Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-23

The hour had come wherein lower New
York draws down the cover of it's roll-top
and bustles away toward the elevated road
and uptown dinner.
In the laboratory, Gunnison, assistant
chemist to that eminent analyst DR.. Mer-
riweather, had concluded the process Of
cleaning up for the night He had slipped
out of his apron and into his overcoat. and
was about to switch off the lights, when
DIR. Merriweather came from his tiny pri
vate office.
"All done, eh?'
Gunnison eyed with veiled disgust the
bottle in the doctors hand.
IF there is anything you wish me to
do" he began, perfunctoriy.
mo, Not tonight, Let me see! You're
going over to Jersey City in the morning,
aren't you?"
ITO report to those Graydon mining peo-
ple-yes, sir"
"All right. Go straight over there from
home. That will bring you back here to
the laboratory by noon?"
Easily, should think"
"Well-thats time enough"
Merriweather placed the bottle on the
table and seated himself upon the distilled
water carboy.
Very likely 1 shall have left when you
get back-Johnson's acid works. over in
Greenpoint. have managed to get into some
sort of muddle again. Go to work on this
stuff as soon as you come In. l want 10
report il tomorrow night"
Gunnison reached for the bottle and eX-
amined it.
Solution bromide of soda" he read
Brand Brothers, manufacturing pharma-
cistS What about it, doctor? Some one
getting suspicious of Brand Brothers prep
arations?"
nSt in
coroners office for analysis
1.-THE coroners Officer" Gunnison opened
his eyes.
Nothing less There's thrilling mystery
in that bottle. The label. as you see, In
forms us that it contains bromide of soda
a harmless sedative, of course. The last
man who took a dose of 1t died within six
hours"
"And they think"
THAT the stuff's morphine, instead of
bromide, and that the old fellow was dosed
TO death with it,
"PurpoSely?"
Merriweather shrugged his shoulders.
That young sawbones. Carney, who
brought in the thing. spent solid hour
spinning the yarn to me. The late lament
ed was an old chap uptown He'd bean
confined to his bed for months l under
stand. but they hardly expected him TO go
off like this He had all sorts of money
and no relatives. save a nece-an orphan
who went to take care of him and his
ituSc' SOiltlIlillS llht d year Ddch-
And they suspect the niece?"
Carney does. and l imagine that he has
implanted that belief pretty firmly in the
ccrcnerS office. 1t seems that about 3
o clock this morning some one routed Car
ney out of bed. and he found the old mans
butler on the steps. with hurry call for
medical aid. The family physician is out
OF town.
We'll. before long he was examining the
poor old chap. None of the women had
had sufficient strength to move him-he lay
stretched on the floor just as they had
found him. He was just breathing and
Carney went to work to revive him; but it
was no go. The old man died within ten
or fifteen minutes
And what led Carney to think that it
was morphine poisoning"
HE says that he knew it for morphine
poisoning the instant. To all appear
ances the old man had risen from bed and
tried to cross the room: but he must have
fallen and carried down the medicine table
with him. Plates glasses-everything-
were smashed to bits. with the single eX
ception of that bottle beside you. Carney
asked one of the maids about 1t. She had
been helping the niece with her nursing
and she recognized 1t at once Here's where
the clues begin to bristle, Gunnison.
THE maid told Carney that the family
doctor-his names Magruder-had been in
during the evening. The old man had suf
fered considerable pain all day, and Mac