the marks of both his hands in blood were upon the side of the bathtub."
"You can prove that?"
"Two reliable witnesses. Moreover, I'm convinced that his mother, Mrs. Richard Lorne, was also murdered not a month before."
"Mrs. Lorne died of blood-poisoning."
"Yes. By poison with which she was deliberately if indirectly infected."
Odell gave his chief a detailed description of the case as he had learned it from the physicians, and demonstrated once more his discovery of the substitution of the needle; and the captain's skeptical manner changed.
"Good work, Odell!" he exclaimed. "Your proof is more conclusive in the instance of young Chalmers's death than in his mother's; but it is circumstantial enough in that alone to warrant a thorough investigation. I'll see the Chief Medical examiner to-night and arrange for an autopsy at once. We'll have to keep a soft pedal on the press, though, and go slow on this 'inside job' stuff until we have the dope. The Meades are an influential old family and Lorne has big money interests back of him. Did you get an interview with, each of them?"
"All except the youngest daughter and Lorne himself; but I saw them both for a moment. Any news of that butler, Peters?"
"Not yet, but I'm having his sister's house watched. What was that you handed me over the 'phone this morning about two attempts having been made upon the lives of two members of the family within the last twenty-four hours?"
