"I sent him to the servants' quarters," said Miss Mary Carwell, coming in just then."How do you do, Colonel Ashley.I don't know whether you remember me, but - ""Indeed I do.And I remember that the last time I dined with you we had chicken and waffles that - well, the taste lingers yet!" and the colonel bowed gallantly, which seemed to please Miss Carwell very much indeed."So you have looked after Shag, have you?""Yes.We have plenty of spare rooms, and I thought you'd want him near you.""I want him this moment," said the detective."If you will be so good as to send him here I'll get him to open my bag and take out a note-book I wish to use."A little later Colonel Ashley had thrown himself heart and soul into the "Golf Course Mystery," as he marked it on a page in his note-book.
On the preceding page were the last entries in a case, the beginning of which was inscribed "The Diamond Cross Mystery." It was thus that Colonel Ashley kept the salient facts of his problems before him as he worked.
Between them Viola Carwell and Harry Bartlett told the colonel such facts leading up to the death of Mr.Carwell as they knew.They spoke of the day of the big golf matches, and the exhilaration of Mr.Carwell as he anticipated winning the championship contest.
The scene at the links was portrayed, the little excitement among the parked cars, caused, as developed later, by a blaze in a machine standing next the big red, white, and blue car belonging to Mr.Carwell, and then the sudden collapse of Carwell as he make his winning stroke.The finding of some peculiar poison in the stomach and viscera of the dead man was spoken of, and then Viola made her appeal again for a disclosure of such truth as Colonel Ashley might reveal.
"I'll do my best," he promised."But I believe it will be better to wait until after the inquest before I take an active part.And I think I can best work if I remain unknown - that is if it is not published broadcast that I am here in my official capacity."To this Viola and Bartlett agreed.As neither of them had, as yet, spoken of bringing the colonel into the case, it was a comparatively easy matter to pass him off as an old friend of the family; which, in truth, he was.
So Colonel Ashley was given the guest chamber, Shag was provided with comfortable quarters, and then Viola seemed more content.
"I know," she said to her aunt, "that the truth will be found out now." "But suppose the truth is more painful than uncertainty, Viola?" "How can it be?" asked the girl, as tears filled her eyes.
"I don't know," answered Miss Carwell softly."It is all so terrible, that I don't believe it can be any worse.But we must hope for the best.I trust business matters will go along all right.I confess I don't like the forgetting, on the part of LeGrand Blossom, of attending to the bank matter.""It was probably only an oversight."
"Yes.But it has started a rumor that your poor father's affairs might not be in the best shape.Oh, dear, it's all so terrible!"But there were other terrors to come.
Following his plan of acting merely as a guest and an old friend of the family who had journeyed from afar to attend the funeral, Colonel Ashley went about as silent as though on a fishing trip.He looked and listened, but said little.He was not yet ready for a cast.He was but inspecting the stream - several streams, in fact, to see where he could best toss in his baited hook.
And it was in this same spirit that he attended the coroner's inquest, which was held in the town hall.Over the deliberations, which were, at best, rather informal, Coroner Billy Teller presided.
The office of coroner was, in Lakeside, as in most New Jersey cities or towns, much of an empty title.At every election the names of certain men were put on the ticket to be voted for as coroners.
Few took the trouble to ballot for them, scarcely any one against them, and they were automatically inducted into office by reason of a few votes.
Just what their functions were few knew and less cared.There used to be a rumor, perhaps it is current yet in many Jersey counties, that a coroner was the only official who could legally arrest the sheriff in case that official needed taking into custody.As to the truth of this it is not important.
Certain it is that Billy Teller had never before found himself in suchdemand and prominence.He was to act in the capacity of judge, though the verdict in the case, providing one could be returned, would be given by the jury he might impanel.
There was a large throng in attendance at the town hall when the inquest began.Reporters had been sent out by metropolitan papers, for Horace Carwell was a well known figure in the sporting and the financial world, and the mere fact that there was a suspicion that his death was not from natural causes was enough to make it a good story.
Billy Teller was, frankly, unacquainted with the method of procedure, and he confessed as much to the prosecutor, an astute lawyer.As the latter would have the conducting of the case for the state in case it came to a trial in the upper courts, Mr.Stryker saw to it that legal forms were followed in the selection of a jury and the swearing in of the members of the panel.Then began the taking of testimony.
The doctors told of the finding of evidences of poison in Mr.Carwell's body.Its nature was as yet undetermined, for it was not of the common type.
This much Dr.Lambert stated calmly, and without attempting to go into technical details.Not so Dr.Baird.He spoke learnedly of Reinsch's test for arsenic, of Bloxam's method, of the distillation process.He juggled with words, and finally, when pinned down by a direct but homely question from Billy Teller, admitted that he did not know what had killed Mr.Carwell.
