Tombstone epitaph., 1916-02-06
hand. Capt. Francis Forsythe lay upon the floor. dead.


 But what can't see," Doctor Hen drix was saying-they were all gath. cred in Felix Hazards private office the doctor. Helen. Hazard and the last-named's chief-"what I can't sec is how you arrived at your conclusions so quickly. It is amazing-astound- ingi"
 Really. it was all very simple, in- deed one of the simplest problems I ever vas called upon to solve" Haz- ard returned modestly. "As a matter of fact, knew the answer within five minutes after you left me this morn- ing. All that Miss Bertel and 1 did this afternoon was to conflrm-or, rather, find a means of establishing the conclusions.
 There were three factors, which, | taken together. made the conclusions inevitable. These were the fact that you had administered strophanthus to Mrs. Forsythe the night before she died. that her husband had a collec- ton of African weapons and that there were three insurance policies though he never suspected that the largest, upon which she had been pay ing premiums. was doubly beyond his reach. His thoughts and sensations must have been horrible when he re- alized that the murder of his wife had produced so paltry an amount. But before moving in the case. satisfied myself upon two aspects of the affair that strengthened my posi- tion: obtained the mans record. and obtained full statement of his bankrupt condition. The rest was merely matter of happening to be possessed of a scrap of uncommon knowledge"
 Hazard fell silent, and sat musing a | moment before taking up the thread of his recital.
 Its trite to repeat that whenever . crime Is committed, no matter how shrewd or intelligent the criminal. or how carefully every factor that might leave clue pointing toward detection is provided against. some detail is in- variably overlooked: the one thing | Justice is sure to bounce upon to bring down retribution upon the per. | petrator.
 l This case is a pointed illustration | of the truism It Is probable that For sythe had no idea that strophanthus has an established place in materia | medica: it Is possible that he didn't even know the drug by that name; he did know, however. it's deadly prop critics and that under the various names of inee, Poison of Polionias. or Komba, 1t has from time immemorial been used by many African tribes to poison their spears and arrows. Els pecially in the region round about Somaliland is to be found the dead Hest of all the genus. the strophanthus hispidus, from the seeds of which Is i obtained a glucoside so fatal that an 1 elephant wounded by one of the little arrows impregnated with it will drop | dead before 1t can run ten miles | But today l made one blunder: when I let the maid carry to her master information of a deputy coro- ner's surprising interest in his collec- ton, while at the same time there was a strange woman with the dead. albeit she was an undertakers assist | ant"
 How did you guess about the splin. ter?" asked the doctor.
 | "Wel. that touches upon another in stance of the diabolical deliberation with which he went about murdering | his wife. In the beginning he made a solution from several of the arrow tips. but the poison doubtless has lost much of its potency through age and | long exposure to the air. At any rate it was not strong enough to produce fatal results when administered in | ternally. But found one arrow from which a splinter had recently been cut, and when Miss Bertel reported that the body bore not the slightest mark, I, by signs-for the maid was watching us ciosely-conveyed the message to her that she look under the finger-naiis. She found the splin- ter under the third nail of the right hand-probably placed there while his wife was in fainting or unconscious state"
 By and by Helen Bertel and Hazard were alone. They sat in silence. each busy with his or her own thoughts. The minutes ticked away until fully . quarter of an hour had passed, when something caused Hazard to glance up quickly at the girls sweet face.
 He was surprised to see her lovely eyes sufiused with tears.
 What, Helen-what is it?" he asked solicitously.
 She met his look.
 "Oh, it's so sad, Felix. That poor. poor woman. Even in death the shad- ow of a great sorrow lies upon her face. And she was SO beautiful"
 Hazard considered this view of the affair, then
 q must confess that I was giving her but scant consideration. I was thinking of the doctor. May the Lord keep him from ever putting two and two together"
 Why. what do you mean?"
 Cant you see? For two weeks Forsythe has been giving his wife the age-weakened poison from the arrow heads in some sort of solution. That Is what produced the symptoms of heart disease. This method failing, he tried the splinter. The dose of strophanthus that Doctor Hendrix ad- ministered, added to the other poison. was in reality an overdose. It was | what finally killed her He is an iD-