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Page 84
Mackay drove us to the laboratory in his little car and it was
dark and we were dinnerless when we arrived. Knowing Kennedy's
habits, I sent out for sandwiches and started in to make strong
coffee upon an electric percolator. The aroma tingled in my
nostrils, reminding me that I was genuinely hungry. The district
attorney, too, seemed more or less similarly disposed.
As for Kennedy, he was interested in nothing but the problem
before him. He had been strangely quiet on the way, growing more
and more impatient and nervous, as though the element of time had
entered into the case, as though haste were suddenly imperative.
Once the lights were on in the laboratory he hurried about his
various preparations. The food samples he laid out, but he gave
them no attention. The blood smears and stomach contents he put
aside for future reference. His attack was upon the drop or two
of liquid adhering to the stem of the broken champagne glass.
The entire chemical procedure seemed to be incomprehensible to
Mackay and he was fascinated, so that he had considerable trouble
at times keeping out of the way of Kennedy's elbow. Kennedy first
washed the stem out carefully with a few drops of distilled
water, then he studied the resulting solution. One after another
he tried the things that occurred to him, making tests wholly
unproductive of results. Slowly the laboratory table became
littered completely with chemicals and apparatus of all sorts, a
veritable arsenal of glass.
The sandwiches arrived, but Kennedy refused to drop his
investigation for a moment. I did succeed in making him take a
cup of strong coffee, and that was all. Over in a corner Mackay
and I did full justice to the food, finishing the hot and welcome
coffee and then refilling the percolator and starting it on the
making of a second brew. The hours lengthened, and when Mackay
grew tired of watching with intense admiration he joined me in
the patient consumption of innumerable cigarettes.
Kennedy was filled with the joy of discovery. I noticed that he
did not stop even for the solace of tobacco. It seemed to me that
at times his nostrils dilated exactly like those of a hound on
the scent. Finally he held up a test tube and turned to us.
"What is it?" I asked. "Some other poison as rare and little
known as the snake venom?"
"No--something much more curious. In the stem of the glass I find
the toxin of the Bacillus botulinus."
"Germs?" Mackay inquired.
Kennedy shook his head. "Not germs, but the pure toxin, the
poison secreted by this bacillus."
"What does it do?" was my question.
"Well," thoughtfully, "botulism may be ranked easily among the
most serious diseases known to medical science. It is hard to
understand why it is not a great deal more common. It is one of
the most dangerous kinds of food poisoning."
"Then the apple juice they used for the wine was bad, spoiled?"
"No, not that. Werner was the only one stricken. Somebody put the
pure toxin in his glass. It was, as I suspected, deliberate
murder, as in the case of Miss Lamar. Bacillus botulinus produces
a toxin that is extremely virulent. Hardly more than a ten-
thousandth of a cubic centimeter would kill a guinea pig. This
was botulin itself, the pure toxin, an alkaloid just like that
which is formed in meat and other food products in cases of
botulism. The idea might also have been to make the death seem
natural--due solely to bad food."
"Do you suppose it was used because it was quick and was
colorless, so as not to be noticed in the glass?" I hazarded.
Kennedy paced up and down the laboratory several times in
thought. "To me, Walter, this is another indication of the
satanic cleverness of the unknown criminal in the case. First
Miss Lamar is to be killed. For that purpose something was
sought, probably, which could not be traced easily to the
perpetrator. In snake venom an agent was employed which may be
said to be almost ideal for the grim business of murder. It is
extremely difficult to identify in its results, it is
comparatively unknown, yet it is swift in action and to be
obtained with fair ease.
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