The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-23
ed away, grinning.

room in " hich we had found the body of the unfortunate Frenchman and into the room beyond Five or six pieces of furniture. evidently just un- packed. stood there; but. ignorant as I am of such things. he did not have. to point out to me the BoIle cabinet
 I looked at it for some moments, for 1t was certainly beautiful piece of work. with wealth Of inlay and in- crustation little short of marvellous But may as we'll say here that l never really appreciated it. The Horid style of the fourteenth and fifteenth Louis is not at all to my taste I am afraid that vantine found me a little cold.
 You don't seem to care for it.,' he said. looking at me.
 That's my fault and not the fault or the cabiaet." I pointed out. Elm not educated lIp to>itA.ss I,E1l too little Of an artist perhaps sszs5
 He was flushed as man might be should another make disparaging re- mark about his wife. and he led the way from the room at once.
 ssRemember. Lester" he said little sternly, pausing with his. hand on the front door. there is to be no foolish ness about securing that cabinet for me. Don't you let it get away. I'm in deadly earnest Let me know as soon as you have any news.'' Was Fantine quite normal ?I wonder ed on my way home. Could any man be normal who was willing to pay $1o0.G00 for piece of furniture. espe- cia1ly man who could not afford such eztravagance2 I knew the size of Van tines fortune. It was large. but $IOo.- GOO represented more than years income. And then I smiled to myself Of course Yantine was merely testing when he named that limit The cahi- net could be bought for tenth of it. wt the most.
 1t was about s o'clock that evening that Godfrey tapped at my door. and when ] let him in I could tell by the way his eyes were shining that he had some news.
 "I can't stay long he said sIsve got to get down to the office and put the finishing touches on that story But nevertheless he took the cigar I proffered him and sank into the Chair opposite my own.
 s'I want to say this, Lester" he said. .'that of all the cases I ever had not one has promised better than this one does. The coroner's physician finished his postmortem half an hour or so ago,
 .WelI 9 I said.
 The stomach was absolutely nor nal. xI It showed no trace of poison of any kind. Rather faeer for our friend Goldberger.,'
 .sWhatss the hatter with Goldberger? :? He seemedrat peeved with you this affernoon.
 No wonder. He's a Grady man, and we're after Grady. Grady isn't it to head the detective bureau. He got the job through his pull. he's stupid and suspsEt he's crooked. The Record says he has got to go. Once he's out eYeryfhing will be serene again" Look here. Godfrey.n said. eff it wasn't poison what was it 2''
 But it was poison. 2
 sInserted at the, hand ?''
 < He nodded
 Goidberger says there's no poison known which could be. used that way and which would act so quickly 2
 .GoIdberger is right in that agreed Godfrey. But there's poison un- known that will. because 1t did.'
 ssIt wasn't a snake bite ?"
 ttOh, no. Snake poison wouldn't kill "a man that quickly, not even a fer-de- lance That fellow practically dropped where he was struck
 Then what was it?'
 Godfrey was sitting erect again. He was not smiling now His face was very stern.
 .aThat fellow was killed by some agency outside himself" he said ..In some way a drop or two Of poison was introduced into his blood by an instru- nent something like hypodermic needle, and that poison was so power ful that almost instantly it caused paralysis of the heart 2
 But you've already said there's no poison, So powerful as all tIaat.''
 .I said we didn't know of any. I wouldn't be so sure that Catherine de MedicI didn't This case isn't as ex- raordinary as some of the old poison ing stories
 ssNo,,' agreed. and fell silent. s1iv- ering a little, for there is something horrible. and revoIting about the poi