-Halsey Post, graduate in technology, student of sympathetic inks, forger of the Vera Lytton letter and the other notes, and dealer in cyanides in the silver-smi