The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-01-25
XXXIH. SYNOPGTS

NE mys&cry that seems to impIicate |E every member of the home, when MAI he begins investigating the |X death of Mrs. Richard Lorne E/ and her son, Julian Chalmers. FE Eugene a son, only clears hirn-S f{ self to implicatc the father, and HX he learns Fannie, another son, N fsfdeepIy vcrsed in certain phases |I of medicine,'' which brings him &f under suspicion.
 t "I?" The boy laughed again. "So ILthat is how the wind blows, is it2 1 t{ Sold you at our last interview that l{wouldn't take the trouble to put any |i'of the family out of the way; but N Hvas evidently not convincing. I'll yfgive you all the rope you want, ser x geant As a matter of fact, I have |<been sreading up and experimenting
 quite a bit lately on path ogsnlc nac- \ terfa; the bugs, you know, which pro- duce, among other things, blood poisoning. Damaging, isn't it. espe- ciaIly when I admit that I turned my Y Intention to the subject some months
 s.Experimenting? Oden repeated sharply. Do you mean that you |xfad the living specimens here?"
 |H Rannie nodded coolly; but the de- Elective noted sudden quiver of his |t Distorted face.
 Yes I got them a month be- M ffore my mother was taken i'll. M have friend, Phil Hampton, young t bacteriologist who lets me fool around Ef his laboratory when feel able; ana he taught me lot Lent me an ann m. Nor cocci to develop and expriment with them time to time."
 % q Did you have in your possession at the time of your mothers illness the actual type of bacteria which E would produce blood-poisoning? 'T did. I had them for two or <fhree days. That was why, when my mother died and; the specialists were still quarreling about why she had not responded to the treatment, began to wonder if my incubator
 had been tempered with. But you will scarcely credit that, of course: What I am telling you must amount to a practical confession in your t eycs'
 M "You are telling me this of your own free will, and am acceptlng P u rII your statement in good faith," Oden replied slowly ''If you were guilty; why should you tell me SO much and .el halt at an actual confession? You M kept the incubator here in thls room?"
 "Yes. It had only to be kept at thirty-eight degrees cent1grade-
 body temperature, you know-and |t tKfound the bacteria a fascinating etudy.a They were protection, too, from boIedom; neither of the glrls would venture into the room Tor lear lea
 something would escape ti,,n ana had Dire nn embryo menagerie here!'
 T.Dfd any one else in the household e,Xince the slightest interest in your .,<experiments? ?" s..,. | know anything about thm; they
 merely had instructions not to touch | che rincubator. Gene never comes III here. and dad would not even let me shovy them to him; said I was a fool z t fo monkey with such things, ana tha' there we're enough nuisanceS ln the AworId without bothering with trouble
 makers which were so sinan fn ypd ,',d I-. rM EfHe I insisted upon talking 10 nel about them just to tease her. 5,I, put II I4 distressed her so that quit nnaily l CT believe she thinks that moder1 "a ,,ad;caI science is an invention of th' |~ devil to cheat the Divine Will Of It. fr nrey s4You see. sergeant we are LII { against a stone wall every way WI IVY .,Tep me more about these bac < teria.' Odell urged. You installe' sth;s incbator a month bewore you
 mother was taken ill, you say t. Approximately. used agar f fsapar the usual sterile culture me
 d;sm. and the first bacteria tha K | Hampton let me have were ls, cd.ls' '4 | viridans If It mean lxsnvthing to you. They produc M 5siood-noison of the most vlrulen wv iSind. and had my mother peen m & fected. with any of them death Wout I t.x-o resulted almost 1mmed1alelS lS l. Next got from Hampton some sta sta -knhyIococcus aureus; and finally U" Npr three days before my motne E pierced her finger With ,,1lIonne tnat nGeunS " i,a told me to try some Stapnylocoe. t -., ne ne u,,,s They are the bacter1 \ ,yh;ch would have produced the mn m case of septicemia from Whlch .cn III
 mother seemed at tlr5t 10 pc ;f IettHs ;facte T ing if the needle nad peeh E with them." 5o ,.o, ticalIy?" , ,,,a needle i 4ba f,,be containing the culture-1ne dium on the surface of whlch ule ,13a, nSe, ks seria were floating" Rannie iePlls' ~ M sssT-hev would remain alive TOT sever :, ,,o,,cs at least; and the fact that th VI noedIe had been drawn repeated M throurl1- the material on which n ;-rnother was embroidering Woulo ii1ar 1ar ,o,1d have. destroyed their effectiv' < "Dia your friend Hampton 9t9aa+i1ss teac WI xo,i all th:s?' asked the detectlVe. N ssNo. He only showed me now * ro about experimenting with ther
 F iearned what I know aboutS the fK rom those books you have and l more of them over there." He no w ded toward the collection. Any o1 t/ inSthe house could have mad as ea' MA access to them as to the lncnoatol % ssWhere is the incubator now. sT returned it to Hampton Ra,
 nie flushed once more. It makes u W. whole thing look pretty black again
 W me doesn't it? The fact is that af sNnaotter's death and I got broodil -It it and wondering why she h. , Responded to the treatment g IB. of horror of those wretche
 Aasimal things which could
 Ehave been the cause of it a
 .&nrew out the bacteria, and sent t
 sMcubator back to Hampton; but
 ,r--+-i couldn't get the thought of them o Nd of my mind. ~
 TT knew it was madness to ev | consider it; but, sergeant, if any o E got at the incubator and infected tn w needle. they could easily Ina eained access to it at any time duri M my mothers subsequent illness a WI reInfected her over and over aga * by a mere pin-prick." The boys u M hands clenched. ''That is the o1 possible way to account for her ia nre to rally under the treatment.'' & "Doctor McCutcheon suggested u
 the incision made for drainage nc L { the infected spot might have been
 1 infected by seruIn''-OdelH was