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CHAPTER IX

DOCTOR MC CUTCHEN'S THEORY

ON leaving the physician's office, Odell made his way to the establishment of the beauty expert He found Monsieur Florian to be an excitable, dapper little Frenchman with a piping voice and the manners of a dancing-master.

The detective introduced himself as a friend of the Lorne family; and Monsieur Florian was profuse in his regret at the untimely death of his client, and only too willing to demonstrate each phase of his treatment in order to prove that it could not have left Mrs. Lorne in a condition which would be conducive to blood-poisoning from the needle-prick.

Odell departed satisfied that nothing further was to be learned there, and after a hasty, belated luncheon he visited the offices of each of the specialists who had been called into consultation by Doctor Adams. Doctor Kelland was out on a case and Doctor Day gave the detective practically the same account of Mrs. Lorne's fatal illness as had Doctor Adams; it was only when he reached the great McCutchen that a ray of enlightenment came to him and he found an unexpected ally.

That internationally famous specialist on blood-diseases was a big enough man to admit the possibility of a mistake

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