The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-02-19
Chapter II
DEDUCTION

" 4 CCORDING to our present the
"a DRY it goes like this" Bobby
continued. dead man x Is deliber
ately pushed over cliff-presumably
by B. F. (pardon the initials). It Is
important that x should not be cor
rectly identified. so the portrait Of
Mrs. C. is put in his pocket and the
portrait of Fair Unknown removed
Who was she. wonder?"
keep to the rsint," said frankie
sternly.
"1Mrs. C. waits for photograph to
appear. Then turns up as grief
stricken. sister and Identifies K as
her brother from foreign parts"
"You don't believe he could really
have been her brother?"
"Not for q moment! You know. II
puzzled me all along. The Caymans
were a different class altogether
The dead man was-well. it sounds
a most awful thing to say and just
like some deadly old retired Anglo
Indian-but the dead man was a
pukka sahib."
"And the Caymans emphatically
weren't?" ~
"Most emphatically."
"And then. just when everything
has gone of well from the Caymans'
point of view-body successfully
identified, verdict of accidental
death. everything in the garden love.
1y-you come along and mess things
sup," unused frankie.
"'Why didn't they ask Evans?'
Bobby repeated the phrase thought.
fully. "You know / can't see what on
earth there can be in that to put the
wind up anybody"
"Ahi that's because you don't
know. It's like making crossword
puzzles. You write down a clue and
you think it's too idiotically simple
and that everyone will guess IT
straight off, and you're frightfuIly
surprised when they simply can't get
It in the least. Why didn't they ask
Evans? must have been a most
frightfully significant phrase to
them. and they couldn't realize that
1t meant nothing at all to you"
more fools they"
"Oh. quite so. But it's just possible
they thought that II Pritchard said
that. he might have said something
more which would also recur to you
In due time. Anyway they weren't
going to take chances. You were
safer out of the way"
They took a lot Of risk. Why
didn't they engineer another 'acci-
dent'?"
"No. no. That would have been
stupid Two accidents within a week
Of each other? 1t might have sug-
gested connection between the two.
and then people would have begun
inquiring into the first one. No. ]
think there's a kind of bad simple
ity about their method which is real
ly rather clever"
"And yet you said just now that
morphia wasn't easy to get hold Of. /"
mo more it is. You have to sign
poison books and things. Oh-of
course, that's a cluei Whoever did II
had easy access to supplies of NOR
phia."
"a doctor. a hospital nurse, or a
chemist" suggested Bobby.
well. l was thinking more OF
illicitly imported drugs"
"You can't mix up too many differ
ent sorts OF crime" said Bobby.
"You see. the strong point would
be the absence of motive. Your death
doesn't benefit anyone. So what will
the police think?"
"a lunatic." said Bobby. sand
that's what they do think"
"You see? It's awfully simple
really"
DOLBY began to laugh suddenly.
- Whats amusing you?"
"Just the thought of how sick-mak-
ing it must be for them! All that
morphia-enough to kill five or six
people-and here / am alive and
kicking"
zone of Life's little ironies that
one can't foresee." agreed frankie.
"The question is. what do we do
next?" said Bobby practically.
"Oh! lots of things" said frankie
promptly.
Such as-?"
"Well-fnding out about the pho
tograph-that there was only one
not two. And about Bassington'
ffrench's house-hunting."
THAT will probably be quite all
right and above-b board"
why do you say that?"
Look here. frankie. think a min
ute. Bassington french must be