"Let me see it, please."

Eunice went for it, and, returning, handed the detective a finely bound volume.

Hastily he ran over the dates, looking at notes of parties, concerts and theatres she had attended recently. At last, he gave a start, read over one entry carefully, and closed the book.

Abruptly, then, he went back to Embury's room, asking Dr. Crowell to go with him.

When they reappeared, it was plain to be seen the mystery was solved.

"There is no doubt," said the Medical Examiner, "that Sanford Embury met his death by foul play. The means used was the administering of poison--through the ear!"

"Through the ear!" repeated Elliott, as one who failed to grasp the sense of the words.

"Yes; it is a most unusual, almost a unique case, but it is proved beyond a doubt. The poison was inserted in Mr. Embury's ear, by means--"

He paused, and Driscoll held up to view a small, ordinary gla.s.s medicine dropper, with a rubber bulb top. In it still remained a portion of a colorless liquid.

"By means of this," Driscoll declared. "This fluid is henbane--that is the commercial name of it--known to the profession, however, as hyoscyamus or hyoscyamine. This little implement, I found, in the medicine chest in Miss Ames' bathroom."

"No! no!" screamed Aunt Abby. "I never saw it before!"

"I don't think you did," said Driscoll, quietly. "But here is a side light on the subject. This henbane was used, in this very manner, we are told, in Shakespeare's works, by Hamlet's uncle, when he poisoned Hamlet's father. He used, the play says, distilled hebenon, supposed to be another form of the word henbane. And this is what is, perhaps, important: Mrs. Embury's engagement book shows that about a week ago she attended the play of Hamlet. The suggestion there received--the presence of this dropper, still containing the stuff, the finding of traces of henbane in the ear of the dead man--seem to lead to a conclusion--"

"The only possible conclusion! It's an openand--shut case!" cried Shane, rising, and striding toward Eunice. "Mrs. Embury, I arrest you for the wilful murder of your husband!"

CHAPTER X

A CONFESSION

"Don't you dare touch me!" Eunice Embury cried, stepping back from the advancing figure of the burly detective. "Go out of my house--Ferdinand, put this person out!"

The butler appeared in the doorway, but Shane waved a dismissing hand at him.

"No use bl.u.s.tering, Mrs. Embury," he said, gruffly, but not rudely.

"You'd better come along quietly, than to make such a fuss."

"I shall make whatever fuss I choose--and I shall not 'come along,'

quietly or any other way! I am not intimidated by your absurd accusations, and I command you once more to leave my house, or I will have you thrown out!"

Eunice's eyes blazed with anger, her voice was not loud, but was tense with concentrated rage, and she stood, one hand clenching a chair-back while with the other she pointed toward the door.

"Be quiet, Eunice," said Mason Elliott, coming toward her; "you can't dismiss an officer of the law like that. But you can demand an explanation. I think, Shane, you are going too fast. You haven't evidence enough against Mrs. Embury to think of arrest! Explain yourself!"

"No explanation necessary. She killed her husband, and she's my prisoner."

"Hush up, Shane; let me talk," interrupted Driscoll, whose calmer tones carried more authority than those of his rough partner.

"It's this way, Mr. Elliott. I'm a detective, and I saw at once, that if the doctors couldn't find the cause of Mr. Embury's death, it must be a most unusual cause. So I hunted for some clue or some bit of evidence pointing to the manner of his death. Well, when I spied that little medicine dropper, half full of something, I didn't know what, but--" Here he paused impressively. "But there was no bottle or vial of anything in the cupboard, from which it could have been taken.

There was no fluid in there that looked a bit like the stuff in the dropper. So I thought that looked suspicious--as if some one had hidden it there. I didn't see the whole game then, but I went around to a druggist's and asked him what was in that dropper. And he said henbane. He further explained that henbane is the common name for hyoscyamin, which is a deadly poison. Now, the doctors were pretty sure that Mr. Embury had not been killed by anything taken into the stomach, so I thought a minute, and, like a flash, I remembered the play of 'Hamlet' that I saw last week.

"I guess everybody in New York went to see it--the house was crowded.

Anyway, I've proved by Mrs. Embury's engagement book that she went--one afternoon, to a matinee--and what closer or more indicative hint do you want? In that play, the murder is fully described, and though many people might think poison could not be introduced through the intact ear in sufficient quant.i.ty to be fatal, yet it can be--and I read an article lately in a prominent medical journal saying so. I was interested, because of the Hamlet play. If I hadn't seen that, I'd never thought of this whole business. But, if I'm wrong, let Mrs.

Embury explain the presence of that dropper in her medicine chest."

"I don't know anything about the thing! I never saw or heard of it before! I don't believe you found it where you say you did!" Eunice faced him with an accusing look. "You put it there yourself--it's what you call a frame-up! I know nothing of your old dropper!"

"There, there, lady," Shane put in; "don't get excited--it only counts against you. Mr. Driscoll, here, wouldn't have no reason to do such a thing as you speak of! Why would he do that, now?"

"But he must have done it," broke in Miss Ames. "For I use that bathroom of Eunice's and that thing hasn't been in it, since I've been here."

"Of course not," and Shane looked at her as at a foolish child; "why should it be? The lady used it, and then put it away."

"Hold on, there, Shane," Hendricks interrupted. "Why would any one do such a positively incriminating thing as that?"

"They always slip up somewhere," said Driscoll, "after committing a crime, your criminal is bound to do something careless, that gives it all away. Mrs. Embury, how did that dropper get in that medicine chest in your bathroom?"

"I scorn to answer!" The cold tones showed no fear, no trepidation, but Eunice's white fingers interlaced themselves in a nervous fashion.

"Do you know anything about it, Miss Ames?"

"N--no," stammered Aunt Abby, trembling, as she looked now at the detectives and then at Eunice.

"Well, it couldn't have put itself there," went on Driscoll. "Who else has access to that place?"

Eunice gave no heed to this speech. She gave no heed to the speaker, but stared at him, unseeingly, her gaze seeming to go straight through him.

"Why, the maid," said Aunt Abby, with a helpless glance toward Elliott and Hendricks, as if beseeching a.s.sistance.

"The servants must be considered," said Hendricks, catching at a straw.

"They may know something that will help."

"Call the maid," said Shane, briefly, and, as neither of the women obeyed, he turned to Ferdinand, who hovered in the background, and thundered: "Bring her in--you!"

Maggie appeared, shaken and frightened, but when questioned, she answered calmly and positively.

"I put that dropper in the medicine closet," she said, and every one looked toward her.

"Where did you get it?" asked Shane.

"I found it--on the floor."

"On the floor? Where?"

"Beside Miss Ames' bed." The girl's eyes were cast down; she looked at n.o.body, but gave her answers in a dull, sing-song way, almost as if she had rehea.r.s.ed them before.