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Page 39
"Did you hear anything more?"
"Not right away, sur. Oi wint to me work. Whin Mr. Langmore came from
the bank Oi heard him talkin' to Miss Margaret."
"What was said then?"
"Oi dunno exactly, exceptin' that he said he was sorry she an' her
stepmother had quarreled, an' he wanted her to make it up wid his
woife."
"And what did Miss Margaret say to that?"
"She said that all she wanted was to be left alone."
"What else?"
"Oi didn't hear anything more, as Oi wint to the ciller fer coal. By
an' by Oi see Miss Margaret in the garden cryin'. Oi wanted to go to
her, but Mrs. Langmore kim to the kitchen an' Oi had to attind to me
wurruk."
"How did Mrs. Langmore seem to appear when she came to the kitchen?"
"Sure an' she was very excited an' findin' more fault than iver. She
stayed only a few minutes, an' thin wint to the library, an' that was
the very last Oi saw av her. Oi'm sorry she's dead, but she had that
divil's own temper!" And the domestic heaved a long sigh.
"That will do. You may sit down." The coroner looked around the
courtroom. "Is Doctor Bardon present?"
For reply the young physician came forward from one side of the room.
He looked pale and slightly troubled. In a low voice he corroborated
the testimony already given regarding the finding of the two bodies,
and told what he had done in his effort to restore Mr. Langmore to life.
"I thought there might be a spark there still, but I was mistaken," he
went on. "He looked so natural--and Mrs. Langmore looked natural, too,
for the matter of that. But both were stone dead."
"What was the cause of death?"
"That is something of a mystery. I have tried my best to get at the
bottom of it, but I cannot, nor can my colleague, Doctor Soper."
"Were the pair strangled, smothered, poisoned?" suggested the coroner.
"I have a theory that they were poisoned, but not in an ordinary way.
Neither Doctor Soper nor myself could find any traces of ordinary
poison."
"What is your theory?"
"Something was used to stupefy them, and so much was used that it
killed them."
"In that case the murder might have been unintentional?"
"Yes. Somebody might have thought to stupefy Mr. Langmore and then rob
him. But the drug, being too powerful, or used too long, might have
done its deadly work. Then the crime may have been discovered by Mrs.
Langmore and the murderer might have turned on her to conceal his first
wrongdoing."
"Hum. Have you--ahem! any idea of the nature of the poison?"
"No, excepting that it had a very powerful odor. When I bent over Mr.
Langmore I got several whiffs of it and it made me sick at the stomach.
But the odor was soon gone."
"And you have no idea what the poison was?"
"No, nor has Doctor Soper. It may be something new, or something
little known. Chemists are constantly discovering new things," went on
the young physician, bound to clear himself of any suspicion of
ignorance concerning medical matters.
"You found no marks of violence, as if there had been a struggle?"
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