Omaha daily bee., 1921-06-26

cS3tI -: llaSAfyE.
heard OF such a poisonous and deadly
snake inhabiting these regions"
II am myself in doubt OF the story,
and / mus. admit that ! do no.
know what steps to take" confessed
the Egyptian police officer. 1T ap-
pears that DR.. Kellerman was not
the only one of the party who fell a
victim TO a snake bite, for one OF the
Arabs who accompanied him was
also found dead and his body is
swollen in exactly the same manner.
1t is impossible to recognize him."
"Who first informed you OF the in
cident" asked DR.. Masaryk.
"Dr. Kellerman's native servant, an
Arab. Salih by name"
Have you removed the bodiesF
"In room upstairs. Would you
like TO examine then?"
Certainly, let's view the bodies. Il
the victims came to a violent death
at the hands Of someone think that
! know the reason for it." answered
the great Bohemian erininologist
grirniy, "and ] will never leave this
land until / bring the perpetrator Of
this murder of my friend to Justice
be said with deep feeling as he fol-
lowed the Cairo police chief up the
stairs.
Dr.. Masaryk found the bodies OF
his friend and his Egyptian servant
just as they had been described to
him by the Cairo officer. Some terri
bic poison had sweNed and dishgured
them beyond recognition. The
deaths, In the final anylsis, had been
caused by mysterious poisoning, the
like OF which the great Vienna de-
tective had never before observed IN
those regions True he had assisted
the Scotland Yard authorities On
many occasions in solving the mys-
terious Indian snake poisoning cases,
but he was absolutely sure IN his
conviction that such q case had
had never before been reported in
Egypt
The Egyptian police officer himself
informed Dr.. Masaryk that he
had been IN his profession for 80
years and that he had never before
heard OF a man dying of snake bite.
Masaryk was by this time thorough
ly convinced that his friend, Dr.. Kel-
lerman, had been lured to the head
Of the Sphinx and there murdered for
the priceless gold and ruby necklace
which he had shown him few hours
before. He knew that the great
Egyptologist had the necklace in his
possession previous to meeting
death.
Dr.. Masaryk found himself face to
face with a strange dilemma. Terri
bic was his task. Alter a few min
utes' silent meditation he removed
the cover that was thrown over his
friends dishgured body and ordered
the Egyptian police chief and his as
sistants TO cut the clothes OF the
archaeologist from his body. Then
be began q minute examination. First
he went over the hands, then the
feet, then the head Of his dead friend,
seeking for the punctured wounds
which would indicate where a snake
had bitten him if that theory was
correct No trace OF snake bite of
any kind could be found. Again he
went over the body until he came to
a little swelling Just above the heart.
Through the ragnifying glass he OBJ
served that II was very thin scratch
over the dead mans heart no bigger
than the sting Of bee. He was now
absolutely certain that such scratch
could not have been made by =
snake.
Turning to the Cairo police chief.
he said, "The mystery Of the death
of my friend lays IN that scratch. II
you are in a position to assist me l
will at once perform a post mortem
examination
The Cairo authorities were Ger
tainly too wiling TO have such
crime investigator Of worldwide
as Dr.. Masaryk help them.
He was authorized to perform the
examination Of his friend. Dr.. Mas
aryk discovered that there was
puneture resembling = scratch about
four inches long, running through
the chest right down to the heart.
mo snake or deadly insect could
infict such wound he observed to
the Cairo police chief There is no
doubt whatever in my mind that Dr..
Kellerman has been murdered" he
added
Then he examined the dead body
Of the Arab, which revealed the fact
that he, too, had been killed in the
same way, only in the case Of the
Arab the identical death-dealing
mark appeared in the neck instead
Of over the heart. However, the
thin scratch wound was Of the sane
le.gts AID Effected tie Arab !. ex-
,etly the same wsy-,Ae body was
swollen and dishgrred beyond ,eeog-
nition- He ordered the body COW
cred and then turned 10 the Cairo
police officer and suggested that
Saiih, his late friends servant and
on his journey to the
Sphinx, should be brought before
HIM.
Tell me how il happened" he
addressed the Arab sharply.
Soon after dinner yesterday my
master ordered me to prepare for =