The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-10-14

as a doctor. though I could have se- cured one. but I have found out many things. Where nature poisons shs plants the remedy and in these bogs have found healing plants. MT. Cairns, sheriff. may l write a pres cription or two, one for the widow Perry and another for Jorgensen's rheumatism Then I shall be ready to go.'' The sheriff looked at Cairns, and | the latter nodded.
 Hardin went to the table, drew up a pad of yellow paper and scribbled l briskly. Halfway through a sentence | he, stopped.
 s'I have made out a statement, MT. Cairns he said, "of how I killed For l sythe-and why. It may expedite | matters. It is in that trunk. Here | is the key"
 1 Cairns took it and bent to the | trunk. Some instinct made him lstraighten swiftly. Hardin had folded | the leaves he had written and started | to hand them to the sheriff. Then, | as if by after-thought, he rapidly l opened a book, taking from the back l of it an envelope, glahcing covertly l at Cairns, who leaped forward, over turning a chair.
 Instantly Hardin raised the flap to his lips and licked the gum.
 Cairns snatched away the envelope | but Hardin merely smiled at him.
 There is no antedote,'' he said. 1 "None!' His voice failed like a fall ing rocket. "Barnes!" he gasped. | You know-Barnes!"
 l And, with the same man on his lips as had been uttered by the man he had killed, the druggist staggered to his feet with some last flare of energy, [ %1{+ 4~ out his arms, crashing to the floor | amid the fragments.
 | They lifted him and laid him on his truckle bed reverently, their hats l off. The sheriff seemed dazed. Blatch1ey looked at Cairns under ! stanGingly.
 Folsom" he asked. 'The flap Of the enve1ope?"
 "Yes. I suppose we shall find it all | of knowing it was. It flashed ac.oss at the last second. Too late-yet-in time. I should not have liked to see him pay the penalty. He was real avenger, I imagine. The poison was l in the gum of the envelope. He read | of F'orsythe's habit of answering his own mail, so he wrote under the false name, asking for an autograph. For sythe licked the flap as Hardin did and died.''
 What was the poison, leaving no trace?
 | Cairns handed B1atchIey the state ment he had taken from the trunk. | You can check me in this," he said
 "But am sure. It was the concen- trated essence of the yellow jasmine Long ago I read of it, but I had for gotten the whole thing, practically
 Ones memory is a subtle thing, stir red by chemical reactions. Mine was stimulated first, but insuffcently, by the perfume I smel1ed on Forsythe's s dead body. It was to faint properly to function. It must have come from
 his lips, but I thought it from his
 hatr I caught the thing more faintly yet, on the self-addressed envelope. It came again more strongly as we | crossed the swarnps.
 T have been the verge of the
 thing all the time. but it has been so long since a mans brain is logged. as is dogs through sense of smell, that mine did not rightly coordinate. Something told me the letter from Paxton was the key, and I blundered all round it, groping for it. I opened the window just now and a spray of yellow Jasmine leaped from itsscoiIed tendrfls. That should have told me. and the presence of the vine envelop- Ing the cabin. But Fate played out the hand.
 | When saw him furtive1y take out
 that special envelope from the back
 or the book, when there were others
 nearer him, I was still short-circuit-
 ing. Then the spark 1eaped the gap.
 Jumped too late. But, by God, be-
 lieVe Forsythe did kill Barnes Hardin
 was faithful friend-and shrewd
 It was subtly conceived. The one
 thing to break through Forsythe's de l lenses"
 On the face of Hardin was nothine but placidity. of duty accomplished The eyes held no horror as the eyes ' of F1orsythe had. Cairns bent to the
 floor. One bloom of the Butterfly
 Orchid was still unspoiled and he placed it on the breast of the dead Fdruggist.
 THE END.