|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 50
XIV
ANOTHER CLUE
Kennedy looked at me quizzically. "I guess we'd better not wait
for Miss Loring to initiate us to McCann's," he remarked.
We found our way to the courtyard, and were headed for the gate
when a young man in chauffeur's cap and uniform intercepted us. I
had noticed him start forward from one of the cars parked in the
inclosure, but did not recognize him.
"May I speak to you a moment, Professor Kennedy--alone?"
"Mr. Jameson here is associated with me, is assisting me in this
case, if it is something concerning the death of Miss Lamar."
"It is, sir. I saw you out at Tarrytown yesterday. McGroarty is
my name and I drove one of the cars the company went in. They
were pointing you out to me, and I'd read about you, and just now
I says to myself there's something I ought to tell you."
"That's right." Kennedy lighted a cigar, offering one to the
chauffeur. "I'm not supernatural and often I'm able to solve a
mystery only with the help of all those who, like myself, want
justice done."
"Yes, sir! That's my way of looking at it. Well"--McGroarty blew
a cloud of smoke, appreciatively--"I do a good bit of driving for
these people, and this morning it was cloudy and dull, no good
for exteriors, but yet sort of so it might clear at any moment,
and so I was ordered. I brought my car and left it standing here
in the yard while I went over to McCann's--the lunch room, you
know--for a cup of coffee. When I came back"--again the cigar--
"there still was nothing doing, and so I thought--you know how it
is--I thought I'd clean up the back of the old boat, to kill
time, not saying it wasn't needed. So I took out the cocoa mat to
beat it and what do I find on the floor--between the mat and the
rear seat it was, I guess--but this."
He handed Kennedy some small object which glinted in the light.
Looking closely, I saw that it was a peculiarly shaped little
glass tube.
"An ampulla," Kennedy explained. "It's the technical name the
doctors have for such a container."
"It must have been between the mat and the rear seat," the
chauffeur repeated. Then he discovered that his cigar was out. He
struck a match.
Kennedy turned the bit of glass over and over in his hand,
examining it carefully. I felt rather fearful, wondering if it
might not contain some trace of the deadly poison which had so
quickly killed Stella Lamar. I even half expected to see Kennedy
find some infinitesimal jagged edge or point which could have
inflicted the fatal scratch. Then I realized that McGroarty had
handled the thing with impunity, perhaps had carried it about
half a day.
Kennedy took his scarf pin. On the outside of the little tube
there was no trace of a label or marking of any sort. All about,
on the inside, however, the glass was spotted with dried light-
yellow incrustations, resembling crystals and at first apt to
escape even the sharpest scrutiny. With the pin Kennedy scaled
off one of these and put it under his pocket lens. But he came to
no conclusion. Rather puzzled and nettled, he dropped the tiny
bit of substance back into the tube, then replaced his pin in his
scarf, and stowed this latest bit of possible evidence in his
pocket carefully.
"How do you suppose it got in the car?" he asked.
"Some one must have dropped it and it must have rolled in that
space by the edge of the mat," replied the chauffeur. "There was
just room for it, too! I never would have noticed it without
taking up the mat."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|