第71章

"But," persisted the coroner, "if she was murdered by the use of chloroform, how do you account for the fact that it was done without a struggle? There were no marks of violence and I, for one, do not believe that under ordinary circumstances any one will passively submit to such an administration without a hard fight.">From his pocket Kennedy drew a small pasteboard box filled with tiny globes, some bonbons and lozenges, a small hypodermic syringe, and a few cigars and cigarettes.He held it out in the palm of his hand so that we could see it.

"This," he remarked, "is the standard equipment of the endormeur.

Whoever obtained admittance to Madame's rooms, either as a matter of course or secretly, must have engaged her in conversation, disarmed suspicion, and then suddenly she must have found a pocket handkerchief under her nose.The criminal crushed a globe of liquid in the handkerchief, the victim lost consciousness, the chloroform was administered without a struggle, all marks of identification were obliterated, the body was placed in the closet, and the maid - either as principal or accessory - took the most likely means of postponing discovery by paying the bill in advance at the office, and then disappeared."Kennedy slipped the box back into his pocket.The coroner had, Ithink, been expecting Craig's verdict, although he was loath to abandon his own suicide theory and had held it to the last possible moment.At any rate, so far he had said little, apparently preferring to keep his own counsel as to his course of action and to set his own machinery in motion.

He drew a note from his pocket, however."I suppose," he began tentatively, shaking the note as he glanced doubtfully from it to us, "that you have heard that among the callers on this unfortunate woman was a lady of high social position in this city?""I have heard a rumour to that effect," replied Kennedy as he busied himself cleaning up the apparatus he had just used.There was nothing in his manner even to hint at the fact that we had gone further and interviewed the young lady in question.

"Well," resumed the coroner, "in view of what you have just discovered I don't mind telling you that I believe it was more than a rumour.I have had a man watching the woman and this is a report I received just before I came up here."We read the note which he now handed to us.It was just a hasty line: "Miss Lovelace left hurriedly for Washington this morning."What was the meaning of it? Clearly, as we probed deeper into the case, its ramifications grew wider than anything we had yet expected.

Why had Miss Lovelace gone to Washington, of all places, at this torrid season of the year?

The coroner had scarcely left us, more mystified than ever, when a telephone message came from McBride saying that he had some important news for us if we would meet him at the St.Cenis Hotel within an hour.He would say nothing about it over the wire.

As Kennedy hung up the receiver he quietly took a pistol from a drawer of his desk, broke it quickly, and looked thoughtfully at the cartridges in the cylinder.Then he snapped it shut and stuck it into his pocket.

"There's no telling what we may run up against before we get back to the laboratory," he remarked and we rode down to meet McBride.

The description which the house man had sent out to the other hotel detectives the night before had already produced a result.Within the past two days a man answering the description of the younger man whom McBride had seen in the caf=82 and a woman who might very possibly have been Madame's maid had come to the St.Cenis as M.and Mme.Duval.Their baggage was light, but they had been at pains to impress upon the hotel that they were persons of some position and that it was going direct from the railroad to the steamer, after their tour of America.They had, as a matter of fact, done nothing to excite suspicion until the general request for information had been received.

The house man of the St.Cenis welcomed us cordially upon McBride's introduction and agreed to take us up to the rooms of the strange couple if they were not in.As it happened it was the lunch hour and they were not in the room.Still, Kennedy dared not be too particular in his search of their effects, for he did not wish to arouse suspicion upon their return, at least not yet.

"It seems to me, Craig," I suggested after we had nosed about for a few minutes, finding nothing, "that this is pre-eminently a case in which to use the dictograph as you did in that Black Hand case."He shook his head doubtfully, although I could see that the idea appealed to him."The dictograph has been getting too much publicity lately," he said."I'm afraid they would discover it, that is, if they are at all the clever people I think them.Besides, I would have to send up to the laboratory to get one and by the time the messenger returned they might be back from lunch.No, we've got to do something else, and do it quickly."He was looking about the room in an apparently aimless manner.On the side wall hung a cheap etching of a woodland scene.Kennedy seemed engrossed in it while the rest of us fidgeted at the delay.

"Can you get me a couple of old telephone instruments?" he asked at length, turning to us and addressing the St.Cenis detective.

The detective nodded and disappeared down the hall.A few minutes later he deposited the instruments on a table.Where he got them I do not know, but I suspect he simply lifted them from vacant rooms.

"Now some Number 30 copper wire and a couple of dry cells," ordered Kennedy, falling to work immediately on the telephones.The detective despatched a bellboy down to the basement to get the wire from the house electrician.

Kennedy removed the transmitters of the telephones, and taking the carbon capsules from them placed the capsules on the table carefully.

Then he lifted down the etching from the wall and laid it flat on its face before us.Quickly he removed the back of the picture.